MOOOORE BRAINSSS!
As I was posting the last Return Of The Living Dead Tarman illustration from British artist Godmachine, he dropped another one! And this one is just as good!
2 hand-numbered color variants of everyone's favorite undead stringy slime guy crawling out of a Trioxin 245 barrel, rendered in Godmachine's signature dark and menacing comic style.
Grab one for yourself (and throw in a matching shirt!) over at Cellar Door Gallery.
More BRAINSSS!
Grab a shirt, grab a hoodie, grab a duffle bag. All are available on the Haus Of Godmachine website.
A forgotten animated short by Rhode Montijo rises from the archives after years in the dark - The Halloween Kid. This is a story about a mysterious boy who saves Halloween. Rediscovered, remastered, and resurrected to it's full brilliance for the first time ever -- with an intro by David Choe.
A great animated Halloween short for the kids, with a greater message not to be missed by the adults! And all rendered in Montijo's classic, whimsical style. This a fun little piece that really captures the magic, the innocence, and the creativity of the Halloween spirit.
Enjoy this one!!
Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...
IT'S OFFICIALLY THE HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to kick off the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is my 15th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??
We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??
So let's get this thing started, shall we!?
Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my annual yard haunt logo. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt.
For the past 21 years, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used across social media and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night. A well deserved treat for all of the hard work that goes into this crazy thing every year.
So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2025:
Only 30 days until the big night, so let's get this pumpkin party started. Let's do this!!
Here we are. The final day of September. I literally have no idea how we got here so fast. To me it still feels like August, but tomorrow is in fact October 1st. Go time. It's orange alert, all hands on deck, 100% Halloween season. IT'S TIME!
Be sure to check back tomorrow as I kick off another black-and-orange blitz of Halloween fun and frivolity. This is it. IT IS TIME!
If you have participated in the past, I hope to see you again this October. If you haven't yet, please go check out the Countdown To Halloween blog and Instagram page and sign up for the fun. And don't forget to grab one of their annual Cryptkeeper banners, this year designed by Cheers With Chelsea and Leigh SB Designs!
Only 52 more days until the big night. Are you ready?
Halloween may be over for another year, but the incredible artist inspiration continues!
I just discovered the amazing art of Hazel M.H. and was immediately recharged with those sweet October vibes. A huge collection of 2-color illustrations that really hit that vintage style with just a twist of unique, whimsical grotesqueness.
Hazel's stylistic illustrations absolutely nail that classic Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to add a few of her pieces (available at the Violet Weatherstone Etsy shop!) to my collection.
Be inspired and enjoy!
Another shot of Halloween inspiration, courtesy of the reigning king of Halloween artists, Sam Heimer!
Sam continues to kill it with his vintage and creepy October aesthetic. A perfect union of organic and grotesque, each piece still hints at that vintage Halloween nostalgia albeit through a slightly fractured lens.
Heimer's illustrations just gush with total Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to add more pieces to my collection.
Be inspired and enjoy!
Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...
IT'S OFFICIALLY THE HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to kick off the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is my 14th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??
We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??
So let's get this thing started, shall we!?
Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my annual yard haunt logo. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt.
For the past 20 years, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used across social media and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night. A well deserved treat for all of the hard work that goes into this crazy thing every year.
So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2024:
YEAR TWENTY-ONE. So many good memories, and still so much fun!
Only 30 days until the big night, so let's get the party started. Let's do this!!
I just signed up again to participate in the annual Countdown To Halloween, where for my FOURTEENTH year in a row, I'll be celebrating all October with daily blog posts all the way up to the High Holiday itself. Anything and everything Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of all things creepy and cool!
If you have participated in the past, I hope to see you again this October. If you haven't yet, please go check out the Countdown To Halloween blog and sign up for the fun. And don't forget to grab one of their annual banners, this year created by Mr. Chad Savage himself!
Only 63 more days until the big night. Are you ready?
So everyone is following Halloween artist Drew Rausch's Instagram page, right?? Because he's participating in Rhode Montijo's Fantasmicalloween, where artists create 31 different pieces in 31 days, based on a master list of daily, spooky topics. And he is absolutely killing it!
I'd put him up into the group of Halloween-based illustrators like Montijo, Sam Heimer and Austin Pardun, who really nail that vintage and creepy, yet totally whimsical and fun, October aesthetic.
Each piece in this series just gushes with total Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to see what he continues to create through the season.
Just one week into October, and here are just a few of the pieces Rausch has already created. So, so, good!
As I peruse the markets and stores on an early August afternoon, the signs are already there. Earlier than ever. Black-and-orange knicknacks line the aisles of every home decoration store. The annual supply of animated ghosties and ghoulies already on display in the home improvement stores. Pumpkin beers already on grocery store shelves. Pumpkin Spice everything! Halloween is here, whether we like it or not.
For me, it's "not." It's just the middle of August. We're still deep in the throngs of summer. Heat and sunshine. Beach vacations, ice cream, and amusement parks.
I'm definitely not ready for the annual metamorphosis into the Halloween season quite yet. Every year, it starts a little earlier. We talk about the horrors of "Christmas Creep" and now I see my beloved Halloween holiday succumbing to the same fate. The magic of the season continues to be diluted in a rush to get the goods on the shelves to attract that almighty dollar...
Halloween illustrator/artist Sam Heimer recently summed it up perfectly in an absolutely brilliant Instagram post, so I'll just share his thoughts as they echo mine (but in a much more eloquent tone!).
I know it’s early to be posting this; let me tell you why. As I sit here on my stoop, face melting into my coffee and rivulets of sweat running from my pits into my jeans like tiny cricks fit for minnow fishing, yes, I yearn for the crisp breeze of autumn. Remember when we were kids and there was no mention of Halloween till the last week of September? No talk of Yule till the Thanksgiving china was tucked back in the hutch for their yearly nap? But I’m sweating through my underwear and Homegoods already has Jackolanterns on their shelves, Michaels is stocking skull cake pans. Do I want it? Yes. Is it time? No. I know I’ve said “I don’t view Halloween as a day, but the annual ebb and flow of a grand tide”, but we’ve lost the importance of wanting, of yearning, the solemn days of longing. The wait that makes the arrival, the embrace, all the more incredible, fulfilling, impactful. The relief after long agony. The rest after long days of toil. The arrival of Autumn, of Halloween, should be hauntingly whispered in your ear by the rustling of leaves, announced by a spice-tinged whisper of smoke aloft on a chill that makes you tug at your jackets lapels, the kind of chill that’s like a finger of bone just ran up your spine to a few xylophone notes. Little reminders you’re on the right side of the dirt. A fitting entrance, both loud and quiet at the same time, beautiful yet grim. Not slowly slogging into view with pit and boob sweat, flecked with mosquito bites and sunburn. It’s not time. And not because of a date, not because I’m bucking against big box stores trying to scratch an itch that will spread like poison ivy if disturbed. We simply are not ready. We haven’t earned it. We haven’t yearned long enough or hard enough, the fields are still ripe, the trees are still green. If you want to eat this half-baked cake, who am I to stop you, but I promise, if you hold on, wait just a little longer to cross through that orange and black transom, it will be all the more magical, cathartic, and earned. Come back to me in a few months and I will wish you a hearty Happy Halloween, but until then, please refill the fucking ice-cube trays.
Amen.
Rest assured my transformation is coming, as it always does. But let's enjoy the last of these summer days and save the anticipation for those magical, chilly autumn nights for just a bit longer. I will continue to hold out on the full-blown Halloween spending frenzy for another couple of weeks, and slowly let my excitement and manic, all-encompassing enthusiasm build as we begin our final approach to All Hallows Eve.
A perfect track for the weekend! Classic American roots blues by C.W. Stoneking with a really great illustrated video by Patrick McHale (of Over The Garden Wall fame).
Enjoy!
Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...
IT'S OFFICIALLY HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to start the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is our 11th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??
We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??
So let's get this thing started, shall we!?
Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my yard haunt logo for the year. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt.
Since 2003, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used on posters, stickers, and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night.
So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2021:
As an added bonus, I'm bringing back my unofficial official banner art for the Countdown to Halloween! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GRAB IT AND SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE! It's yours to spread far and wide, to help celebrate the greatest month of all!
And if you're REALLY in the festive mood, why not sign up at the Countdown to Halloween page and throw your own party!? I'll be sure to stop by and I'll bring the snacks!
Happy Halloween from everyone here at Highbury Cemetery!! It's the day we have looked forward to since last October 31st, and with the way things have gone in 2020, I wasn't always so sure that we would even have Halloween this year. So make the most of it!!
If you have already done your trick-or-treat and display for this year, I hope to was an especially good one. And to those of us looking forward to tonight's festivities, may the Candy Corn Gods look upon us all favorably with perfect fall weather and grant us tons of trick-or-treaters!!
This is the only post for me today, because it's off to the yard to put the finishing touches on Highbury Cemetery, 2020 before the big show. The weather is looking pretty perfect tonight and there should be hordes of trick-or-treaters making their way to see our display. The props are set, the lighting is finished, and the undead make their cemetery arrival tonight.
The energy is electric orange. May it coarse through you and drive you to do what you do on this night. Our night. Embrace it.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
Each October, I like to start the annual Countdown to Halloween with the unveiling of my yard haunt logo for the year. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt.
Since 2003, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used on posters, stickers, and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night.
I'm a little late to the party this year, but after a bit of extra work, the new logo is finally done! So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2020:
Just a quick heads up. The annual Countdown To Halloween starts tomorrow. Get ready.
