Happy New Year!!

From your friends at Highbury Cemetery. May the new year bring you scares and fright and ghoulish delight! And remember, only 10 more months until Halloween. It's time to get crackin'!!

Highbury Cemetery, 2007

Highbury & Scrapes, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, San Antonio, Texas, 1988

Holiday Instructional Video

Happy Holidays from Highbury Cemetery!!

Florian Bertmer

Florian Bertmer is a German illustrator from the hardcore punk, grindcore and metal scene. He has done artwork for Converge, Napalm Death, The Hope Conspiracy, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Pig Destroyer, Doomriders and others. His early works are reminiscent of Pushead while later works have become more Art Nouveau influenced. (taken from Wiki link)

Hagakure 3

Hagakure 2

The Evil Dead Movie Poster

Night of the Living Dead Movie Poster

Limited edition posters are long gone, but sometime tomorrow he releases The Hexenbrett:

Remnant

So I was all set to shoot a picture of a rotting jack-o-lantern that was left over from Halloween, but Mother Nature decided to add to it...

Two weeks until the official start of Winter, but we already have a foot of snow. I think it's going to be a long winter...

The Walking Dead Fan Art

Here's a sweet poster for AMC's The Walking Dead created by artist Andrew Kolb.

And if you have missed any of this season's episodes, AMC is rebroadcasting the entire series on Sunday, December 5th, starting at 4:30 EST, followed by the season finale at 10. Can't wait!

To The Victor Goes The Spoils!

So you may remember from an earlier post (although for some reason I can't seem to find it, so maybe I didn't?) that I had won the Monster Head Races contest over at Weird Hollow (never bet against the Abominable Dr. Phibes, fools!). And as they say, to the victor goes the spoils and my spoils just showed up in the mail.

Mayor Todd sent me an envelope full of cool stuff! First, for winning the contest, I received the Universal Monsters Illustrated "The Mummy" trading card, signed by the artist, Basil Gogos. Awesome!

And as an extra bonus, I got a signed photo from none other than Vlad, my new undead pal!! Thanks, Vlad!!

A big thanks to Mayor Todd over at Neato Coolville. Be sure to check out Neato Coolville, Weird Hollow and Vlad and Scary Larry at KRYP-TV!!

Organ Trail

So Halloween is now well over and you're sitting around wondering what you can do to combat the boredom. Well, I stumbled upon this little nugget, sure to consume hours of your time.

For those of you old enough remember the original 1974 computer game, Oregon Trail, comes this twisted little remake:

Organ Trail, created by The Men Who Wear Many Hats, updates the original choose-your-own-adventure gameplay by letting the player navigate not through the hardships of the pioneer-era Oregon Trail, but through a zombie-strewn highway out of modern-day Washington, D.C. The graphics even replicate the original 8-bit look. It's old school fun all the way!

And while it is still in a beta version, Organ Trail kept me giggling through each screen. I can't wait for this to come out in a full version so that I can waste many a cold, winter hour escaping the zombie-infested wasteland of our nation's capital.

We Have A Winner!

I guess Highbury Cemetery's Post-Halloween Giveaway t-shirt contest was much too easy. Congratulations to cynniegurl over at Never Sleeps Again for knowing that the photos were from the horror classic, Horror House On Highway Five.

Watch this film or die!

(On a sidenote, I went out as Bartholomew one year for Halloween. Needless to say nobody got the costume.)

Cynniegurl has won herself a Highbury Cemetery 2010 shirt, hand-screened in the basement of the Cemetery. Watch your mailbox, because it will be on it's way shortly. Thanks for playing and enjoy your prize*!!

* 70s mustache mannequin not included. Sorry.

Dia De Los Muertos Ohio, 2010

This past Saturday we made it up to Cleveland for the Dia De Los Muertos Ohio Festival and Parade. We endured rain, dreary skies and temperatures in the 30s, but we were treated to an unbelievable celebration full of music, color, skulls, food, art, dancing and warmth.

Highbury Cemetery Contest!

Okay group, Halloween is officially over for another year. I'm just finishing off my last pumpkin ale of the year, the props are all put away, the jack-o-lanterns have all rotted and the leaves have all been raked. The only good thing about this late stage is that I have some surplus to get rid of.

So that means it's contest time! Welcome to Highbury Cemetery's First Official Post-Halloween Giveaway Contest! I know everyone is coming to grips with the season being over, so I'm going to keep it really simple. All you have to do to win is be the first to tell me what Grade-A horror movie these photos are from (just drop your answer in the comments below):

And what do you win for being the true terrible horror movie aficionado? Well it appears as though I have one extra Highbury Cemetery 2010 T-Shirt, featuring the artwork from the 2010 poster. These are the shirts that I print up in the basement and give out to everyone who helps out with the haunt each year. This year's shirt is a two-sided, one-color print on a relatively nice maroon Hanes shirt. The size is large.

I only have one shirt, so there can only be one winner! Will it be you? The contest ends Monday, November 15 at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck!

Aiden's Monsters

I picked this one up from Monster Brains and knew I had to pass it along.

Aiden Reed is a five-year-old boy battling Leukemia. He and his family are selling his monster drawings to help pay for his chemotherapy treatments.

You can read Aiden's story here, and you can buy his drawings at his Etsy store.

I'm in for a Frankenstein and a Wolfman.

Stay strong, Aiden!

Highbury Cemetery, 2010

Well group, another Halloween is in the books and it was our best yet. We ended up with about 150 trick-or-treaters and their parents by the end of the night. We even had an RV park in front of the house and ten people from up the neighborhood all jumped out to check things out. It was great.

This year we added our first animated prop, a shihatsu massager turned grave popper, but made many detail improvements in tombstones, lighting and fog. Plus, with a new camera, I went crazy with the pictures. (We also shot some video, so I hope to have a quick promo completed by the end of the week).

So without further ado, I present the 2010 edition of Highbury Cemetery:

 

  

 

 

 

A big, big, big thank you must go out to Jeff, Sharon, Karen, Neighbor Joe and Andrew for helping to make this year's haunt come together and run flawlessly. I couldn't have done it without you. A big thanks also go out to Neil and Margaret for coming over and then foolishly staying to help clean up afterward. But an extra-specially big, sloppy wet kiss goes out to my wife, Jenn. She single-handedly resurrected the animated grave popper when I started dropping the F-bombs and walked away and took control of the front porch redesign. You undoubtedly win this year's gold star award.

Thanks to Erick at Wonderful Wonderblog for stopping by and posting your work-in-progress photos here. You're more than welcome to come back next year and spread the fear!

I'm working on the video, so stop back to check that out when I get it finished. Also, be sure to keep checking back, as I'm officially announcing our first contest in the very near future. It seems as though I have an extra 2010 Highbury Cemetery shirt, so what better way to get rid of it than to give it to one of our readers! I won't give away any more right now, but make sure you brush up on your obscure horror movie knowledge.

Thanks again to everyone that helped out or stopped by with complements. You have made Halloween 2010 the best one yet.

Now it's time to pack everything way and get back to planning. We only have 363 more days until Halloween, 2011!