MORE LIKE A PUDDLE!!!

Well, here we are again, the last post of the month.  But hey!  That just means we are about to reach our spooky destination!  That's right!  All Hallow's Eve, aka, Halloween, is five days away!  While you fine "boos" and "ghouls" put the finishing touches and your costumes and party decorations, why not take a well-earned break and see what's crept in this week.  Enjoy...

Talk about a ripoff?  I always knew waterfront properties were a scam, but this takes it to a whole new level!  The Creature from the Black Lagoon gets the final spot of the month as we head into Halloween.  One of cinema's all-time classic monsters, he surprisingly hasn't appeared much outside of his initial films, the second of which was actually riffed on in a later episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Outside of a VERY effective appearance in Monster Squad and a blink-and-you-missed-it nod in the ill-fated 2017 The Mummy reboot, he's barely been used at all.  And yet, he's still very well-remembered.  Just goes to show you how effective that original suit was.  Quality makes a difference.  Budget and technology of the era wasn't on the filmmakers' side in those days, but they still delivered a kickass monster that has stood the test of time!  As far as the art goes, this wasn't the easiest to correct with all those dark colors, but it was still a blast to draw!  I do love a good monster!

And that's a wrap on October 2022!  Hope y'all enjoyed the spooky pageantry!  Next week, that rascally Tom Turkey returns and continues his war with those devilish Brat Twins, Dorothy and Billy!  Will Tom escape again or is he destined for the bellies of the Brats?  Find out next week when the chase returns!  In the meantime, take care and stay especially safe this Halloween.  The pandemic may be slowing down, but it's still happening so take proper precautions.  And also, be aware of your surroundings and make sure your candy/treats are safe.  Halloween is known for its tricks, some of which are not in the spirit of good fun, so be cautious.  Until next time, catch y'all later!

DINNER WITH THE DOOKS!!!

We are back and spookier than ever!  The Creeping Hour is ever closer and hopefully y'all have had some time to go and enjoy a few of the festivities of the Fall so far!  I've made it out to a few things (I hope!) but have also been working a lot!  October is typically our busiest time of the year as far as far conventions and trade shows go.  It's good for me financially, but not always optimal for going around and taking part in all the fun of the season.  Maybe one of these years I'll be able to join in.  But enough about that!  You want art and I got some!  So scroll down and take a gander why don't ya?  Enjoy...

Oh no!  It's the Babadook!  The myth!  The legend!  The... Who is he again?  I gotta be honest, I haven't the foggiest idea who the Babadook is, other than he's a villain from a horror movie from Australia I think?  I don't know?  But, he was simple to draw and giving him a plucky, perky wife just seemed like a natural!  Opposites attract after all.  Paula Abdul even wrote a song about it!  This piece isn't without its own horror though.  After all, is there any creepier food than Jello?!?  It's so moldable and jiggly!  There's definitely something suspicious about it!

And that's another week down as we get closer to Halloween, but fear not!  We got one more piece of spooky art to go before the Happy Haunts have their swinging wake!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

FEED... MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Welcome back CRAZIES!!!  Now that we're past the mediocrity of Long Beach Comic Con, we can finally get into the seasonal spirit of Halloween!  Got some great art queued up this month, so let's dive on in and avoid any Knicks and scrapes!  After all, our first subject is ALWAYS thirsty for blood!  Who or WHAT is it?  Scroll down and see!  Enjoy...

Oh my goodness!  Audrey II is here and hungry!  Once a cute little plant bud in a coffee can, it turned out he/she was actually an alien plant bent on world domination!  Originally a monster from a 60's Z movie by schlock master Roger Corman, Audrey II was reborn in the early 80's when eventual Disney saviors Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin turned the flop film, Little Shop of Horrors, into an off-Broadway sensation, eventually making the jump to the big stage and then returning to film in a cult hit directed by Muppet legend Frank Oz!  For our purposes, Audrey II kicked off a new round for Twitter art collective Animal Alphabets, this time focusing on horror and SciFi movie monsters!  I was more than eager to take part in this one and had a great time with all the themes!  This movie in particular appealed to me.  Besides the Muppet connections, there were also a lot of SCTV connections to the film as well, so it was special for sure.

That's all she wrote for this week, but be sure to creep in next Wednesday where things will take a more cheery turn!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

LONG BEACH COMIC CON IS BACK!!!

 

Welcome to October CRAZIES!!!  Yet another tradition returned in 2022 after a three year hiatus, but we'll get to that in a moment.  First, take a look at my poor pumpkin patch...

It started off with a lot of promise, big healthy vines, flowers and leaves everywhere and an abundance of little pumpkin bulbs.  But within a month, they all shriveled up, leaving me with a handful of piddly pumpkins. Needless to say, I was disappointed and decided to cut my losses and pull up the dead/dying vines.  But then I walked out into my backyard and saw this strange occurrence...

Hot damn!  They'll put those things up in ANY open space, won't they?  It wouldn't be so bad if the patrons actually bought something!  It's the least they can do for hogging up all the parking on my street!  Perhaps next year, my pumpkins will be more successful.  One can only hope...

Now, back to the return of a yearly tradition.  Long Beach Comic Con has returned from the pandemic-induced hiatus!  In recent years prior, they'd cut back a lot in size and festivities.  Would they come back strong and blow things up like they used to?  Afraid to say no.  They didn't. In fact, they downsized even further.  I'd go on, but there are pictures waiting, so let's just get right to it.  Enjoy...

Here we have the winner for most creative use of a pool noodle in a cosplay prop!

Next up, the winner for most creative use of a frilly shirt!  So many frills!

The R2 Builders Club were one of the few Fan Clubs that returned to this year's show and as always, they were a hit!  They even brought Rex, the original pilot of the beloved Star Tours attraction at Disneyland!

Not a whole lotta booths this year, but some of the ones that did go had some nice displays.

There were many poor unfortunate souls in Long Beach that weekend, where a record high of 108F hit the city on the last day of the con!  Ursula took it in stride though!

Hook Deadpool and Tinkerbell!  I've seen a lot of Tinkerbell cosplay over the years, but this is the first time I've seen anyone do the version of her from Hook!

Catwoman enjoys her some lemonade!

Rambo knows it's important to mask up still!

An R2 unit went to fetch some pizza and chicken strips for its maker!

Would this be considered a Doggo-gorgon?

Party on Michael!

Johnny 5 came to chill with the astro droids!

Judging by the color of the flames, those were some particularly sweet donuts that Ghostrider was eating!

The Hyatt Regency Long Beach!  It's a very nice hotel and the adjacent Rainbow Harbor Lagoon is so much fun to walk around!  You can see numerous fish and birds hanging around the water, even several species of sharks and rays!  It's a pity they took away the bridges to the islands in the middle of the lagoon.  Still a fun site to visit.

The are many great access points and walkways around the Long Beach Convention Center, which is one of the things that makes it so sad that their comic convention has downsized so much in the last five years.  Hopefully that'll change with coming shows.

The only other fan group that came this year: The Trekkies!  Live long and prosper friends.

The Cars of the Stars were back in their usual spot, though they too downsized from the amount of cars that they usually bring.  And I should note that they brought more than just these two Jurassic Park Jeeps!  The rest were behind me!

Another amazing cosplay!  Even in a downsized year, LBCC still brought out some incredible cosplayers to the show!

Looks like the Riddler was able to score a few hard-to-find back issues!

And that was Long Beach Comic Con 2022.  It wasn't a good show.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good.  This show used to be my favorite one to go to, more than SDCC even.  How it fell this hard this fast is beyond me. One could point to the pandemic as a cause to the cutbacks, and it's a valid excuse for sure, but this was happening long before COVID was ever heard of.  I hope they turn it around, I honestly do.  Long Beach is a fun place and I love visiting there.  They deserve to have a top notch Comic Con.  Next year though, I think I'm gonna go to Mid-Summer Scream instead.  That show looks awesome!

And that's it for this first week of October.  Be sure to drop in next Wednesday for some monstrous art kicking off a monstrous month!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!