this year's crop

Every year I try and carve as many jack o'lanterns as possible. I never draw the face on, I just cut them. They always are similar in style to the year previous, I guess because there's a Jill Thompson carving/drawing style. Here they are all lit up on the kitchen island. IThey now grace my front steps. Got two more to go to fill all the steps.
Here in Chicago over by Oz Park, there used to be a cool house all lit up during the month of October by hundreds of Jack O' Lanterns in the front lawn. Brian took me there right after we got married. It was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen. The story I heard about it was that there was a couple who lived there and the wife loved Halloween. Every year they would have a pumpkin carving party and grace the windows with many lovely jack'o'lanterns. Unfortunately one year,the wife was taken ill and in the hospital, maybe with cancer. She was too weak to do much of anything much less carve jack o'lanterns, so her husband got all their friends together and they carved tens of jack o'lanterns and lit them up with several strings of cafe lights. This was a delightful suprise to the wife. They ended up doing this each year . Soon, neighbors and strangers started bringing carved pumpkins and leaving them on their steps. Each orphan jack O'lantern was given a place on rows and rows of scaffold shelving, until they stood at least 10 feet high. Eventually, it caused too much traffic, or cost too much money or they moved...but the punpkin house is no more. Snif.
Now I'm not sure if I've got the story right, because I heard from a friend who heard it from a friend...so if anyone knows the facts, feel free to correct me. Even if the gist of it is true, it is a great story. Romantic and generous and full of pumpkins. The house was definitely true, because I saw it for myself.
For the past several years, I've used a string of lights to keep my jack o'lanterns bright. I plan to make the move from the steps to the yard. Now if only they'd turn out the streetlight in front of my house so they'd be spookier.

What movies scared you as a kid?

Alice, Sweet Alice...that movie scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. It was on the 10:30 late night movie right about the time I made my first communion.I woke up late one night and couldn't fall back asleep. My bedroom was right by the kitchen and I could peer from my bed down the hallway and see the television in the livingroom. My dad either watched that, Sat Nite Live, and that Don Kirschner rock concert. And from the vantage point of my bed, I could watch without my folks knowing I was awake. This time it was Alice...We had enclosed back steps and I was terrified to walk down them for ages afterwards. I always thought someone was going to slash my legs through the railing slats. I never could remember the name of that movie.
I was a big fraidy cat when I was little. I was scared silly by Creature from the Black Lagoon and had to watch it from the safety I found under a loose weeve blanket. So I could throw it over my head, yet still see through it to watch the whole movie. And I watched it like that everytime Son of Svengoolie had it on...until I wastwelve or something. My mom says I would cry and run and hide behind a chair whenever the Wicked Witch of the West showed up in the Wizard of Oz...but still watch it. I guess I needed some kind of barrier to 'protect me'.

So, like every other Halloweenophile. This month is my month to watch spooky movies more than usual. I was all documentary ( the other kind of Scary movie) in September and I suppose I will jump back into it in November. So far I've watched, Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, the Wolfman, all three Creature of the Black Lagoon movies ( while carving pumpkins and making pumpkin seeds), Original Dawn of the Dead, Near Dark, Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn and Scary Gomother and Revenge of Jimmy cuz they were on Cartoon Network. I rented the Howling last year just to see Dee Wallace turn into a pomeranian werewolf. at the end. I forgot all of that communal pyschotherapy stuff in there. I'm up for Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the original War of the Worlds this weekend. And at some point I have to watch Young Frankenstien. I think we might watch it when we go to Daryl's for his pumpkin carving party. It might be a Frankenstein marathon over there.

Scary Godmother with commercials

Well, I've gotten a bunch of phone calls and e-mails. It seems that Cartoon Network is showing Scary Godmother and The Revenge of Jimmy. It is an amazingly great feeling to hand out Trick or Treats with the house all dark and lit up with candles and Jack O' Lanterns and have my very own holiday special playing in the background (sound off of course...got to stay spooky.)
Check your local listings for times. I have absolutely no clue as to when the network is showing it.
I did Ti Vo it. Kinda makes it seem more real with commercials because that means the whole country is watching it, and not just me and the animators who worked on it. For several years it was just a secret show that I saw in weekly installments. So I could give notes, add things, suggest edits and generally talk Zeke Norton's ear off. He was the most incredible director. He could translate my art talk into computer for the animators and guide me through computer animation land when my brain only easily comprehends brush and paper.
I was lucky to be able to contribute so much art and set design and stuff for the two specials. The observant viewer will find some props and things that are taken directly from illustrations I created. Both Treats segments were flash animated from my drawings. Hannah's room and Jimmy's room have a few posters and stuff added to the set that the animators created. Some of the animators drew a few as well. It was a good mix. They also used my paintings and watercolor work as a vehicle to render the 3D shapes that they created so sometimes it looks like my books, yet not like my books. Marvy.

I've got boxes of art that I created for the specials--but just a few scanned in. Gotta get all my art and sketches and what not scanned and saved one of these days. That should take a million hours.This is a great inspiration for such a monumental task. Just do a few at a time.

Halloween Treats

So, like I said before, I've been trying to get this blog in order for years.I have a pinatas worth of art and pix I've been waiting to bust open and share.SO much Halloween to jam into so little time! Right now I'm juggling working on my new project Magic Trixie ( a series of painted comics from Harper Collins due out in 2008 if my rambunctious right arm doesn't give out on me for good), getting jack o'lanterns carved and pumpkin seeds roasted, cobbling together my Halloween costume and making seasonal treats. I love to do something gothy and classic for Halloween. Everyone thinks I'm dressing as a witch even when I'm not around this time of year... SO, last year I was a Ghostly Spirit. And, no one thought I was a witch. Which was a first. I wanted to get a couple pix of my costume, but with no tripod (and 9 minutes left on my battery) so I set my camera on our mantle with the timer set and then ran over to the space I thought I had focused it on. I took a bunch because I was never sure if I was in the shot or not and I didn't want to waste my battery. I slipped and skidded and struck a ghostie pose in the downtime between trick or treaters. So I was pleasantly suprised to find that I had inadvertantly taken some special effects shots!
Even the eerie green of my glow stick heart was captured.

The most wonderful time of the year

Man do I love Autumn. I wait for the whole year for it to become October. Not that I hate the other seasons, mind you. I actually enjoy them all. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not fond of extremes in temperature and that humidity is my natural enemy, but that isn't to say I don't like summer. How could I possible enjoy the amazing Autumn, if it wasn't a great relief from the dog days of summer? I love that vibrant new leaf green ( ain't no other color like it. It's almost unnatural!) and gorgeous violet that comes with the spring. (Makes you rethink Scary Godmother's hat....) I'm excited to see things growing that I planted the year before, and I can't wait to start planting and harvesting peas, carrots, ( never have luck with those, but I keep trying...) arugula...anything I can grow in our cute, little Chicago piazza. I think I'm going to do asparagus for next year. I know it takes 3 years to establish a patch, but I think it's got a good anticipation factor. And a great payoff.
Just like my Collonade apple trees. Two years and counting til they make some fruit, but I'm growing them in the middle of the city! In huge pots! And one day I'll get to pick the fruit and make a pie! I like it! I get great satisfaction from the making of things. I've just recently realized that I treat my life like a huge play that I'm constantly striking the set and redressing. That's how I think of everything. I think tha'ts why I like making stuff. Comics, paintings, clothes, foods...putting on clothes in the morning isn't just covering my body, it's putting on my costume for the day. And sometimes the costumes are really elaborate. Like for Halloween!
Why do I love Autumn so much? Well, I'm born in the tail end of it, so that might have something to do with it. Ever since I've been a tot, it's been my season. Giant piles of leaves, the cool crisp breeze making you thankful for that sweater you are wearing. But it's not too cold, because the ground is still warm, and that keeps things smelling rich and earthy and wonderful.
Autum is is easy. It's like an exhale. I love when it's a bright autumn day, and the sun feel warm on your skin and the leaves are scuttling along the sidewalk on the wind and you get the first whiff of snow on the air...But, that's more November than October.



I want pumpkin carving parties and bonfires in Mr. RapaNui! (A super awesome chiminea that looks like an Easter Island figure. A present for our yard from Brian)
I want my friends all over for cider and laughing and warmth. I love hosting a houseful for every occasion. I love feeding my friends ad having decorations and spur of the moment gatherings.
It's perfect weather for walking and bike riding. (No mosquitos or swarms of gnats...) And picnics where you have big old plaid blankets and thermoses of coffee. Or corn roasts and Oktoberfests with beer and brats. Or Cranberry festivals up in the North Woods with Arts and Crafts and overpriced antique vendors (damn you Ebay!)
Like any Chicagoan, I spent summers up in the North Woods of Wisconsin. I have a good amout of city mouse/country mouse in me. I got a chance for a whirlwind weekend at the beginning of the month way up north and these are a couple of the treats of Autumn I stumbled upon. ANd there were birches. I love a birch tree. It has to be my fave. Next year I'm going to spend a few weeks up there and try to paint a different tree everyday.