Happy Halloween!

Lots of candles around the apartment -

not just to celebrate, but also because of Hurricane Sandy

We were lucky, we only lost power for a few hours and the large branch that hit the roof only took out a Verizon line.

At least it didn't crash through the house!

The horror!!

Oh yes!  And Frankenstein is 

20% OFF with code: BRAINFOOD 

(until midnight Nov. 1)

Reverence for the Dead

Some atmospheric music for your Halloween listening pleasure

I don't mean to brag, 

but I kind of have the best students in the world.

Having them paint a still life of dead branches + pine cones in Painting Intensive class.

Andy and I walked around a beautiful old cemetery in Worcester.

Recognized a few names from around town.

lunch at Lucky's.

Nothing particularly dead here, except for the turkey in my soup.

I don't want October to end!

But I can honestly say I'm super excited about the holidays.

So much to do!  Recipes to test, bunting to make, presents to find...

Frankenstein Wallpaper 2

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You excited for Halloween??  

I'm so excited, even though I never come up with a good costume, I love carving the pumpkin and toasting the seeds, making cider and buying anything and everything pumpkin spice / apple pie-flavored.

Andy and I caught another simulcast this week, this time a double-feature of James Whale's Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein.

I used to think the Bride was the better movie, and in some respects it is, but Frankenstein is the more intense movie I think.

Seeing it up on the big screen, experiencing it like they did in the 30s, - WOW - it's completely different from seeing it on a little TV!

Felt like I saw it for the first time!  

There is a lot of nonsense, like useless character name-switching, (Victor becomes "Henry" Frankenstein?) the silly over-prounciation American actors of the day attempting to seem worldly with English accents, the screaming/fainting women who are more annoying than anything, all that stuff kind of falls away and you just appreciate it for what it is.

Got lots of useful ideas for future issues of my own adaption!  Feeling inspired!

Just days left to decide what to be this year...?

Death

Put this auction up on eBay this week, ending tomorrow night!

Just in time for Halloweeeeen

Seems like I'm getting back to my Sandman roots this month,

it was the first graphic novel series I read as a teenager!

It wasn't the very first graphic novel I'd ever read - that would be the formidable "The Dreamer" by Will Eisner, which forever changed my life - but it was the first series I'd read, and one that lasted an astounding 75 issues, and 10 collected volumes. (I think it was 10, right?)

I know that The Walking Dead past it's 100th issue, which is also a landmark, but I haven't the inclination to dedicate my eyes to that kind of gore anymore.

I know The Walking Dead is one of the best titles out there, in terms of character development and storytelling, but I just can't handle the bleakness.

THE   B L E A K N E S S   !

I'm already at my limit with the TV series - which I adore and am repulsed by simultaneously.  I'm so emotionally invested in all the characters!!  

It's the same reason I can't start watching the Sopranos or Mad Men - I'm too emotionally committed, I feel like they are real people, because I think of real people who have experienced these things.

I'm much more sensitive at 27 than I was at 17.

At 17 I could watch Taxi Driver, A Clockwork Orange and whathaveyou, and still maintain that "it was just a movie".  I think because the human aspects of it were still foreign to me.

But like Mary Shelley writes:

"... it was the offspring from happy days, when death and grief were but words, and found no true echo in my heart."

The real-life experiences you have start to be recalled when you see them in a film or book, or even a painting.

At least they do for me.

So it's harder for me now, even as an adult, to open myself up to depressing material or horror stuff.

I guess I need to build up that barrier again.

I found this on Tumblr the other day, and it made me feel very happy to know that my other cranky-old-man-in-comics mentor, Alex Toth, felt similarly:

Read the first part here

and the second...

Some sketches + gallery opening

I love drawing teenagers.

Suzy looks angry.

Now she's not.

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In other news, I have a Tumblr account for Frankenstein inspiration, called

"The Unhallowed Arts" 

(after a famous line in the book) 

You can follow it for some nice shots of Switzerland and the occasional lobotomy.

Andy and I are going to see the James Whale original Frankenstein film and the Bride of Frankenstein double feature in Boston this week!  Excited!



I have no idea what to do for Halloween!  I always think of what to be on November 1st, and then say "okay I'll be that next year" and forget by Nov. 2nd.

If you are in the area you should check out the amazing gallery "Lincoln Arts Project" or LAP gallery in Waltham, MA.

This Saturday, Oct. 27 is the opening reception of "Everything That Creeps"

 

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SPACE 242 Proudly Presents: EVERYTHING THAT CREEPS

October 26 - 31, 2012 Lincoln Arts Project

RECEPTION: Saturday, October 27, 7-10pm

SPACE 242, Boston’s Low Brow Destination, proudly announces its annual Halloween exhibition, this year entitled EVERYTHING THAT CREEPS, featuring illustrative paintings by Patt Kelley, 100 masks by Behind the Mask, Inkdrips by Walter Sickert, Strange Dolls by Beth Robinson, creepy art dolls by Mealy Monsterland,paintings by Amanda Clarke, Heather Rose Anair, and more of the macabre, morbid, and mutant...

Facebook event [HERE]

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There is only one print left of the Kage no Te / Shadow's Hand poster - and it'll be up for sale at the Lincoln Arts Project for one week only!

Pieces from the week

A smattering of cell phone pictures from the week

I ate a honey crisp apple as big as my face.