Yes Yes!

I've always been fascinated by the typographically alluring and spiritually dubious Ouija Board that first entered pop culture in the midst of the Victorian Spiritualism craze, but is still alive and kicking today. Despite some very disturbing and hair-raising personal family legends surrounding this mysterious device (no, seriously. Ghosts can be such jerks), I have a small collection of old boards and even once created a spectral supervillain (Doc Phantom) who was basically a ouija board with a head. If, like me, you're interested in both the history of the witchboard as well as the various graphic and creative forms it has taken over the century, you will really dig the Museum of Talking Boards... a one-stop ouijapalooza.

Ha Ha Huh?

I have an old magazine called 'For Laughing Out Loud' published by Dell. No date. The issue I have is called the 'Monster issue', which is somewhat misleading as half the gags published within are pure, unspooky cheescake. Here are a couple of samples of the 'scary' stuff (more to follow)...

Nightmare Playgrounds

Dark Roasted Blend has some disturbingly surreal photos of creepy playground equipment for your viewing displeasure. "Not only kids, but some more impressionable adults are in danger to become psychologically scarred from thinking too much about these monsters and letting them into their dreams."

Good Phibes

This is me lovingly inking and coloring a 1970's Jack Kirby pencil drawing of Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes. My god if this had ever been made it would've very likely been my favorite comic book ever. The Phantom of the Opera meets Yellow Submarine as drawn by the King of comics... the mind boggles! I recently re-watched both 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes and the 1972 sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and they totally held up to my warped childhood memories. Really bizarre, beautiful stuff. England in the '30's, a lovable fiend with a monstrous deformity, blackly comedic murders, a Clockwork Jazz Band, Art Deco stylings, a silent and mysterious girl assistant named Vulnavia, and Vincent Price at his best singing 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' through a microphone in his neck. Ahhh...
I wish I had more background on Jack Kirby's wonderful Phibes art (below). Was he involved in the pre-production of the film in some way (as the loverly and talented Clay Croker suggests in the above link), or was some comic book publisher seriously considering an adaptation or series? Anyone out there with the scoop? And now for a bonus... here's a gorgeously gruesome piece of Dr. Phibes art by another great J. Kirby... English illustrator Josh Kirby, best known for his Discworld art, to be precise. Currently up on Ebay for a couple of grand.

Updates

Go now to my official website for news of an award nomination and more definite news regarding the launch of The Secret Saturdays on the Cartoon Network...

Stumble and Flail

I've fallen a bite behind scanning and posting my own cool, creepy, crap these days, so here's an Unholy Trio to keep you idling.Frankensteinia compiles (you guessed it) all things Frankenstein, from foreign film posters to pet costumes. Me like! Me also like Monsterbrains, so go there for awhile. Monsterama commands you! And if you've got a hankering for a daily (!) dose of pre-code horror comics, please drop by the dead-lightful blog known only as The Horrors Of It All...

Meow!

A massive two-volume English translation of Kazuo Umezu's Cat Eyed Boy (Nekome Kozo) is coming in June from Viz! From their Press Release: "...for those who relish the spine chilling, we are extremely pleased to announce the North American debut of CAT EYED BOY from Kazuo Umezu, who is considered the master of the horror manga genre that has recently captivated legions of domestic readers. Cat Eyed Boy is a half-human, half-monster child whose mostly human appearance bans him from the demon world. He lives hidden in the shadows of the human world, hated by humans and demons alike. Wherever he goes, awful events occur as the humans and demons interact. In 11 stories of revenge and retribution full of disturbing images, Cat Eyed Boy acts as a trickster, saving the innocent and helping the wicked receive the punishment that fate metes out. The first volume contains four stories and the first part of a fifth and longer story. Cat Eyed Boy offers up a concoction of dark vignettes dripping with the macabre and the absurd. In other words, it's like a darker version of Shigeru Mizuki's manga universe, where the half-human, half-yokai Kitaro has freinds in both worlds, including some cute monsters. Poor Cat Eyed Boy is alone in a much more frightening place.(interesting review/cultural comparison by Christopher Butcher)

Microscopic Monsters

Very cool post about tiny, mythical, 16th Century creatures living in our bodies over at Pink Tentacle. From the site: "Long ago in Japan, human illness was commonly believed to be the work of tiny malevolent creatures inside the body. Harikikigaki, a book of medical knowledge written in 1568 by a now-unknown resident of Osaka, introduces 63 of these creepy-crawlies and describes how to fight them with acupuncture and herbal remedies."

Duck And Cover!

Oh, dear. I find myself in the unusual position of being very excited about an upcoming Dreamworks CGI animated feature. But what can I do? It's called Monsters Vs. Aliens... and there's a 50-ft. woman in it.