Kill All Monsters and Other Updates

It probably isn't smart of me, but I try not to post about it every Friday when new Kill All Monsters! pages go up. For one thing, I know that a lot of folks read it in chunks instead of every Friday, but I also figure that this way it makes a bigger impact when I do say you should go over and catch up. And folks, you should go over and catch up. If the image above isn't enough to do it, I'll add that page 71 features my favorite panel yet for reasons you'll find very obvious when you see it.

Mondo Sasquatch

In other news, the Mondo Sasquatch anthology will be delayed from next month to later this summer in order to make sure that it's not rushed and that the finished product will look as cool as everyone wants it to.

Robot 6



Something else I haven't regularly been mentioning here is my Robot 6 posting. Part of that is because I figure that those of you who are interested in that are probably reading Robot 6 anyway. But also, I've been doing more daily posts over there lately and it would be annoying for me to say something here every time I did something over there.

Still, I would like to direct your attention to a couple of reviews I wrote for some really excellent books: Incredible Change-Bots 2 (although I actually review both volumes in the article) and Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake. I feel like Change-Bots needs less promotion, because a lot of people already know about it, but Pepper Penwell is just as good and it would be a shame if people overlooked it. Especially people who like junior detective mysteries and laughter.

Jessica Hickman's new book



Cownt Tales artist Jessica Hickman has illustrated a children's book that's coming out this Halloween. Written by Tom Waltz, Little Jackie Lantern tells the story of a young boy who's too frightened to enjoy everyone's favorite spooky holiday. I haven't read it yet, but I can't imagine a project more suited for Jess' interest in things cute and scary.

SpringCon

The SpringCon guest list has been posted (for a while now, actually) and I'm on it. Looking forward to seeing all of you who live in the Twin Cities. Jason and I are working on a second printing of the Kill All Monsters, Chapter One ashcan, so hopefully that'll be ready in time.

A review I didn't write, but am nevertheless responsible for



I meant to say something at the beginning of the month, but my contribution to the White Elephant Blogathon was Cutthroat Island. For which I owe an apology to Non-Union Mexican Equivalent. I'm sorry you had to watch it, but glad you were able to nail so firmly why that movie didn't work.

Art Show: More Halloween Treats

A couple of Halloween images that I'm late in seeing::



This was Jessica Hickman's Halloween card that she sent out this year. I still have mine sitting with the other Halloween cards on the buffet.



By Laboratorio Frigofingers. [Art Jumble]

Just how sincere was that pumpkin patch?

Maybe we're just slow, but Diane finally realized this year why the Great Pumpkin passed Linus by. Just how sincere is a pumpkin patch with a privacy fence?

Happy Halloween!

Have fun, everyone! Hope you get lots of goodies!

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Trick or Treating

Beyond the nostalgia of wanting to treat our kids to the same kind of Halloween experience that we had at their age, Trick or Treating serves an important purpose. When nostalgia is all parents care about, we can rationalize that kids can get that same experience by dressing up and going to the mall or the grocery store or the church parking lot. And maybe they can. I'm not going to argue against it.

But what I will argue is that doing that robs us - and our kids - of the most crucial part of the entire exercise. Halloween has always been about facing our fears and in our current culture, one of the things we're most afraid of is each other. I'm happy to blame this on the 24-hour news cycle and the ratings-crazed fear-mongering that goes with it, but whatever the reason, people are afraid to get out and meet their neighbors. We even create urban legends around Halloween to express how unsafe we find the whole thing. Did you hear about that guy who put razor blades in the apples he was handing out? Or the creepy lady who injected cyanide into Snickers bars?

Trick or Treating is one of the last neighborhood social activities we have left. It would be a serious shame to give in to our fears and abandon it for the "safety" of a corporate-sponsored replacement.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown isn't the only Halloween special we watch every year, but it sure is the best. We watch it every Halloween night during dinner before David and Diane head out for Tricks or Treats.

We also live by it's profound advice: "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin" and "Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker."

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Jack O'Pizza

Every Halloween night, we have our traditional meal before David and Diane hit the streets and I man the candy basket.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Is there any better candy on the face of the planet? I don't know why these taste better than regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but they do.

The only possible competition might be the new Butterfinger Pumpkins. I haven't tried those yet, but I'll let you know.

Update: Just tried the Butterfinger Pumpkin and Reese's holds on to its crown. The Butterfinger one is just solid chocolate with Butterfinger chips stirred into it, not a pumpkin-shaped Butterfinger. No contest.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Cupcakes

I know. I know. It's always time for cupcakes. I agree. Especially since I learned how to make a cupcake sandwich by taking the bottom part of the cake off and putting it on top of the frosting. It's the only way to eat a cupcake.

Halloween's a special time for cupcakes though. Whether they're brought to school with orange frosting and black (preferably bat-shaped, as above) sprinkles or the fancy monster-faced creations that your favorite bakery comes up with, it's not Halloween until you have one.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Tissue Ghosts

Without contest, my favorite kids craft for Halloween. They're like Thanksgiving's hand-tracing turkeys, Christmas' Santa drawings with the cotton-ball beards, and coloring-book Easter eggs.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Kids Costumes

These are the best costumes of all. Pets and grown-ups can have cool costumes too, but the kids are what it's all about.

Trick or Treating is kind of a genius thing - and, again, I'll have more to say about this later - and one of the best parts of it is the bartering of services. You provide candy; the kids entertain you with their costumes. It's a great contract and everybody wins. Can't wait to see who comes by this year.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Boo Blast

This is a great Twin Cities tradition. One of the nicer grocery chains around here is Lunds & Byerly's. Every year, they host a Boo Blast, where kids get to go to the stores in costume to Trick or Treat the various departments. They can pick up fruit in Produce, milk in Dairy, and chips and soda pop in Grocery. I forget what they give out in the Deli and Meat departments, but it's cool. The tour always ends in the Bakery where kids get to decorate their own cookie to take home.



All the employees dress in costume too and it makes a great dry run for Halloween night. That's the best part of it: they don't run it on Halloween in competition with actual Trick or Treating. It's usually sometime the week before with the day varying from store to store (there's a schedule on the chain's website). I understand why a lot of parents take their kids Trick or Treating at malls, grocery stores, and church parking lots on Halloween night, but I think it's a missed opportunity to get out and meet your neighbors. I'll have more to say about that later in the week.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Bobbing for Apples

This is one of those things where I love the idea of it more than I love actually doing it. It's such a Halloween staple that nostalgia kicks in whenever I think about it, but I've never really enjoyed plunging my head into cold water. And the only way I've ever been able to retrieve an apple is by grabbing the stem with my teeth, which some people think is cheating.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Spooky Soundtracks

No Halloween party or haunted house is complete without a running soundtrack of spooky music and/or sound effects playing in the background. Disney's Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House was the one we had growing up and it was awesome. I have vivid memories of sitting in the dark, listening to the sound effects and making up my own stories about what was causing all those creepy creaks and shrieks.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Hot Apple Cider

I know I already covered apple treats in general earlier, but hot apple cider holds a special appeal for me at Halloween. It goes back to one of the first Halloweens Diane and I spent together as a couple. We were at my place, watching some old Universal monster movie on TV and passing out treats to Trick or Treaters. I'd give candy to the kids and Diane would serve a cup of hot apple cider in a disposable cup to the grown-ups. It was a big hit and a lot of fun.

Nowadays, Diane takes David Trick or Treating while I stay home with the monster movie and the candy basket. The stove is too far away from the front door to make serving hot cider practical for one person, but it's still not Halloween until we've had a cup for ourselves. Spider Cider, Diane calls it.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Parties

I haven't been to a Halloween party in years, so we're going to throw one ourselves this time. Because it's been so long, we're starting small. A few friends, some games, a couple of costume prizes, and plenty of spooky food ought to do it.

What's your favorite thing to do at a Halloween party?

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Grown-Up Costumes

I like people costumes much better than pet costumes because there's none of that worry that maybe the animals aren't enjoying it as much as the people are. (Like with most things in life, I think this probably varies from pet to pet, so I don't like to make generalizations, but when I don't know the animal, I err on the side of concern for its feelings. Some pets obviously don't have a problem with it though and when they don't, neither do I.)

Another point in the favor of people costumes - particularly those created and worn by adults - is that when grown-ups get serious about making their own costumes, astounding works of art appear. I've got zero skills in this area, so I'm always impressed by what folks come up with.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Vampire Fangs

Halloween is like Talk Like a Pirate Day for the vampire-curious. Sure, you could wear fake vampire fangs everyday, but only the most hardcore do. For the rest of us, October is the only time of year we can get away with putting plastic teeth in our mouths and trying out our best Lugosi accents.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Jack O'Lanterns

We sort of rediscovered our love for carving Jack O'Lanterns last year. After years of just lazily sticking a whole pumpkin on the porch and claiming it was "classier" that way, David and I hit on a scheme where we designed a Jack O'Lantern together. I did the face; he added a cut-out of a giant rat.

I still believe that plain pumpkins are rather neat, but we're done depriving ourselves of the fun of scooping out pumpkin brains and making Halloween art with knife and fire.

31 Things I Love About Halloween: Scarecrows

This probably counts as another decoration, but it's the last one I'll sneak into the list. I mentioned last year when I was counting out 31 Monsters of Halloween that scarecrows are one of my favorites. Probably thanks to Dark Night of the Scarecrow, but also thanks to a very cool scarecrow costume I got to wear for Halloween one year as a kid. I won first prize at a party with that baby and didn't want to take it off even though I leaked straw everywhere I went.