Tag Archives: creepy

Happy Halloween!

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halloween crafts

Spooky, Creepy, BooOooOoo! BooOooOoo!

My friend the Vampire Bat used to send really elaborate care packages on Halloween and Valentine’s Day, handmade cards, candy, little seasonally-appropriate presents, the whole megillah. They were pretty special, to be honest, and I loved receiving them, but over the years, reciprocation became difficult. I had a family and work and didn’t always notice when holidays were coming up, let along make time in my schedule to plan for them a month in advance. And I guess I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t show my appreciation properly, and eventually she announced that she wasn’t going to put forth the effort anymore.

So now, sometimes, just to mess with her, I do send her handmade holiday gifts.

These little images—the “Spooky” owl, the “Creepy” spider, and the “BooOooOoo! BooOooOoo” ghosts—are from the packaging of some stickers that came in one of her last Halloween gifts to me, and they were so cute that after I stuck the stickers on things (what did I stick them on? I have no idea) I save the boxes with the intention of using them for some All Hallow’s Eve crafts for my friend. That was years ago, but when I found a random pair of metallic silver skeleton mermaid socks at Target (Target really goes all out with weird sock designs) I realized this was the year.

While playing around with the pieces (too bad I cut them up before this idea came to me) I realized that I could make a tiny card (the Vampire Bat likes tiny things) and then I realized I could make tiny books!

Unfortunately, I had used up all the printer paper printing out draft versions of a new comic book and neither The Man nor I work anyplace where we can reasonably steal printer paper anymore, so I had to use heavy card stock for the paper. It was harder to cut and my notebooks would have fewer pages, which would be hard to turn, but I soldiered on. What you do is you line all your pages up, clamp them together, and then apply liberal amounts of glue on one side. When it glues, the pages are basically bound together. Then you glue a bit of ribbon over that glued edge, to reinforce it. I used ribbon to bind the covers together and shore up the cardboard, and then I glued the paged into the cover. Viola!

For the card, I just used a piece of manilla folder to bind the 2 sides together. Lately, I’ve been trying to use up, rather than hoard, the vast quantities of art/office supplies I have been carrying around the country for 2 decades. The ransom letters and all the other words came out of a single issue of The Smithsonian.

My friend liked the gift (of course!) so now I can share it here.

I have a theory about creepy clowns

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creepy clowns_edited-1.png

Being a bit of a motley fool myself, I sort of resent the way this trend has appropriated the value of tomfoolery.

Someone asked me the secret of being such a prolific writer, and I replied (in jest, natch), “I sit and think about what I’m going to write for 3 months before I write it.” Sometimes, not always. But usually I don’t work fast enough to write about trends while the trends are still relevant. I think my Pokemon Go comic was the last time I managed to be timely and topical in a comic. I don’t know how Matt Parker and Trey Stone do it week after week. Today I had this idea about creepy clowns, and it got enough traction as a Facebook status that I dared try it in this space instead of copping out and posting a photograph of my comic book.

I have a similar theory about zombies and the dehumanization of strangers in a society that’s too large and impersonal, where strangers are dangerous and individual lives have no meaning. We’re all completely jaded, many without compassion, most having learned to mistrust and possibly fear those who are the least bit different.

Even if it is a hoax or an urban legend or a guerrilla marketing tactic, there’s a reason it resonates in the collective consciousness, and I think it’s safe to say that some people are taking advantage of that fear for their own weird, personal reasons: to get attention and stay anonymous at the same time, I guess, or else because they’re violent freaks, or just want to be. The Man got a robocall from the Boy’s school explaining that there had been no threat at the school, but given that the student’s safety and comfort were paramount, anyone who showed up dressed or made up like a creepy clown would be suspended.

All of which seems totally normal in a world where kids regularly practice their active shooter drills because they know it’s entirely possible that a violent freak will shoot up their school.

Halloween Insult Comics

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You're both so ugly people go as you for Halloween.

You’re both so ugly people go as you for Halloween.

Special fangs to the dear friend  (referred to, here and there in Dragon comics as the Vampire Bat, for reasons that must soon become clear) who sends out Halloween care packages every year and in whose honor this spooky insult comic was created. Most of the items in the image are from this year’s Halloween box; one is from a few years ago, and there’s also a commemorative matchbook for Bonnie Jo Campbell’s first novel, Q Road. You can’t make it out that well, but it’s a pumpkin with a butcher’s knife sticking out of it. Anyway, these buttons cracked me up the most. The jack-o-lantern especially looks like a real jerk.

Sadly, I still live in the desert, so all the chocolate in the Halloween box melted. However, the box itself is pretty nice. 1000 household uses. Skull Face and Jack-o-Lantern may insult each other in front of it again in the future. So spooky!

Ah, it’s all in good fun.

Tomorrow I have a photo shoot for a hair color blog. Financial remuneration has been suggested. Art!