Friday, April 27, 2007

Farewell to the Main Masher

The man, the myth, the legend that is Bobby 'Boris' Pickett has passed into the big black. Link "He does the "Monster Mash" no more.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem "Monster Mash" to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69. Pickett, dubbed "The Guy Lombardo of Halloween," died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager, Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, were at Pickett's bedside. "Monster Mash" hit the Billboard chart three times: when it debuted in 1962, reaching No. 1 the week before Halloween; again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. The resurrections were appropriate for a song where Pickett gravely intoned the forever-stuck-in-your-head chorus: "He did the monster mash. ... It was a graveyard smash."
He will be forever remembered as the creator of the most famous Halloween song of all time.. and any mad monster creator is an eternal friend of us here at Monsterama. Don't rest too well, Mr. Pickett!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Ogoh Ogoh!

Check out this wicked photo gallery of Ogoh Ogoh Monsters! These creepy and colourful Balinese sculptures are made out of bamboo and paper mache. Most represent traditional creatures from the underworld known as buta-kala, but modern Ogohs may also take on pop culture forms, including media or government personalities.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Read 'Em And Creep

Hey, fiends! The aforementioned books I've been working on are finally available for preorder. MONSTERS! is slated to lurch onto bookshop shelves in June. I got my preview copy, and it looks pretty swell, if I do say so myself. HEROES! is due out the same time, and ROBOTS! and MANGA! are coming out in January 2008. That's a long way off, and I guess it's a little early to be posting about these, but what the heck... I'm excited!