Imposter Alert!

An important message to all fans of Jay Stephens and The Secret Saturdays... the person or persons running the Ning site Secret Saturdays Season 3 is a fraud. The site is NOT, as claimed, run by me, nor is the person posting on that site claiming to be Jay Stephens me. This site is illegal in many ways, and I urge all my fans to boycott this imposter. Thank you.

Happy 2010!

Hope all you Monsterammers have a great year in twenty ten... mine has begun in fine form with many new beginnings. Can you belive the ol' Monsterama is entering its' 5th year? If you have time, go back through some of the older posts and let me know which ones you liked best...

Excelsior!

One of my heroes, Stan Lee, reads The Night Before Christmas. Enjoy, true believers!

Hope You Were Good...

... 'cause a visit from Krampus isn't as fun as it looks.

Cryptid Claus

Here's a nasty little holiday treat for you, with a warning from the film itself: "What you are about to see may traumatize you for life", especially if you still want to believe in Santa as a benevolent magical elf. Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander's short films Rare Exports Vol. 1 and 2 pose the awesomely bizarre question: 'what if Father Christmas was a rare species of cryptozoological wildman that had to be hunted, captured, and trained by specialists?' The resulting faux documentaries are sublimely disturbing, and, I'm happy to say, are soon to be reworked into a feature film! Be careful next time you sit on Santa's lap...

True Zombie Tales

Check out this amazing article over at Mens Journal about real Haitian zombies! From journalist Mischa Berlinski: "About a month after I arrived in Jérémie, a rumor swept through town that a deadly zombie was on the loose. This zombie, it was said, could kill by touch alone. The story had enough authority that schools closed." Forget the brain-eating undead of Zombieworld... this is the real deal. A fascinating and highly recommended read.

Free Spooky

The Big Blog Of Kids Comics has three terrific Spooky Comics available to read. Classic stuff by Howard Post including an appearance by 'Bat Belfry'. Man, I loved Spooky when I was a kid! The 'tough little ghost' was always my favourite Harvey Comics' character.

Strange Tales #3 out now

I forgot to mention that my 4-page contribution to Marvel Comics' odd Strange Tales is on the shelves as of last Wednesday. Oh, and I did an interview for the Marvel website, too...

Saturdays Back On Saturday

Heads' up, Secret Saturdays fans-- the premiere half-hour episode of the new season will follow Batman The Brave and the Bold this Saturday, November 7th on Cartoon Network at the following times:
Eastern 9pm
Central 8pm
Mountain 7pm
Pacific 9pm
Hawaii 4pm

All Hallow's Oh-Nine!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Maskatorium!

I am super jealous of this guy's amazing collection of masks! Looking through all these fantastic faces is a great way to kill some pre-hallowe'en hours.

Top Ten Tinglers

For your holiday viewing pleasure, The Horror Blog has asked various horror-related people to compile a top ten list of their favorite horror movies (me included). Check out the link above for all the lists, and compare against your own...

Scared Silly

Monsterama pal Paul Castiglia is launching the Scared Silly blog on Halloween as a lead-in to his forthcoming book (of the same name) about classic Hollywood horror-comedies. Scared Silly examines the popularity of mixing humor and horror-- which is precisely our purview here on Monsterama, so you know I'm excited! Castiglia’s blog and book will offer readers a fun overview of horror-comedy films spanning the 1920s through the 1960's, including films with Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd on through The Little Rascals and Bowery Boys, to Bob Hope, Abbott & Costello and Don Knotts. It's going to be great.

Ghost Busting Book

Did you know that Dan Akroyd's home life was the inspiration for Ghostbusters? His Great Grandfather, Dr. Samuel A. Akroyd, was a Spiritualist Medium who held séances at the family home in the early 1900's. And Dan's father, Peter Akroyd, has written a book about those experiences and more in A History Of Ghosts; The True Story of Séances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters. From USA Today, Dan Akroyd says, "I remember when I was about 4 or 5 my grandparents and mom and dad discussing what went on in this room. It was all in hushed tones, as if I wasn't supposed to hear. It was about the séances that were held here."

Voices From The Netherworld

I get a lot of people asking me if they could do a voice for my show. Or, more realistically, asking if I could tell them how to get into the business of voice acting. Honestly, I have no idea. But I know someone who does. If you're really serious about it, there's no better person to post questions to than Cory Burton. Cory isn't only the voice of Argost and Van Rook for the Secret Saturdays-- as well as many many other animated voices-- he's passionate about the Art of voice acting, and extremely knowledgeable about it's history and craft.

Future Tut?

For the Tutenstein fans out there, looks like the new Hasbro Studios is starting to get serious! Anyone out there want to see all-new episodes?

I am a Wild Thing

Saw the film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are on Friday, and thought it was a gorgeous little art film. Not for everyone, but I certainly loved it, despite the fractured family content feeling very close to home. It was, in fact, emotionally rough going for me, which is why it's taken a couple of days to post about it. As a single Dad mucking about in the aftermath of a failed family, I all too strongly identified with the Wild Things-- particularly Carol. Kind of poignant that the original Sendak book meant so much to me as a child, given to me by my Father after he and my Mum split up, and now the film resonates so clearly with me as an adult on the other side of the divide. Heart-achingly lovely. Thanks to all involved.

Secret Disguises

Anyone dressing up as Secret Saturdays or Tutenstein characters this Halloween? Please send me your photos, and I'll post them here on Monsterama! And if you're in the Philippines, I'd love some pics of the Secret Saturdays Pumpkin Party where "...Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday are giving out prizes to kids who can help them solve mysteries by identifying the disguised villains who are trying to sneak into their Halloween party."

Twilight Zoo

All this month, the little town of Elora, Ontario (just a short drive from where I live) will be full of freaks and frights as they kick off another wonderful Monster Month. As he's been doing for a decade now, local artist Tim Murton has covered the town's quaint old buildings with white creepy creatures in nightmarish proportions, called, appropriately, The Twilight Zoo. This year Elora is expanding their claim on the holiday by adding the first annual Monster March... a grand Halloween Parade through the darkened downtown streets. I will personally join in the March as my gruesome alter ego Prof. Primate, the Devolved Doctor on Saturday October 24th beginning at 6:00 PM. Please join us, won't you? Thanks again to Halloween Town for making it super easy to pull the costume together.

Hollywood Hallowe'en!

Seeing as I'm in Burbank during the Hallowe'en season, it's only fitting to dedicate a post to the legendary Bob Burns. Bob is responsible for inspiring and directly mentoring some of the greatest horror FX guys in the business via his annual Hallowe'en 'shows', and he's got a gorgeous site featuring a documentary in four parts, with a new segment added each week leading up to All Hallow's Eve. Prepare to be blown away by some of the best private hallowe'en props and FX ever built. The film is riveting, and HIGHLY recommended Monsterama material. Jan Alan Henderson has an interview with the amazing Mr. Burns here. Thanks to Scott J. for the links!