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."

Potty Monsters

Loving the new kiddie book written by Kelly DiPuccio and illustrated by the brilliant Mike Moon, How To Potty Train Your Monster. The scans don't do it justice-- the art is shockingly day-glow! Mike is one of the few truly Creative Executives in animation. An Emmy-Winning Art Director (for Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends) and current VP of Animated series for The Disney Channel. From Line Boil..."...if a creative executive also happens to have some art chops, then by all means - hire that person immediately! And that’s exactly what Disney did several years back..."

The book would make a wonderful Hallowe'en gift for the pre-schooler in your life.

Skeletown

Check out the pleasantly postmortem world of Skeletown by Monsterama pal Rhode Montijo (who was, FYI, nearly the character designer for my show Tutenstein!), which he describes as "...inspired by the Mexican folk art of Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)-A holiday that celebrates the lives of those who have passed." Adorable stuff that continues in the grand calavera tradition of Jose Guadalupe Posada-- one of my all-time favourite graphic artists. Hurry up, Rhode! I can't wait for the book!

Goodbye John A. Keel

Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo has reported that eminent Cryptozoologist John A. Keel passed away on Friday, July 3rd. Keel was a controversial and influential writer and investigator, best known for his work 'The Mothman Prophesies' about a cryptid sighted in West Virginia in the late 1960's, that was later made into a Hollywood film of the same name. Keel's theories about cryptid sightings, which combined other paranormal and occult areas of study with cryptozoology, influenced the creation of The Secret Saturdays. As a tribute, I recommend checking out one of his many weird, wonderful books out from your local Library. See you on the other side, John.

Crypto Library

The Secret Saturdays Film Manga books aren't the only serialized publications by Del Rey/Random House to launch this summer. We're also going to get cool little chapter books, like the one shown above (Vol. 3, The Call Of Kur), featuring art by the likes of series director Scott Jeralds and the ever-wicked Ethan Beavers. The first two in the series will be adaptations of the Hibagon and Kumari Kandam episodes. Add the Field Guide into the mix, and you've got yourself quite a Secret Saturdays Library!

Secret Saturdays 'Graphic Novels'

While this news item is super-exciting, it's a little misleading. These books aren't 'graphic novels' in the conventional sense, but are instead graphic novelizations of episodes of the animated series, using screen shots from the episodes themselves. Still pretty cool. From the press release: “With its rich characters and intriguing stories, The Secret Saturdays is the latest Cartoon Network series to achieve widespread international popularity,” says Mutsumi Miyazaki, director of licensing and acquisitions for Del Rey Manga. “We believe that this new film-comic will bring new fans to The Secret Saturdays, and we look forward to building further success for the franchise while expanding our strong partnership with Cartoon Network.”

Field Guide

Coming soon to a booksellers near you, The Secret Saturdays Official Cryptid Field Guide, loaded to the gills with art and info! I gotta tell you, I'm flattered as all heck to be referred to as a 'cryptozoologist' in the credits. Hope it doesn't tick off any of my honest-to-gosh Cryptozoologist pals.

The Invasion Begins!

Welcome news from BoingBoing about a new art book devoted to the great Norman Saunders, a big favourite of mine as demonstrated by my old posts about his tranding card and pulp magazine paintings. This is a long-overdue celebration of a great, ghoulish, American artist, and I, for one, highly recommend it. Compiled by his son, David Saunders, the new 368-page book promises to be "The definitive hard-bound coffee table art book on the artist who created Mars Attacks, Wacky Packs, Batman Cards, Pre-Code Comics, Men's Adventure Magazines, Paperbacks, Pulps and countless icons of Pin-Ups, Monsters, Robots, Mayhem, Nazis, Aliens and Space Ships." Ahhh... how wonderful!

Call Him Monster

In all honesty, I had nearly forgotten these perfect little books. Did you forget them, too? Early readers from 1973 that I adored and moved on from, without further thought-- until I discovered some vintage paperback copies in my Mother-In-Law's collection of kids books she still has from her days as a public school teacher. But I recognized them at once, like meeting an old friend, and knew I needed to find the whole lot for myself. There are 12 little volumes in the Monster Book series written by Ellen Blance and Ann Cook, and illustrated by the incomparable Quentin Blake. And they are perfectly delightful... I can't confirm this, but I am sure they were written with input from young kids, as the writing style is so breezy and quirky, and extremely child-like, which is hard to fake (see above and below). Blake's drawings match the tone so perfectly, it's like a natural formation. It should come as no surprize that the series is considered a cult classic, and that it's become somewhat hard to find. I lucked into 8 hardcover 2nd printings recently, and it got me all excited again. The slim individual titles are like chapter books that follow Monster as he moves to the city, finds a home, a friend, and a magic umbrella, amoung other things. The official checklist is: Monster Comes to the City, Monster Looks for a House, Monster Cleans His House, Monster Looks for a Friend, Monster Meets Lady Monster, Monster and the Magic Umbrella, Monster Goes to the Museum, Monster on the Bus, Monster Goes to School, Monster Has a Party, and Monster Goes to the Zoo. It's impossible to deduce how much these early readers (along with the work of Sendak and Mayer) impressed me as a child, or how much they guided my future development, but I wouldn't underestimate the influence. I loved Monster then, and I sure love Monsters now!

It's Alive! And it's a good read!

One of the best books I read last year was Frankenstein: A Cultural History by Susan Tyler Hitchcock. Really captivating overview of the phenomenon that is Frankenstein's Monster, with thoughtful and thought-provoking insights into the shifting pop culture that continues to remake the thing in it's own image. I was particularly fascinated with Mary Shelly's personal history and it's relationship to the novel, and by the feminist connections to the work and it's final acceptance as 'good' gothic literature. I think it's a terrific companion piece to David J. Skal's work... and highly recommend it to Monsterama readers. "This is our monster," writes Susan Tyler Hitchcock. "To know him is to know ourselves." More from the publisher...

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!

Monsters! are coming

Another thing I've been busy with lately is a new series of books for kids about creating your own characters. Due out next summer from Lark Books, MONSTERS! Draw Your Own Mutants, Freaks & Creeps will be the first of four books written and draw by me to help stir up youthful imagination and get kids making up their own little weirdos. Next in line are HEROES!, ROBOTS!, and MANGA! But I know you want to see more monsters, right?...

Make-Up Monster

The previous post about my dear, old Make- Up Monsters book really seems to have struck a chord with you weirdos! Many of you wrote to wax nostalgic about these spooky old face concoctions. Here's a photo of me in the Werewolf make-up. Apparently everything in the '70's was brown, as this snapshot has the same diarreah tone of the book cover. The black cape at left was my kid brother as Dracula, but the '70's also had crappy cameras, and a lot of these photos came out with half the picture blackened. Dracula didn't make the final cut of this one.

Back from the Abyss

Where are all the cool monsters? Where the hell have I been, anyway? Well, fiends, I've been in L.A. on top secret cartoon business. The Cryptids project is now in full-blown development with the lovely and talented Cartoon Network, and I'll let you know how that's going soon. Now back to our scheduled programme...

The last post had me reminiscing about this 1976 book Make-Up Monsters that I begged my mother to order for me through Scholastic when I was a kid. This is my original copy, and it's pretty dog-eared! I tried out nearly all of Marcia Lynn Cox's cool techniques for All Hallows and otherwise... including SKULL FACE, SCAR FACE, COUNT DRACULA, DRIPPING FACE, and my favorite, the WEREWOLF. The last one was so itchy it drove me crazy, but I still wore it twice!

Franny K. Stein

My kids' school had it's annual BBQ last week, and look what I found at the book sale. Jim Benton is probably best known for his annoyingly ubiquitous 'Happy Bunny' merchandise, but this newer childrens' book series is definately more down our darkened Monsterama alley! Franny K. Stein is a schoolage Mad Scientist, with bats for friends. She makes zombie servants out of luncheon meats and she is fabulous. I just picked up the first volume from 2003, Lunch Walks Among Us, and my kids and I loved it. So I have to go and buy the other four books now. You know.... for my kids. Ahem--! Ohhhh! And there's a vinyl figure, and a flashlight keychain, and a glow-in-the-dark T-shirt, and...

Wilder Things

Where The Wild Things Are had already earned our beloved author Maurice Sendak an all-time top slot on Monsterama's 'best ever' list, but now the man is doing a Universal Horror Pop-Up Book! My brain is going to explode at how cool this is! Mommy? is loosely based on the play It's Alive, also by Maurice Sendak. After so long in the works, Mommy! is wending it's way towards an autumn 2006 release from Scholastic Books. In time for Hallowe'en, I'm sure!

Hip... Hip... Hipira!

What do you get when you cross mangaka Katsuhiro (Akira, Steamboy) Otomo with production designer Shinji (Lupin III, My Neighbor Totoro) Kimura? How about a short, sweet, spooky children's book about a city of vampires? Yup...Hipira is a book about a naughty vampire kid who likes to pretend the sun is coming up in the forever-dark town of Salta. He makes friends with a unformed sprite and a voracious demon baby, and generally makes vampirism look weird and fun. Did you know that if a vampire drinks the blood of a sprite it gets to go to hell? Me neither. Apparently hell is heavenly for vampires. Dark Horse has recently released this lavish picture book in english, and you can take a peek at the gorgeous artwork here.

Show No Mercer

Children's book author and illustrator Mercer Mayer is no doubt best known for his cute Little Critter series for Golden Books that began in the late '70's and became a huge hit throughout the '80's. But for me, Mercer Mayer will forever be the author of one of my very favourite childhood books... the rare and precious One Monster After Another. This oversized hardcover from 1974 predates the simple quick-dash style of the 'Critter' books and is lush with texture and detail, a more elaborate style of ink and watercolour that Mercer has recently returned to. The story follows the adventures of Sally Anne's letter as it goes from the clutches of a 'Stamp-Collecting Trollusk' to the maw of a 'Letter-Eating Bombanat'and on to a 'Grumley', 'Ice-Ferg', 'Typhoonigator', and 'Yalapappus'... one monster after another... before reaching it's destination. Simple, and designed to showcase the bizarre creatures in creepy, silly, detail. You can tell that kids loved the book, and that teachers and parents hated it, because it costs a mint to get ahold of one of these out-of-print babies today! Did grown-ups' dislike the made-up words and lack of educational value? Or are they just skittish around monsters?-- Mercer's other 'cute' series for Golden, the Little Monster series, is also difficult to find these days (Little Monsters' teacher is the 'Grithix' from 'One Monster..', F.Y.I.). Anyway, it's a lost monster classic, right up there with Where The Wild Things Are, if you ask me.

Stink! Stank! Stunk!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... the combination of Dr. Seuss, Chuck Jones and Boris Karloff is pure magic, and the original animated How The Grinch Stole Christmas is an indisputable monsterpiece. Why on earth anyone would debase and defile it with a live action cover version is beyond me. Long live the book and the cartoon!