Halloween birthday 2009
First, a roundup of my Internet Halloween:
Bogleech Halloween Fan-Art Gallery - artwork sent in by readers of my website! Every portrait was inspired by something from my Halloween collecting blog. Speaking of which...
Bogleech Halloween Collecting Blog - October - Devilish mollusks, defecating pumpkins and dangling corpses!
September - The most Awesome Paper Bag in the World.
August - GIANT latex bugs and mutant gummi candies!
Halloween Biology - My article on organisms that ought to be Halloween mascots (already posted about this, but I'm doing a roundup here!)
Boogeymen around the world - My Cracked.com article (mature language) on various mythical creatures concocted to terrify children!
Vampires around the world - another article I wrote for Cracked!
The Fear Hole - Episode Eight - a brand new episode of my Flash cartoon series (written, drawn, animated, and voiced entirely by myself) ...not particularly Halloween themed, but the whole series is about monsters and mad science. Specifically, it's about monsters that emerge from a mysterious hole. Speaking of which...
The Creatures of the Trap Door - a five page guide I assembled to all the monsters from "The Trap Door," a wonderful monster-themed children's series from the UK!
Bogleech comics - Very Very Hungry - alright, so my webcomic is ALWAYS sorta Halloweeny, but this is one of only two I had time to draw during October. Sort of a zombie apocalypse from a different perspective.
Wrong Party - my other October comic!
Now, for my for-real-world Halloween
My Pumpkin this year is a Surinam Toad or "Pipa Pipa," with froglets sculpted out of Play-Doh!
My friend Jesse carved a nice Haunter (Pokemon)
Jesse's best friend Dylan carved an amazing Slimer after I drew him on the pumpkin in pen!
Everyone's pumpkins! I also carved the vertical mouth with lots of eyes, which was kinda lazy and random. You can only see the mouth of my frog, on the far left.
My mother surprised me by making really thoughtful things for my birthday. I usually just get cash or something. The lamp was just a plain white one, but she dyed and painted and decorated it!
She also made this completely out of paper mache for me, she calls it a Day of the Dead Angel Mummy.
My cake! I turned 26 this Halloween.
Finally, costumes!
Believe it or not, I have almost never made my own costume or found anything to actually DO for Halloween. It was usually a matter of having no friends, so the most I'd ever do is put on a store-bought mask and go trick or treating. This year I wanted to finally be creative, so I spent two days wiring together a plastic hat, some window screen and over 70 rubber bugs! I also fashioned a sort of "tie" out of other bugs and wore insect puppets on my hands; just a giant swarm of arthropods wearing people clothes.
Jesse put just as much work into a scarecrow costume, sewing a burlap bag into a head and hands and stuffing all his clothes with straw, suffering horrible itchiness and allergies to get the "authentic" scarecrow experience.
Dylan, on the other hand, spent what must have been at least 20 hours on his costume, even with several people helping out. They collected bark from paper trees (the lightest bark available) and tons of spanish moss which they hot-glued to a sweater, overalls and a wire frame for the head. You probably can't tell, but he also had tiny red LED's for the eyes, taken from a light-up rubber ball. His joints could not bend (he had to lie flat in the car), he could barely see, he could only walk at half normal speed and he nearly passed out from the heat...but the constant screams of children and the parents stopping us for photos were all worth it.
Yes, despite our ages we went out trick or treating...or attempted to, anyway. Less than one in five houses were giving out candy...not for lack of Halloween spirit, but EXCESS. I have never, ever in my entire life seen so many people of all ages walking the streets of an ordinary suburb. It wasn't part of an event, there was no party or parade or anything, they were ALL out trick or treating or escorting trick or treaters, to the point that almost nobody was left to hand OUT the treats! No big complaints really, since this made it more like a massive outdoor Halloween convention with plenty of people to see our outfits :)
Bogleech Halloween Fan-Art Gallery - artwork sent in by readers of my website! Every portrait was inspired by something from my Halloween collecting blog. Speaking of which...
Bogleech Halloween Collecting Blog - October - Devilish mollusks, defecating pumpkins and dangling corpses!
September - The most Awesome Paper Bag in the World.
August - GIANT latex bugs and mutant gummi candies!
Halloween Biology - My article on organisms that ought to be Halloween mascots (already posted about this, but I'm doing a roundup here!)
Boogeymen around the world - My Cracked.com article (mature language) on various mythical creatures concocted to terrify children!
Vampires around the world - another article I wrote for Cracked!
The Fear Hole - Episode Eight - a brand new episode of my Flash cartoon series (written, drawn, animated, and voiced entirely by myself) ...not particularly Halloween themed, but the whole series is about monsters and mad science. Specifically, it's about monsters that emerge from a mysterious hole. Speaking of which...
The Creatures of the Trap Door - a five page guide I assembled to all the monsters from "The Trap Door," a wonderful monster-themed children's series from the UK!
Bogleech comics - Very Very Hungry - alright, so my webcomic is ALWAYS sorta Halloweeny, but this is one of only two I had time to draw during October. Sort of a zombie apocalypse from a different perspective.
Wrong Party - my other October comic!
Now, for my for-real-world Halloween
My Pumpkin this year is a Surinam Toad or "Pipa Pipa," with froglets sculpted out of Play-Doh!
My friend Jesse carved a nice Haunter (Pokemon)
Jesse's best friend Dylan carved an amazing Slimer after I drew him on the pumpkin in pen!
Everyone's pumpkins! I also carved the vertical mouth with lots of eyes, which was kinda lazy and random. You can only see the mouth of my frog, on the far left.
My mother surprised me by making really thoughtful things for my birthday. I usually just get cash or something. The lamp was just a plain white one, but she dyed and painted and decorated it!
She also made this completely out of paper mache for me, she calls it a Day of the Dead Angel Mummy.
My cake! I turned 26 this Halloween.
Finally, costumes!
Believe it or not, I have almost never made my own costume or found anything to actually DO for Halloween. It was usually a matter of having no friends, so the most I'd ever do is put on a store-bought mask and go trick or treating. This year I wanted to finally be creative, so I spent two days wiring together a plastic hat, some window screen and over 70 rubber bugs! I also fashioned a sort of "tie" out of other bugs and wore insect puppets on my hands; just a giant swarm of arthropods wearing people clothes.
Jesse put just as much work into a scarecrow costume, sewing a burlap bag into a head and hands and stuffing all his clothes with straw, suffering horrible itchiness and allergies to get the "authentic" scarecrow experience.
Dylan, on the other hand, spent what must have been at least 20 hours on his costume, even with several people helping out. They collected bark from paper trees (the lightest bark available) and tons of spanish moss which they hot-glued to a sweater, overalls and a wire frame for the head. You probably can't tell, but he also had tiny red LED's for the eyes, taken from a light-up rubber ball. His joints could not bend (he had to lie flat in the car), he could barely see, he could only walk at half normal speed and he nearly passed out from the heat...but the constant screams of children and the parents stopping us for photos were all worth it.
Yes, despite our ages we went out trick or treating...or attempted to, anyway. Less than one in five houses were giving out candy...not for lack of Halloween spirit, but EXCESS. I have never, ever in my entire life seen so many people of all ages walking the streets of an ordinary suburb. It wasn't part of an event, there was no party or parade or anything, they were ALL out trick or treating or escorting trick or treaters, to the point that almost nobody was left to hand OUT the treats! No big complaints really, since this made it more like a massive outdoor Halloween convention with plenty of people to see our outfits :)