Happy Holidays

Marvel Yule Log

Do you love watching the slow combustion of logs on your television or mobile app for hours at a time? What if it's tied in with your favorite Marvel heroes?

Have I got a deal for you!

To get us out of the bleak midwinter, Marvel + Coke teamed up with the polar bears to bring us the apartments of five of their beloved heroes.

First is Cap's, complete with his old shield plus folded up flag on the mantle and his round shield on the floor. There's even a picture of Peggy Carter on the end table. It'll play the same O Christmas Tree song in old jazzy tunes throughout the hour. I assume that's because Cap adores the song and thinks there's nothing weird about binging on it as he's dancing off screen in the kitchen while handwashing dishes.

Ms. Marvel's comes complete with her New Jersey homestead where the teenager of course left her clothes laying on the couch as well as an Avenger's comic book. You'll hear the apartment life throughout the hour as her parents shuffle around preparing dinner.

Thor's is surprisingly modern with stucco walls instead of stone. He did seem to murder and skin a Coca-Cola polar bear for a rug. Not sure how that helps with the crossbranding. You can see Mjolnir and his cape left on the left side bench as well as a tiny hammer on the mantle. Randomly, green light will flash as I assume Loki comes home for Noremas dinner to make his mom happy.

Iron Man's is all about Tony Stark's favorite character -- himself. With a giant painting over the mantle that's also holding every various helmet of the armor, it's clear who this room belongs to. There's a tiny picture of Pepper up in the corner. The pizza box is left open because, if you notice at 4:52, there's a giant man who looks a bit like Galactus hanging around outside the window. Christmas can wait when there's a world to save.

Saved for last is quite possibly the cutest of them all, the Guardian's of the Galaxy ship. A bit weird, it's not a fireplace but some kind of orange plasma ball. What makes it so adorable? At about 30 seconds in the music kicks in and...well, you have to watch the video to see. Spoilers and all.

You can see it even better in the close up, which Marvel was also nice enough to include for all the heroes.

I know what I'm putting on in the background for my Christmas Eve cooking and present unwrapping this year.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, A Survivable Boxing Day, and general Happy Holidays from me, Cap dancing to O Christmas Tree for the 50th time, Iron Man bashing in Galactus' big big head, Thor falling for Loki's christmas cracker, Ms. Marvel sledding with Lock Jaw, and the most adorable baby dancing tree there is.

Halloween 2016

I have a giant bruise on my knee, my fingers are diced like hot dogs for a pre-schooler, and there's a good chance I started a fire somewhere I forgot about, but halloween is over!

Woo!

Let's celebrate with pictures!

All Hallows Read Posters 2016

September is the stepping stone to October and we all know what that means. Time to get ready for All Hallows Read. What better way than with a free poster or five?

This is my sixth year making free posters for anyone to share and use to advertise All Hallows Read. Free! 

I'm trying something a bit different by hosting the files at dropbox. They're also at deviantart, if that's easier to download off of.

I don't put a year on any of the posters, so you can reuse any of the old ones you'd like such as:

2015 - Trees, Haunted Globe, Bats, and More

2014 - Raven, Grave Reflection, and more

2013 - Fairy Witch, Tentacle, and others

2012 - Spiders and Bats and Mummies

2011 - Universal Hammer Monsters 

You can download the whole lot for this year from a file here right now if you'd like. I also included all of the past years in the dropbox file so you can add whatever you want whenever.

Now let's get to the new ones!

Pumpkin - Nothing says Halloween quite like a carved gourd (unless you've got a turnip around, pedantic)

Bones -You never know what you find when you open a book.

Tombstone -  I wanted this one to feel like those old book covers from the 70's and 80's. Haunted nostalgia.

Graveyard -  A statue reading a book inside a cemetery inside a book. Don't Blink, you might miss the best parts.

Bloody Wall -  Sometimes you just need giant eyeballs, spiders and a touch of gore. It's Halloween, let's get spooky.

Once again, they're all free, all of 'em. So download the links, print, and decorate to your heart's content.

Enjoy!

Refreshing Halloween Props

It's that time of year when I'm haunting through every store to get a taste of their Halloween treats. A few have gone -- Michaels, Menards, Home Depot, Spirit -- but a lot are waiting until Labor Day is dead and in the ground. *twitches thumbs*

While some things I buy as is a few often need a little bit of help so this weekend I took a few props and made them awesomer.

First was a Cyclops skull from Spirit. It's neat that it's ol' cyc with its mammoth skull influence but the fact it's a blowmold and the painting is meh I decided it needed some flesh.

It was a simple case of dipping paper towels in latex then spreading it across the skull.

After the latex dried, I just painted it. First I used a wood stain for the base but that was too light so I mixed in some brown and black acrylic with my sponge to give shadows and depth.

Cyclops looks a lot gooier now.

My other find came from Home Depot. A fun little secret is that it's really easy to get those cheap ass looking tombstones and turn them into something cool. All you need is paint and a sponge.


I found one with a carving I liked, but the paint job was meh sliding into snooze town.

First I added a layer of brown. Brown is vital to giving depth to tombstones. I know, that seems stupid, but trust me. If you want to mimic the look of old stone, brown helps to not only age but give it a heft.

After that, it was various shades of black or grey depending upon if I wanted to lighten or shadow a section.

Instantly better tombstone I managed in about an hour. When I don't have the time to carve one myself (which can take days to a week), I like to get a cheap one and fix it myself. The liberal application of paint can make any store bought tombstone look ten times better.