Happy Halloween!!!

These are some of the many zombies
 hanging out in front of my friend's house
 who hosts the Saturday game

Green Zombie!!!

Green zombie!!!!

Batman and Arrow? Or Batman and Level 1 Rogue?

Huntress? Or....level 1 Ranger?

Huntress and Batman!

...yes, we have a cluttered house =)

Halloween Countdown Finale: DOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!

And so Halloween is here! For me, there is nothing more mysterious, terrifying and tanatalizing than the End of Everything as we know it, and so I offer up some of my favorite images of the Apocalypse from conception to conslusion.

First, though it starts off with a cause....

Nuclear War...

Alien Invasion...

Cthulhu...

Meat Boy Kaiju...

Comet...

But in the end, the results are all the same...



And inevitably the struggle will begin anew!

Halloween Countdown #4: Camazotz, The Death Bat!!!!

My Namesake is a real thing, and the Quiche Mayan "camazotz" means literally death bat, referring both to the Xibalban demon, a masive vorpal bat prone to stealing the head of the Hero Twin Hunahpu, lurking in his domain of the House of Night in the underworld of Xibalba, as well as the broader appelation of death bats in general. He makes his formal appearance in  myth by way of the Popol Vuh, one of the most notable surviving codices of the period.

There's a suspected link between the weird mythology of giant bats in Mesoamerican lore and the fact that, until only a few thousand years ago there may have been a real, live basis for this myth in the form of a massive bat with a ten foot wing span. Now extinct, the remains of this creature have been found in a context indicating that it likely existed, and was known to the early settlers of Mesoamerica.

Halloween Countdown #3: Creepy Cryptids

I love mummies, and I do love reading about cryptids, although I wouldn't consider myself anything more than an "amused skeptic." The wife rather prides herself on her cryptozoological interest, however, so I never (openly) mock cryptid interests unless the science is obviously bad or absent (as is usually the case with most self-professed cryptozoologists). That said, there's nothing more entertaining than weird dead bodies pulled out of the sea...found in curiosity cabinets....and of course the best cryptid pictures were never real at all....!

Halloween Countdown #2: Prague's Ossuary

If you're even peripherally into the macabre and have even vague access to the internet then you must know about the impressive Bone Church Ossuary in the city of Prague. It's one of the many reasons Prague makes a great city to film weird horror films in (much of the Underworld series was filmed in Prague, as was at least one of the Hellraiser films, among others).

Halloween Countdown: Skulls

Halloween looms! I'll try to do a pic-post each day leading up to it, focusing on a suitably macabre subject. Today's topic...an exhibition of skulls!

If anyone investigating the mysterious ancestal magic of Chirak ever wondered what the decorative fetishes of these magicians look like, the answer is here (and found by way of Geek Art Gallery --though to be fair, not sure I would call this geek art so much as cultural art).

There's a long-standing tradition of skull decoration through Meso- and South- American traditions. Some truly elaborate skulls decorated in turqouoise reflect a long-standing tradition which finds modern expression the Day of the Dead and other venues, such as the skull above.

And let's not forget the Mayan elite tradition of binding infant skulls to insure a unique shape in adulthood, regarded as a sign of beauty in their time:

Modern art continues this tradition in many ways:

You know, there are a lot of things you can search for in google that lead to terrifying, mind searing discoveries...ironically, skulls are not one of them; you pretty much get what you would expect on such a search.