10/31

Halloween is here.  I can't wait to transform my ladies into a vampire princess and a rainbow fairy princess* later today.  Young James Asher will be the cutest elephant on the planet.  I'll be sure to share some photos with you.  We've got another jack-o-lantern to show off as well, so I'll definitely do a big Halloween post later today. 
Until then, I'm hard at work in the man cave.  How often do you get to submit your vampire novel to publishers on Halloween?  Of course, all work and no play makes for a dull master of the macabre, so I'm also taking another dip in Alan Moore's swamp today.

Seriously, his run on Swamp Thing is massive.  Now, to be fair, it isn't quite on the same level as Moore's masterpeice, the graphic novel that towers above all others, Watchmen.

Yes, Watchmen is the best of them all, a graphic novel that belongs on any fan of literature's bookshelf, but Moore did some rather gruesome and incredibly inventive stuff with Swamp Thing.  Seriously, I have always loved horror comics, but most of them are frequently fun and only faintly frightening.  Swamp Thing gave me nightmares as a child, and Alan Moore was the guy writing the book.  The first issue he scripted, The Anatomy Lesson, which is where the vintage graphic novel (circa 1987, peeps) I'm currently enjoying kicks off, is a stellar example of just what the comic book format is capable of delivering.
I think Watchmen and his work on Swamp Thing represent the finest work of Moore's illustrious career, but I would be intrigued by virtually anything that features his name in the credits.

Alan Moore

 I'm currently scripting some material based on my book for my incredible illustrator, the one and only Chris Visions, and I'm hoping we can mine some disturbing themes of our own in panels in the near future.  He's a phenom.  Seriously, check out the marvelous cover he crafted for my book sans title:

The cover Chris Visions prepared for TPT&V

See more of the fantastic work of the maestro I call "Master Visions" at: http://chrisvisions.com/

Regardless, I'm working, reading, carving pumpkins with the fam, and gearing up for a stellar Halloween night.  I hope you're ready for October 31st, because, well, if you're not, you've run out of time.  Let's do this right, people.  We need jack-o-lanterns, costumes, tricks, treats, scary movies, and Halloween parties to wake the dead.  

*Some kids want to be witches or super heroes.  You ask little Taryn Grace what she wants to dress up as and she thinks about it for a moment and then declares that she wants to be a rainbow fairy princess.  Fortunately, we found just the costume for her.