Halloween Avatar Trickery

San Francisco was a major blast. I want to share all that we got to experience and see, but all in due time. In the meantime, I've been having fun with my avatar, leading up to Halloween. Here's the original:



Now, here's a skeletal version:




How about a zombie version? I can haz brainz?



And now, a special nod to Nightmare Before Christmas, natch:



I might do more. It's been a lot of fun.

Happy Halloween!

UPDATE: Here's more!

Good Halloween Fun

I'm always a big fan of Halloween! However, the Jenkins household has now turned into the Den of Sickness. Ava was out of school for an entire week two weeks ago and now, both Andrea and Ezra have been hit with the same bug. It's only a matter of time for it to hit me, I guess. In the meantime, I've scanned some pages from a cool textbook reader originally published in 1957. Checkit:


From Billy's Neighbors, a reading textbook by Follett Publishing Company. Authors are Alta McIntire & Wilhelmina Hill. Illustrated by the very talented Janet LaSalle. ©1957; this edition, 1962.

If I could scan this entire book, I would. Illustrated on almost every single page, filled with incredible artwork by Janet LaSalle. I've talked about Janet before. (See previous post and this set for her earlier style, and this.) Just check her stuff out. Amazing talent.











Have a great and safe (and healthy) Halloween, kids!

Rabbit-ghosty-thing from Halloween Past

Finally found it. This is the photo that I mentioned in my Ghosts of Halloween Past post from two Halloweens ago. Mom came through for me and did some digging in the attic (or basement) to resurrect this nice photographic relic for all to enjoy. Much appreciated, moms.

I'm 11 months old here, forced to wear some blanket-with-rabbit-ears sort of thingy, tied by....an ascot? I'm told that I have such a strange look on my face because my mom was laughing so hard while trying to take the picture.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays around the Jenkins houshold. The windows are filled with paper pumpkins & ghosts, the yard is covered with acres of stringy, fake webs, and yes, the pumpkins have been gutted and carved. There was a slight fear that it would rain tonight, but perhaps that was just an ugly rumor. Let's hope & pray that it was and that our little genie & Spider-Man will have a nice, safe & dry night of trick-or-treating.

Enjoy your candy, kids!

My Unavoidable Halloween Post

Here's to a Happy Halloween! Ava drew this in the computer on Noggin's site last year for Halloween.

Belt out your best witch's cackle right now.

Pirates are the Big Thing this year at the Jenkins household. Although Ezra keeps changing his mind. First it was pirate, then Spider-Man, then robot, then skeleton, then back to Spider-Man, then pirate....you get the picture. I tried to convince him to be a 'robot pirate' but that just confused him all the more. Although I do have to say that that's not a bad idea for a costume. I might have to try it out myself....



Vintage magazine image from the collection of Glen Mullaly. Check out his artwork, too! Great artist. Glen is a constant contributor to The Retro Kid.

Don't forget to check out my former identities: Ghosts of Halloween Past. Mom found that one photo of me with that funny bunny outfit when I was one, but it's now deep in the confines of all my stuff from the Big Move. I promise I'll post it when I find it.

My Obligatory Nightmare Before Christmas Post: Yes, I love this movie. Here, I remind you of said love and then point you to my two-part discourse on the film:
Nightmare Before Christmas (Part 1)
Nightmare Before Christmas (Part 2)

And lastly, I want to wish Ollie Johnston, the last surviving member of Disney's Nine Old Men, a very happy birthday. He's a youthful 95!

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Happy Halloween! To celebrate this All Hallow's Eve I present to you a tour of my costumes of Halloween past. Hope you enjoy.


We start the tour in the year of 1971. My sister is 1 1/2 and I am (almost) 3. The outfit that sis is wearing is something that Mom concocted with a bedsheet. She had me wear the same thing when I was Amy's age. In fact, there's a photo of me wearing this bedsheet/bunny-thing and I have this strange confused look on my face. Mom tells me that I'm looking at her as she's trying to take the photo but can't because she's laughing so hard at me. (I couldn't find the photo.) UPDATE: Found it! Here, my love for Disney and Mickey Mouse becomes self evident at the (extremely brown) kitchen table.


Next is 1973. Umm, I have to explain this. See, my Dad was notorious for freestyling a costume for Halloween. The more ludicrous, the better. He would dress up in anything that he could get his hands on: in this year's case, it was some old white pantyhose and an outrageous bedsheet. (Just check out that pattern! What could we do? It was the 70's.) Amy is 3, I'm (almost) 5. Lookit, I'm already digging the classic horror monsters: Frankenstein's monster. Amy is another monster of sorts: Barbie.


1976: This is me, our friend Susan, and my sister Amy. I'm some sort of ghoul, not sure what Susan was, sis was a gypsy. This is just as we are about to embark upon our trick-or-treatin' -- I was in full character with that freakish pose. I believe Mom painted on that third eye, probably at the last minute.


Just down the street, our neighbors loved our costumes so much that they took a photo of us. I'm posting this because I find it hilarious that I'm still in character.


1978: I'm saving the best for last. This is perhaps one of my favorite Halloween costumes of all time. I was almost 10 and was so into horror and blood and creepy stuff. I definitely was into full "gross phase" at this stage in my life.

My costume was as follows: I ripped up some old jeans and a sweater and put some fake blood in the rips and holes, I painted the skull on my face myself (complete with fake blood), I had Mom buy some black leggings so I could paint skeleton legs that could be seen through the holes in the jeans, and -- the kicker -- I taped my right eye shut and glued a paper mache eyeball that I had made by myself earlier in the day (with optical nerve, of course). Also, I had a fake rubber hand that was supposed to be in the shot here (it's on the ground in front of me), and with it, I would try to freak people out by dropping it into the candy bowl or whatever as I went out trick-or-treating. Ahh, good times.

That's it for this year's Halloween! Hope you all have a wonderfully spooky time tonight and don't get too stuffed from your annual haunting the neighborhood for sweets and sugar!