The 13 days of Creepmas!

For all of you boils and ghouls who lament that there aren't more days to stretch out the Countdown to Halloween each year, I wanted to point to the 13 Days of Creepmas site which is holding a similar blogging event to what we do here.  You can find all the details on how to join and some nifty participation badges by clicking on the horned one below!

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to take a second and wish everyone a belated Happy Halloween, and thank all the participants of the 2012 Countdown!  It was a great year with a wonderful turnout, and I'm sure most of us will be catching up on visiting other participant's countdowns for months to come.  Hope everyone had their fill of candy, pumpkin carving, and scary movies, and I hope everyone had a blast participating in the countdown madness!

Underneath the Juniper Tree Needs All of Us

Many of you who have been participating in the Countdown to Halloween the past few years will have noticed that among the past Cryptkeepers absent this year is Underneath The Juniper Tree. While their presence is missed, it's for a good reason. Lovely literary agent, Bree Ogden has pointed out that they are putting together a deliciously dark Children's Anthology of art and stories sure to please everyone who is participating in the Countdown to Halloween, whether as a cryptkeeper, or as a follower.

Underneath the Juniper Tree has a fundraising campaign through Indiegogo. They are just shy of halfway towards making their goal, but I think with all of our help they can go quite a bit further. Ten dollars from everyone participating would allow them to exceed their fundraising goal. I urge everyone to contribute whatever amount they can. Mention the Countdown to Halloween, so they know where all the love is coming from.

Check out the video for the project and the incentives for donating here.

This Year's Participants

WELCOME TO THE 2012 COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN!

If you want to know which houses are giving out the good candy this year, then look no further than the list below. Remember when you stop by to say thank you by leaving them a comment for all the hard work they've put into making Halloween the greatest holiday of the year.

All sites are listed alphabetically. Keep checking back as updates will be made all month long. It's never too late to join in. Just email me to let us know you  would like to be included and send us a link to your blog(s) that you'd like to have included as well as the name(s) you'd like your blog(s) listed as.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO PARTICIPANTS: It's nice to see a lot of new faces this year as long as many returning participants. If you don't see yourself on this list, or would like a blog added, removed, or renamed on this list, or if a link is broken, or incorrect, please leave a note in the comments section below. Every effort was made to contact everyone who participated last year, but a number of last year's participants did not have any contact information attached to their blogs. If you are one of those people then please email me so that I'll have your contact information for last year. 

If I've counted correctly, we have 219 people participating as of this year's launch and anticipate more will be joining us as we go. While we've lost a few participants from Countdown's past, you'll notice quite a number of new participants joining us for the first time this year, and I hope they'll find the experience enjoyable enough to come back next year. 

Now that that's out of the way it's time to put on your masks and start trick or treating. Happy Halloween!

A Field Guide to Doomsday
AEIOU...And Sometimes Why
All Eyes And Ears
Amber Dawn Of The Dead
American Entropy's World Of Halloween
American Scrapbook
and everything else too
Anime Hell
Another Cup of...Caffeinated Joe
Anti-Film School
Apetoes
Arbogast On Film
Armagideon Time
The Astro Lounge
Atom Kid
Bad Ronald
Bat N' Kat
Bathed In The Light From Andromeda
The Big Scare
blackwood
Bluestocking Farm
Bogleech
The Boo Blog
Book Of Monsters
Bradley's Brain
Branded in the 80s
Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!
Bunny Sunday
By Land, Sky & Sea
Cabinet Of Curiosities Podcast
Caffeinated Joe
Calvin's Canadian Cave Of Coolness
Caramel Apple Day
Cartoon Holidays
Catalogue Of Curiosities
Categorically Thinking
Cavalcade Of Awesome
Celluloid Terror
Celtic Pumpkin
Christmas TV History
Chuck Norris Ate My Baby
Church Of Halloween
Cinema Du Meep
Cinematic Catharsis
CollectingCandy.com
comatised.com
Cool And Collected
Cosmic Catacombs Film Reviews
Count-Gregula
Count Gregula's Crypt
Crafty Lady Abby
The Crazy Apron
Creepy L.A.
The Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang
Cult Of The Great Pumpkin
The Dark Art Of Chad Savage
Dave Lowe Design
Dead Man Dan's Creepy Crypt Of Terror
Deadpan Flook And The Blog Of Stuff
Die on Set A
Distinctly Jamaican Sounds
Diversions Of The Groovy Kind
Dr. Gangrene's Tales From The Lab
Dr. Terror's Blog Of Horrors
Dr. Theda's Crypt
Doo Wacka Doodles
Dork Forty
Dragon Empress
Earth Station One
Erstwhile Dancefloor Revolution
Eternal Sunshine Of The Logical Mind
Everyday Is Halloween
Family-Friendly Halloween Movie Countdown
Fantasy Ink
A Field Guide To Doomsday
The Film Connoisseur 
Final Girl
Forgotten Films
Frankenstein Forever
Frankensteinia
Freddy In Space
French Toast Sunday
Frog On The Pumpkin
From The Brain Of John
Geektarded
Generation X
The Ghost Town
The Ghoulie Guide
Glitter In Cornfields
The Good, The Bad, And Godzilla
The Goods
Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks
Gravedigger's Local 16
Green Plastic Squirt Gun
The Grim Gallery
The Grim Reader
Hallowaltz
Halloween Activities, Costumes And Decoration Ideas
Halloween Addict
Halloween Hits
Hallowe'en Machine!
Halloween Night
Halloween Overkill
Halloween Short Films
Halloween Shows Dot Net
The Halloween Tree
The Haunted Drive-In
Haunted Eve's Halloween Blog
Haunted Wannabe
Highbury Cemetery
Histories Of Things To Come
Holiday Film Reviews
The Holidaze
Horror Shock Lolipop
Horror Writers Association
The Horrors Of It All
Howlin' Wolf Records: On-Line Magazine
Huskatten Emelies Blogg
I-Mockery's Two Months Of Halloween Celebration
I Wear My Snark Upon My Sleeve
Infinite Hollywood
It Came From Beneath My Mind!
It Came From The Man Cave!
Jim Fanning's Tulgey Wood
John Rozum
Jon's Random Acts Of Geekery
Just The Stuff Ya Know
Kaedrin Weblog
Kostume Girl's Closet
Kweeny Todd
Lair Of The Dork Horde
The Land Of Cerpts And Honey
The Liberal Dead
Limerwrecks
The Loquacious Librarian And The Reviews Of DOOM
Lux Umbra Dei
Macabre Drive-In Theater
Macabre Republic
The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit
Maple Grove Cemetery
Mark Harvey's World
Mark's Super Blog
Martha's Journey
Mazmorra Maldita
Me And You And A Blog Named Boo
Michael May's Adventure Blog
Mr. Gable's Reality
Misfit Robot Daydream
Monique's Pretty Dark Art
Monster Cafe Saltillo
Monster Crazy
Monster Magazine World
Monsterfink's Midnight Monster Spookshow
MONSTERJONES!!
The Moon Is A Dead World
Moongem Comics
Morbid Tales Ärchives
Ms Misantropia
Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else
Musty TV
MyBriefs
My Ghoul Friday
My Rotting Brain
My Scary Halloween.com
My Two Yen Worth
Nature Trail To Hell In 3D
Neato Coolville
Need Coffee Dot Com - 32 Days of Halloween
Needless Things
Negative Pleasure
never sleeps again
The New Adventures Of Desdinova The Super Villain Of The Ozarks
New World Food
nicht niedlich
Not So Serious
Notchordamnatchoz: 31 Monsters Of Halloween
October Boys
On The Stick
Orange and Black
The Other Side
Pagan Culture
Para Abnormal
Parade of Horrorables
Pensive Pumpkin
Plaid Stallions
plasticfetish
Poisoned Beauty
Polish The Stars
PopCereal
Precious Monsters
Procrastonaut
Pumpkinrot
Punch & Judy Productions
Puppatoons
The Queen Of Darkness: Halloween, Haunting And Life
RA for All: Horror
Radiator Heaven
The Rain Causes Pain In My Brain
Rare Halloween Videos
Redecorating Middle-Earth In Early Lovecraft
Reptarella Lives
[Retro-Zombie]
The Ringmaster's Realm
Rip Jagger's Dojo
The Roadside Revenant's Rot And Roll Revival Show!
Ron's Random Stuff
Russian Nerd
Scare Me On Fridays
2nd Street Cemetery
Secret Fun Blog
Secret Sanctum Of Captain Video
Seditiosus
Seeing Things
The Sexy Armpit
Shades Of Gray
She Walks Softly
ShellHawk's Nest
Sherry Lou Toys
Shezcrafti
Shingle Creek Manor
Shuffle Function
Silent Wierdness
SINedelphia
6'+ (Six Foot Plus)
Six Weeks Of Halloween
Skull-A-Day
Slash The Zombie
Something wicKED this way comes...
Son Of Celluloid
Spooky Laboratory
Spooky Scary!
A Spooky Soiree
The Spooky Vegan
A Spoonful Of...
Step Up To The Mike
Stephanie Buscema
Strange Kids Club
Super Haunted Stories
The Surfing Pizza
Swing With Shad
Tea And Top Hats
Team Hellions
Terror Titans
THAT...Was My Foot
Thielavision.com
Things That Don't Suck
Things to Do in L.A.
13
13 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Three Bed Semi
TOTAL CONTROL
Toyriffic
Trixie's Treats
Tupa's Treasures
Uncle Ernie's Creature Ink
Unique Unusual Or Interesting
Universal Horror Sounds
Unpopular Culture
Unpunched
The Vault of 3D Sculpts
Vraie Fiction
Weird Hollow
Whatever Happened To the Transylvania Twist?
Whatever I Think Of
Who Is Afraid Of...Miss Lovett?
Who Killed Orrin Grey?
Wicked Crochet
The Windesphere Witch
Wonderful Wonderblog
Working Dead Productions
The Year Of Halloween
The Year Of The Cats

Three Days To Go...

Just to update everyone. As of right now, I have added everyone who has emailed me to the list of this year's participants. Thank you all very much. Putting the list together this year has been a far easier task because of this. I greatly appreciate it.

I've also added everyone who responded in the comments section of the past batch of posts. If you notified this way, you're good, but please email me anyway and include a link to your blog(s) and the name you'd like that blog to be listed as. This way I'll be sure to have your email on hand when I send out the reminder next year for that Countdown to Halloween.

If you haven't yet responded, but would like to be included as a participant in this year's Countdown to Halloween, there's still time. Simply email me with a link to your blog(s) and the name(s) you'd like them listed as.

Due to the high volume of emails, I am only emailing people back if there's some problem with the link, or if I have another question. If you don't hear back from me, assume you are on the list. The list will go up at Midnight, October first. If there are any issues with your blog as it appears, or doesn't appear, you can then let Shawn, or myself know in the comment section attached to the list and one of us will address the problem as soon as possible.

I have not yet taken the time to count the number of participants this year, but it seems comparable to last year's list, and will no doubt expand over the next week.

We're looking forward to reading everyone's blogs. Good luck, don't kill yourselves trying to maintain a daily posting schedule, and most importantly have fun. See you back here in three days.

Strange Kid Comix Magazine #3

Strange Kids Club, the fantastic pop culture website which should be familiar to most of you as one of the regular participants in the Countdown to Halloween has put up a Kickstarter campaign for Strange Kid Comix Magazine - Issue #3. 

Described as being in the spirit of MAD, Heavy Metal and Plop! is a crazy blend of pop culture nostalgia, zaniness, and fine art. This issue sees Strange Kid inflicting all sorts of crazy mayhem on a bunch of 80s and 90s television shows as he invades their worlds. 

Among the talented contributors to this magazine are some other names and fellow Cryptkeepers who should be familiar to anyone who has been following the Countdown to Halloween. This includes myself, fellow Countdown to Halloween organizer,  Shawn Robare (Branded in the 80s), Paxton Holley (Cavalcade of Awesome), Brian Adams (Cool and Collected).

All sorts of great incentives are also being offered for people willing to pitch in a few dollars to help make this magazine see print, so take a look at the video and help out if you can. 

It's Almost That Time...

October is only a month and a half away. I've begun to put together the list of participants for the upcoming Countdown to Halloween, and I have to say it's making me excited about discovering what 2012 will bring.

Please read the following as it will save Shawn and I a lot of extra work and guarantee that no one gets left off the list of Cryptkeepers this year.

If you are planning to participate this year, please email me with a link to your blog(s) website and the names you would like them listed as. Please list Halloween 2012 or Countdown to Halloween in the subject line. Emailing me also allows me to put together a master email list of everyone, so that I only have to send out one big call to participate to everyone in the future. 

Some of you have emailed me already. If you aren't sure if you have, please feel free to contact me again. If you've already chimed in on a different post on this blog, please email me anyway, or chime in here. I'd hate to miss anyone. 

Many of you have more than one blog. In this case, please be specific as to which one(s) you'd like to have included. I'd hate to have to guess and choose the one that you don't intend to participate with and leave out the blog that you'll be putting all the hard work into for October.  

Participation is open to anyone who wishes to join in. To get a better sense of what's involved here, please read the "Become a Cryptkeeper" bit on the upper left hand side of this page as well as this. I also recommend taking a look at any of the sites listed under "Cryptkeepers" to the right and visiting their October archives.

If anyone from last year is reading this and won't be participating, please let me know as well. You will be missed, but we understand that this is a big time commitment and that all of us may not have it every year. Remember also, there's no pressure to post on a daily basis. This is meant to be fun. Trying to maintain that schedule, as all of us have learned, can be aggravating, draining, and suck the fun out of this. We don't want that. If you can't participate this year, you are always welcome back in the future. 

Shawn has created some amazing new Countdown buttons that you can add to your blog so that everyone knows you'll be participating this year. You can find them by scrolling down to the previous post.  I'll be back with the complete list of this year's cryptkeepers at Midnight, October First.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please ask.

2012 Countdown Participation Badges are here!

The new 2012 badges are here earlier than I anticipated! This year I took my inspiration from the 50th anniversary of the cheesy but fun flick The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, so with one exception, all the badges this year are featuring some fun, undead severed heads…


Badge #1 (featuring Virginia Leith as Jan in the Pan from The Brain That Wouldn’t Die)...

150 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7124/7742997762_a9806152c4_o.png"/></a>

200 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8439/7749516352_d4e560a3a7_o.png"/></a>



Badge #2 (featuring the Formalde Heidi Garbage Pail Kid painted by John Pound)...

150 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8432/7742998070_05ace65001_o.png"/></a>

200 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8288/7742997946_2eb530a09b_o.png"/></a>



Badge #3 (Boris Karloff from Black Sabbath)...

150 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7253/7742998334_e8164da047_o.png"/></a>

200 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8300/7742998198_e1509d98f5_o.png"/></a>


Badge #4 (from The Thing That Couldn’t Die)...

150 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/7742998622_62f3a1bc78_o.png"/></a>

200 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8433/7742998478_87499f2170_o.png"/></a>


And just in case severed heads aren’t your thing (or you want something more Halloween-y), Badge #5 (Jack-O-Lantern)...

150 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8301/7742997464_8b9e04fca6_o.png"/></a>

200 pixels wide...

Just Copy and Paste the following html code:
<a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8290/7749551630_9b2c58228e_o.png"/></a>

Please excuse the mess...

...while we're tinkering with the new site design.  All you boils and ghouls can expect some new 2012 badges in the next month or so...

For those pining away for the Halloween-y season...

...You might want to check out Yankee Candle this weekend as their Halloween displays officially go up in stores on August 4th!  Now, I know what you might be thinking, Yankee Candle, really?  Well yeah!  Even if candles aren't your thing, I've always had a fun time scoping out the displays and getting into the seasonal mood.  Strolling around stores during the season, looking at plastic and ceramic skulls is a beloved pastime for me, what can I say.  Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the new crop of fragrantly waxy accoutrements, you might want to swing by on Saturday because if past years are any indication this stuff sells out fast (sometimes by noon...)

I have my heart set on the wicked Angler sub!

Kickstart your Halloween-y reading now!

As we gear up for another Halloween season this year I wanted to take a second to point to another Kickstarter campaign for an interesting horror themed comic that will be available right before October.  It's called Sullivan's Sluggers and is written by Mark Andrew Smith and illustrated by James Stokoe.  The story centers on a minor league baseball team, the Sluggers, who get an invitation to play a baseball game in a cursed small town. After the 7th inning stretch, the sun goes down, and the dysfunctional teammates find themselves fighting for their lives against a town of flesh-eating monsters! It's one part The Warriors, and one part The Real Ghostbusters episode Night Game, and looks to be all fun.

Between this, and the Halloween Nativity set John mentioned earlier in the week, I'm pretty excited for the horror/Halloween themed projects coming our way this year via kickstarter!

Halloween Nativity Set on Kickstarter

Here's an image of a Halloween Nativity set that's looking for sponsorship on Kickstarter. This is sure to appeal to many of you and this cool set is very affordable. To find out how you can donate and help get this made, as well as receive one of your own, click here.