Sicco's Horror Masks - VAMPIRA!

It wouldn't be October 31st without a visit from the Queen of Halloween herself, --VAMPIRA! I recently acquired this incredible, high quality, display mask of her produced by Andrea Sicco at SICCO'S HORROR MASKS based out of Brooklyn NY. Hand made and hand painted, I can assure you that this is absolutely the best, more accurate likeness of her I've ever seen. The first two photos below were taken at a Maskfest Con a few months back (which I sadly could not attend), but the rest of the pics are by me and taken in my car the day I got her in the mail, as well as her current set-up here in my office placed upon a temporary wasp-waist mannequin form. In the coming months I plan to assemble her with a full-sized, seated mannequin body, and of course I will post pictures of that as / when it happens. CLICK HERE for the Sicco etsy store and see some of Andrea's other mind blowing masks! And Happy Halloween too!

The War of the Worlds!

And here's how one heck of an Orson Welles radio program all went down, --86 years ago tonight at 8pm in 1938! From the August 1978 issue of UFO Flying Saucers #5, with art by Frank Bolle. 

I'm Goin' with Demon Werewolves

Okay, we've had this discussion here at AEET before about antique animal depictions possibly not being recognizable in this modern age vs. how they were interpreted way back long ago (was lion / wolf reference material really that hard to come by in the 1800's?!) The tag on these very old iron wall mounts called them "lions", but honestly, do these look like lions to anyone? I put the question to social media yesterday and got a lot of answers, ie: wolves, demons, gargoyles, even griffins. What's everyone here at Blogger think? Also, does anyone know what these were actually used for? I'm just guessing about them being wall mounts since they're completely flat on the backside. Thanks ahead o'time for any useful info!

UPDATE IMAGE ADDED: I appreciate the comments on this post so far, but I also now realize I should have added a picture so everyone could get an actual idea of how big these things are, which is to say, they're not big at all. They're very small in fact, and both can practically fit in the palm of my hand. Please keep sending in those thoughts, you guys are the best! :)

Hairy & Scary Hippy Hag vs. Hobo (with Derby)

On the same day I found a Ben Cooper Hairy & Scary Were Wolf box (unfortunately empty), I also found a crazy looking hippy hag mask with real hair. So yeah, I cheated and put that funny, flower-power lookin' Phyllis Diller face inside the Hairy & Scary monster box, until someday when I find the appropriate H&S wolf man mask to replace her. Actually, any of the masks from this super 70's Halloween costume series would be great to have, as you can see from all of the wild illustration examples featured on the lid and sides of the box below. A friend of mine asked if those were actually unlicensed KISS masks, haha and now I can't see 'em any other way.

Then! the day after finding all of this cool stuff, I stumbled upon a way overpriced 60's Collegeville Hobo costume in a sadly destroyed box. As a kid, I never understood why anyone would want to be a hobo for Halloween when you could be Ultraman or the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but looking at the face now with much older eyes I can honestly say I love that design. Even better though are all of the dynamite details on the box lid: bats, witches, pitchforked devil, and an astronaut with a Misfits devilock (or would that technically be referred to as an Astro Zombie?) But possibly the greatest part of this Collegeville kit was finding the original Ben Franklin store receipt still in the box, revealing that this medium sized HOBO (with DERBY) was purchased on October 27th, 1965. Who else misses the old Ben Franklin stores?

Sleep No More: The Art of Lee Brown Coye

Sleep No More was the first of three 1940s anthologies of fantasy and horror stories edited by August Derleth and illustrated by Lee Brown Coye. Featuring classics by M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Bloch, Jacobi, Collier, Wakefield, Long and many other noted authors of the macabre genre, many of these stories made their initial appearance in "Weird Tales" magazine. The anthology is considered to be a classic of the genre, and is the initial foray by Coye into the field of horror illustration. I'm betting that many of you who visit my blogs have already seen most of these nightmarish images, (and you'll have to figure out which image goes with which tale as I didn't post them below in order with the table of contents-- sorry!) --but have you seen them all, err minus the cover art which is unfortunately missing? CLICK HERE for more info on this book. And a huge thank you goes out to THOIA / AEET friend, JMR, who was kind enough to send me this book along with a lot of other great items slated for future posts. Stay tombed for more...