(Part 3) Top products from r/halloween

I suggest Gloom

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> In the Gloom card game, you assume control of the fate of an eccentric family of misfits and misanthropes. The goal of the game is sad, but simple: you want your characters to suffer the greatest tragedies possible before passing on to the well-deserved respite of death. Play horrible mishaps like Pursued by Poodles or Mocked by Midgets on your own characters, while trying to cheer your opponents' characters with marriages and other happy occasions. Printed on transparent plastic cards, Gloom features an innovative design by Keith Baker. Multiple modifier cards can be played on top of the same character card; since the cards are transparent, elements from previously played modifier cards either show through or are obscured by those played above them. You'll immediately and easily know the worth of every character, no matter how many modifiers they have. You've got to see (through) this game to believe it! The second edition includes sturdy new packaging, rules fixes, timing icons, reminder cards, and more; plus it's fully compatible with the first edition game and supplements. It's sure to delight even the most despondent Gloom fan! 

Just use normal woodcarving tools. Get a cheap set since you'll be carving soft pumpkin flesh. Buy this book:

Extreme Pumpkin Carving, Second Edition Revised and Expanded:How to Use Relief-Carving Techniques to Create Realistic Features

Used copies are pretty cheap.

And just practice. Ignore the comment about using clay, it's an ENTIRELY different medium, and if your goal is to just do this with pumpkins, work with pumpkins. Though for the record, a little experience with sculpting faces, especially relief sculpting, in any medium will help. Not required though. That book is pretty comprehensive though.

For reference, here's the pumpkin I made last year, using my co-workers face as inspiration. And I've only ever had that book as a way of reaching this sort of thing.

October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween, and The Halloween Tree are two must-reads this season. My girlfriend recently stumbled upon something called Gods of The Nowhere: A Novel of Halloween, too, and it sounds awesome, but I haven't acquired it yet, so I can't say anything definite about it. Last, but not least, if you like graphic novels, there's always I Luv Halloween. Disclaimer: You have to be a fan of dark comedy to fully enjoy that last one.

In an underworld of demons, magicians, werewolves, and vampires, a boy and his ghosts are rising.

Welcome to These Bright and Lovely Nightmares.

May the Darkness Save Us.

This might be a bit obscure or generic, but I just recently read the book Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - it's a really short vampire novella from 1872 that predates 'Dracula' by about 25 years and clearly influenced it in many ways.

The title character, Carmilla, is a young-looking female vampire who is very vividly described in the book if you wanted to go as her. A lot of people would probably assume you're just a female vampire, but you could probably still have some fun with it. It's worth a read even if you're not big reader because it's really short, and you can get it on Amazon for less than $4.

I love those books. It's time to pull out my copy of Magic Shield: A Manual of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Visitors pick it up because it sounds like a Harry Potter book, and then their minds are blown when they realize the author wrote this book in all seriousness. I found it at a yard sale.

Our first podcast is already live and is called Jack-o’-Lantern Press Podcast. You can access it at the following links below. We also have our book releasing in a couple of weeks and will be available on amazon. I will post again once we have it out. Appreciate the interest.

Apple

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jack-o-lantern-press-podcast/id1373336307#episodeGuid=3fbf9cf7-0dac-a42b-5e13-bb3c6ae09c92

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ZKSihULK6d0zl5yBel1MI?si=V8wriAHYRfaTVntQg2BvKg

No, but now I need a copy to read to my boys! This old artwork on the cover is much better than the new one they've got on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Its-Halloween-Jack-Prelutsky/dp/068814733X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505158526&sr=8-1&keywords=it%27s+halloween

A kind of lesser known one that I absolutely love is The End of Summer: Thirteen Tales of Halloween. It's not a kids book, but all the stories are ripe with Halloween spirit.

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge is my favorite around Halloween.

If you are looking for more suggestions, I'm a father of 4 and my kids have a massive stack of books to pull from. One they almost always go for is Skeleton Hiccups. https://www.amazon.com/Skeleton-Hiccups-Margery-Cuyler/dp/1416902767

Go as Bunnicula.

I mostly used techniques I found in this book by Dan Reeder

I've got an old paperback copy, but I'm ordering THIS one soon!

Could it be this? http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Hawthorne-Street-The-Goblins/dp/0517091577

Do you remember anything about the content?

This one look familiar?

If you haven’t seen it, The Ugly Pumpkin is one of my favorites of more recent books. Also The Halloweiner.



The Ugly Pumpkin https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142411450/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_kvgzCb2S5BRFD


https://www.amazon.com/dp/0439079462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_dqgzCbDDB1TV0).

Edit: tried to make text links