Super excited to be helping my students premiere and promote their latest literary ‘zine effort this weekend at the Gem City Comic Con in Dayton Ohio. Last year we did Sherlock Holmes… this year, we look at Bram Stoker’s Dracula!
The kids did a great job on this one and if you’re in the area, please come and check out our panel, it should be awesome!
I draw a picture of myself on my classroom’s chalkboard everyday. I collect those pictures as camera phone photos and post them on Sundays. See the rest here.
A belated beginning to the Halloween chalkboard countdown… I’ve been missing so many days due to professional developments and other nonsense! Next week’s not looking too promising either (students out Monday, I’m out of the classroom on Tuesday) but hopefully we can keep the monsters a’coming.
This week, we’re looking at Universal Studios Monsters Magic Pictures, a coloring/activity book published by Golden Books/Western Publishing in 1992. I have no idea what the retail price of this was, but I got it for a dollar in a Goodwill store in Hocking Hills, Ohio.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Universal Studios Monsters brand is the Cadillac of Halloween-related products in my eyes. Anyone can sell a generic flat-topped Frankenstein’s Monster costume for Halloween… or a kinda/sorta Creature from the Black Lagoon decoration to hang on your door, but Universal has the market cornered on the look of these classic ghouls.
I draw a picture of myself on my classroom’s chalkboard everyday. I collect those pictures as camera phone photos and post them on Sundays. See the rest here.
As is my tradition every October, the chalkboard becomes a countdown to Halloween with some of the most famous ghouls in monster-dom.
Weirdly, although the Halloween theme didn’t officially start until Tuesday,Monday’s chalkboard drawing was also one of a monster, if you think about it.
Monster Force was a short lived animated series from the 1990’s produced by Universal Animation Studios. The show pit technologically equipped monster hunters against The Creatures of the Night, a catch-all name for some of the more famous ghouls. Since this show was produced by Universal, they had access to the “official” library of Universal Monsters brand were able to make several visual and narrative references to those classic films.
I had never heard of the show before seeing this toy in a comic convention discount bin. I paid $3 dollars for this toy.
We’re looking at Dracula, the de facto leader of The Creatures of the Night. This action figure was made by Playmates Toys, purveyors of lines such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek, among many others.
My family used to have this Halloween window decoration: a cheapie cut-out picture of Dracula. It was pretty innocuous during the daytime, but at night, it scared the hell out of me! I would stare at it and give myself the heebie-jeebies.
Mind you, I still made my mother hang it in my room every Halloween… because I guess I kind of liked being scared.
I really, really, really enjoyed drawing today’s comic. Fact.
ALSO A FACT: Newbery Award winning author Neil Gaiman tweeted about one of my DonorsChoose projects last night, causing it to be INSTANTLY funded!
I am ridiculously excited; I’ve been a fan of Neil’s since I was reading The Sandman in high school and for him to take a moment out of his day to give my classroom a hand is amazing. Thank you so much Mr. Gaiman!
Ironically, I have a comic coming up on Thursday where one of my students extolls the greatness that is Gaiman’s American Gods… so it’s weird how that worked out!
I do Halloween-themed drawings all October.
The mummy one is really creepy. I think it’s my gigantic stomach in that one that’s unsettling.
…and with this one, you can really tell I was rushed for time and gave up somewhere in the mid-torso. Still, it’s a passable Creature from the Black Lagoon/Chris Pearce-esque face, I think.
Only two this week on account of my classes spending the majority of the last five days in the computer lab. In lieu of a chalkboard drawing, I drew this sign/reminder for any students that we would NOT be meeting in our usual place:
…we were in the classroom on Friday however, so it was back to my “monster a day until Halloween” challenge.
I may have done vampire a little too early, but I couldn’t think of any more “modern” monsters that were visually interesting.
Teachable Moments 