Spooky Board Games: The Bloody Inn

Bear in mind, I am not a professional board gamer, but I had this game sitting in my apartment for about half a year before I gathered a team of friends to play it – – and a word of advice, before you venture into more adult board games, study the rules first. It was like hosting an event I wasn’t prepared for, and ended up sort of stumbling through the rules before we all pretty much gave up after we’d doled out our little money tokens. That being said, I highly recommend ‘The Bloody Inn’, and to help all of you guys out, I’ve decided to share a proper review by Zee Garcia so you can host a proper game without the same challenges I had. Incidentally, drinking beforehand probably didn’t help.

I love the artwork of this game. The strategy is a fun aspect, too. The Bloody Inn is a murder game. Yes, you read that right, not murder mystery, murder. You want people to die, and you want to have the most money at the end of the game. Outsmart the police, earn money, bribe guests, kill people – – the end goal is to be the most horrible human being on the planet with abysmal customer service. It’s a smart game. I advise anyone looking to play to study the rules beforehand, watch this review (and maybe others) then meet up with your friends who’ve done the same. At the end of the day if you understand how to play, it’s pretty fun!

Frankenstein Puzzle

I’m going to be at comic con in San Antonio today! As such, I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare a post, but in the mean-time while I take plenty of pictures to share tomorrow, here’s an awesome puzzle for a promotional poster – – the Bela Lugosi Frankenstein that never was…

https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3afbde2f94a0&view=iframe

Monstrous Paper Dolls

I know what we’re all thinking. Monster High dolls are cute, but they’re not classic. Classic model dolls are awesome, but kids can’t play with them without breaking something! If only there was some way for a child to enjoy classic horror monsters in a creative way…

if only…

Jill Bauman and Walter Velez have got you covered! The dolls below are only a few awesome highlights from the book, and there are many more (including, for some reason, the Easter bunny and Santa Clause to save them two more issues?) Now I would actually love to just share a scan of every page, but I highly encourage you to get the book if you have the chance. Below are just a few of the awesome selections just to get a bit of a taste…

Horrorgami

Since I promised more craftiness this year, I think it’s about time I make good on my promise. None of these awesome origami designs are of my own creation, but they’re all pretty awesome anyway. Video or diagram, these patterns are sure to help you budget for some last minute decor and have a bit of spooky fun with your kids while you’re at it!

 

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Patterns listed above are, sadly, not of my own creation. I found them at youtube and these awesome sites. If you’re looking for less creepy patterns, definitely check them out: 

– Origami-Fun

– Origami Resource Center

Halloween Bath Bomb Recipes

There are two times you’ll find yourself routinely soaking in boiling water: when you’re in the process of becoming a delicious stew for your friendly neighborhood cannibals, and when you’re just in the mood for a nice bath. Me, personally, I like my baths hot enough to turn me lobster red. As far as being prepared for a meal goes, I’d like to at least thing I didn’t get the same kind of crustacean treatment, but you can’t always pick and choose. Cannibals probably don’t like the taste of bath salts, bombs, or soaps. Even if the smell is incredible. Then, when it comes to having an amazing soak in your bathtub, those things can get so darn expensive! 8-12 dollars just for a bath? Surely you want something more out of it than a half hour soak. That’s where these awesome crafty recipes come in, just in time for Halloween season….they may only last for a couple of minutes, but they sure are fun to make.

Be sure to check out the other amazing videos from these creators if you liked their spooky selections. They really are all pretty awesome.

 

Halloween Cross Stitching

Gosh, my crafts section sure looks pretty empty. How about we spruce some things up this month with a few crafts? This year, our method of choice isn’t going to be your traditional pumpkins and knives, but needles, scissors, magnifiers, lights, fabric, and grids.

Alright, alright, so maybe it’s not as simple as most crafts. In fact, the patterns I drew up today aren’t terribly simple either, and may not be for the faint of heart. BUT they sure are fun to look at! Don’t worry, guys, if you’r not a cross stitcher there will still be plenty of fun stuff to do this month. Junk for the kids, cocktail ideas for the adults, movies, comics…etcetera. Hey, it’s October! That’s what this blog is all about!

Selections from Calling all Girls Magazine, Issue #64

Today I’m going to do something kid-friendly. I was digging through old magazines and comics online while I finished polishing up the last few pages of the remainder of Man in Black I’ll be posting, when I stumbled on ‘Calling all Girls’, a magazine for young girls back in the late 50s and early 60s with a delightful style I couldn’t help but be charmed by. There’s definitely something enchanting about an old magazine with more hand-drawn pictures than actual photographs.

There’s also something equally enchanting about the idea of having your kid actually organize their own Halloween party and put everything together, though I don’t doubt you’ll still have a little hand in helping them along the way. It’s very self-sufficient, isn’t it? And the ideas in the first article I selected to show off are absolutely adorable, though I would say be careful about how old your kid is before you let them bob for balloons…just in case they weren’t aware that you probably shouldn’t swallow the rubber bits.

I also picked out a spooky story in the magazine, though there was another mystery I had considered. This one had a spooky cabin, though, so I went with it. Can you imagine, though, if teenagers in modern horror were as resourceful as these two girls? I think the body counts would be pretty much 0. Warning, there may be some animal casualties in this story, read at your own risk.

Vintage Halloween Paper Dolls

Children, small and big, arguably even adults…can be destructive. Which is why, when you find yourself a vintage Halloween magazine or game book…you may want to reconsider cutting out the paper dolls inside for a one-time spooky game of house. Fear not, those beautiful images can be appreciated outside of their antique setting, thanks to modern technology…google…and your printer.

The following dolls were some of my favorites I found browsing the web, and they’re absolutely perfect for the Halloween season.

Charlotte Ware, 1939-40

 

Newspaper Doll Series, 1926

Joan Walsh Anglund, 1987

Dolly Dingle by Grace Drayton, 1916

Children’s Playmate Magazine, 1958

 

Spooky Story Cards

Jazlaan (whom some of you may remember as one of my regular podcast guest hosts) and I used to draw a lot of comics together back in high school. Before he moved back to Japan this year, we even came up with a new writing exercise game for 24-hour comics, which are essentially entire comic stories written and drawn in the course of one day. With a bit of tweaking, I decided the same game could be used wonderfully for anyone looking to have a scary story night this October.

Rules:
Each person draws 2 cards from each pile (Nouns, Settings, Motivations). They discard 3 cards of their choosing, and use the remaining cards in their hand to make their story. You can of course come up with whatever you like, but I’ve also taken the liberty of drawing up these quick cards for you to print out. Please enjoy, and let me know just how spooky your scary storytelling turns out. I’ve included a blank slate if you’d like to use the same pattern for your own ideas.

Motivations

Nouns

Settings

Slate

Pumpkin Patterns (Somewhat Advanced)

So, this year I decided to make something of my own. Sort of. I always see so many cool pumpkin carvings around Halloween, I thought perhaps I’d post a few kiddy pictures again to guide you on how to shape the perfect triangular bat or even a creepy pumpkin within a pumpkin…but then I remembered I’ve got Photoshop, and heck…plenty of adults like to carve too! These patterns are modified stills from various films, many of them featuring my favorite horror greats. For those of you who may have no idea how to proceed with your carving based off of these pictures, I tried my best to make them as simple as possible. The darker, the less you carve. So when you put a candle inside, the white parts should be better illuminated, making a great depth and shadow effect.

If your pumpkin turns out successfully spooky, please post pictures in the comments or send me an email. Heck, even if it doesn’t, I’d love to see what you guys come up with!