Happy Halloween!

While watching HALLOWEEN on DVD, I passed out candy to the neighborhood Trick-or-Treaters. Yeah, I really watched HALLOWEEN! But, anyways, by my calculations I saw more Spider-Mans than Supermans and Batmans combined! Spidey has taken his rightful place as the World's Greatest SuperHero, far as I'm concerned. I did see one kid wearing a Hellboy costume, which I though was really cool! Sure, Mike Mignola is rightly acknowledged as a master of comics storytelling, with the awards and portfolio to prove it. His hit movie is due for a sequel, and his animated series is currently airing, I believe. But to see a kid walk up to my front door in a store-bought Hellboy costume, well, that clinches it! Mike's creation has hit the All-American folk tradtion of Halloween!

Over the weekend, on saturday evening, I attended the Hollywood Forever Dia de Los Muertos festival. Held in an actual cemetery (smack dab in the middle of Hollywood!), this annual event is an amazing way to celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead. With Altars lining one of the walkways, you get to see an amazing collection of memorials to masked wrestlers, the Ramones, our soldiers in Iraq, and just ordinary people who have passed on but remain missed and loved by their surviving friends and families. This cemetery is fantastic. It covers umpteen acres and has rolling hills, man-made lakes, several palatial mausoleums and just about every spot is dedicated that evening to musical performers, folkloric dancers, food vendors, folk artists and of course the wonderful altars. I've got an extended post with more pics over at my Message Board







I often get really ticked off when I hear people claim that Dia de Los Muertos is the Mexican Halloween. Grrrr...Jav Smash!
I'll talk about the festival on my next post, but Day of the Dead is officially celebrated on November 2. The Hollywood Forever ceremony, like the many other events in LA, is held the weekend before only because there are so many other Day of the Dead events going on in the weeks leading to the actual event date, and in some cases even after.

Here's a little secret: Wanna know where the idea for El Muerto comes from?


See, folks have been dressing up in similiar outfits for years in honor of Day of the Dead. When I was thinking of a design for Muerto, spandex or leather didn't come to mind, but a good old-fashioned mariachi outfit and a stylized skull-face. So when I hear people compare my character to The Crow, I just have to think that people don't know enought about this wonderfully creative holiday. Who knows, maybe this father and child were inspired by El Muerto!

I love a good old-fashioned Halloween, and the fact that two days later it's followed by Dia de Los Muertos, well, that's just an early Christmas present!