happy halloween! ghost stories from emilio!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6trH81xpko

okay...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, PERHAPA-GANG!

hope you have some spooky surprises and lotsa fun dressin' up and trick-r-treatin'!
as i said, i'm off to write my name on some comics with my pal, nick, so i'll see you all later!
remember; take pictures and send them in!



as promised here are a couple more stories, this time from our own emilio!

here's his whole e-mail...

Todd,
Here are my stories. You can decide if they're worthy or if you have time or space to print.
They're not much different than somethings being said already.
There are 2 parts so, if you like any of it, feel free to only show the parts you like.
Here goes:

When I was a young lad of about 7-10 years old, I overheard my mother talking to my aunt about an incident that had happened to her.
My mother was saying that one night, as my dad and her were reading in the living room, she got up to get a drink of water and was stopped in her tracks before entering the kitchen. My father asked her what was wrong and she said there was a shadow standing in the kitchen.
My father told her to ask it what it wanted, but my mother was too scared. My father then began to get up, cursing under his breath, when the shadow disappeared.
Several days later, my mom was visiting a friend of hers and the lady asked her who my mom brought with her. My mom answered that her husband was waiting in the car. The lady then said, "Oh, no. Not in the car. who do you have right there with you?" My mom said she didn't understand. The lady then described a person (spirit) that was following my mom. My mom said it sounded like her brother, who had just passed away.
Then when my mother was leaving, the lady told my mother to tell my father not to insult things he doesn't understand. This without my mother mentioning the previous incident to the lady.

My mother also told my aunt that one night, she woke up (in the middle of the night) by hearing someone walking through the living room. She told my father she thought she heard a burglar, but he just said "Let me know if he comes in down the hall", and rolled over back to sleep. My mother couldn't sleep anymore, watching the open door of the bedroom to see if it anyone (even one of the kids) walked by, but no one walked back by the door towards the other room.
In the morning she got up and checked the house to find no one else around, us kids asleep. Then the phone rang with news that her brother had passed during the night.

Since then, I wanted to experience stuff like that. Then, after I moved away, I had a similar incident.
One morning, as I slept in on a weekend, I felt like someone sat on the edge of my bed. Well that startled me right outta my sleep.I thought to myself that I must have dreamt it, but then it felt like who/what ever started rocking back and forth.So here I am in bed with my back to this 'thing' and can't move to see what it is. I'm trying to turn my head to look, but am so scared I can't move an inch. I then tried to roll my whole body over, but still can't move. All the while this thing is rocking back and forth. It all must have taken no more than a minute, but it felt like forever (like in slow motion). Mind you , I'm curious (while still scared s#!tless) to see if whatever is there can be seen or just where the bed is being depressed without anything there. Well, I finally felt my body relaxing enough to move. Then I jerked around to look, and it stopped simultaneously.
To this day, I wonder if it was just some really freaky dream, or if it actually happened.

Happy Halloween.
Emilio / Miami, FL



thanks, emilio!
thanks, everyone!
see ya with more tomorrow!
smell ya later! boo!
todd

a couple of spooky stories--and...choopie? from about

okay...

as halloween draws nearer, here are a couple more short yarns lifted from about dot com...


Who Screamed?
by Staceswild

When I was about 16 and my brother was 13 we were home one summer day. The house we lived in at the time had a few quirks. The closet door in my brother's bedroom, despite being shut each night, would be standing wide open the next morning. Even after my brother took to placing his dresser in front of it. While home alone sitting in the living room downstairs, we would swear someone was walking around upstairs. Then there was the mystery stain upstairs that no matter how many times you painted over it or with what it always reappeared.

On this particular day, everything seemed normal. We had been playing video games most of the morning, and since the day was getting on we decided to get to work on our chores before our parents got home. We were goofing around, trying to scare each other. We would try to catch each other off guard and scream to frighten the other. Then we would laugh and a a little while later do it again. My brother was still young so he could still manage a pretty shrill scream, and I wasn't bad myself.

My brother headed down the basement steps with a load of laundry and a few seconds later there was the loudest and shrillest scream yet, straight out of a horror movie. My skin broke out in goose flesh and then I laughed and called, "Good one!" over my shoulder. About that time I turned to see my little brother clambering up the basement steps as fast as he could, his face as pale as a sheet of paper. He gasped out of breath. "That one wasn't funny!" I told him it wasn't me, and he insisted it wasn't him, yet we were the only two in the house.

Being a hot summer day, the air conditioning was running so the house was shut tight. No open windows, so we determined it hadn't come from outside the house. It had been to clear and loud for that, and I knew from the look on his face coming up those stairs it hadn't been him. I know it wasn't me, so who else had been in on our game? Whoever it was, won that day. My brother and I never played that game again!




Hovering Shadow Person
by Lita

I would like to share an experience I just had on July 25, 2007 in N.B., Canada. Where I live is near a grocery store that is owned by my aunt. The store closes at 11:00 p.m. every night. As I was cleaning my dishes, I noticed a car parked at the side of the store at exactly 11:35 p.m., so I decided to go out for a smoke and to see if I recognized the vehicle. As I stood on my patio I greeted my pit bull Trixie, who was tied up beside my house, and focused on the vehicle.

While I stood there, I noticed a black shadow shift changing, lingering and coming close to where I was. The tingle of fear creeped up my spine and I felt my whole head shiver with fear, but I said to myself, "Don't be scared" and watched it go around. When it came back I said, "I see you and know you there." Then it stopped for five seconds and continued to hover as if it were restless. I cupped my hand toward the street light to see if there was something above it to cause this shadow, and there was nothing but a clear night sky.

I went inside my house and asked my daughter, "Do you wanna see a ghost?" She said, "What?" When she followed me outside I pointed out the shadow to her and she said, "Mommy, I'm scared!" I said, "Just watch it and see what it'll do."

The Shadow lasted for an hour and a half until it approached my pit bull and stood watching my dog, then it was spooked by a truck's head lights and it appeared, as if it expanded its wings and flickered and disappeared into the woods. That was the weirdest experience I ever had. Freaky freaky freaky. I do remember thinking about the "Mothman" prophecies when I saw its wings expand and flicker. I know what I saw was real and my daughter shared that experience with me.


and one last thing...
check out this video of an (alleged) chupacabra sighting.

http://paranormal.about.com/od/chupacabra/youtube/yt_chupa_moreno.htm




that's all!
for anyone in the area, i'm gonna be at a store signing at ALTERNAVERSE in millbrook, new york, tomorrow from 12 to 4 to support my pal, nick tapalansky's book, AWAKENING! i'll post something scary in the morning and check in with you later halloween night! have fun trick or treating and don't forget to take--and send in--photos of you in you cool, scary, funny, goofy halloween costumes!
smell ya later!
todd

spooky stories from rich and kc

okay...

here's a halloween extra!
i'm gonna post every day this week with some spooky stuff !

first, here are sharon and my pumpkins--carved 'em last night while flipping between gothika on amc and scooby-doo on abcfamily. boooo!


lights on...

...lights out!

here are a couple of spooky selections from our pals, rich woodall and kc carlson.
both of them say "not too scary"...
but i think they're scary.

thanks for sharing, guys!


From KC

Don't have any real "scary stories" -- just a weird anecdote.
Some 20 or so years ago, I was walking through my apartment one afternoon and was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion -- for no real reason -- so much so that I had to sit down for awhile. After I calmed down, I started thinking about my grandmother (on my father's side), who I hadn't talked to for awhile. She was my favorite growing up. She taught me how to play cards (Poker and about 25 versions of solitaire) and gave me my first beer and her house always had big bowls of M&Ms! For Christmas, she always gave me the newest Peanuts book and for my birthday, she always renewed my subscription to Walt Disney's Comics & Stories (How cool is that?). She also let me store my comics at her house when I went to college (which was a HUGE deal, as I already had accumulated a car-full of boxes). So I spent a little bit thinking about her that afternoon.
Later that night, my father called to tell me that she had died suddenly earlier that day. And, of course, when I asked him when she died, it was the exact same time that I was overcome earlier.

Flash Forward to about five years ago. Once again I was completely overcome, but this time it was though I couldn't breathe. I think Johanna thought I was having a heart attack. After I calmed down, I called my mom -- she was okay. So I had to check on my dad -- only I couldn't call him. He had Alzheimer's and I had fallen out with his wife over his treatment and I had lost touch with her. So, I tracked down my Dad's sister -- who I hadn't talked to since my parents' divorce in the early '70s -- and she said that she hadn't talked to him in awhile, but assured me that he was still alive. She took my number and promised to let me know if she heard anything.
A few hours later the phone rang. It was dad's sister. Dad had died earlier that day, at the same time that I couldn't breathe. (And she was totally freaked out that I had somehow known.)

That was the only two times that that had happened-- to that extent. (I was with my mom when she died). Although, I remember getting an awful headache one day -- worst one I ever had. It started from nowhere and felt like someone had hit me in the forehead with a hammer -- HARD. I didn't think much about it, until a week later when my mom called to tell me that a kinda-girlfriend I had from high school was killed in Colorado in a car accident when she went through the windshield. And of course, it happened the same day I had the headache. But I hadn't thought about her in years, so it wasn't exactly the same thing.

Weird, huh?

From Rich

It's not really scary... but kinda creepy/cool

My friend Bruce bought a Barn that was converted into a home about 15
years ago. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, on the
outside it looks like a Barn, on the inside it's a very open concept home.
The living room, and upstairs are all open, and the back of the house is
completely a window looking out into his backyard (which is
practically the White Mountains). Incredible place to live.

So I've visited Bruce a couple times, and I jokingly asked if it was
haunted. With out skipping a beat he said "Yeah, but it only really
bothers women." He went on to tell me about late at night hearing footsteps
in the hallways, smelling someone smoking a pipe, and one room that for
some reason most (but not all) women feel very uncomfortable in. He
told me his wife, and most of the women that come through the house get a
cold unwelcome feeling in the same room. He doesn't really know the
history of the house, and said he doesn't tell women about the room, but
they all seem to feel some sort of presence there.

Anyway, like I said, not really Scary, but a decent story I guess...


thanks again, you guys!
smell ya later!
todd

a ghost story from cooper

okay...

i'm gettin' all in the halloween mode now--only two days away and i don't have enough time to post qalla the creepy stuff i wanted to. oh well, we'll run over...

here, in response to my plea for members of our little circle here to send in their spooky stories, is a beaut from our pal, cooper. ernie cooper, now that we know...

he says right in his intro paragraph that i can post it if i deem it worthy.
oh, ernie...it's worthy.

Hi, Todd,

I kinda' have a story, too. I was actually typing all of this up in the blog comments, and then as it got longer and longer, and I wasn’t sure if there was a buffer max, I’d send it this way instead. Feel free to share if you deem it worthy.


I was born on Long Island, we moved upstate to a little town called Roxbury when I was three (we moved when I was in third grade, so I guess this story takes place at some point between ages seven and nine). We had a big old house. Two barns. Acres of land. It was great.

I was always an easily-scared little kid. Every night I had a ritual where, despite my little sister in bed across the room, I felt I needed to take all of my stuffed animals and line them up on either side of my body. I'd then pull the blankets up over my chin to thwart any potential vampires out there.

Now, as (bad) luck would have it, the cellar door was at our end of the hall. We'd have to walk by it to use the bathroom. The cellar was a complete nightmare for a scared little kid. Again, the house was old, so the walls of the cellar were piled rocks, and the floor was packed dirt, and it smelled...Well, pretty much like you'd expect it would. I always made sure to check to see the chain latch was in place before crossing in front of the door.

Well, one night I had a dream that I heard something down there in the cellar. So I got up, got out of bed, and went to the cellar door. I could hear some sort of rhythmic drumming, or throbbing, behind it. I unlatched the door, and there was a soft glow coming from down the stairs. I took a few steps down and saw several glowing men in some sort of old soldier's uniform marching in a circle.

I freaked out and ran back to my room, jumping onto my bed, hiding my face, petrified. I woke up in the morning, and I was still lying on top of my blankets (not completely sealed in, as per my aforementioned ritual). And the cellar door was wide open.

I slammed the door shut and ran into my parent's room down the hall, vaulting in between them and babbling my story. They told me it was just a bad dream.

Now, whatever was in the house wasn't overly fond of my little sister. One day, I was washing my hands in the bathroom across the hall, and she was standing at the window in the bedroom. To hold open the windows, we had to stick long wooden paint stirrers on either side, or else they’d slide closed. Somehow, those paint stirrers came out, and the window, instead of sliding down, slammed down so hard on her hands that it drove paint chips into her knuckles.

On a different occasion, I woke up out of a sound sleep in our bedroom. I thought I heard something, so I clambered out of bed and turned on the lights. Nothing. And then the ceiling over her bed just fell apart all over her. She woke up, crying and screaming and spitting out paint and plaster. My parents came running, and I had already locked myself in our closet with my big stuffed dog. We never figured out why the ceiling decided to fall apart. No water damage, no issues at that spot, no pipes near the area.

There were several times I woke up because Jen was crying for Mom because she claimed she saw something coming for her, some black shape coming down the hall with red eyes.

Mom and Dad ended up calling in Father Bob, the local Catholic priest, to “clean” the house. At the time, they said that it was traditional to do that for a new house, but we ended up moving several times after that, and not once did they ever call in a priest.

Flash forward well over a decade, and we’re living in the neighboring town of Grand Gorge. The parentals are hosting a party, and I’m in the living room eating with the younger crowd, while the older folks are in the kitchen, basically telling ghost stories. So, obviously I have one ear cocked at their conversation. Mom and Dad are talking about my Aunt Rose. Aunt Rose was sorta’ known as the family “sensitive.” She allegedly chased some sort of presence out of a relative’s house in Westerlo. They also threw in that, when sleeping in the living room at our first upstate house, some spectral figure in old military garb walked right through the wall, passed through the living room, and out the other side.

I pretty much choked on my chicken soup, and bolted into the kitchen. I’d never heard the story, and I basically recounted my own story, and asked them why they told me it was a dream.

“Ernie,” Mom said, “Would you have spent one more night in that house if we had told you it wasn’t a dream? You would have run away to Koby’s.” (Koby being my best friend at the time)

Well, I had to concede that point.

And there you have it!

-Ernie Cooper

niiiiiice! ; )
thanks, ernie! for sending it in and for giving me nightmares!
that's great!
anyone? anybody got something else...?

last week, my pal, christian (leaf!), linked matt and i up to the grooviest site i've seen in years!
it's some of the coolest, grossest, nostalgiac, creative art i've seen in a long time and, not only does it fit the season perfectly, it touches that part in all of us that yearns for the simpler days of saturday morning cartoons and breakfast cereals!
it's called

i dig cereal killers
and it's at

http://idigcerealkillers.blogspot.com/

it features some really, REALLY great artists having so much fun with the premise that i got lost there for hours! check it out and be sure to take a look through all the archives! fun, FUN stuff!

here are a couple of my favorites--







more tomorrow!
but first here are
the answers to your

"five for friday"

1. name all five "apes" movies in order.

planet of the apes (1968)
beneath the planet of the apes (1970)
escape from the planet of the apes (1971)
conquest of the planet of the apes (1972)
battle for the planet of the apes (1973)

2. what was the name of the orangutan in "every which way but loose"?

clyde

3. what was the name of the ape in dc's "angel and the ape"?

sam simeon

4. what legendary comics artist created "monkeyman and o'brien"?

art adams

5. what was the name of the 1980's matthew brodrick film that garnered so much trouble from the humane society over the treatment of the monkeys?

project x

* extra credit~~ name the monkees!

mickey dolenz, davy jones, mike nesmith, peter tork

smell ya later!
todd

the incredible, colossal HEMBECK and a ghost story from mcgill

okay...

as i have posted here several times, one of the funniest people i know--and am proud to call 'friend'--is none other than comics legend, fred hembeck! for those of you not familiar with fred's work, you'd better hustle over to his wonderfully wacky site at

www.hembeck.com

and get hip to this timely tip!

many of you might know fred from his turns at destroying the dc universe and roasting the fantastic four! you might know him from his always informative, always unpredictable weekly strip in the comics buyers guide! me, aside from playing countless hours of rapid-fire volleyball with the guy, i remember fred...

...from his hilarious strips back in the 80's when he published book after book of some-might-say-surreal interviews with the heroes and villains of the day!

read that again: i said, INTERVIEWS WITH THE HEROES AND VILLAINS OF THE DAY!

see, fred, making real the dreams of EVERY comics fanboy, actually drew himself into the strips as the official and accepted interviewer of the marvel and dc universes! he would chat with superman and batman, spidey and the fantastic four, and--one of my favorites--a tell-all interview with scott summers and jean grey pre-death of the phoenix saga! fred asked the hard-hitting questions with hilarious results! what happens when you introduce the human torch to the martian manhunter? green arrow and hawkeye? namor and aquaman?

books published by the now defunct fantaco included:

dateline: hembeck
%$*&#! hembeck
the hembeck files
and more...

so what am i bringing all this up for?
well, i'm glad you asked!

our pals at image comics (man, i'm hawkin' a lotta image comics these days...) have unearthed these buried gems and stuck 'em all together with glue to create



this mighty tome will be weighing in at 900+ pages and will include
EVERYTHING!
ALL OF IT!
LOOK NO FURTHER FOR YOUR FUN AND LAFFS FOR 2008!
IT'S HERE!
foreword by stan lee!
going on sale in february so look for it in upcoming previews!

and now that you know that...

below is a haunting true tale--and illustration!--from our pal, john mcgill!
john was kind enough to send this over to me to add to our halloween fun and i'm thrilled that he was kind enough to share it with us.
so without further ado...


A childhood memory...

When I was nine, my mother had to work nights at Dunkin' Donuts (a
local donut/coffee shop), so she would leave me in the care of my older
sister. This proved to be problematic due to her being in her teens; she
would leave me alone in the house until right before my mom got home. I
didn't squeel due to her being older, and bigger than me (her threats
were legendary).

One night, the cycle began; Mom left for work, and older sis waited a
few minutes then took off herself--forbidding me to not set the house
aflame. I was in my own world, tv and g.i. joes kept me company.

Then I heard it...

We had huge, oak, double doors to our home- to hear the pounding I
heard would have to come from someone, or something big. It shook me out of my
daze into tv land (different strokes did that to me-funny). We had a
sunk-in living room that led to the kitchen, and from there you could go
into the front room where the front door is. Our front room had these
huge windows that ran from the front door to the back through the
dining room (prob be better if I drew a pic). I made it up the stairs to
peek over by the door.
What I saw froze me in my tracks.
A very strange-looking man was peering into my house in my direction.
He had a long mustache and he was either smiling really big, or missing
parts of his face. His right hand touched the window with a thud.
Still frozen, I watched him look all around my house; I didn't know what to
do. He saw me as he squinted his shiny eyes at me. As I stared at him,
I saw my bike in the yard. I say this due to it being behind him in
the yard. He had no legs! I can see his head, chest, and arms; under his
tattered shirt lied nothing but my yard! I could have sworn to see rope
around his neck as well.
We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Finally
something told me to call the cops. The phone was right there on the wall in
arms reach of the kitchen. I grabbed it and turned to dial the police.
As I looked up to see the scary man, he had disappeared.
It turned into a big mess from there, and big sis got caught and in
serious trouble...she didn't like me too much after that.

Hope you liked it...It still scares me today to think of what that guy
looked like.
I think about it now, and who knows what I saw. Seems like yesterday
when I do ponder about it (and I do not like to think about that too
much!)

John McGill


illustration by john mcgill

thanks, john! that's worth a nightmare or two!

we'll have another scary reader entry on monday
as well as the answers to your

"five for friday"

1. name all five "apes" movies in order.

2. what was the name of the orangutan in "every which way but loose"?

3. what was the name of the ape in dc's "angel and the ape"?

4. what legendary comics artist created "monkeyman and o'brien"?

5. what was the name of the 1980's matthew brodrick film that garnered so much trouble from the humane society over the treatment of the monkeys?

* extra credit~~ name the monkees!


s'all for now!
smell ya later!
todd

proof

okay...

so, a couple of months ago, a friend e-mailed me with a link to a newsarama article/interview with the creators of a new book coming out from image called "proof". actually, a couple of friends pointed it out. these friends, very loyal and caring people, and doing nothing more than looking out for craig and me, commented that this book looked a little something like the perhapanauts and that maybe we should check it out.

so craig and i told our friends over at image that we were concerned.

they told us that they were concerned that we were concerned.

and THEN we got an e-mail from alex and riley saying that THEY were concerned that we were concerned.

see, alex grecian and riley rossmo, the writer and artist of proof, respectively, are a couple of, not only talented, but sincerely nice guys. they were quick to send us early copies of proof to show us what the book was all about and where they were going, wanting to make sure that WE didn't feel that they were stepping on our perhapa-toes.

but let me say right here, right now, that, while proof and the perhapanauts play around in the same creepy, cryptid, paranormal playground, they are definitely not alike. we play with the same toys, but we tell totally different stories with them. proof is a horror book, set in a world tinged with darkness and evil.

if the perhapanauts could be likened to the incredibles, proof would be more like se7en.

we've both got bigfoots; ours is called big, theirs is named john "proof" prufrock.
proof is an fbi agent working for a special branch that investigates cryptozoological occurances or cryptid-centric crimes. they are horrific, terrifying, and, in some cases, quite graphic. there are also moments of grim humor and well-characterized humanity. i really dig this book! i've read the first three issues and i can't wait for alex to send me #4!! proof is a chilling, compelling tale that you won't want to put down. hell, i don't feel that i'm doing it justice, so here are a couple pages for you to see for yourself.









alex and riley were smart enough to get a bunch of issues in the can before debuting their book, so you can be sure that it's not gonna go a few issues and then drop (like so many comics tend to do...). and they were fortunate enough have their premiere happen TODAY--a week before our favorite creepy holiday!! good job, guys!

so go creep yourself out and hook onto this new book! you'll be glad you did!
i guarantee that if you pick up this first issue, you won't want to miss the 2nd!!

that's it for today!
got a great ghost stor from our own mcgill on friday!
plus a few questions...
smell ya later!

horror stories

okay...

as halloween approaches and the nights get cooler--and darker, i think--a part of me, something deep inside of me actually calls out for horror stories and scary movies and i begin to look forward to a long winter filled with books of terror and the unexplained. this season just does it to me.

i've mentioned before a few of the places i frequent on the net to check up on all things paranormal and cryptozoological; sure, i'm looking for all the latest news to possibly use and/or incorporate into the ever-growing perhapanauts mythos.
but mostly, i'm just looking to be scared.

one of my favorites, as i've posted before, is paranormal at about.com. they have a section there called "your true stories" and, while occassionally one or two of them smack of attention-seeking, completely-made-up, most of them translate an honest belief in whatever phenomenon or occurance the writer may have experienced.

"your true stories"
for readers, by readers.
most of them are short and to the point.
you can check 'em out here...

but here's one for you to check out right here.

Red Eyes, Hairy Feet
by Aaron

This happened in February, 2006, a few days before Valentine's Day. I was getting ready for the swing shift as a security guard at a motel. I was living at my mom's place on a small reservation outside Albuquerque with my brother, who was there with his wife and three kids.

I remember it was 9:15 p.m. and I had just had my breakfast. It was dark and a moonless night. I lay down on my mom's couch to rest for a little while because my shift started at 11:00. At about this time, I guess my brother (who was staying in the very back room of the house) sent my nephew ,Tre (6 years old), to his car that was parked a couple of feet away from my parents' rear door. He was supposed to get a bottle of juice.

While I lay on the couch, I heard him screaming like he was getting beat on. I got up and his dad came in holding his hand. He was shaking like crazy, almost like he had hypothermia. My mom talked to him and asked him what was wrong. He then told us of a "thing" that watched him from the fence line and then came after him. He said it was as tall as him (4 feet) and had red glowing eyes, gray hairy feet, long claws and a snout like a dog's.

At first I didn't believe him. His dad and I walked around the fence line and couldn't find anything. I didn't think anything about it until lately when I began to see footprints around my parents' windows that looked kind of human, but had claw marks.


also in my recent travels, i found this photo that someone did up of the jersey devil. a model/statue of some constrution, obviously, but still, it would take my breath away if i saw it perched on an embankment overlooking the little lane that i take jake for his walk on everyday.



no reason why i was looking up the jersey devil...

that's it.
got any "your true tales" of your own...?
send 'em in.

until then
here are the answers to the
"five for friday"

1. what did these three characters have in common?

a. niles' wife
b. norm's wife
c. rhoda's doorman

never appeared on camera

2. what were their names?

a. meris crane
b. vera peterson
c. carlton

3. what do these three characters have in common?

a. sam malone
b. abby lockhart
c. jack shepherd

they are all alcoholics.

4, who play(ed) them?

a. ted danson
b. maura tierney
c. matthew fox

5. crypto
a. what was the name of the man who filmed the classic and controversial bluff creek bigfoot footage?

roger patterson

b. what is mel waters (in)famous for?

mel's hole--an, apparently, bottomless pit located in the state of washington.

c. paula m called it 'the dump creature', but what was the name given to the strange creatures which appeared out of the ground to taunt french soldiers in north vietnam in the early 1950's?

the ingot

d. who wrote " the mothman prophesies"?

john a. keel

e. who played him in the movie?

richard gere

smell ya later!
todd

too many questions

okay...

some fridays i have a little trouble coming up with questions to try to stump you all over the weekend.

this week, not so much.

not only do i have some multi-part entertainment trivia questions, but i've included a batch of cryptid-crypto questions as i veer back toward the creepy and unexplained (in preparation for, not just halloween, but the new story arc in the upcoming perhapanauts series!! more on that later!)

so here, first, are a couple of "random pictures of the week"
follwed by your "five for friday"!
you can thank me later!








"five for friday"
(actually, it's more like 13 this week...)

1. what did these three characters have in common?

a. niles' wife
b. norm's wife
c. rhoda's doorman

2. what were their names?

3. what do these three characters have in common?

a. sam malone
b. abby lockhart
c. jack shepherd

4, who play(ed) them?

5. crypto
a. what was the name of the man who filmed the classic and controversial bluff creek bigfoot footage?

b. what is mel waters (in)famous for?

c. paula m called it 'the dump creature', but what was the name given to the strange creatures which appeared out of the ground to taunt french soldiers in north vietnam in the early 1950's?

d. who wrote " the mothman prophesies"?

e. who played him in the movie?

that's all!
have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

hope

okay...

i got these off of yahoo this morning...



This handout photo made available in Manila by the University of Alaska shows a deep sea jellyfish found by a US-Philippines underwater expedition in the Celebes Sea. Researchers said a swimming sea cucumber, a Nemo-like orange fish and a worm with tentacles sprouting from its head are among dozens of possible new species found during the survey of the Celebes Sea.(AFP/HO/Russ Hapcroft)





whenever they discover some new forms of life or new species at the bottom of the ocean or in the remotest part of the amazon, i'm heartened by the knowledge that we really don't know everything yet. this leaves room for hope that those creatures that so fascinate me actually DO exist and have somehow avoided detection all these years.

viva la cryptids!

s'all for today!
smell ya later!
todd

awakening

okay...

so the other day i'm having lunch with my friend, nick tapalansky, and i realize--damn! in all the confusion of the past few months, nick's first comic book--awakening--(published by the mouseguard guys, archaia press studios) came out and i never even hawked it here on the blog! d'oh!

well, between you and me, i wouldn't hawk anything here unless i really liked it, and i really like awakening. just in time for halloween, this suburban gothic horror tale will get you going right in the first issue! and issue 2 comes out this week! so don't miss it!

of course, i saw the first issue about six months ago and have watched as nick and his artist/partner, alex eckman-lawn, shopped it to archaia...and got picked up! not an easy feat in these days of timid publishers and even more selective readers!
but if you like horror--and i know you do--here's a little sample of what these guys got goin' on--








and if that piqued your curiosity, pcik up awakening 2 this week at your lcs! (and look and see if you can still get #1...)



oh, and here are the answers to last week's
"five for friday"

1. there are fourteen punctuation marks in english grammar. can you name ten?

period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

2. name the six pythons.

graham chapman, john cleese, terry gilliam, eric idle, terry jones, michael palin

3. what is the only fruit or vegatable never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh?

lettuce

4. what do the j. and the two r.'s stand for in tolkien's name?

john ronald reuel

5. name six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "s".

shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

smell ya later!
 todd

another rich...and another...

okay...

well, first off, i can't tell you how thrilled i am that so many people logged in about scary movies and scary stories and all of that scary stuff. many people tell me that they read the blog but that they never comment (mostly 'cause you hafta sign up to comment, an inconvenience we're working on here at perhapanauts central tech support...) for those of you who logged on and logged in, thank you so much. it's really nice to see you and nice to get the feel of our little community here. again, i think we'll get a better sense of it in a month or so when we change some things up, perhapanautically.

but while we're on the subject of our little perhapanauts neighborhood, i'd like to take a moment to showcase...well, maybe not showcase...how about highlight...a couple of OTHER talented riches--besides my pal, rich case, who i posted about a couple of weeks ago--who read the blog and log in periodically.

first is rich woodall, who signs in as...rich woodall...ummm...
i met rich a few years ago at a convention up in nashua, new hampshire--or wait, was it the boston show the year before...? anyway, rich and his buddy, matt talbot, were doing a cool black and white book called JOHNNY RAYGUN for the small ralph-run company of jetpack comics. craig had known them both and done a cover for them and gave me a few of their books. which i loved. when i met them they were nice enough to give me the entire run (search 'em out--they are really lots of fun!!) and also kind enough to do an awesome pin-up for us in our first perhapanauts trade, first blood!
since then, we've stayed in touch and rich has been nice enough to keep me in the loop with all his artistic ventures, most recently with some really cool pulp illustrations, which you too can check out at:

http://www.comicspace.com/johnraygun/

but here's a couple to whet your appetite







the other rich, rich faber, i've know now for about 12 years. while an inker in this crazy comics biz (rich claims he's quit the crazy comics biz forever and i can't blame him!), we were teamed up on a marvel one-shot called "bug!". writers and inkers don't usually have much to talk with each other about, don't really even have any need to contact one another, but rich and i did and we did and we've been good friends ever since. also, we share a birthday--a date i didn't really want made public, but if you check a few posts back, there's rich just blabbin' it out to everyone...* anyway, rich is now an artist, a teacher, and a dad--not necessarily in that order--and you can see his stuff at:

http://richfaber.blogspot.com/

but again, here's a sample...





so those are our other pals rich.

that's all i really have to say for now.
it's been raining here a lot this week and it's time for me to go. but first here are a few

random pictures of the week




that said,
here are your
"five for friday"

1. there are fourteen punctuation marks in english grammar. can you name ten?

2. name the six pythons.

3. what is the only fruit or vegatable never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh?

4. what do the j. and the two r.'s stand for in tolkien's name?

5. name six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "s".

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd




* heh. i relish making rich feel guilty over the stupidest, most insignificant things.

are you thinkin' halloween?

okay...

seems as i get older, the year seems to get shorter, and the time to start thinking about holidays and decorations come and go before you even get a chance to put your mind to it.

and so i ask--have you got your halloween decorations out? are they up? did ya get a pumpkin yet? do you know what you're gonna do with it when you do?

if not, here's some inspiration...










and has anybody been invited to a halloween party? and if so, whaddaya gonna be...?

that's all i got today!
more on friday!
smell ya later!
todd

ya wanna see something REALLY scary...?

okay...

as autumn (slowly, thank you) begins to fall over the countryside here in upstate new york, the night air much chillier, the trees painted overnight with wide broad brush-strokes of gold and crimson, something inside me begins to conjure images of pumpkins and goblins and skeletons and ghosts.
and i wanna be scared.

my 11 year old nephew not so much.

his older sister is now big into horror movies, whatever she can talk her parents into letting her see (only going on 14 herself), but they have (foolishly) pointed her in my direction--and my discretion (?!)--and so we've been watching some pretty good stuff recently!

oh, nothing TOO bad. nothing reprehensible. she claims that she doesn't get nightmares, but i don't want her to start 'cause of me!

my nephew, though, knows his limits, knows what he DOESN'T like, and being scared is def on that list.

and so it was that i tentatively took him into the recently opened (and soon to be closed) spirit of halloween store that opened up just across the river, and pointed out the really scary masks and decorations that i dreamed of filling my house with.* bug-eyed ghouls that shudder and shake, upside-down hanging vampire bats, a green-eyed goat demon mask--there was a lot that you could scare people with.





my nephew looked, said, "yeah, cool", to placate his uncle todd, but soon steered me over toward the fake mustache, sideburns, and chest hair that he wanted to complete his 70's disco costume to which he's added to a little bit each year over the past three.

people are always amazed at how alike he and i are--we love the same music, same jokes, same everything, it seems...

that "likes to be scared" gene just hasn't kicked in yet.

but when it DOES...

so, do YOU like to be scared?
got a story about it?
about being scared as a kid?
by a movie? or an older brother or sister?
a creepy neighbor?



lemme know.

oh, yeah--
here are
the answers to your
"five for friday"

1. forrest gump, the green mile, mission to mars

gary sinise

2. child's play, murder in the first, lord of the rings:the two towers

brad dourif

3. the ice storm, pleasantville, the contender

joan allen

4. platoon, any given sunday, identity

john c. mcginley

5. signs, the village, lady in the water

m. night shyamalan



that's it for me!
enjoy your colombus day cake!
smell ya later!
todd

*yes, i ended a sentence with a preposition.
so what, bitch.