TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: ERIC PIGORS, CREATOR OF TOXICTOONS By Harriet Von Lupin

Hey you guys! This is your favorite werewolf Harriet Von Lupin, and welcome to The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween! Man, I am so stoked about our new feature, Tales From The Monster Shop! This means we get to talk to groovy Halloween people and learn about how they do Halloween!
Today I'm talking with Eric Pigors, a former animator (that means "guy who makes cartoons") for Walt Disney Productions who is now doing his own thing called Toxictoons, a series of weird, creepy and goofy monster characters who are all over his own line of T-shirts, prints, stickers and all kinds of stuff! He's also created five art books about his characters, and we're gonna find out some more about his way-cool creations!Dude, thanks so much for joining us on The MonsterGrrls’ Thir13en For Halloween, and your Toxictoons really ROCK! Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I'm Eric Pigors, creator of TOXICTOONS. I draw weird creepy artwork, mostly monster stuff like Frankenstein, sexy Vamps, Halloween-themed art. I used to work in the animation industry, until it went 3-D and they gave up on hand-drawn films. Then I took my savings and invested it into making my own shirts, artbooks, stickers, prints--you can see it all at www.toxictoons.com.
That's right, and it's all majorly cool! But Mad Doctor told me you‘ve done Disney animation. Where did you study to become an animator, and what kind of classes did you have to take?

I went to a small school called Brandes Art. It was taught by some of the artists who worked for Walt Disney Animation. I took life drawing and basic animation classes. The school doesn't exist anymore. I wanted to go to Cal Arts, which was started by the Walt Disney Studios to teach animation. It's even about 5 miles away from where I grew up, but it was too expensive. So I went to the other school for 2 years. Then I just tried to get hired anywhere to learn and get paid while learning. Which is the best way to go! No student loans!

My first animation job was on The Legend Of Orin in 3-D. This was in 1985 I think, when 3-D was wearing the goofy glasses that made the film look like a View Master 3D art. Not CG like nowadays!

Then I worked on the CareBears Adventure & Jem, the 2 biggest low points of my animation career. But everyone has to start somewhere and it's usually not at the top! Then I worked on the Family Dog pilot for Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories TV show, designed by Tim Burton. This project was right up my alley!!!

Then I got lucky and got into Disney Animation on Oliver And Company, and I worked there through their 2nd golden age period for 15 years straight on films like Lion King, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Tarzan, and Hercules--I drew Hades which was my favorite character to work on there. Then on Treasure Planet, I got to do some character designs as well as working on Silver. He was a blast. And they picked one of my designs and named it Pigors after me. He has 4 legs, gnarly teeth and a tentacle eye. He is one of the background alien pirates.
Wow, so you were on some of Disney's greatest hits during that period! Mad Doctor loves Treasure Planet--he'll have to look for Pigors the pirate! But what artist was a major influence on your work and why?

Well, there have been a lot. Dr. Seuss, B. K. Taylor who drew the ODD ROD Stickers in the 1970s, Ed "Big Daddy " Roth who is a huge influence to me and lots of artists my age. Then on to the artists at MAD Magazine--Jack Davis is my favorite artist from MAD, with Don Martin, Bill Elder & Basil Wolverton a close second. And all the other artists at MAD Magazine. They all had their own unique styles, which is good for an artist to try to acquire to set your work apart from everyone. I loved the monster cards called "YOU'LL DIE LAUGHING" that Jack Davis drew, and his EC Horror comics artwork I love as well.

Cool. So let's talk about your personal life. You are mated* to the lovely Denise Pigors. Does she help with your artwork or inspire you in any way? (*MAD DOCTOR'S NOTE: "Mated" is werewolf terminology for marriage.)

Well, a lot of fans ask if she is the girl I draw with the dreads all the time. She is in there with a little Vampire and Lily Munster. Plus when I first met Denise, I started to really notice my own artworks style form into what became Toxictoons. So yes, you can say she inspires me. And she wrote a few of the poems in my Deadtimes Story Book. Most fans like her poems the best in the book.

Okay, so Frankie wanted me to ask you this next one. There’s a recurring Frankenstein-Creature theme in your work. What inspired that?

Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein are two of my all time favorite horror movies. And The Munsters is my favorite TV show. I just really love drawing Frankenstein's monster. I think also Frankenstein's Monster is the coolest looking Monster of all, as far as I'm concerned!

At your Toxictoons website, you've got T-shirts, Trick-Or-Treat bags, cool prints, a DVD and all kinds of stuff. What are you gonna do next with Toxictoons?

Well, the goal is a Halloween special one day. But right now I had my first Toxictoons monster mask come out which is a nightmare come true for me!! I have a few more masks for 2011 that www.trickortreatstudios.com plans on doing, besides my first "GRUESOME" Monster mask pictured here.

But I will always be doing new prints and new shirts. Posterpop is putting out 17 new stickers on October 1st. I would love to do another art book, but money is tight these days and it's over 100 pages of new color art I can do in my next book.

One last question: What’s your favorite memory of Halloween as a kid? How are you gonna celebrate Halloween this year?

I was around 12 or13, I think, I had just bought my first record, Disney's Chilling Thrilling Sounds record. And I listened to it only once before I excitedly ran out to show my friend it, and watched the record slip out and smash into pieces on the floor. My friend's dad worked for Disney building stuff for Disneyland.

Well, my friend and I both went trick-or-treating around 1974 or 75 I think. And we were determined to go to every house in my mom's neighborhood and get as much candy as we could. That's the year I saw a few haunted houses. The first house had the Universal Monsters roaming around through fog, colored lights, and I didn't want to walk to the door to get my candy I was so scared!

But the one house I remember to this day was playing that same Disney sound-fx record in their garage. I walked through their yard and heard the heartbeat or alien part as I walked up closer to their gates to the house. It was dark, and I had to go through this gate and walk 15 feet to a pitch black doorway with only a jack-o-lantern lit for light. So I walked really slowly looking behind the bushes and waiting for something to jump out and scare the crap out of me. Nothing happened so far. Then I got to the door and knocked, then I knocked again. No one answered the door, so I turned and ran out of their gate as fast as I can in case something was hiding. Then I went to the next house and kept filling my pillow case all night. I remember that house because of the scary sound-fx record playing and the pitch black darkness, as well as my imagination of what was hiding in the darkness to scare the crap out of me! It's funny how not seeing anything could be more scary than what you see.

And now I do the same thing to Trick-or-Treaters in my mom's neighborhood. I deck out my mom's garage and give them something spooky to remember and maybe pass along when they get older.

You can see 45 minutes of my spookhouses over the years on my Unkle Pigors Spookhouse DVD, as well as a nice interview horror host ORMON GRIMSBY did with me on my artwork and lots of other stuff. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

And that's the skinny on Eric Pigors, gang! I had a blast talking to the Toxictoons Master, so be sure to check out his cool website at www.toxictoons.com, and maybe get some cool Halloween stuff so he can do that next art book!

See you later on The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween!! OWWOOOOOO!!

Love,
Harriet Von Lupin

TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP: SHAWN AND LYNNE MITCHELL, PROPRIETORS OF THE MITCHELL CEMETERY By Frankie Franken

Hello, everybody, and welcome to The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween! This is Frankie Franken, and this year we're doing something new--Tales From The Monster Shop, in which the other Grrls and I interview some of our favorite Halloween people and find out about what they do for the season!
Our first interview is with Shawn and Lynne Mitchell, professional artists, award-winning home haunters and proprietors of the Mitchell Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida. The Mitchells have just put out their second volume of their How To Haunt Your House series, which details all the cool and creative things they do to create a spooky atmosphere for Halloween.
Hello there, and thanks for joining us on The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween! Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your work.

We are Shawn and Lynne Mitchell of Pensacola, Florida, and we are co-authors of How To Haunt Your House, Books 1 And 2. We were married on Halloween almost 20 years ago. Shawn grew up in a house with several real ghosts and I once lived in a house with a poltergeist. Together we watch any and every ghost story we come across and have a fondness for collecting things of the orange-and-black variety. We lean towards old-school horror that was born in the black-and-white era. Sense any theme here?

Oh, definitely. And I can relate to those old-school horror movies--for me it's almost like watching one of those reality shows. But tell me, how did you meet and become husband and wife?
We met on a high school journalism trip to Disney World in which we have only memories of going to the Haunted Mansion. Technically, it was on the bus. He sat in the seat in front of me and annoyed the hell out of me. I was a book worm. He was persistent. Six years later, we decided to join forces and seek out the great mysteries of life... and death. The rest is still being written.
Very cool. So tell me about how you got into home haunting. What inspired your Cemetery?
We were sort of born to it. We didn't hear the term home haunting till six years ago. It never occurred to us that you could haunt your house while still alive! We didn't have to stretch our imaginations too far to create a cemetery and dress up the house as dark and spooky. It was a work of cinematic art. We were imitating our favorite movies, plus Disney had just released The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy. We just had to create some Pepper's Ghosts of our own!

Well, we're all Haunted Mansion fans back at the Monster Shop, so your work definitely has our seal of approval! What gave you the idea for your How To Haunt Your House books? Do you plan to do a third volume?
Shawn and I both have had jobs where we designed books, posters, newsletters and such, so we had some publishing experience already. Self-published print-on-demand books had really gotten a foothold in the book world and we did some research on it. It really was simple to do a book oneself now--we could do the photos, write the text, design the book and print it all ourselves. Why wouldn't we do it? How To Haunt Your House, Book 3, is currently in the works with new projects already started.

Then we'll probably be seeing you next Halloween, too! But you have some different artwork at your other website, Rabbit Hole Productions. What other kinds of art do you do?

Shawn does Disney-style hand-painted animation cels and comic-book-type artwork. I do digital paintings the one month out of the year when I'm not working on Halloween.

You've done the Mitchell Cemetery since 2005. Share with us your favorite memory of the Mitchell Cemetery.
During our first year of the Mitchell Cemetery, there was a woman in the neighborhood who stopped by with her 80-year-old mother. She really wanted her mother to see the Cemetery. We all helped her make the walk from the street through our uneven backyard, holding flashlights to light the way every step. Her eyes lit up and she looked as if we had really shown her something magical. It was a great feeling. It reminded us that kids weren't the only ones who could really get something from what we did.
Very true. What are you planning to do for Halloween this year? (Besides your haunt, of course!)This year we are determined to take it easier--we aren't doing the Cemetery or a party. We did just get finished with some landscaping on the front yard this year and have some great future Halloween plans for it, but this year just might be a pumpkin patch. We need to scale back and refocus. Writing three books in three years has proven to be a challenge. It's been an exciting adventure. We don't need to prove ghosts exist--we already knew they did. We just want a chance to show people what it would be like to see one... to excite the imagination to the possibilities of the unknown... and to keep the Halloween spirit alive in us all.

And that Halloween spirit is something we all definitely need! The Mitchells' books are available at www.howtohauntyourhouse.com, with links to purchasing on Lulu, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. You can also get great downloads for your own spooky projects and see videos of the Mitchell Cemetery at their website. I had a great time talking to the Mitchells, and I hope you get these books for your own Halloween collection--they're fantastic stuff!

I'll be back soon on The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween--see you there!

Sincerely,
Francesca "Frankie" Franken

BETTER HAUNTS AND GHOUL-DENS REVISITED: SHAWN AND LYNNE MITCHELL'S HOW TO HAUNT YOUR HOUSE, BOOK TWO By John Rose

Welcome to The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween, and guess who's back for their second sitting in our ghastly gallery!  Shawn and Lynne Mitchell got things rolling last year with their fantastic How To Haunt Your House book, which had the somewhat ominous-sounding "Book One" on the cover.  Now, as surely as trick follows treat, Book One has spawned.

How To Haunt Your House, Book Two is the much-awaited sequel to the Mitchells' deliciously dark debut of DIY horror, and it's even better than the first.  More tutorials on the finer points of Monster Mud and Styrofoam techniques are added, and the ante gets majorly upped with how-to's on a tomb cover for your outside electronics, a stunning tomb and cemetery gate (as well as a gatekeeper figure!), a cauldron that stirs by itself, and a witch's pantry full of glowing potions and accoutrements.  Plus, you can also learn to make apothecary jars full of organs, cages with a variety of spooky pets, and how to redress large Halloween animatronic figures so they look about ten times scarier.  As in their first book, the tutorials are clear and precise and the photography is nothing short of stunning.  The Mitchells have got it locked, and no mistake.

So if you need a book (or books, if you don't have Book One) that will show you how to craft everything you need to become "that house" for Halloween, the How To Haunt Your House series is exactly what you are looking for.  Go get 'em now!

POST-MORTEM: The How To Haunt Your House series is available from the Mitchells at their website; click our title link above to reach them.  If you're a dedicated buyer from Barnes And Noble or Amazon.com, the links are there, or just click here and here.


COMING UP:  Our first TALES FROM THE MONSTER SHOP interview from Frankie Franken concerns both proprietors of the Mitchell Cemetery.  Read it to get the skinny on the mad minds of Shawn and Lynne Mitchell... coming soon on The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween!

THIS YEAR FOR HALLOWEEN, 31 BECOMES 13! By John Rose

Looks like it's Halloween time again, folks, and this year, the MonsterGrrls will be doing it a little differently.  Rather than feverishly cramming 31 days into your Halloween celebration, this year we'll be winging your way with The MonsterGrrls' Thir13en For Halloween, a series of 13 celebrations of humor, horror and Halloween as presented by the Grrls and their Mad Doctor!

While it'll be decidedly less than last year, don't worry.  We'd much rather bring you a few really tasty treats than a lot of mediocre Halloween candy, and we still plan to share our favorite things (heh) about the season, such as old monster movies, haunted happenings, Halloween history, and so on.  And this year we're bringing you something a little special: Tales From The Monster Shop, a series of interviews featuring some of our favorite Halloween people--some of which have appeared before at our Halloween soirees, and a few newcomers.  Only this time, we'll pick their brains a little bit.  (Mmm, brains.)

It all kicks off tomorrow, with intermittent posts through the month of October, so welcome, foolish mortals and faithful fiends... to our Thir13en For Halloween!!  See you there!