Halloween

Cover your tween’s eyes and ears, because what I’m about to discuss isn’t going to please millions of Twilight fans and vampire fanatics… While the current vampire mythology has twisted the creatures into romanticized objects of love, the original lore dictates the killing of them — the proof of which is up for auction on Halloween at Stevens Auction Company: an authentic antique Vampire Killing Kit.

Antique Rosewood Box Containing Vampire Killing Kit

Inside the beautiful Rosewood case with mother of pearl cross inlay there’s an assortment of items to deal with the undead, including a cleaver, prayer book, Holy water vials, looking glass, silver occult dagger, candles, what looks like some wooden stakes, and a pistol with silver bullets in an ornate coffin case.

Antique Vampire Killing Kit

It’s a stunning display of craftsmanship, yes; but what really fascinates is their existence at all.

These are expensive kits, made for the wealthy; not some cheap and cheesy plastic novelty items. Such luxury concedes a seriousness — a deadly seriousness. These items were made to address deep, dark, primal fears. And then, like our fears often are, they were not thrown away but stored in equally dark and out of the way places… Antique wooden killing kits in the attics of old houses, just waiting for the day when the creatures creep from the attics of our minds.

Vampire Killing Kit, Dating To 1840-1860's

Fascinated, I spoke with Dwight Stevens, of Stevens Auction Company, on the phone yesterday about the antique piece of vampire history.

“I don’t believe in vampires — I’ve never met one. But somebody believed in them, something drove people to believe… From New Orleans to Vicksburg, these old boxes remain.” Stevens has sold four vampire killing kits in his 27 years as an auctioneer, most recently selling one a year ago, in Natchez, Mississippi, for $14,850.

Walnut Case Vampire Killing Kit, Circa 1800, Sold For $14,850

The selling of that boxed kit for ridding oneself of vampires garnered international interest. Wistful buyers from all over the world, as well as bloggers and traditional media folks, contacted the auction house. And they continue to contact Stevens. Recently one person asked Stevens how he came to be an authority on vampires — he laughed, he’s not an expert on vampires. “But,” I said, “you are an authority on vampire killing kits.”

While I think the finding and selling of four of these old superstitious boxes of death is amazing, Stevens contemplates the small number of them which have survived, saying “Maybe the vampires got them.”

Or maybe all the collectors have.

“We contacted Anne Rice about the one we had last year, but we never heard from her; she must be retired,” said Stevens with an audible shrug.

“Or maybe she already has her own kit and she’s all set,” I replied.

More likely, Rice knows what I do: Vampires do not die; real or not, they live on in our obsession with them.

The Vampire Killing Kit, part of at Miss Isabel’s estate, is up for auction in Port Gibson, Mississippi (27 miles South of Vicksburg) on October 31, 2009, by Stevens Auction Company. Reserved seating and phone bids are welcome with advanced arrangements.

I enjoy collectibles that span very diverse genres of collecting which might never otherwise encounter each other. These opposing themes tend to battle, alienate a few die hards in either field, and eventually, come to rest as a completely unique amalgamation of these two things. This is what I see in Mezco’s Living Dead Dolls, and this is undoubtedly the strange perversion that my sister, and subsequently, my niece, have been collecting for around eleven years.

Take a relatively innocent doll and severely distort it into some horrific theme, and there you have a Living Dead Doll. There are hardly any morbid themes that you’re left wanting for, should you find yourself collecting these Dolls, from the subtleties of Edgar Allen Poe or a sexy vampiress, to the intellectual strangeness of a set based on the seven deadly sins, to things that are just sliced-up zombies and monsters, or clowns who have had their faces half torn off – because a half-face is a little scarier than no face at all, and Mezco knows this. If you doubt me, I invite you to take the the electric hedge trimmer into the lawn and find out. The variety of these Dolls is always staggering.

Even if we’re just talking about secondary market value, different LDDs and their variants sell for many hundreds of dollars on the secondary market (and can usually be purchased at retail for not much more than $20 each), and with many different sets and individual dolls sold as retailer exclusives, making them a challenge to obtain, LDD collectors seem to relish the hunt.

Living Dead Dolls : Series 18

Of course, because of these morose themes, Mezco is making a special show of their Living Dead Dolls around Halloween this year (and last). Collectors’ Quest has the special privilege of bringing you the very first images and details about the rare variants from Living Dead Dolls Series 18, and I do believe that you’re going to dig them – even if it’s just on a thematic or aesthetic level.

Series 18 consists of five different characters decked out in classic Halloween costumes, very similar to those things we might have worn as kids ourselves. We have the skeleton Calavera, the harlequin Jingles (my personal favorite), the ghoul Gabriella in the charmingly hokey plastic costume, the witch Ember, and the vampiress Ingrid – a respectable collection of trick or treaters if ever there was one. Not only is this an awesome theme to display, but they’ll look exceptionally great with last year’s costumed sets of LDD, which also come with their own pumpkin-shaped treat buckets. They all include functional Halloween masks – under which their faces reflect an alternate version of what their costume depicts. Which is creepola. The skeleton has a beautiful Dia De Los Muertos face pattern, which the witch has a torn face, and the harlequin, well… bizarre, spidery lines aplenty.

Here’s where the extra dose of awesome comes in : this year’s set, just like last year’s set, will have a set of five variants. These variants will be completely decked out in a black and orange color scheme. While this is probably my favorite color combination, it also matches the set from last Halloween, making for an ever-growing, themed display – though Mezco makes no promises of the theme continuing next year. If you’re into either of these sets, act quick, because this series is completely sold out from the manufacturer, and quickly selling out from retailers everywhere.

This year will also see a scaled down version of LDD Set 16, which was last year’s Halloween set, complete with fabric costumes and full accouterments. Around Christmas, there will be a miniature Christmas Carol-themed set featuring the three Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, as well as Jacob Marley – all an excellent entryway into the collection. These will come with ornaments that are ready to hang on your holiday tree and probably make your grandma uncomfortable.

To top off the Halloween releases, Mezco has partially relented to repeated requests for a LDD-themed poster of some kind and released a huge, high-grade vinyl banner featuring the most recent Halloween characters. This was limited to a scant 200 pieces, and of course, almost completely sold out.

Come February, we’ll also see the release of the ‘Twisted Love’ set, featuring new characters Rose and Violet, based on the poetic verse :

“Roses are red, Violets are blue…a single soul, slashed in two.”

…which is wonderfully progressive in its own right, and certain to raise a few eyebrows. There’s rarely a holiday that Mezco ignores, and I eagerly await the inevitable Arbor Day ‘dryad chick’ or ‘dude who is being turned into a tree against his will’ (complete with axe), which I hope will happen sooner than later.

I’d also like to apologize to Arbor Day for being the butt of all of my ‘lame holiday’ jokes. Clearly, that honor goes to Boxing Day.

So, keep an eye out for these and all future Mezco awesomeness. I always enjoy seeing what the next series of Living Dead Dolls will bring.

I’ve always hated Monster Mash. I’m not entirely sure why, because I certainly love Halloween and just about everything that it entails, from the ghostly imagery to the conservative groups coming out of the woodwork to denounce kids dressing up as the undead or the demonic. So, it was out of pure optimism that I picked up the ‘Monster Mash / Sounds of Terror’ LP at the same junk sale I found my Armand Schaubroeck LP. I always go for the oddballs.

We didn’t have any Halloween music around when I was a kid, and since this was published in 1974, well before my birth, this wasn’t a staple as it was for so many. I had some remote hopes for short, tremendously bad holiday-themed songs, but the whole album happens to be more of a sound effects record – which is even better.

Each of the nineteen two-minute scenarios is introduced by a narrator (usually affecting one accent or another badly), who then fades away to allow a collection of atmospheric sounds to take over – usually cackling, screaming, dragging things, each set very specific to the scene being laid out. A foghorn can be heard quietly in the background while Jack the Ripper’s knife repeatedly, and audibly, sinks into a silent corpse and policemen run to the scene. Someone weeps in an echoing chamber as dirt showers down on their coffin and their heartbeat fills their ears as they try to claw their way out of certain death.

It’s really, really dark stuff. I’m inclined to wonder how badly this screwed some kids up. I fully expect to have some really horrible dreams tonight. Worse than that one where I find a live, baby deer in the oven.

You can also fall asleep to the gentle sounds of ‘Burned at the Stake’, ‘The Incredible Giant Crab’ and someone getting ‘Keel-Hauled’. Oh, and a priest getting chucked out of a window by a possessed girl.

This is just one of at least a hundred or so Halloween albums from a similar era, many of which have found their way online by those fans more dedicated to Halloween (and LPs) than myself, though this one is regarded as a bit extreme. While some copies of this album have been listed on eBay for upwards of $150, opened copies in great condition can generally be found for around $10 or less. You can also find copies of this on CD, but they’re definitely not official releases and will suffer from that good ol’ crackle and pop of the turntable needle, as they’re only transfers.

I didn’t pick this up hoping to cash in – just to find an eclectic thing for my LP collection, and I think I scored.

Collectors, always be wary of anything that claims to be for ‘collectors’. Collectibles occur naturally when great things come together into groups, like the elements of carbon and lead. However, when the idea of a collectible is emblazoned on something and manufactured, like promethium, it’s probably radioactive and should be avoided ’cause it’ll make your babies glow in the dark. Or something like that.

The ‘Collector’s Edition’ of Nightmare Before Christmas is finally out. The original ‘Special Edition’ DVD was released in 2000 without too much fanfare, and had been out of print since shortly thereafter. Because of this limited availability (which is common with Disney DVDs and their fabled ‘vault’), auction prices for the DVD have exceeded $100 at times, with people clamoring for an enduring copy of the classic as their VHS copies sputtered out. While these VHS and Laserdisc copies also exist, the release of this new DVD set has leveled out availability and pricing considerably.

The Collector’s Edition includes every bonus that was on the original Special Edition DVD : a few deleted scenes and storyboards, an extensive behind-the-scenes feature, over 450 images of concept art, a few small animation tests, trailers and posters, as well as commentary from the director, Henry Selick. This alone is a vast amount of extras for any DVD to include – and they did it all on one disc without sacrificing any quality. Also included on that singular amazing disc were two of Tim Burton’s previous short films : Vincent and Frankenweenie, running about 40 minutes total.

This new edition adds a few small things : an exploration of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride as it was decked out in Nightmare decor for Christmas, and audio commentary by Tim Burton and soundtrack artists Danny Elfman – which is something I’ve pretty much always wanted to hear. Unfortunately, the audio commentaries were all recorded separately – at different times and later edited jerkily together, so there’s none of that ’sitting around in a room laughing and reminiscing’ feeling, which is the best part of any audio commentary. The observations are mostly general things about the film, ignoring the scene specifics.

Burton and Elfman DID begin to feud with each other in the aftermath of this film (but later reconciled) because of the intensity of their working relationship, so perhaps that’s part of the reason they didn’t sit down together to discuss the film.

There’s also Burton’s original poem narrated by the incomparable Christopher Lee, and newly animated menus, which are a lot fancier than the old deal. This is now all spread over 2 discs, and additionally a ‘digital file’ third disc is included – presumably to thwart DVD piracy and such. This disc can be loaded into your iTunes or Windows Media Player, and then the movie can be watched on your computer or any portable media device that you might have. Be forewarned – every digital copy comes with a unique unlock code, and you need to be connected to the internet in order to activate it. When I tried to activate mine, the online iTunes store was having issues, so I had to wait a few hours before my request was processed.

I still don’t fully grasp the concept of additional digital discs, which are coming with more and more DVDs. The practical appeal of watching any movie on a 2-inch screen is lost on me, and if someone really wants to copy the DVD, they’re going to find a way to do it anyhow. Entire armies of socially inept geeks are toiling away in basements underneath X-Men posters to crack any code you slap onto a DVD. I certainly don’t advocate movie piracy, but the idea that I’m being charged extra for a digital copy that I don’t have use for, or have a choice about, doesn’t sit well. Aren’t we trying to use LESS plastic? And in terms of excess, the new DVD packaging is about twice the width of a regular DVD case – and half of that space is given over to an embossed, blurry portrait of Jack Skellington that’s just aesthetically bizarre. I have to say that I’d prefer an artfully done cover, or something lenticular, over more weirdly-used plastic.

Anyone who’s picking up this Collector’s Edition is probably a hardcore fan, and they’re being vocal about the subtlest of differences between this and previous editions. The familiar, blue Touchstone logo that always opened the film is gone, and replaced with a ‘Walt Disney Pictures Presents’, and while some folks are saying that this offsets the timing of the opening sequence, I haven’t noticed any differences. There’s a point in the opening song where part of the vocal track is strangely quiet, as if something were left out in the re-mastering of the audio. This problem isn’t present during the ‘commentary’ version of the audio.

While I haven’t heard anyone mention this yet, the picture quality of the film is absolutely different. Being an owner of the original DVD, I was able to switch back and forth between the two to pinpoint any strangeness, and indeed, this ‘restored’ version has higher contrast. Also, the organic, subtle wavering of the camerawork in the original is gone, now digitally corrected and aligned. Instead of a minutely drifting camera, we now have an attempt at a perfectly still image, but it’s just not a successful attempt. Instead of the wavering, the image now leaps left and right in jittery increments in order to correct itself into consistency. It’s kinda like if George Lucas went back into Star Wars and added all kinds of crazy lasers and monst… oh, wait. It’s way more jarring than the original camera, and a correction that makes the film difficult to watch.

I have four words for you, o great universe : Leave Well Enough Alone. Also : Digital Is Not Better. And : Bring Me Free Bacon. You know, while you’re at it.

If you don’t have the rare, original copy of this movie, it’s really a holiday staple in the vein of the Rankin-Bass delights, and it’s worth having – even for all of its excess. If you’re hardcore, you’ll want to hear the long-awaited Elfman / Burton commentaries, even if they’re fairly general observations. And if you’re all up on the Blu-Ray thing, that’s where the money is. That’s where you can really witness the 24-frames-per-second animation like never before. If you’re ultra-hardcore, pick up the $180 super-mega-pack, which is numbered, includes a Jack bust (with Santa Claus costume options), and a letter of authenticity.

Last weekend, I found myself on my knees, crouched over a row of repurposed cardboard liquor-boxes, flipping through pawned LPs. I was actually surprised to see record albums in a pawn shop, but these were good — no Ferrante and Teicher, no 101 Strings, no Sing Along With Mitch. Many of the records were in remarkable shape for used albums, but most were common popular musicians of the sixties and seventies. I picked out a little stack of the rarer albums, along with the obligatory Whipped Cream & Other Delights that I buy any time I find it (I own fourteen).

Much like the classic Herb Alpert, one other album was chosen purely for the cover art. I’d never seen the album before, do not recognize the band’s name, but the art itself is immediately familiar. The artist, known for his stylish caricatures that teeter on the edge between realistic and fanciful, is Jack Davis.

I, of course, remember Jack Davis from his early years at MAD Magazine. Starting in commercial art and comic books in the 1950s, Davis applied his tremendous skill for everything from horror to humor, along with more than a few things in between. Many of his works have reached iconic status, such as the “life-sized” Frankenstein poster that was sold in the back of comics throughout the sixties and the two-legged bug constantly fogged by RAID during 1980s commercial breaks. Known for producing quality work in little time, Davis has been a mainstay in advertising for decades. And, as I’ve found many times, he was particularly skilled at producing record album covers.

Jack Davis’ poster for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World makes for an obvious transition to the soundtrack album cover, but Davis’ record albums aren’t just a creative reuse of an already paid-for painting. Davis produced unique, custom artwork for numerous recordings, from comedy to rock-and-roll. Davis often returned to his roots as a horror-comic artist, producing album covers for Halloween records.

For a comic art collector, a Jack Davis record album provides a piece of art worthy of hanging on a wall. Record sleeves measure approximately 13″ on a side, and numerous places manufacture frames designed for displaying record jackets. Even larger are his fold-out or wrap-around covers that double the width, like the Sailcat cover I got this weekend. While much of Davis’ art is smaller than the page in a magazine and was often black-and-white, his album covers show off the detail and color of his work.

Record collectors no doubt have their own quirky tastes in collection (as my Herb Alpert collection attests), but when a collector begins to find themselves seeing the same albums over and over, it takes a new perspective to give the act of digging through boxes at a thrift shop a new life. Davis illustrated numerous albums — so many that it’s difficult to find a complete list, despite several online archives devoted to just his album art — that simply hunting for Jack Davis art will open up new directions in a record collection. Imus in the Morning, The Cowsills, Homer and Jethro: you don’t even have to like to listen to the albums, if the art is the key. Trying to find every Jack Davis illustrated album jacket could become a full-time obsession. Look through your existing collection first, of course — you may not have noticed that the Kelly’s Heroes soundtrack and The Greatest of the Guess Who both feature Jack Davis illustrations. For the rest, give the record bins at your usual haunts a second look — you might have missed out on a work of art.