Croation pop singer Kićo makes a pretty glum Santa on the cover of this album, often cited as one of the worst Christmas album covers ever made. He doesn’t even convey the solemnity of a traditional Father Christmas. He’s just… there. Hungover, or wallowing in existential despair. His version of “Jingle Bells” featuring a banjo …
An early 20th century representation of a Scandinavian frost giant, from the silent movie Conquest of the Pole by French film pioneer Georges Méliès. To me the creature looks more like a goofy Russian ventriloquist’s dummy. Which is no less horrible than a bloodthirsty spirit to my eye, but probably not what the director intended.
Isn’t this guy a shady character! He’s got a buckskin and pointed ears like the mythical satyr but no hooves. Peter Paul Rubens, 1638. On display at The Prado, Madrid.
Even rats like to dance.
What do skeletons dream about when Halloween has passed? A Night on Bald Mountain parade of damned souls and evil witches, of course!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Witches are a staple of fantasy and horror fiction. In their broad definition, they mean any kind of magic-using female. But for this list I’m going to use a more narrow definition: the Halloween type of witch, evil, cackling, out to do no good. The kind that brews potions in a big black cauldron and …
Scarecrow and Tin Man from a 1902 stage production of The Wizard of Oz. I don’t know what makes it more creepy, the old-timey photo or the Scarecrow’s stiff-fingered, Leatherface-like appearance. In its time, though, it was a great success and the first version of Oz to be adapted into a script.
Put a dollar in my coffee jar for all
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