The green man is a recurring figure in art and architecture. He shows up in English and French churches as early as the 12^th century and in mosaics in instanbul as far back as the 6^th? (Thank you Wikipedia)

People seem to think he’s a symbol of rebirth and regeneration, but no one really knows. Unlike Jenny Greenteeth or the Babadook, he hasn’t been linked to a specific pagan entity.

But he’s gotta be someone right?

As sure as we are that our teddy bears secretly judge our personal choices, we can all agree that there has gotta be a plant man.

There is something out there in nature, constantly growing, reclaining ground, stopping only temporily when the world literally freezes.

I noticed he’s always simetrical, which seems weird for something that represents nature, I think that’s an attempt to tame him somewhat.

But, Anyone who’s tried to grow a garden or met a squirrel know that nature is unpredictable, and unrelenting.

Min is intentionally irregular, like wwhen you sddenly see a face in something that should not have a face.

He’s made of wood and bugs and mushrooms, beauty and decay.

It’s Thanksgiving this weekend, so as we gather together in the hope that we have put enough aside to keep the wolves at bay for another Canadian winter, remember to leave a little dirt under your pillow for the Green Man.

View My Green Man here.

Photo Credit: Simon Garbutt

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I quickly gave up on the book table and tried checking out the record selection. If anything the elbows were higher and picking even more furious, but nevertheless I was able to grab a few amusing records. Most notably a nice copy of Bobby (Boris) Picketts‘ “The Original Monster Mash” album. Fans(?) of the novelty song may not be aware that the success of the song was followed up by an entire Monster Mash concept album.

The tracklist is somewhat predictable. ‘Transylvania Twist’ and ‘Sinister Stomp’ feel like they would write themselves, and I look forward to giving ‘Me & My Mummy’ a listen. The track title ‘Rabian – The Fiendage Idol’ is probably so dated as to be un-parsable by anyone under 60 (or me, apparently).

Bobby’s backup band, the Crypt-Kickers (good name) features a young Leon Russell who apparently did a lot of studio work in his early years.

One thing that caught my eye was the cover art by Mike Kaluta, a comic artist whose other album art credits include Danzig and Black Sabbath.

Not bad for 3 bucks.

Alright book sale, count me in for next time.

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I will have a table at the Luna Halloween Market. This will be my first market so I am going to start my overthinking early. I will be stocked with the witchiest, spookiest shirts I have, as well as some out-of print spooky stuff that is not on the website.

The next month and a half will be spent chasing down loose ends and making sure everything is stocked. I am hoping that everyone in the area gets a chance to come by.

Event details are as follows:

Luna Halloween Market

“Night of the Vampire” Witch Market

Oct 16 6-10PM

Oct 17 4-9PM

Vic Johnston Community Centre

Streetsville Mississauga

I hope to see you all there.

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Just when the site was starting to get traffic, it looks like a plugin update disconnected my payment processor…. and my contact me form.

Were some of you trying to order? I have no way of knowing.

Just another fun stumbling block on the road away from Etsy.

After a quick panic attack and some teeth gnashing, the payment processor and contact me form are back up.

My deepest apologies to anyone who tried to order during the outage, It was hard enough to get you here, and I do hope you will come back.

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There are enough shirts available to ‘lay a base’ they are all ready and prepped to print.

Payment processor is ready, shipment is sorted.

I have a small list of more complicated small run shirts I would like to start working on, but I think the next hurdle is to get market-ready.

That means bags and table and printed matter.

Oh, and a market date.

I guess that’s next.

Fingers crossed.

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It has been two months of futzing and fluffing, but I think the site is ready to go live for sales.

Tomorrow I will soft launch the site and then start trying to drive some traffic here.

But for today I am putting my fee (mostly) up. I’m going to try to finish ‘Between Two Fires’ by Christopher Buehlman and get it back to the rabid dogs at the library (I kid, I kid).

As the website development nears a close I am really looking forward to getting back to the ‘printing’ part of running a print company.

First up will be to flesh out the site with some  of my old designs from the Etsy shop. I will also need to wrangle my models (offspring) to get some product shots done.

My priority will be a couple of the Witch shirts (Baba Yaga, Herbology…)

After that I intend to rework some of my earlier designs in honour of the new shop. First up, probably the Green Man.

Lastly I need to prepare for doing an  in-person event. I expect that to be my main source of traffic since all internet ad sources appear to be enshittified. (nod to C. Doctorow)

Doing in person shows will also give me the opportunity to clear out some of my back stock. I still have a ton of random ringer shirts that have been unavailable for a couple years.

When and where, TBD.

(Image Info: A Ray Harryhausen cyclops pewter mini figure from my childhood collection that I have recently re-painted. Rawr.)

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Luckily I have had help from my friends at Munter Westerman. They have been very helpful in flagging all the things I hadn’t thought of.

Slowly but surely things are coming together.  Hopefully I can move on from website building and get back to t-shirt printing.

The post Stuck in the middle appeared first on Slightly Grim Print Company.

Schlock Film, Roger Corman, Garage Band Expoitation Soundtrack Album.

But how’s the music? The title track (one of two that is not an instrumental) has a distinctly Franki Valli vibe, but the rest is the kind of greasy guitar garage band music that really scratches the itch in those hard to reach places.

The title track is by Jerry & The Portraits who were probably assembled solely for this picture. Everything else is by ‘The Arrows’ who apparently have been recording in one form or another since 1965. An incarnation of the band released a CD in 2018.

Absolute gold.

I wonder what the Hell’s Angels thought about it?

IMDB | Youtube | Discogs

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I am comfortable with the contradiction between what I believe to be real and what I want to be true.

The universe is a big place and there is plenty of room for the unexplained. I don’t get paid to define the borders of the universe.

Basically I own a cellphone, but I still like spooky stuff.

Some of the next shirts to be added to the store will be witchy jokes and folklore themed.

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We all think our phones are listening. We  suddenly see ads for things ‘we were just talking about the other day’.

How do you explain when that happens in real life?

The board game ‘Bonkers’ came up in conversation recently, I had never heard of it before. My friends and I were playing a new game called ‘Monster Athletes’, which reminded one friend of this game from their childhood.

All of a sudden it shows up in a random thrift store. Is the universe listing in on my conversations? What is it trying to sell me?

Or am I just Bonkers?

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