Keen Halloween

Welcome, October. It is about time you arrived. We have much to talk about, you and I. So let us begin with how you made your entrance; with a weekend of Vintage Halloween shopping and visiting with wonderfully talented local artists at Keen Halloween.

This is year number two for this unique, fun event, organized by the lovely folks at SteamCrow. There were workshops, vendors with everything from adorable, angsty, quirky monsters, victims of a never ending commute, to embroidered velvet fezzes and delightful steampunk pumpkins. It should be of no suprise to anyone that I left with several packages and a mission to find yet more frames for my growing collection of whimsical, spooky art.

For now, allow me to elaborate a bit more about SteamCrow and their fantastic world of monsters, and their online saga, Monster Commute. I first came across the magic of SteamCrow several years ago at Phoenix ComiCon. As I entered the double-doors of the vendor floor, it was almost as if the heavens opened, light shone down and a choir of angels raised their voices in celebration. Then I realized it was probably cosplayers and walked in. There, directly in front of me was this enormous sign, "SteamCrow". Now as most of you who know me will immediately realize, with a name like "Raven", crows are not to be passed by. As I took in the flood of brilliant vintage images and posters featuring some of my favourite ghouls and a host of new ones, I was hooked. When I heard last year that Daniel Davis, the mustachio'd face behind the beasties, and his lovely counterpart Shawna, were organizing a Vintage Halloween event, I was there. I cannot wait to see how it turns out next year. My growing collection of SteamCrow art is going to need another wall (woe is me), but I am always excited to see which new artists will surface with just this jaded old crow's brand of whimsical spookiness and endearing creepiness.

So, October, you will be helping me to feature several of the fabulous artists we met this year as well as a number of other wonderful creators we had the pleasure of seeing again from last year. We will also be adding other artists and creative Halloweenish types to the list who are not local, but whose creations are right up our metaphoric alley.

And for now, I will let others share their love of Keen Halloween, SteamCrow and the wonderful community of spooky, colourful, delightful creators by sharing links to several recent articles, interviews and reviews.

The Independent Comic Congress - A great article with a fun video interview with Daniel Davis of SteamCrow

East Valley Tribune - Another great article about bringing "classic" back to Halloween.

Phoenix New Times - A great slideshow of people and events at Keen Halloween.

As if the links above and throughout this blog post did little enough to point you in their direction, here are a few more so you, too, can get lost in the inspiring, year-round-Halloween that is SteamCrow. To Dan and Dawna Davis, kudos. My admiration is unending.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/steamcrow
Twitter: https://twitter.com/steamcrow - @steamcrow

With that, I leave you to peruse the monsters. Enjoy!

Until next, Keep it Spooky,

Raven