I found a local creator on Instagram who makes these amazing figures, box an all. He has a host of other figures in his catalog, but the ones I am most excited for are the Trimper's figures, based creatively on the OC dark ride. The first one I've picked up is the Ghoul. He is a gorgeous fella, all 12" inches of him! From what I've learned so far from chatting with the Toy Fiend online is that he makes these figures with pre-existing parts and then customizes them and puts them in their own packaging (which I must say is every bit as gorgeous as the figures themselves). He also has these "Boogie Monsters" versions of the Trimper guys, the Vampire, the Werewolf, and the Ghoul in their garish 1970s style feather boa and Jim Morrison pants. There is also the Dark Ride Skeleton, whom I was most excited for, but was sold before the characters even made it online. So as of now I have a standing order for the rest of t...

My girlfriend just took me for a nice day trip to the ocean. Or oceans, would be more specific. Well beaches, same ocean. Lol anyway... We headed down to Ocean City, Maryland first, to visit Trimper's Haunted House . This dark ride has been here on the boardwalk for a long time, since 1964! I think the first time I rode it was in 1991. Throughout the years I kinda laughed at the Haunted House, thinking it was something strange and old, a relic of the '70s or '80s! But today, that is precisely what makes these two rides so special! They are lovingly maintained for generations and remain a testament to how much fun these family-friendly dark rides are! Inside the House one of the props turned out to be a human who scared the crap out of both of us. After that, T was done, eyes pulled down behind her baseball cap. One thing I loved about this place was that it had it's own gift shop, called Ghoulish Things. This place was crammed with cool stuff.  ...

Jake Kelly is launching what is perhaps the most wonderful Halloween book I have ever seen. This pre-order is called Haunted House: American Haunted House Advertisements of the 1970s and 1980s . I found his book on Instagram and I thank God I did. I would have been heartbroken if I had missed it. This is so right up my alley that it's a wonder I didn't produce it myself. Seriously, this is the stuff that keeps me up on the internet well past the midnight hour, just looking for cool local Halloween stuff from across this great nation... As a kid in the '80s, when we would eat at McDonald's in October they would have these tray sheets, and I would just stare at all of the black and white Halloween ads there. I was captivated. One of my favorites was the Gray Charles Haunted House directly across the street from our McDs. It was such a cool ad with just a skeleton on it. But it kept my attention. Preordered! And it should arrive before Halloween 2026! Get your copy here . ...

Witches. They are one of my favorite icons of Halloween culture. Jack-o'-lanterns, vampires, ghosts, they are all a part of this wonderful holiday filled with myth and legend that's been around for hundreds of years. Witches are old! Their lore goes back to around the time Rome ruled the world. As for the broomstick-riding witch, well that's still quite old, but not that old. Le Bafana, also Italian, is not a witch, though you'd be forgiven for thinking her one. I think she's even dubbed the Christmas witch, but she is more of a folklore legend. Bafana is not evil; in fact, she was invited by the Magi, who were lost, to walk with them to see the baby Jesus. She is an old crone with a broom, and she sweeps the house as an allegory for sweeping away the old problems and troubles of the past year. Italy has no Santa Clause for Christmas, and so Bafana is there Christmas herald. And while she looks like a textbook witch, she is far from the evil witch we know in America...

In the late 1980s Eastpoint Mall had these large, square brick water fountains that anchored each corner. I remember sitting on the edge, the air-conditioned bricks cool on my bare legs, and staring into the glittering pool of wasted pocket change and dreams. I would ask my mom for a penny to toss in, after making a secret wish. And then another. It was addictive, once I learned all you had to do to get whatever my heart desired was to toss a penny into the fountain! This has been a memory that has stayed with me since that first wish. It was just announced, and confirmed, that at the end of August 2026 Eastpoint Mall would shut down forever. The mall is already a shadow of its former self. All the good stores have long ago left--most went out of business--but now it will permanently close and become razed soon. A piece of Dundalk history and legend will be erased from time and space like so much of the town lately...

That word, Nostalgia. It used to signal comfort food of the soul for me personally. Today, that word, Nostalgia, ensures depression, and longing for a home I can never return to. The word, nostalgia , has become a neurosis, triggered by things I love and used for escape from the world. My brain's inability to comprehend time on such a large scale, such as decades that have passed in what felt like years, has provided me with an unwelcome loneliness. We used to have warm, yellow street lamps, and now we have these cold, lifeless, sterile white LED street lamps on every corner. The differences are stark, and we have lost something with the "upgrade" to cost-effective LEDs. I am having difficulties describing how awful the change has been. The feeling of home, once again, was in the warmth of those old sodium vapor lamps and now our neighborhoods are lit with hospital lights. These bright lights cut straight through to my soul while on my evening summer walks. The Dundalk I ...

In 1988 or 1989 I walked into a comic book shop for the first time with my parttime friend and parttime nemesis Mike Shupe. Mindbridge was a tight and narrow LCS, with a counter on the right as you walked inside. On the left were racks of new issues, and there I picked up my first comic book, Detective Comics #587 August 1998. Norm Breyfogle's art caught my eye and wouldn't give it back. Batman, standing in the rain in the middle of an alley, cape billowing with lightning streaking through the sky, became my favorite superhero in the instant I picked the issue up. Also on the wall also sat back issues of The Dark Knight Returns , Batman Year One , and Batman Arkham Asylum, A Serious House on Serious Earth . I could tell immediately all of these books were above my pay grade. I hated Frank Miller's art on the Dark Knight. It would take decades for me to fall in love with that book. At this point in my 10 or 11 years on Earth I preferred the comic book-y style of art of Norm...