The Art of Darkness

A Fine and Pleasant Link Dump

July 28th, 2017 by Cobwebs

Santa as Disease Vector – A Twitter thread that asks a question nobody ever thinks about. (See also the same author’s thread on making saltwater taffy.)

Cute Rat Photos – Diane Özdamar photographs rats looking particularly adorable in an effort to spruce up their negative image. They are, indeed, adorable.

Sex with Demons Was Totally Chill Until the Church Ruined It – Probably NSFW.

@ravenmaster1 – The Tower of London’s Ravenmaster has a Twitter account.

Stuffed Pizza Skulls – Something else to do with your skull cupcake pans.

Pictures of Death – Article about early postmortem photography.

Donate to Bat World Sanctuary – If the sanctuary out-raises all the other charities in this event, Macy’s will add $100,000 to their total. Spare a buck to save a bat.

Strange Practice – A novel concerning Dr. Greta Van Helsing, physician to the supernatural. The author describes her “Big Idea” here.

Most Bizarre Tales of People Being Possessed – A roundup.

Embroidered Moth Soft Sculptures – The artist is selling a few of her embroidered moths. They’re just lovely.

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The Link Dump of the Ancient Mariner

July 21st, 2017 by Cobwebs

Release the Choctopus – Man About Cake created an astonishing octopus wedding cake. (A cake shaped like an octopus, not a cake for an octopus who’s getting married. Just in case you were confused.)

The Best Demon Illustrations of All Time – Illustrations from the 1863 edition of the Dictionnaire Infernal. I may disagree with the article’s author on what constitutes “the stuff of nightmares;” I’d have half these things as pets. (Hat tip to Pixel Pixie)

Tasty Ancient Recipes from Mesopotamia – Interview with the author of a book of ancient recipes.

Against Big Bird, the Gods Themselves Contend in Vain – I aged out of Sesame Street well before 1983, so I had never even heard of this episode. I’m glad to see that the 70s-era Sesame Street vibe (“You can’t tell me that drugs weren’t involved”) lasted into the 80s. This is glorious.

@MagicWeather – Amusing Twitter feed that sounds like the weather channel in Night Vale. “Rain continues tomorrow, with a chance of flooding in some areas, a chance of banshees wailing in others.”

Calls for Cthulhu – A marvelous webseries featuring Cthulhu as the host of a phone-in TV show.

100 Demon Dialogues – Kickstarter for a comic about anxiety and self-doubt, personified by demons.

Barbie Dream Hearse – This candy pink-and-white hearse can be rented for parties.

Traditional Anniversary Gifts – An amusing list by Obvious Plant.

Luau – IMDb describes this early effort by Tim Burton as “a horrifying and touching movie about a tramp’s dream of fame” which is as good a description as any, I guess. Prepare to have your mind slightly boggled. That link goes to Part 1; parts 2 and 3 are here and here. (Hat tip to Pixel Pixie)

Posted in Link Dump | 5 Comments »

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Link Dump

July 14th, 2017 by Cobwebs

Omni Online – Omni was a seminal SF/F magazine, and there’s plenty of dark-and-spooky stories in its pages.

A Year Gardening the Grave of a Stranger – Atlas Obscura looks at “cradle graves” and the caretakers who garden them.

Dungeons and Doggos! – New webcomic about dogs playing D&D. (Hat tip to xJane)

Dark Stock Photos – Twitter feed of “Extremely fucked up stock photography.”

It’s October – I love this ‘toon’s punchline.

15 Reasons Why Living with Me is Like Having a Poltergeist – Many of us can relate.

Trick or Tarot – Kickstarter for an awesome tarot deck featuring vintage-y artwork. (Hat tip to Pixel Pixie)

Miss Alicia – Fruit bats nomming bananas will never not be adorable.

METAL RABBITS OF CHRIST – @BBolander tweeted a marvelous thread about the “bad Christian allegorical novel someone gave me at a young age about Jesus wolves & bears on thrones of skulls” and the link title is how one of her commenters described it. It is accurate.

The Intersection of Science Fiction and Horror – A look at why the two genera are so compatible.

Posted in Link Dump | 3 Comments »

Seen Online

July 11th, 2017 by Cobwebs

don’t insult bookworms by saying we only care about books. we also love huge country houses with hedge mazes and magical capes.
SketchesbyBoze

My therapist told me “Write letters to the people you hate, and then burn them.” Did that, but now I don’t know what to do with the letters.
LeftOf_Normal

[on my deathbed]
*with my last breath* if only I had named this bed differently
DaddyJew

BELLE: There goes the baker with his tray like always
BAKER: well there goes Belle, singing her DAILY MEAN SONG about us
DanaSchwartzzz

New moon tomorrow night. Plant things that flower in the dark: sweet potatoes, jasmine, curses invoking the forgotten angry dead.
NeolithicSheep

“What this person did was awesome. I hear they were marked by Fate. Is that so?”
“Definitely!” Fate said. “I mark everyone, just in case.”
MicroSFF

Prometheus, Arachne, Icarus — The moral of Greek myths is “Fuck you for trying.”
JenAshleyWright

Someone let me write the movie where a young woman archaeologist in ~1980s faces her greatest challenge: Thesis Advisor Indiana Jones
maxgladstone

The epilogue of Harry Potter should have just been 30 year old Harry forwarding dozens of cat videos to McGonagall like “is this u”
HogwartsLogics

why are there so many Spiderman movies but only two movies about children being murdered in a chocolate factory?
AudreyPorne

Posted in Funny Peculiar | 3 Comments »

Link Dumps Never Sleep

July 7th, 2017 by Cobwebs

Lovecrafters Toys – Etsy shop specializing in sex toys such as tentacle-shaped dildos. NSFW, donchaknow.

Octopus Decanter and Glass – I hate to link to Facebook, but this be-tentacled set of glassware is really cool and I can’t find a non-FB link.

Inspirobot – This ‘bot creates randomized inspirational quotes overlaid on random images in a soothing fashion and each and every one is comedy gold.

Dark Halloween Wedding – Photoshoot of an elegant all-black wedding.

9 Spiders and the Stars They Were Named After – I’m so glad that David Bowie has his own spider species. (Hat tip to Kitten Herder)

Beatrix Potter Illustrations – This Twitter thread made me giggle immoderately.

Shirley Jackson’s Sublime First Paragraph in ‘Hill House,’ Annotated – Random House’s copy chief explains why he adores the opening paragraph.

Rat Park – This isn’t exactly goth, but it involves rats and it’s a good description of an interesting experiment.

Can I Pet Your Werewolf? – Kickstarter for an anthology of, “goofy, cute, and sweet” werewolf stories.

Gothic Homemaking – Voltaire has a webseries devoted to goth home decor.

Posted in Link Dump | 3 Comments »