Be the strange you want to see in the world.
— clarkekant

What’s really scary about guys with cobwebs tattooed on their elbows is that you don’t know where the spider is.
— AinsleyofAttack

The worst thing about getting cooties is having to contact all your old freeze tag partners
— FilthyRichmond

My new favorite thing to do at work is slip a kid $20 while his parents aren’t looking and quietly whisper: “This is from your real father.”
— wheatnik

I wouldn’t be so scared of spiders if they were wearing tiny shoes.
— Just_Alison

I think it would be a shame if Bruce Willis doesn’t have “He was dead the whole time” written on his tombstone.
— NickadooLA

“YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME?” – A very annoying leper.
— BDGarp

I bet Michael J. Fox is just shaking his head at this new Teen Wolf.
— thesulk

“Glenn, don’t put me in any more songs.” — Glenn Danzig’s mother
— juliussharpe

Next time you see someone with freckles, try not to picture a tentacle erupting out of each one.
— sween

I blogged about Speleobooks’ bat merchandise a while back, and it appears that when I wasn’t looking they went and got even MOAR bat merchandise.

So much, in fact, that they’ve spun off a whole new site to showcase it. Their “bat friendly and bat positive goods” include clothing, jewelry, toys, home accessories, and lots more. Since bats so often get bad press, it’s nice to see a store that casts them in a positive light.

I also love that they brand themselves as “one source chiroptera shopping;” heaven knows you don’t want to run all over the place to fulfill your chiroptera needs.

Metal covers of decidedly un-metal songs crack me the hell up.

Belle Helmets – Striking hand-painted bike helmets, with designs like phrenology, brains, tarot cards, and crop circles.

Kitschy Living – Photoblog that is just all kinds of weird.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Thriller/fantasy novel illustrated with weird “vintage” photographs, about an abandoned orphanage where children may have been quarantined for good reason.

Rat Fashion Show – Fancy rats, wearing fancy clothes. Rats are awesome.

The Frankenhood – Knitting pattern for a Frankensteinian hood, complete with light-up neck bolts. (The pattern is on Ravelry, which requires registration, so I’m linking to the CRAFT post about it instead.)

Gargoyles and Grotesques: Part 2 – A second photo roundup from Dark Roasted Blend.

ShapeLock – Seriously cool “design plastic” that melts in hot water, can be sculpted as desired, and reused as often as you like. This would be great for 3-D mockups.

Dark Tourism – Article which discusses the practice of visiting “sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme.”

Monsties – Ridiculously cute little crocheted monsters.

Blood Oath – Book about the exploits of a vampire in the service of the U.S. government, or what amounts to “Jack Bauer with fangs.” There’s also a newly-released sequel, The President’s Vampire.

p.s. – I’m going to be dragged, kicking and shrieking, away from the computer for a week. Due to the magic of scheduled posting blogging will continue as usual, but if you email and I don’t respond I’m not ignoring you. (Or…am I? Muwahahahaha.)

The subtitle of this post is, “Yankee Candle is a bunch of lying weasels.”

The Boney Bunch is a fantastically popular collection of skeletal candles and accessories, and last year Yankee Candle claimed that they were going to go out on a high note and discontinue the line after the 2010 offering.

Loyal commenter wildeprose occasionally provides updates on the old thread, and recently alerted us thusly:

HELLO ALL!!!!! We are fast approaching 2011 Halloween season @ Yankee!!!! I haven’t had access to online in a couple weeks so I wasnt able to come here and mention as soon as I heard!!!!!
GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!?! Boney Bunch IS going to be back again!!!! I know I had mentioned last year that it was going to be the last year…..HOWEVER, as I also mentioned that the company has begun to be VERY sneaky with this collection!!!! It has been SUCH A CRAZE!!!!! SOOO yes, they tricked me as well!!!! But guess what?!?!?! They tricked the employees as well…they just wanted everyone to realize the limited amounts of the collections that come out each year….and to create a BUZZ!!!!!
I havent quite heard much about them this year, but will be hearing very soon some details!!! As in the past I will give the info as soon as I get it…and based on the past couple years, I have been getting the info before anyone yet!!!!!!
STAY TUNED!!!!!

and followed up with:

Hello All!
They are being VERY SNEAKY even now! The stores that have been saying when the “Halloween Preview Party” was going to be are now being elusive! I should be hearing some info VERY SOON! It has trended that I get info about the pieces the first week of July! BE ON THE LOOK OUT!

So apparently they were just funnin’ us on the whole discontinued-product thing in an effort to drive up demand. Huh.

On the plus side, the series is cute and as long as you’re not suckered into spending too much (particularly for sold-out pieces on eBay; woof) they’re a nice option for a gothy wedding or housewarming gift.

Thanks to wildprose for keeping us in the loop!

Over at Whatever, John Scalzi posted a goth haiku written by his daughter and then dared his commenters to try and out-goth a 12-year-old. They responded in force.

Some are humorous:

I am a mistake
A mere accident of fate
“Oops, I think it broke”

Some are genuinely pretty dark:

The blood beads up, bright.
Think I’ll carve another gash:
Maybe feel this one.

Next I think they should tackle goth limericks. (“There once was a bat from Nantucket….”)

Here’s a super-simple way to give a plain dress shirt a whimsically gothic facelift. If you can sew on a button and do a plain backstitch, you can whip this up in a couple of hours. (Click thumbnail for bigger.)

You will need:

• Buttoned dress shirt, white or some other light color
• Black buttons the same size as the shirt’s buttons
• Black embroidery floss
• Grey or silver embroidery floss
• Thread

1. Remove the buttons from the dress shirt and sew the black buttons in their place.
2. Use the black floss to embroider spider legs around each buttonhole (it helps to button the shirt to figure out where to place the legs).
3. Use the grey floss to embroider a spiderweb on the pocket (or, if the shirt doesn’t have a pocket, on a corner of the collar): Stitch intersecting straight lines and then stitch a widening spiral. Here are some easy instructions if you aren’t sure what you’re doing.
4. If desired, stitch an extra button to the web and embroider legs on it as well.

Done! Couldn’t be easier.

There’s a whole series.

(via Rechelle Unplugged)

Corpse Bride Cosplay – I have no idea if this is cosplay or an actual wedding (most likely the former), but it’s quite well done.

Three books that look great for Steampunk inspiration:
1,000 Steampunk Creations
Steampunk Emporium
Steampunk Style Jewelry

Haunted House – Adorable little polymer clay decoration.

Designs by Janessa – Jewelry cast from fingerprints. Interesting idea for a keepsake piece.

Monster Page Corner Bookmarks – Easy tutorial. Instead of generic monster teeth and googly eyes you could substitute fangs, red eyes, tentacles, and so forth to turn them into the creature of your choice.

Morning Valley Soaps – Etsy shop which offers perfumes and soaps inspired by things like Sherlock Holmes and Absinthe.

Ravenmania – YouTube user inexcapable has a pet raven which he videos saying random things. The bird croaking Nevermore is somewhat portentous…until he follows up by going, “Wocka-wocka-wocka.” (Hat tip to WitchArachne)

Mental Disorder Posters – Interesting set of “minimalist” posters designed to raise awareness of various mental disorders.

Creatures & Ives – Photoblog art project wherein whimsically blobby little monsters are inserted into old lithographs.

Cinderella Skeleton – An attractively-illustrated retelling of Cinderella for grades 3-7. Cinderella Skeleton lives with her stepmother Skreech and stepsisters Gristlene and Bony-Jane, and spends her days streaking windows, hanging cobwebs, and feeding bats until an invitation for the Halloween Ball arrives.

io9 has a neat gallery of “geeky” wedding invitations, many of which are also gothy, such as these zombies and this whimsical skeleton.

Several commenters chimed in with their own material, including member glamzuki whose wedding was based on favorite movies. The save-the-date is just splendid:

I particularly like this because it’s altered text on actual movie artwork (although I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the movie this was from). Even if you don’t have the artistic ability–and can’t afford to pay someone who does have the artistic ability–to create completely original artwork, if you’ve got some rudimentary Photoshop skills you can turn existing art into something quite clever.