Among all the other projects bouncing around in my brain during the Halloween season, putting together a new costume is always one of the priorities.

In my 31 years, I haven't missed an opportunity for costuming yet. As a kid, my mom helped put together my outfits, often sewing some or all of it. Once I hit the adolescent years and trick-or-treating was a bit frowned on for my age, my costume efforts waned. Admittedly, a few of them were rather weak. But as an adult, my interest in creative costumes was reborn, the more unique the better.

Coming up with a concept is never difficult. At any given time, I probably have 3 or 4 ideas for things I'd like to be in the future. I don't do word-play concept costumes. I don't dress as inanimate objects. I prefer to inhabit a character for the night. To be someone (or something) else. And not an everyday cop, prisoner, or doctor. My costumes usually involve morphing into some type of creepy human(oid).

I never buy pre-made costumes. I prefer to put together something unique, from many parts. Some pieces bought, but often built too. Sometimes I have to rush my costume a bit, if things get busy around here and time is limited. But I don't think the look suffers much, because I usually start planning it in my head many months prior. Even now I have a potential list of parts to buy for next year's costume.

From year to year, the costumes vary. If there was something particularly challenging about the previous year's costume, I like to give myself a break from that aspect. Example: my Patch Master scarecrow costume was quite cumbersome, with it's tall hat, long coat, oversized gloves, and face covering mask. So the next year I was Shaun of the Dead... who basically looks like me, with a red tie. But making that gore splattered cricket bat sure was a bloody good time.

This year, my costume is nearly complete. As is typical, I was able to creatively recycle certain parts of old costumes, turning them into something entirely different. One of the perks of collecting 30 years of costume pieces. But I also picked up some unique props to compliment the look too, so it should turn out to be a pretty charming beast.

While we wait to see what my 2009 alter ego looks like, let's take a walk down memory lane and dwell upon my three decades of disguise.

Each year I create a new illustration of a Zombie Pumpkin. These little guys serve as the mascot for the season, appearing on the site, t-shirts, fliers, and maybe even haunting your nightmares.

They are often some visualization of that year's theme. For example, for 2009's "Dawn of the Zombie Pumpkins!" title I wanted a warm design, to convey the feeling of the sun's morning rays. The heat idea eventually translated into design elements like hellish burnt scrolls licked by flames.

But back to the mascot, the face you see peering of the top over this page like breaking dawn on the horizon. I knew I wanted a mostly symmetrical face, to represent the rising sun. And a flame in his head was another idea bouncing around in mine. But the rest was yet to spring from my mind.

So as with most of my cartoon drawings, I just started with a very loose sketch. Drawing with my Wacom graphics tablet, I redrew the pumpkin face several times. Refining each new version, I progressively added more details, and made my lines more specific.

Once I was satisfied with the sketch, I retraced it with vectors, thickened the lines, added color, shading, and highlights. And just like that, another Zombie Pumpkin is born.

Scroll over the numbered "Step" links to view the progress from rough sketch to final design:

Step 01 Step 02 Step 03 Step 04 Step 05 Step 06 Step 07 Step 08 Step 09 Step 10 Step 11 Step 12 Step 13 Step 14 Step 15 Step 16

Every winter you'll hear Christmas carols played on every radio station, in all the department stores, and as backing tracks of so many television advertisements. Unfortunately Halloween doesn't get the same aural exposure. Songs like Thriller, Monster Mash and the Addam's Family theme are all classics, but I crave more. So over the years I've been amassing quite a collection of terror tunes.

Every Halloween season (which for me is September - October) I put all these bone shaking tracks into heavy rotation. Do I get weird looks when people overhear me jamming to a punk cover of the Ghostbusters theme in early September? Sure, but I don't care. After all, this is my job!

While there are many horror themed artists, it's always nice to come across a song that is specifically about the holiday, and destined to become an annual Halloween anthem for the ages. Enter shock rocker Alice Cooper, with his new single "Keepin' Halloween Alive."

"At home my family all gathers around an old spooky tree decorated with skulls and bones in the living room, and we exchange gifts," says Cooper. "It's our holiday. We even all have matching black-and-orange Halloween sweaters! I wanted a theme song for people like me, and for us Halloween never ends. In the chorus I say, 'I'm keepin' Halloween alive, baby, 3-6-5'... and I mean it!"

Available exclusively on iTunes, if you head over to Alice's Halloween site you can listen to the track and follow the links to purchase.

You just know I just have to love a song that starts and ends with the lyrics, "I'll keep my jack-o-lantern light on for everyone tonight!"