Zombie are a popular theme for t-shirt designs. Well actually, they’re a grossly popular theme for just about everything (like pumpkin patterns!) Threadless always has a wide collection of great user-submitted designs, and several have included the undead. And here’s yet another.

Titled “The Horde” this tee depicts a scene you’ve probably seen in some zombie movies or video games. To all of you that say zombies aren’t scary because they’re so dumb and slow, try to tell me how you’d get out of this one. Your buckshot and chainsaw fuel will only go so far.

Rue Morgue Magazine is celebrating a lucky 13 years, and their epic 100th issue. To commemorate this, they’ve compiled a collection of creepy cuts and terror tunes, featuring some of the world’s most ghoulish bands.

The album is called Rue Morgue Radio Presents… Hymns from the House of Horror! and some of my favorites are on here, including The Creepshow, Ghoultown, Creature Feature, Midnight Syndicate, The Ghastly Ones, and more.

If you’re not familiar with these bands, let this be your chance to get acquainted. Did I mention, this album is FREE? Download it while you can.

With the release of the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake happening today, many sites have recently been posting special Freddy content. April seems to be the month of Krueger.

I’m a big fan of the series (after all, I made not 1 but 2 Freddy Krueger pumpkin patterns) and wanted to comment on the original franchise. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen these movies. Some I may not have even seen in their entirety.

So I dove into my DVD collection and watched every one in order. To keep them straight in my head, I wrote up a mini review for each. So join me on this guided tour of Elm Street, and try to stay awake…

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The remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is just a week away. Wondering what the pioneering boogeyman thinks? Take a look at this quick clip of Robert Englund, speaking at the Monster Mania con last summer. With this hopeful and diplomatic response, sounds like the original Freddy is (resting) at peace with Hollywood’s ways.

Joel Robinson is a full-time horror and comic book artist specializing in character portraiture. Pick any famous movie monster and chances are Joel has crafted a gritty digital painting of said character. Everyone from the Tallman to the Candyman. He’s immortalized many of Vince Price’s roles, as well as every single Jason Vorhees. Check out artpusher.net to feast your eyes on more of his work, if you dare.

Most of us know The Addams Family as a black-and-white sitcom that ran for two seasons in the mid-60′s. A younger generation might be more familiar with the early-90′s movies. The family took on cartoon form in both the 70′s and 90′s. And this year the Addams clan even became a Broadway musical.

Before all of that though, the Addams Family was a single panel cartoon. The brainchild of Charles Addams, the comic was first published in The New Yorker in 1938.

But yet another incarnation is on the horizon. A 3D stop-motion animated version, to be directed by Tim Burton. This no doubt comes as great news to his fans, who look forward to being treated to another dose of typically twisted and macabre Burton style. But for everyone else, well… I can hear the collected groan of “Here we go again.”

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A creative design agency aims to make a splash (or at least a splatter) in the advertising market with this bloodthirsty stationery. Zombies are being stabbed with staples, torn with tabs, cleaved with compact discs.

Unfortunately, most of us won’t get a chance to write ransom letters on this gory paper. It’s corporate letterhead for Germany’s most famous crime and horror channel, 13th Street. Puncturing paper has never been such bloody good fun.

Recent zombie culture has made viewers accustomed to a speedy zombie, with productions like Dawn of the Dead (2004), 28 Days Later, Dead Set, Left 4 Dead and Zombieland.

But it wasn’t always so. Traditionally a zombie is a slow-moving, groaning, shuffling corpse. After all, their body tissues are decomposing, right? Which is why the movie Shaun of the Dead stayed true to the classic image of the undead.

See, Simon Pegg knows his zombies. He knows about Haitian voodoo folklore. He knows that George Romero introduced the modern movie zombie. He knows the these monsters didn’t crave brains until Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead. And Pegg paid homage to the Romero-style ghoul in his own black comedy.

So who better than zed-word purist Pegg to pontificate on the debate of slow vs. fast zombies:

“Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable. Death is a disability, not a superpower. It’s hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.”

He makes more great points in this 2008 Guardian article, The Dead and the Quick. Give it read and see if you agree that a speed limit should be enforced on the walking dead.

With such a seasonal specific site, people often suggest that I branch out into other holidays. Thanksgiving isn’t too much of a stretch, since pumpkins are still associated with that harvest feast day. But Christmas isn’t known for pumpkins, and it’s far more jolly than spooky (unless Jack Skellington is involved). And holidays like New Years and Valentine’s Day are even further removed.

But that’s not going to stop me from making some new patterns anyway. We’ve already seen the mean green Leprechaun pop up this month, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. And now we’re a week away from Easter. Do you think we can bring the zombies back to life on this resurrection day?

The main question is, what should we carve during these spring months? Over the years, all sorts of materials have been used with Zombie Pumpkins patterns. Wood, metal, plastic, glass, and paper. Food items are often a target for stenciled decor too. I’ve seen everything from cakes and pies, to peppers and lemons.

But now the art of pumpkin carving is taking a direct stab at Easter, with the availability of carvable foam eggs at Michaels craft stores.

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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).

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