Indie Squid Kid

Halloween is nearly over, but I think I have time to squeeze in one last post. In case you haven’t noticed, I really like Halloween, and one of my favorite things about the holiday is that it gives me an excuse to make compilations of music about Halloween-themed topics such as horror, death, blood, black magic, and monsters. I try to make at least one a year, and there are eight of them so far. I’m constantly on the look out for new songs, and fortunately I see no signs that I will run out of material for new compilations any time soon! In this year’s mix I was pleased to include a small aquatic-themed section:

• Into the Water by Dethklok
• She-Devils of the Deep by Future Bible Heroes
• The Octopus Is Gonna Get You…Dad by Boss The Big Bit
• Creature From The Black Lagoon by The Happy, Happy Jihads

I also do a Halloween music show every year on my podcast. Today’s Halloween show is the fist episode of Random Signal I’ve recorded since June. I tell myself that this temporary hiatus is because of Kid Indie Kid Squid, but the fact that I started doing daily posts on this blog might also have something to do with it…

logo designed by Leah Riley

In theory, Random Signal is produced bi-monthly (on average) and I either host the show solo or with my wife Ryn Nasser. I usually describe the podcast as equal parts geek talk and indie rock—we talk about comics, movies, TV, books, cephalopods, etc., and each show usually features 3-5 songs by independent musicians. I actually do two Halloween-themed shows every year. One on Halloween proper, and one in April on tax day, which I have declared to be the holiday of Aprilween.

I now want to switch gears entirely and talk about cephalopod-themed jack-o-lanterns. I don’t know exactly why, but there seems to be a strong correlation between cephalopod appreciation and artistic talent (although I seem to buck that particular trend). Case-in-point, the following awesome jack-o-lanterns:

Ninja Squid! by Vicious Bits

Vampire Octopus by alexfiles

Cthulhu by Sketchy-Stories

Cthulhu by timailius

And in case you were wondering, our jack-o-lantern this year was sort of a goblin-bat kind of thing…not a cephalopod at all. I’m not completely single-minded!

As promised, here is a photo of this year’s Halloween costume!

Hobo #108: Cthulhu Carl

I realize this might require a little bit of an explanation, particularly if you are not familiar with works of John Hodgman. A modern classic, The Areas of My Expertise is a tome of fake trivia and made-up facts, and one of the many topics covered is that of hoboes—namely their near rise to power, and eventual planetary exodus, during the early decades of the 20th century. Included therein is the list of 700 hobo names, and name #108 on that list is “Cthulhu Carl.” Over the years, artistic interpretations of all 800 of the 700 hobo names (the paperback edition comes with an additional 100 hobo names, you see) have been produced, and you can see them all at E-hobo.com.

Incidentally, this is not my first Hodgman-inspired hobo costume. In the past I have also been Hobo Zero (#13), Fabulon Darkness (#275), and Doc Aquatic (#118).

So, about the costume…

I started at the “hobo baseline”—beard, knit-cap, plaid shirt, and old corduroy pants. (I would have also gone with fingerless gloves, but they were unnecessary for obvious reasons.) Next, I cut a head hole in some decorative netting and wore it like a sarape. Entangled within the net are an octopus, a squid, a crab, and a puffer fish. Funny story: the net came packaged with a real sea star, and as a result it had a strange odor…not quite “fishy,” but maybe “echinodermy??” It added an unexpected layer of olfactory authenticity!

Under my hat, I inserted three fronds from a plastic aquarium plant (the one that seemed to most resemble seaweed) to which I had hot-glued a plastic sea star and squid (you can’t really make them out in this photo, which is too bad). This had an added effect of making it look like I had really nasty dreadlocks.

And finally, the best part, the tentacle arm…

I made it out of one half of a pair of girl’s tights (I was hoping for green, but purple was an acceptable alternative), and a strip of suction cups cut from a bathtub mat. I simply cut a little hole for each suction cup and pulled it through. I’m actually kind of shocked that it worked as well as it did! And it was functional! See how the suction cups firmly grip my pint glass!

Happy Halloween!!!

In contrast to last night’s post about store-bought costumes (which were, admittedly, a little disappointing), here is an assortment of hand-crafted cephalopod costumes from the Flickr community.

Photo by atomicglassworks

Photo by stacy d

Photo by kiethbcg

Photo by baking with medusa

Photo by timsueocs

Photo by Jessemy

Photo by luminea

I’ve been working on my costume for our office Halloween party tomorrow, and, surprisingly, it came together fairly quickly. I’m keeping it a secret for now, but all we be revealed on Saturday!

In the meantime, here is a selection of store-bought cephalopod Halloween costumes:

Pirates of the Caribbean Davy Jones latex mask (by Party America, I think) from my local Halloween Express. The price tag is about $60, but you can get it for about half that on Amazon.

From the same Halloween Express, the full Davy Jones costume (this time by Disguise). In the store, it costs $99.99, but you can get it for $70 at BuyCostumes.com.

Cthulhu mask from Halloween-Mask.com. Currently out of stock.

This awesome tentacle arm was made by The Gaiastore, but tragically it no longer seems to be available. It retailed for a mere $15, so I’m not surprised it sold out!

Child’s octopus costume from Pottery Barn Kids. Retails for $59, but the current online price is $34.99.

Infant costume from CostumeExpress.com. Currently out of stock.

Discontinued “Stuck On You” octopus costume from BabyStyle.com.

Lastly we have “Lil’ Squirt,” which was made for Target by the Charles S. Anderson Design Co. Of all the children’s octopus costumes I’ve seen, this is the one I’d most like to get for Kid Indie Squid Kid. Unfortunately, it was only available for one season several years ago.

The “Return of the Giant Tentacle” Monster Gummy by Flix Candy is a foot and half of sugary artificial blue raspberry-flavored awesomeness. It is part of the Horror Flix Mutant Gummy Creatures line along with “Attack of the Giant Centipede” and “Revenge of the Giant Earthworm,” and all three are available at Walgreens (and probably other drug store chains as well?).

In case you were wondering, the entire thing is 480 calories, and the recommended Serving Size is 1/3 Piece, or, by my count, ~27 suckers.

I have Jonathan Wojcik at Blogleech.com to thank for making me aware of the existence of this gummy monstrosity. Blogleech is my kind of website. It is part Halloween blog, part catalog of weird and wonderful animals (including an awesome section about cephalopods!), and part online shrine to the most amazing collection of toy monsters I have ever seen. Seriously, I thought I was an obsessive collector, but Blogleech puts any of my paltry collections to shame.

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2 (April, 1994)

If there was one threat that Mike Mignola’s paranormal (literally!) investigator is best equipped to fight, it would be…Nazi cyborg gorillas. If there were two things, it would be Nazi cyborg gorillas and giant tentacle monsters! Yes, Hellboy always seems right at home giving the big red smack down to our suckery friends. Granted, these betentacled creatures usually want to eat Hellboy, and the world, in that order, so I guess you really can’t blame him.

The comic depicted above (written and drawn by Mignola, of course) is the second issue of the original Hellboy mini-series. I won’t go into the plot here (Wikipedia has a concise synopsis), but the tentacle monster in question is Sadu-Hem, one of the 369 Ogdru Hem—spawn of the demonic Ogdru Jahad, who lie imprisoned in the heart of the abyss waiting for the day when they will devour the Earth. As you might surmise, Sadu-Hem is one of the bad guys.

Hellboy goes on to battle many foes, with and without tentacles, and his ongoing story is still being published by Dark Horse Comics. Hellboy vs. tentacles is a popular theme of Hellboy fan art, such as the awesome image below by Nick Derington (via Flickr).

"Hellboy vs. Tentacles" by Nick Derington

We interrupt Halloween Week to bring you this exciting news bulletin:

Sperm Whales have finally been photographed feeding on Giant Squids!

It has long been known that the Giant Squid was on the menu of Physeter macrocephalus, the Sperm Whale, but the legendary encounter has never been captured on film. Before the first specimens of Architeuthis were described by science, whalers would find their remains among the stomach contents of harvested Sperm Whales, and those whales would sometimes bear enormous sucker scars. There were even reports from sailors who claim to have witnessed the two leviathans locked in mortal combat, and the image of squid vs. whale has become iconic.

Underwater photographer Tony Wu photographed a pod of six whales—five adults and a calf—in the waters off Japan’s Ogasawara Islands (the same area where scientists filmed a living Giant Squid for the first time back in 2005). Dr Mark Norman speculates that the adults were in the process of teaching the young whale how to dive and hunt for food. Recovered nearby was one of the squid’s 3.5 meter long tentacles.

See these amazing photos at The Daily Mail Online.

It’s an octopus with a human skull for a body! I’m not sure what else needs to be (or can be) said.

Available as men’s, women’s, and kid’s tees in various shades of green ($15.99-$18.99).

Buy it from The Cotton Factory

I can’t think of a better way to kick off Halloween Week than with a look at Vampyrotheuthis infernalis, the enigmatic deep-sea cephalopod whose name literally means “vampire squid from hell!”

V. infernalis is the only known living representative of the Order Vampyromorphida, and, despite the common name “Vampire Squid,” it is considered a closer relative to the Octopoda (octopuses) than the Decapodiformes (squids and cuttlefish). It is also not actually a vampire, but this small (~1 foot long) cephalopod is still wonderfully creepy.

Here’s why…

• It lives in the lightless ocean depths (2,000-3,000 ft.)
• Its body has a jellyfish-like gelatinous consistency
• Its color ranges from jet-black to blood-red
• It has eight webbed arms, tipped with suckers and lined with fleshy spines (called cirri), and two retractable sensory filaments
• When threatened, it inverts its “cloak” so that the cirri point outwards in a menacing fashion
• Adults have two ear-like fins, but during development there is stage where they have four, a condition unique among cephalopods
• Its skin is covered with light-producing photophores, as are its unpigmented arm tips, which can also produce a luminescent cloud of glowing particles suspended in a mucus matrix
• Its milky-blue eyes have sphincter-like “eye lids”

The Vampire Squid is sometime referred to as a “phylogenetic relict” because it possesses features thought to have been shared by the primitive ancestors of both octopuses and squids. Fossils from Middle Jurassic deposits in France indicate that vampyromorphids go back at least 165 million years.

Large Plush Squid Hat/Pillow - Blue

I’ve been meaning to blog about Obey My Brain Creations for quite a while now, ever since my friend Xtina sent me the link to his Etsy shop several months ago. However, it was Leah Riley’s recent post on her blog that convinced me to get off my ass and talk about squid hats.

OMB squid hats are, to put it simply, RAD. It’s as if a squid is trying to eat your head! They also can double as pillows, so you can get a good night’s sleep after a night out on the town.

Here are the specs for the large size hat:

Designed to fit snugly to an 22.5″ head circumference, it is stretchy enough to fit an inch or so larger.
Body: 16 inches
Arms: 14 inches
Tentacles: 24 inches

Made from 100% polyester fleece and filled with clean/safe polyester filling. The eyes have fleece details.

$49.99 USD

There is a slightly smaller medium size ($34.99), and a variety of available colors in both sizes (blue, pink, yellow, and tie-died purple at the time of this writing). For a mere $6, you can get a pair of plush bulgy eyes to accessorize your squid!

He also offers a plush octopus hat, some Cthulhu-themed art, and lots of other stuff featuring sharks, robots, mushrooms and more!

This post is also serves as the unofficial start of this week’s theme…Halloween!!!