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One of the benefits of being a vendor at a Halloween market is that you never know who your neighbour will be. Mine was James Fisher.

Fisher is a local artist and creator of Rue Morgue Magazine's "Disfigures of Speech" column. The print I purchased - pictured right - is from that collection.

Fisher is also the creative mastermind behind Zircocircus.com where you'll find links to more of his artwork and illustrations, along with some macabre melodies he's put together. I know a number of you folks are looking for new music to use in your haunts, and this might be the fresh sound you're looking for to replace some of your stale standbys. You can hear some samples on his myspace page.

With both prints and CDs priced at $10, you can't go wrong.

Fisher spent the whole day sketching the faces of lucky customers onto prints of delicious monstrosities (so the head of the customer was now atop a skeletal form, or a creature, or even decapitated). By the afternoon, it was rare to see his portrait chair empty.

And on top of it all, he's a nice guy. Offered me some of his pasta, gave me his sunglasses to wear when the sun was melting my eyeballs, and entertained me with friendly conversation.

Quick reminder that I will be at the Bazaar of the Bizarre today. I hope to see some of you there!

Artists, clothing designers, craft-folk, publishers and other independent makers of all things exotic, whimsical and macabre are encouraged to join us for this eccentric emporium of curious crafts.

11 to 7, Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 6 Noble Street (North off Queen St, west of Dufferin) in Toronto.

The 7th Annual Toronto Zombie Walk is happening Saturday Oct. 24th. It will start at 3:30pm at Trinity Bellwoods Park (by the pit bordered by Dundas St. and Gore Vale Ave). It goes all the way to Bathurst and Bloor.

I'm elbow-deep in projects for my show on Sunday (not to mention Halloween plotting), so I'm not sure I'll be able to make this one. But I did donate a copy of Brains Vs. Copy to the cause!

Update: Great pictures from blogto.com of this year's event.

I was recently given a generous offer by someone: decorate a store for Halloween (using my private collection of decorations) and they will sell my items for two weeks.

I've never decorated a store, so I had to come up with some logical guidelines pretty quick for myself:

• Keep everything up and out of the way
• Don't detract from the products or block them
• Items must be fairly small (shelves were 1 foot deep)
• Set up and take down must be easy (and not messy especially since it's during store hours)
• Choose items that match the style of the store and are LESS likely to offend

That last point was even more important when I found out they were going to be inspected by a bigwig in the company in the next week. While the employees were excited for some bloody severed heads and cocoon victims, I didn't think the manager of the store (or the big suits coming to inspect the store) would be so keen.

I tried to post pictures on twitter all night, but in case you missed some of the fun, I thought I would post them here along with my favourite images that have yet to be shared.

It was a long night. I'm not sure what I am doing up so early.

But it was fun.

I love seeing the entire city transformed into a strange world of light and colour. And seeing hordes of people on the street at two in the morning. Now if only I could convince them to do the same thing but with a strictly Halloween/horror theme...

Speaking of which, there was less spookiness this year, which is fine, but as I plotted my course I couldn't help but lament their absence.

Highlights this year was an unexpected free ride on the top of a double decker sightseeing bus that shuttled people to the lower east side of the city from downtown. The bus driver was not timid in his manoeuvring through the intersections, adding to the thrills (and chills. It was freezing up there!).

It's that time again. Time for Nuit Blanche. For one sleepless night experience the city transformed by close to 500 artists for Toronto's fourth annual sunset to sunrise celebration of contemporary art. Discover art in galleries, museums and unexpected places. From churches and grocery stores to chimney stacks and bus stations, choose from 130 projects and chart your own path.

And it's all free.

Here's a few installations that caught my eye:

Ghost Chorus – Dirge for Dead Slang: sights and sounds of Ghost Chorus – Dirge for Dead Slang rise up into the trees and into the ears of onlookers, rubberneckers and passers-by. These ghostly apparitions raise their voices to the driving melancholic baseline from the beyond to revivify outmoded slang of the long and recent past. See the dead rise to life! Hear the dead rise to life! Sing. Sing. Sing.

Ghosts not your thing? What about witches?

Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.

I think Linus would have approved of the pumpkin patch I went to yesterday. Some of the larger pumpkins were the size of a crouched adult. Beautiful orbs of orange.

I went on a road trip north to Shakespeare ON yesterday to deliver books to Colleen at the Brew Garden Street Side Cafe. While the crisp clean air and the various colours that now crown the trees up north are signs of the start of the season for me, it indicates the closing of the cafe for Colleen until next spring.

Shakepeare ON is a very small town. Standing on the main street, you can see the beautiful houses must have been built over a 100 years ago. Antique stores are popular, and across from Colleen is an artist space. Not a bad place to live (or have your book sold!).

There aren't that many Haunters in Ontario (or at least, not as many as I'd like there to be). The group is small enough that most haunt enthusiasts in the province know (or know of) each other. And last month we lost someone in our Halloween circle.

I never met Bruce from Stittsville Haunt. I never got to see his haunt in person. I only knew him through a handful of emails and some contributions to a mailing list I'm part of. But he was one of those people I had on my list of haunters I'd like to meet one day.

He was the first Ontario haunter who reached out to me when I had just put up my website. I could not let his passing go unnoticed on this blog.

Here is the message from Sherry on the website:

For the past 10 years, my husband, Bruce and I have hosted the Stittsville Haunt. It has been a exercise of love for our community and an expression of his passion that I willingly supported. On August 23rd, Bruce passed away very suddenly. Regretfully, I will not be able to continue with the Haunt. It is simply impossible to build it without him. I respectfully ask that our loyal fans and supporters continue to help the foodbank at this time of year and send your food donations via the local grocery stores. Bruce would have wanted that. Many have made cash donations in his memory to the Ottawa Foodbank; just indicate in memory of Bruce Evely, creator of the Stittsville Haunt. Please pass this along to friends and family who usually visited us. I want to thank you all for your support over the years, for the compliments, for the squeals of delight and the screams of terror. It was all worth it for us when we heard you. God bless. Sherry

Living in the Toronto area? Did you miss an opportunity to get one of my pumpkins, little hooters, a copy of Brains Vs Coffee or a peekaboo eyeball plant? Do not fret.

The artist who had a table behind me at Festival of Fear was the person behind the strange creatures on The Bird Behind the Mask.

Sarah Legault has the most delightfully surreal little minions milling about in her mind, and lucky for us she captures a few of them on paper.

Characters like Twig Boy (pictured right), or Vincent P. Usher (pictured below), an eccentric with a bird for a best friend (despite his phobia of birds).

Although you'll find her in London, Ontario, you don't have to live in the area to purchase her work. You can choose from one of her prints that are all affordable - a down right steal - at $5 a piece.

I was a fool not to pick up the beautiful red t-shirt of the Vincent P. Usher character she had on her table. I hope to rectify that mistake in the future.