Halloween | Cavalcade of Awesome

Archive for Halloween

AWESOME-tober-fest 2013 starts tomorrow!

Posted in Halloween, holiday, Jones Soda, soda with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday, Jones Soda, retail, snacks, soda on September 30, 2013 by Paxton

Well, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: ZOMBIES!! officially begins tomorrow. You can expect an article every weekday throughout the month of October. I’m excited for Halloween this year, I think I have a lot of good, fun articles for you so I hope you enjoy it. As you can see, I’ve already decorated for the season!

Today, as sort of a pre-game show, I thought I’d look at a few of the Halloween retail items I’ve found lurking in the local store. Some interesting stuff.

First and foremost, Jones has returned this year after an absence with more Halloween sodas. The flavors this year are Blood Orange, Red Licorice, Caramel Apple and Candy Corn. Two of these flavors I’ve already had in the past. If we look back at AWESOME-tober-fest 2008 I reviewed the Candy Corn flavor. I don’t think I liked it. I believe I said it tasted like “…spoiled maple syrup poured through a dirty sweat sock…” I tasted the Caramel Apple the year before in an article about oddly flavored sodas like Dr Brown’s Cel-Ray and Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge. I believe I said that flavor tasted like “…sun tan lotion mixed with burnt maple syrup…” So, Jones isn’t necessarily hitting it out of the park with these so far. Blood Orange is a tangier orange flavored soda and red licorice is way too sweet and thick to be described as anything but “sugar coma inducing”. So while I love the effort and the packaging, Jones, I’m not loving the execution.

Big League Chew is one of my childhood favorites. And I love this Halloween themed packaging. Howlin’ Original and Gruesome Grape flavors aren’t new or formulated for the holiday, but I like the Halloweeny makeover. I believe there’s another one with a vampire/Dracula character, but I couldn’t find it.

Ghoul-Aid has been around since the 80s. Usually only offered in certain markets and usually only around Halloween. I have some of the original mixes but it seems the flavor is making a resurgence. You can find single packets on shelves again and now Kool-Aid Jammers have their own Scary Blackberry flavor. I was so excited to finally find this. I’ll be sucking these things down all month.

Continue reading →

AWESOME-tober-fest 2013 is coming.

Posted in Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday on September 11, 2013 by Paxton

WTF, guys?! We are already almost half way through September. How did that happen? I welcomed my daughter into this world back in December and next thing I know I’m prepping for my son’s third birthday with my daughter’s FIRST birthday coming up fast. The hell?!

So, my annual Halloween celebration is creeping up on me like an undead ghoul looking to take a tasty chomp out of my backside. Behind the scenes I’m trying to get everything written. I have over half of next month’s articles written, at the very least in first draft form. I think I only need to do the last week and a half of articles. But I’ve sort of taken longer than I should have doing those.

Anyway, I don’t know if I’ve announced it here, but the topic for AWESOME-toberfest 2013 is ZOMBIES. Here’s the banner.

Awesometoberfest 2013 banner

I’ve already done vampires, werewoves and the Frankenstein monster, so zombies seemed the next logical step.

And here’s a sneak peak at the creepy header I’ll use starting October 1st.

zombies_header

I had previously posted an image of my notes for this year which should have given you guys an idea of the types of zombie media I’ll be covering. Books, movies, TV shows and comics featuring such genre luminaries as HP Lovecraft, George Romero, John Russo, Robert Kirkman, the Smurfs…..wait, wha-?! Yep, the Smurfs. I can’t wait to show you guys that one.

So stay tuned, starting October 1st, I’ll begin daily updates for my AWESOME-tober-fest 2013 celebration.

1 Comment »

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: It’s HALLOWEEN, baby!

Posted in Halloween with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Halloween, holiday on October 31, 2012 by Paxton

It is time. What I and everyone at Countdown to Halloween have been building up to all month.

Today is Halloween.

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has had a fun month. I’ve enjoyed following the blogs on the countdown and reading along with everyone else. It’s been another blast this year. In fact, I’m already in the planning stages for AWESOME-tober-fest 2013. Hope you’ve had a great holiday. And remember to check out the Countdown to Halloween blog for the final day of Halloween!

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

4 Comments »

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Finishing up The Astounding Wolf-Man

Posted in comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Halloween, holiday, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man on October 30, 2012 by Paxton

Since this final week of AWESOME-tober-fest is a short week, I’m straying from the movie maniac theme and doing updates to previous Halloween reviews. Yesterday I reviewed the final book in The Strain trilogy which I had previously reviewed the first two books last year. Today, I’m going to talk about the comic series The Astounding Wolf-Man.

Two years ago for AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, I reviewed the first 18 issues of the comic that were collected in Volumes 1-3 of the trade paperbacks. The final fourth volume collecting issues 19-25 had yet to be released. However, I acquired the final collection earlier this year and read the concluding story.

The last and concluding story arc was called Legacy. It’s a five-parter that takes place in issues #21-25. So much happens in this concluding story. Seriously, it’s packed with a lot of action. We see the main character reunited with his daughter, we see the end game of the Elder Wolf’s plans and we see the final confrontation between Wolf-Man and Zachariah (which is awesome, btw).

astoundingwolf-man21 astoundingwolf-man22 astoundingwolf-man23

In short, I loved this series. So many great characters written so well. Kirkman really does a great job with so many characters to juggle. It was actually this series that led me to Kirkman and had me checking out his other work like Invincible, The Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies. But that’s only half of the whole. Jason Howard’s amazingly dynamic art really sells it. I love the dynamics of Howard’s action and how he designs the look and feel of the universe. Plus, his 2 page action spreads are breathtaking. It really adds a lot of character to the story.

Speaking of characters, several of them are standouts. Gary Hampton/Astounding Wolf-Man is great. Zecariah the vampire is also a great villain. The Elder Wolf is BAD ASS. And in this final run of issues, we really see some good character work with Mecha-Maid. I really enjoyed her character and I want to see more of her. You can see her in the second comic cover above. Btw, that scene on the cover never happens. But it’s a great cover, nonetheless.

Anyway, like I said, I want to see more of these Astounding Wolf-Man characters. I think he and Mecha Maid may pop up from time to time in Kirkman’s Invincible, but I want to see more. This series was just too much fun not to continue. However, like I said, as of today, issue #25 was the final issue.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

4 Comments »

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Review of the final book in Guillermo Del Toro’s Strain Trilogy

Posted in Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, reviews, vampires on October 29, 2012 by Paxton

This is the final week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. And it’s a half week, as Halloween is on Wednesday. I’m sad to see it all end. So, since we are on a short week this week, I’m going to stray from the movie maniac theme today and tomorrow and do a couple of updates to previous AWESOME-tober-fest entries.

Last year for AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, I reviewed the first two books in The Strain trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I said they were very good vampire novels which made the concept of the vampire scary again. As of that writing, the third book wasn’t released yet. I was going to wait until paperback, but earlier this year I was able to find the third book in hardback at a used library sale for less than $2, so I picked it up. And as of now, I have read the final book in the Strain trilogy, The Night Eternal.

So, the story picks up a few months after the second book. The Master has destroyed the other Ancients and the world has been overtaken by his vampire horde. It’s pretty dark stuff. Society is in shambles. Abraham is dead. The world is covered in a thick cloud cover that only allows about an hour or two of sunlight each day. There’s constant acid rain. Blood farms are setup to harvest blood for the ruling vampires. As long as you are obedient, you aren’t sent to these farms. Vampires are also breeding people on these farms in order to create more people. It’s pretty horrific post-apocalyptic stuff.

So our group of heroes must regroup after The Master’s destruction of the Ancients and the vampire usurping of society, with the help of a vampire that was created by the Master many centuries ago, and take down the ruling vampires and restore humans as the dominant life form.

I thought the second book was dark, but this book is darker. We learn more of the Master’s plans, and it’s very interesting to see how society has adapted to the new vampire rule. It’s also interesting to see our heroes coming back together after a few dismal months of vampire rule and, essentially, a losing battle. The action is good and Chuck Hogan’s writing style is dark and brutal. The finishing arc for our heroes is great and really feels like they aren’t going to make it at times. Plus, we learn some very interesting information about the formation of the Ancients as well as The Master himself. Honestly, I didn’t see it coming, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trilogy. It’s was dark and hard to read in spots mainly due to the situations presented. But the journey was worth it and I really felt like the authors earned their ending.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.