Been gone so long

Hey all and any who are still checking up on my blog. I been real busy with my beloved Halloween, then Christmas, New Year's, and recently Valentine's day. I've been up and down, like most folks, and I plan on working on my blog and other projects a little harder. This winter gives me the blahs and has me dreaming of the island life I used to have. Better get cracking on getting ready for summer ( I already bought my new bikini for the season) and finishing some art projects I have to do. Commenting on pop culture will just have to wait for now.





Picture of Flatt's Village, Bermuda

Halloween, the past

It's that time of year again, the pumpkins are out on people's porches, the leaves are changing, and the weather is chilling. Although, I love the heat and the summer, there is something magical about this time of year. Everything seems to feel and smell earthier. Maybe it has something to do with the Halloween's history that can explain that.

Ancient Origins

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 10.

Hmmm... It seems that the cashier at Party City is somewhat flawed in her logic. I asked her if she was all ready for Halloween and she promptly retorted "I don't celebrate Halloween, I'm a Christian, and Christians don't celebrate Halloween". Well, I'm not sure what kind of christian she was, but I celebrate Halloween, and apparently, others did too.

Modern Traditions

The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Evolution Of A Holiday

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.

It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

Wow by now Halloween has evolved into something totally different. Halloween is sexier and raunchier as illustrated by Leg Avenue costumes and other such companies. This new addition to the holiday is illustrated in the film Mean Girls, where newcomer to public school Cady Heron learns the hard way that "In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. The hardcore girls just wear lingerie and some form of animal ears, unfortunately no one told me about the slut rule, so I showed up like this. "

Love it or hate it, it looks like Halloween is here to stay, no matter what religion you celebrate. I personally love this holiday and plan on dressing up and handing out candy. I'll probably go to a bar or club to hang out with other adults who love it too.

Back from Baltimore

Hey all,

Back from Baltimore and I am pleased that I sold many pieces of my original jewelry at the show, and I had the much anticipated but delayed buttons for the second day. I had a good time and it was a fairly small show. No big celebrity highlights for me this round, but I saw some friends set up at the show.
I have some photos to post which will be coming soon! Thanks to everyone who made a purchase!

Get your dose of cuteness at Baltimore Comic-Con

Here is a sneak peek at some of the designs for my buttons I will be selling at the Baltimore Comic-Con. There is also a really great design not on the slide, a convention exclusive variant, but I can't preview it yet. Maybe after the show.

I'm excited to have created my own buttons and hopefully people will enjoy them. They will be at booth 79, along with Rob Reilly and John Brogilia. Come check out Reilly's books, prints, sketches, original artwork and a raffle. Reilly is also debuting a convention exclusive sketchbook, the "Lone Wolf Drink 'n Draw" filled with drawings done on many of his pub outings. Click on his name for a link to his site to see more info.

So swing buy and help me out, buy a button or two for your girlfriend or whatever you call her, and check out the eye-catching illustrations and sometimes racy sophmoric humor comic stylings of Rob Reilly.

Archaic: Indie Comic

Check out my friends' books! I'm so proud of them! They are way cool guys with a great book.

ARCHAIC, ISSUE 11 is listed in Previews now!
ARCHAIC 11: DCD ITEM NO: SEP07 3669


by James Abrams & Weshoyot Alvitre
ARCHAIC: THE STORM #2
The Sky falls -- changing the world of Archaic forever. A boy becomes a god, a girl becomes a demon, and thousands of people become dead. Chaos and destruction fill the streets as a child dances to marching feet!


Please check it out. If you like fantasy, adventure, science fiction or steam punk (even some "western" flavor mixed in) -- give Archaic a try. You may be pleasantly surprised by an indi comic.
Archaic (Fenickx Productions) is listed in Diamond's Previews Catalogue:
ARCHAIC 7: DCD ITEM NO: MAY07 3473
ARCHAIC 8: DCD ITEM NO: JUN07 3573
ARCHAIC 9: DCD ITEM NO: JUL07 3577
ARCHAIC 10: DCD ITEM NO: AUG07 3664
ARCHAIC 11: DCD ITEM NO: SEP07 3669

ARCHAIC. FENICKX PRODUCTIONS, LLC

Goodbye Mike Wieringo

While working on my computer today, I'm finding out some terrible news. Shockingly enough, Mike Wieringo has suffered a heart attack at the age of 44. Many of my artist friends are also saddened as Wieringo's art was a source of inspiration to them.

I never got to meet him in person, or get him to sign any of my Tellos' books. I have the whole series and I am disappointed to learn after posting a few new pencils of Tellos characters on his blog, he is suddenly taken away. I loved Tellos, in which he created with Todd Dezago, and on his blog he mentions returning to the series at some point. Now I guess that won't happen, at least not with him penciling.

On Sunday, I was not feeling well, and eating my first Krispy Kreme doughnuts, doing a little cleaning, playing some X-box 360, cooking and overall enjoying a bit of a lazy day. It's amazing that you could be doing all of that and one of your loved ones could be sick or hurt or dying and you might not even know. It's strange to feel somewhat guilty for enjoying life while you hear someone else died. He was a noted vegetarian and quite healthy, so this heart attack is a huge shock to everyone it seems.

Tellos, was one of the first properties that drew me away from the Top Cow books. What drew me in was the clean and simple style and motion in the panels. I also love animals and loved how the animal characters looked. I also enjoyed the tough female pirate Serra.

I've collected other covers featuring his artwork, like Randy Green's Dollz and the Lions, Tiger, and Bears cover he did. I am sad that I will never get a sketch at a show or anything signed, but it is even sadder that he will be so missed and that many will mourn this loss in the industry. My condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.


Details are still sketchy but here are some places to find more info:
Here is a link to his blog

Here is the newsarama article

Here is the the Beat's article

Tofu Girls is totally cute and cutting edge

I'd just like to say that one of the best reasons to go to Comic-Con International San Diego is the great shopping.

In the tradition of my annual vacation, and in this case, my work and livelihood, I too went to Comic Con this year and although I spent much of my time in one spot, I did happen to travel around to see some interesting things, among them the one-legged babe at the Grindhouse booth. Last year, I stumbled across TokiDoki and although I'd never heard of it then, I loved the cute Japanese inspired graphics. Now Tokidoki is a cultural phenomenon. Rocking t-shirts, buttons, watches, pins, hats, skateboard decks, hotel rooms, vinyl toys, jewelry, shoes, iskin cases, and now tour buses, one can only say to their parents - " See, artist do make money!" Intensely popular and only offered in "seasons" the tokidoki creatures are featured on bags from LeSportsac, and although I got mine early, I now see women and girls alike from New York to LA sporting these cutesy bags. Tokidoki also offered limited edition makeup, including a Sephora exclusive, for the high-end professional Smashbox Cosmetics line. Needless to say, i scored big at the con by getting the x-small size t-shirts they couldn't move, and I went straight to the manufacturer's booth for the necklaces. I've ordered the bags off the LeSportsac website. The popularity of this line has grown and to prove it, I couldn't even see what was at the booth it was so crowded. Very sad for me =(

Also, another design company that blew up since last con is the Skelanimals. Now featured in the nationwide retail store of choice for goth/emo/ 80s kids Hot Topic, the skelanimals have been picked up by Loungefly and made into lots of items. From mints, stickers, patches, keychains, shirts, and more, I saw knew items at the booth. I picked up the convention edition red cat. I figure it will be great to keep in the closet until I'm 80 or something and then I can show people my "boney" cat.

On my limited travels around the floor, I discovered Tofu Girls!
These guys were new to the convention, but there T-shirts were so cute. They even had buttons, one free for signing-up for their newsletter! Also, they made cute fans, free with purchase. The people were really nice and took lots of photos for their website (you should go their and check it out!). I talked with them for quite a while. I got the green t-shirt featured below and the pink one with a faux mandarin collar(from the image at the top)! The t-shirts are pre-shrunk and really flattering to petite girls like me! They even provided a coupon, artfully done, on their website, how thoughtful! My suggestion: go to the website and pick up one of their t-shirts today. Tofu Girls will be blowing up soon and you can be early in the trend! Sign up for their newsletter and be informed about all the great products to come.