A-Z Challenge: O is for...Oblina

O is for...Oblina

Oblina was a character in the animated series 'Aaahh! Real Monsters', which centred around a scare school for monsters and its students. The tall, stripy, upside down candy cane Oblina shares a room with the main character, Ickis, and Krum the eyeball holding scarer. 

Oblina and Ickis

A model student at The Monster Academy, Oblina excels at terrifying humans, which makes her a favourite with the usually bad-tempered headmaster, The Gromble. 

This post is part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge.

Nostalgia: Childhood Horror Cartoons

The other day, I had a very nostalgic flashback to my childhood as I was cleaning old VHS tapes away in the garage, and to my suprise, I found my Count Duckula tapes. I mean who didn't watch Count Duckula, The Addams Family, Little Dracula, or even those old Bugs Bunny halloween specials? Not to mention the numerous other amazing cartoons.

But these days, sadly the cartoons and children's television shows are more, well to be blunt, f*cked up. I randomly was watching a children's show on the TV, and it truly felt like having an epileptic seizure and an acid-trip at the same time. I had one of those 'I have been poisoned' moments, "This drink tastes like almond! I have been poisoned!" ...Anyway, you get the point, hopefully. (Not that cyanide gives hallucinations, but that is hardly the issue here!) 

What I am trying to say is, what the hell are these people creating? And thinking THIS is a lot better to show kids than something by far more educational like The Addams Family. Very poorly drawn and animted shows, colours flashing, men in costumes bouncing and touching each other, oh! So educational. If I ever have kids, I will show them these kind of cartoons I watched and grew up with.

What cartoons did you watch as a young ghoul?

Art & How-to Guides: Jim McGee's Monster Drawings

Y is for Ygor

Originally hailing from the UK and now residing in Tokyo, Jim McGee draws familiar (and some not so familiar) faces from popular culture, in his own distinctive style. In 2010 he created a pictorial A-Z of monsters, featuring a plethora of characters from horror and science fiction, such as Vampira, Godzilla, Sadako, Ygor and  many more.

N is for Neko Musume and Nurikabe

V is for Vampira

Though the drawings don't always look like exact copies of the characters/actors, they aren't necessarily supposed to and it's obvious who they are. Every monster personality is represented wonderfully well, often with a dash of humor, which will make the drawings very endearing to fans of the genre. Another nice touch is the cameos and background extras that often crop up in McGee's work. For example, The Monster, The Wolfman and Una O'Connor are all in the background of the Ygor portrait.

G is for Godzilla

In addition to the monster art, there are also a multitude of tutorial and speed drawing videos on McGee's YouTube channel. It's not all spooky, with subjects ranging from Zombina (of Zombina and the Skeletones) to Tinkerbell, Frankenstein's Monster to Totoro, but it is certainly worth a look as he updates often, and is willing to take requests as well!

A still from 'How to Draw Zombina. Horror High School. Prof Fearstone'

Each video drawing is completed in 10 minutes, with extra characters/details being added if there's spare time and space. The above still features Zombina, with Professor Fearstone (a character McGee plays in 'Horror High School') coming to life in the background. Video tutorials on how to draw Zombina, Beetlejuice and Frankenstein's Monster are included after the cut below.

To see more of Jim McGee's work, you can visit the following sites:

Jim's very own A-Z of "Movie Monsters" on Facebook

Jim's Cartoon Tube on YouTube

Horror High School

Thank you to Jim for permission to use the images!