My parents, bless their hearts, decided on a whim to yank me out of the public school system and plonk me smack dab in the middle of a nearby Catholic school I didn’t even know existed for sixth grade. My grade had about 52 students in all and they’d all been together since kindergarten. I was the proverbial interloper, the new kid on the block, the fish out of water. Recess was spent sitting against the chain linked fence and lunch was eaten alone for the first few months (until I became best friends with another girl who was introduced to me mostly because we both shared the same first name). The kids weren’t mean to me…they were friendly, and I am still grateful for that fact. But I was still the odd kid out due to the fact I had no shared history with any of them.
I don’t remember how it came about, but I managed to secure a position as a library helper with the ancient and crotchety Sister Majella so I had a place to hang out during recess. On my first day on the job, she directed me to the horror section (how did she know?!) and I was to get rid of all the grubby fingerprints on the books with a damp towel. The first book I pulled out was a children’s version of Frankenstein, supplemented by still photography from the 1931 production. I flipped through the book, fascinated by the pictures. The next one from the same series was Dracula, then Bride of Frankenstein, followed by The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Every day I’d go back and thumb through the rest of the collection. The Mummy! Phantom of the Opera! The Wolfman! The Invisible Man! Those were popular books and were frequently missing from the shelves. That meant they were also almost always in the return bin, and my job was to return them to the shelves, thus affording me plenty of opportunity to look at the photos over and over.
My formative years were spent watching old Japanese monster movies with my brother on Saturday afternoons, of which I was very familiar with. But I knew nothing of the old Hollywood horror genre and was anxious to get into it. The idea for this set came about a long time ago, but I had a hard time trying to figure out the sequencing. Who should be the first doll? Who should go last? Over the last few years I’d been making Shake ‘Em Out sets and this finally made it to the top of the list. I started painting this set in my spare time in February and was relieved that it was finished shortly before Halloween, which is perfect timing.
Clockwise from top: The Invisible Man, Frankenstein’s Monster, Gillman, the Phantom, Bride of Frankenstein, Count Dracula, Imhotep, and Larry Talbot as The Wolfman.
Happy Halloween!