NEW YEAR'S EVE IN A HAUNTED HOUSE - 2014 INTO 2015 EDITION!

Hmmmm…. Father Time is kinda’ scary, isn’t he?

Speaking of time, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for making the past few years so much fun for me. Thank you to all those who have tweeted about my blog, chosen to “follow” the blog, have left comments on posts and told others about the project. I am especially grateful to all the blogs and websites who have publicized this wacky endeavor over the past 12 months.

Special thanks goes to Ken Mandel of the West Orange Classic Film Festival who invited me to be the guest-speaker at a special screening of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein at their 2014 festival early this year. It's always great to have an opportunity to be a guest-speaker at screenings of classic films (teaser: watch this blog for a special announcement about my next guest-speaking gig which is happening very soon).



I also want to give special thanks to Colette Joel and David Key, the owners, CEOs and Executive Producers at Handshake Away Productions, who, after seeing my work on this blog brought me on board a special documentary about the Bowery Boys as a fellow Executive Producer, Writer, Creative Consultant and Music Supervisor. The Bowery Boys' films are among my favorite classic comedies, and they did make several notable horror-comedy films, all of which will be reviewed in the Scared Silly book.



Another round of special thanks goes to the fine folks at the Science Fiction Society of Northern New Jersey, who had me as one of their special guests at their annual holiday dinner. It was a terrific time and I got to talk a lot about horror-comedies and Scared Silly.



This was a particularly busy year for me with personal appearances at both comic shops and and comic conventions. You can read about many of those appearances by clicking here. Special thanks goes out to Spiro Ballas of Superheroes For Hospice, Alex Simmons of Kids' Comic Con, Jeff Beck of East Side Mags, Chuck Kahl of Comic Book Market, Rene Rosa of Jim Hanley's Universe, John Belskis from Albany Comic Con, Dan Bear of Jersey Shore Comic Con and John Paul of NJ Comic Book Expo. Thanks to all the wonderful comics creators who I was able to appear alongside this year as well - too numerous to name. To them and to all all those who made those appearances happen, I say "thank you!"

Several projects kept me busy this year so of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fine folks at Archie Comics (particularly Duncan McLachlan) who inaugurated a new series of vintage reprint collections with a special Christmas book I compiled, Erica Schultz who edited a special "anti-bullying" story which will appear in schools sometime in 2015 courtesy of Northwest Press, the TwoMorrows Press team who have handed my colleague Rik Offenberger and I a choice assignment in putting together a history of the MLJ Heroes, for publication in 2015; and Dave Ryan of Red Anvil Press, who has let me run hog wild on the script for the all-star comedy opus, War of the Independents #4, also due out in 2015.

Of course, there's no blog without you readers out there so thank you to ALL SCARED SILLY FANS! (And if I’ve left anyone out please know it wasn’t intentional)!

While my schedule didn't permit me to write any reviews this year, I still want to send a general thanks out to the following: my wife for letting the TV be commandeered by all these movies (some of which were just downright painful for her to sit through), my friend Brent for being a terrific fact-checker and of course everyone’s favorite current-day character actor, carrying the torch for all who’ve gone before, the ubiquitous Daniel Roebuck, who graciously agreed to write the foreword for the book that will (hopefully) ultimately result from this blog!

More so than any previous year, I must say thank you also for bearing with my erratic schedule – due to other commitments I can’t always post on a regular basis. Please hang in there and keep checking back… you’re bound to see a new review every now and then.

Until the next review, here is Vagabond Opera performing “New Year’s Eve in a Haunted House,” composed by avant garde jazz legend Raymond Scott, the man behind many of the melodies heard in Looney Tunes cartoons - enjoy your New Year's Eve!