It's finally Halloween time again, which means 13 days of monsters! First is the Man-Eating Plant:



The man-eating plant does as its name implies. It attracts its favored prey by smelling exactly like what no human can resist: bacon! The plant even gurgles its stomach acids to sound like sizzling breakfast meats. But humans aren't stupid enough to simply walk into a flower's mouth (even if they're stupid enough to walk into a forest chasing bacon), so the man-eater imitated a corpse to assure the humans it is dead and safe to gawk at ("Hey, maybe the petals taste like bacon! And it'll be vegan!") and not at all notice the vines about to strangle them.

The carnivorous flora detests dogs which also get drawn in because of the smell -- too much fur and slobber. Fortunately canines don't follow for the corpse trick, and make marvelous pollinators.

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The "bones" part of the design was inspired by these tree roots I saw as a kid that looked rather like ribs, so much so I fancied them as dinosaur fossils... somehow.

 

Nice.

 

I remembered this tradition two days ago, and was hopeful that we would have a halloween '16. An excellent start for the countdown. I like how the stem looks like intestines.

 

I look forward to this thread every year!  

Loving the man-eating plant. The "stomach" and "rib-cage" are a nice touch. Very well done

 

Gotta echo Wars; always look forward to your Halloween art.  

 

Excellent!

Gonna be keeping an eye on this thread for sure.

 

Oh! que ne suis-je de pierre comme toi!



The gargoyle dreams of flying, but he isn't sure if concrete wings will allow that to happen. He could try and see... but if it didn't work the poor gargoyle would assuredly plummet to his death. Every night he tries convincing himself to just go for it, and every dawn he goes to sleep not having done anything. A thousand years later, he hasn't budged an inch...


(I'm glad this little project of mine has a reputation!)

 

Awesome!  

 

In the town of Sarajevo, there's an old medieval square
There's a church aside one corner most believe was always there

It was built a thousand years before any now were born
And its glory was its belfry with its stones all gray... and worn...

Now there's a gargoyle on that belfry and he's been up there for years
And he has watched and he has pondered: "What is laughter, what are tears?"

And he's never found his answers as he sees the years go by
But he watches and he wonders with his stone unblinking eyes...

-Savatage, "Sarajevo", Dead winter dead (1995)

Another excellent piece!

 

Awww, poor Gargoyle

 

Glad to see you're doing this once again.  

A man eating plant that loves bacon.   priceless.

 

Today's monster is a fairy!


A vile sea fairy, the Nuckelavee takes the form (at least, while on land) of a nightmarish skinless corpse, an unholy fusion of horse and rider, with a head more massive than its neck can support and joints that move in a way joints should not. The Nuckelavee spreads disease and despair wherever it goes, and is generally just an unpleasant fellow.

Mercifully, the Nuckelavee cannot tolerate water, and avoids even the tiniest of streams at all costs. Not because it fears cleanliness as some would claim, but because, as a sea fairy, any contact will begin to ‘melt’ it back into its true form. Whatever that even is... hell, maybe it's actually cute?

 

Okay, I think so far, the Nuckelavee is my favorite.  

Such a gruesomely awesome design.

 

How your mind can conceive of such monstrosities is beyond me. I'm not sure whether to applaud you or run in fear.

 

A demon beast from the netherworld, the dragon’s very existence threatens the natural order -- crops wither, animals drop dead, waters stagnate, plagues spread, metalworks corrode... even the dragon itself struggles to maintain its own corporeal form. To make matters worse, the little hellspawn is a violent and petty monster, regularly strangling entire herds of cow and setting their farmers’ homes on fire for simply *not* being in the way.

Therefore, it is our sacred duty to utterly destroy the blasted beast and send its twisted mockery of a soul back to the fiery depths it came from. It may claim the lives of many noble men, but at least our fallen warriors will go to a better place.


... hopefully. I mean, that’d be pretty awkward if they ended up where we’re trying to send the dragon back to.

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While mostly based on old St. George paintings, the dragon also takes inspiration from a possum that got into the house this summer, causing a mild panic by simple virtue of existing. Hope you enjoyed all that cat food, you adorable little scamp you.

 

Yes, that would be very awkward.

 

wait, did the possum kill people too?

 

Welcome to the lower berth, the greatest show unearthed!



A traveling sideshow displaying a whole host of splendiferous, horrigust, but mostly kinda dumb attractions. Nevertheless, the host (who makes it a point to never give out his name) is always on the lookout for more and customarily picks up something from each town he visits.

He also takes on new human hires, but they never seem to make it to the next venue...

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I had every intention of making this entry an actual "weird human" sideshow freak, but somehow or other it developed into Baba Yaga's hut's gaudy cousin. And by "somehow" I mean it's an excuse for those splendiferous, horrigust, but mostly kinda dumb signs.

That'd be terrifying and I'd probably be owning a gun now if that happened.
But no, the possum, best I could tell, didn't do anything except scamper about and somehow avoid setting off the cat-food-coated trap for about a week.

 

Seems legit.  

Another creative creature.

 

It looks familiar.