Wish On A Halloween Moon

Storybook. Art Book. Coloring Book.

Light the Jack-O’-Lanterns! I’m happy to announce the printing of Wish On A Halloween Moon, a collection of daily ink drawings I stitched together into a spooky story one cold, candle-lit October.

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The Story

Henry’s family moves to a new town right before Halloween, and he doesn’t have time to make friends before the big night. Moping on the porch in his magician’s cape and top hat, an idea comes to him — he’ll make a magical wish on the Halloween moon!

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And, as it often follows with these things, Henry’s wish comes true…but it unearths some very unexpected tricks and treats (what — like I wasn’t going to make a trick-or-treat reference in this post?).

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As night falls, monsters of all shapes and sizes lurch, slither, and shamble out of the shadows to converge upon the unsuspecting newcomer. It’s a fun, sweet, spine-tingling tale perfect for a dark October evening.

The Art

Initially, Wish On A Halloween Moon was a chance to step away from a digital workflow and get back to traditional ink-on-paper illustration. The opportunity to scratch, hatch, and stipple on real paper with actual pen-and-ink was a nice departure. And the challenge of posting one ink drawing per day online that October (along with the narrative verse) kept things moving at a brisk pace, and infused the process with a mildly chaotic energy that kept things hopping.

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Collecting these words and images in a printed volume is my way of documenting a challenging and enjoyable project, and a chance to share it with everyone else, whether or not they followed the original posts online.

The Color

You can read the story, enjoy the collection of illustrations, or — for an even more interactive experience —  dig out your colored pencils and crayons and color the book!

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That’s right! Much like pumpkins can be used for making pies or projectiles, Wish On A Halloween Moon was designed with multiple applications in mind, not the least of which is a spooky-fun coloring book for kids and grown-ups who love Halloween and monsters.

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Available now in the Vince Dorse Online Store, Wish On A Halloween Moon is the second book published under my Long Lost Friend Studio imprint, contains 40 black-and-white pages, sells for a very reasonable $8.00 USD, and, as an extra treat, ships with a bookmark which can also be colored. No eggs on my door.

Freaky Fact: The table in the top photo once stood in the Thaw Mansion, a grand estate on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The house has a history of murder and intrigue, and is said to be haunted by Thaw’s widow, “The Gibson Girl.” Fun to think that the pedestal used for that spooky photo of Wish On A Halloween Moon once decorated an actual “haunted mansion.”

Halloween Moon Rising Soon!

The next book to be released by Long Lost Friend Studio will be Wish On A Halloween Moon : An inky story for October by Vince Dorse.

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Much like Untold Tales of Bigfoot, Wish On A Halloween Moon began as an experiment. Every year, during the month of October, people all over the world commit to doing one ink drawing a day as part of the Inktober challenge. In 2014, Vince played along, deciding on a theme of cute/creepy, middle-school monsters and posted them daily on social media.
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But just drawing monsters wasn’t enough. So Vince added a short, narrative verse to accompany each illustration. And, as October rolled along, the daily posts were strung together into a simple children’s story that culminated on Halloween.
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But Twitter and Facebook posts can scroll by in a heartbeat, and the original drawings would never realize their full potential stored in the dark recesses of the flat file drawers. So work began this year on a printed version that readers could hold in their hands.
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The original art was scanned at high-resolution, the text was set, and the pages were laid out. The book is being printed locally, in Pittsburgh, and is very near completion. The proofs look good — nice, crisp blacks on bright, white, matte paper.
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Vince will be promoting Wish On A Halloween Moon at conventions and book fairs this year. And part of the promotion will be color prints of some of the book’s pages.
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The release date for Wish On A Halloween Moon has yet to be officially announced, but it should be sometime in the Spring of 2017. Watch this site and the @LLFStudio and @VinceDorse feeds on Twitter for news and updates.

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Untold Tales Of Bigfoot Now Available In Print!

I’m happy to announce the award-winning online comic, Untold Tales Of Bigfoot: Crossing Paths, has been officially released in paperback and is now available as a 140-page graphic novel!

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This First Edition (paperback with French-fold cover) includes a foreword by author Matthew Cody (Supers of Nobles Green Trilogy, The Peddler’s Road, Remade), and afterword by creator Vince Dorse that includes production sketches and a history of the comic.

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Untold Tales Of Bigfoot is an all-ages adventure about a lost dog named Scout and a lonesome Bigfoot. Copies of the book for Kickstarter backers are now being prepped for shipping, but if you missed out on the campaign you can still purchase copies of the book in the Vince Dorse Online Shop.

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If you enjoy the book, make sure to tell a friend (and your local library). We’d love to help Bigfoot and Scout find a large family of readers.

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As an added bonus, all books in this first shipment of Untold Tales Of Bigfoot will be signed by the author, with an accompanying ink sketch.