ghastly greetings

Halloween may be a couple months off, but my monstrous enthusiasm for the holiday has crept eerily over the pages of my weekly planner and is now lurking quietly in the middle of August like some sort of weird, quivering ooze in the binding. This isn't as crazy as it sounds, since the craft market is in full Halloween swing and I'm hoping to get some projects done and on the internet for potential buyers.

But this post is not about crafting. It's about postcards. Halloween postcards.

Vintage postcards are fantastic, but the designers and artists really outdid themselves 'round All Hallows Eve. Cute little rhymes, neat little sparkly bits, and completely inappropriate and horrifying art. Not to mention the ridiculous.

For example:Nothing says friendly greetings like happy children about to be kidnapped and eaten. And then there's this one:


Um... no? What the hell? Some creep with a pumpkin on his head is stealing cats? And where's the question mark? And... why?

Ah yes, the classic Acorn of Despair. Not to be confused with the Acorns of Uncertainly, Hope, and Happy ever after (not Happily Ever After), the Acorn of Despair has long been associated with traditional Halloween greetings, as has the Lettuce Head of Unrequited Love:

And then of course there's the blatantly racist but much beloved Jolly [blanketyblank] series. This little guy pops up in a variety of mediums (I'm distinctly remembering a certain cookie jar) from the mid-1800's through the 1950's, depicted at various ages:

Oh man. Nothing says class like a black joke. A couple other creepers...

This might have to be part one of a long series of ridiculous Halloween paraphernalia. There are few holidays that allow such... er... creativity.