Halloween looms. That means ghosts, goblins, monsters and other creepy things. I wanted to add some holiday flavor to our shop at the Fremont Sunday Market so I’ve printed out a few of my older Weird Heroes (Fantomah, Octobriana, Stardust, the Face and the Heap) illustrations as posters. Most of the images needed little or no adjustment to fit the 11×17 print size. I’ve included before and after versions of a couple that I did think needed changes.

Below is, I think, the first illustration I ever did of Fantomah. I originally did it as part of coloring practice I did in 2016. It was one of a series of black and white ink drawings that I colored in Photoshop.

The changes I made this week were minor, mostly to get Fantomah on model with how I draw her these days. I extended the background to make the image fit better as an 11×17 poster.

I made even bigger additions to this portrait of Mama Heap and her girls. I drew this first version in 2021.

The original wasn’t wide enough to look good at 11×17 so I added … well, you can see what I added. Mama Heap’s girls are warriors in their own right.

We’re going to be at the Fremont Sunday Market again this coming Sunday. Sarah and I decided to start going to the Market weekly rather than bi-weekly. Unfortunately we’re not going to be able to do that right away. The Market moves to a new location on November 1st and that requires a separate application – something that we weren’t aware of. The gentleman who helps us check in each time has promised to send us updates so we can take empty slots when they become available but, unless another vendor completely drops out, that means we won’t be able to predict when we’re going to be there consistently. Drat.

We’ve looked at how other vendors display their wares and borrowed what seemed like good ideas. One of those ideas was a “who is” poster.

Last Sunday was our most successful sales day. It seemed like having the posters and their larger images up helped to draw people in. Once someone stopped to look more we could talk to them and, sometimes, direct their attention to something they wanted to purchase. Even when folks don’t purchase something it’s fun to have a conversation and we usually send them away with something – a key ring, a button, maybe a miniprint, definitely a business card. Of course, if we were independently wealthy, we’d just give people stuff. Giving stuff away is fun. But we’re not rich. Yet.

Anyway.

Thank you for reading. If you’re not rich, I hope you are at least comfortable. If you are rich, congratulations! I hope you’re enjoying your wealth. I hope everyone is enjoying something today. See you again soon!