Merry Kitsch-mas!

Bindlegrim is happy to announce that Grim Happy Christmas is now in its 2nd edition for 2013 with improvements on both price and format. This newer version is a larger 8.5" square which just seems more kid-friendly, and the print is larger for those of us with tired eyes. As well, the cover and content are now on soft-to-the-touch matte pages without any major loss to the photographic quality. I only regret it has taken me since 2011 to get this done!
 

You can find the book in two places online* this December with the following special prices:

1) On Amazon (currently priced around $7.95 and qualifies for their free shipping deals).

2) On CreateSpace (using December's coupon code 4DX92CZD get it for $5 + shipping). 

* Note that the book is still on blurb.com but there the 7" glossy (first edition) costs around $20 to produce and for some reason they only offer limited and expensive shipping options via UPS)... 

Are you new to Grim Happy Christmas? Well, once upon a time, a little Christmas gnome leaps from the darkness of his storage box to seek out the happy dreams of the holiday, but instead finds dirty dishes and big scary bills! What has happened to Christmas? The story that follows is told in simple words and photography, and is appropriate for the entire family (minus perhaps a scary scene with the grim reaper), and offers a quick lesson that maybe the importance of the holiday isn't found rushing off to find glittery gewgaws to bedazzle the senses, when love is right there at home, wherever that may be for you!

Christmas Gnomes (Tomte, Nisse, or Hobs) are (per Wikipedia) mythological creatures from Scandinavian folklore typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. The gnome is known as a gift bearer and considered the Swedish version of Father Christmas. As mid-century decorations - the gnomes were Christmas kitsch ornaments Made In Japan during the 1950s of hand painted hard plastic faces topped by flocked paper hats. Arms, legs, and hair were chenille, and the bodies and feet were made from spun cotton.

The characters of this book are actually cherished vintage hand-me-down ornaments from the author's home, that became the centerpiece of this book's lesson during a particularly skint and cancelled holiday. The photos seen in this book were at first to become a simple Christmas card yet during the photo session seemed to be telling a story, and this developed into a little hand-made book of scribbled words and pasted pictures. It was the only material gift offered during that harsh year - but with content that became meaningful beyond price. 

Bindlegrim, Red Hob, & Green Hob send you their best this season! Merry Kitsch-mas!

You can see more pictures of the book on flickr:

The 12 Panes of Krampus

Ah..., as Saint Nicholas might say, naughty children are just that, pains, and fortunately in the alpine regions of Europe he has a helper Krampus (exactly 12 of them on the panes of this vintage-style collapsible paper lantern) to assist with disciplinary difficulties.

Last night, Bindlegrim posted a super short 3-day only auction (ending Dec 20, 2012 19:47:55 PST) for a new lantern, and the last Bindlegrim lantern of 2012. GRUSS von KRAMPUS vintage style HALLOWEEN-CHRI​STMAS lantern BINDLEGRIM: 3rd of 3. This lantern (of which only 3 were produced) features 12 scenes of Krampus shenanigans, with a look inspired by vintage postcards of this strange Christmas character.

It's a little hard to photograph all the scenes in a single image when the lantern is set up for lighting, so here are some working files for the panes. This shows Krampus doing what Saint Nicholas hired him to do --- capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away... (wikipedia entry on Krampus).

Fortunately most children must be good here in America, for I have never seen Krampus set foot on this soil. However, with his underground popularity increasing, I wonder if he might finally make it across the water some day, as did one dear friend of ours, the Jack O'Lantern...? Until then, for more images of this lantern check out Bindlegrim on flickr and Happy Holidays and by all means, be good!!!

A Ghost Story Animatic (2001)

A friend of mine mentioned she was going to be taking an animation class in school next quarter... which had me thinking of my ever so brief foray with a class (way back in 2001, shiver) that was called "animation pipeline"... and in some ways was less about the animation itself, but more about the process of getting an animated work completed. So, in the first quarter, our personal project, was to each come up with a story and go through the processes of creation - story pitch, storyboard, animatic, etc.

This was my story from that quarter, and the animatic I cobbled together with my grease-pencil storyboard sketches, some Poser figures, and a bit of Photoshop - Final Cut processing. It's rough, and was only supposed to be used as an animatic - which means more focus on things like timing... not so much on visual finesse.

In this short animatic, an elderly couple, (an inventor and a records clerk), seek the moonlit graves of forgotten souls. And with the aid of a strange mechanical device and a book of bedtime stories, loss and sadness are replaced with peacefulness.