Tag Archives: horror street

Horror Street: Happy Halloween!

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Welcome to another installment of Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Today, in honor of Halloween, we have on display a little demon artwork for your enjoyment: the eerie New York Oni, a fantastic mural I came across during my wanderings in Long Island City, Queens, way back in 2016.

The oni is a cave- and mountain-dwelling demon found in Japanese folklore that doesn’t just like to kill wayward travelers, it likes to eat them, too (would that make them distant cousins of Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?). For more information on these devilish creatures, check out this entry at Yokai.com.

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries, which include such sights as the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, the regal Griffin, and even a trip to the Ghostbusters firehouse!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Horror Street: Happy 90th Anniversary, King Kong!

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Today’s subject is the one and only King Kong, who celebrates his 90th anniversary today. It was March 3, 1933, when Kong made his big-screen debut with the worldwide premiere in New York City of his soon-to-be-classic film. The creation of movie producer Merian C. Cooper and author Edgar Wallace, brought to stop-motion life by effects master Willis O’Brien, King Kong went on to become a worldwide cultural icon that inspired generations of Monster Kids who grew up to be directors, writers, and special-effects creators.

He’s also inspired artists, as you can see here. It was in September 2021 that I first came across this graffiti mural in Long Island City, Queens, but a recent check last week showed that it’s still there. It’s an incredible piece of art, don’t you think?

It’s the work of Calicho Arevalo, a Colombian-born mural artist who arrived in New York in 2018 to share his artistic gifts. In this Third Rail interview with Arevalo, you can learn a great deal about his background and check out some photos of the Kong mural in progress.

Kong’s popularity also inspired the folks at Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, to add the story of the king of the simian monsters to their line of Illustrated Classics, joining Edgar Rice Burroughs’s sci-fi adventure A Princess of Mars, J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampiric love story Carmilla, and the Brothers Grimm’s childhood tale Snow White.

King Kong is a republication of the 1932 novelization of the original movie classic. Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it includes scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. The SWC version features six original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma, whose work has appeared in the pages of The Twilight Zone, Paul Kupperberg’s Secret Romances, and Bloke’s Terrible Tomb of Terror.

Not familiar with the beauty-and-the-beast story of Kong and his “love interest,” Ann Darrow (who was played in the 1933 original by the queen of the scream queens, Fay Wray)? Well, here’s our edition’s back-cover copy to bring you up-to-date:

Ann Darrow was a down-on-her-luck actress struggling to survive in Depression-era New York when she met moviemaker Carl Denham. He offered her the starring role in his latest film: a documentary about a long-lost island—and the godlike ape named Kong rumored to live there. Denham needed a beauty as a counterpart to the beast he hoped to find, and Ann was the answer to his prayers.

Mystery, romance, a chance to turn her life around, even the possibility of stardom—to Ann, it sounded like the adventure of a lifetime! But what she didn’t count on were the horrific dangers that awaited her on Skull Island—including the affections of a love-struck monster…

King Kong (the 1932 novelization) is available as a digital exclusive, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries: the Brooklyn Vampire, Jason Voorhees, and many more!

Horror Street: Happy Friday the 13th (Part 1)!

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It’s the first of two Friday the 13ths this year—today and, appropriately enough, in October, right in the heart of Spooky Season. And since it isFriday the 13th, there’s no better time than right now to post the latest addition to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Jason Voorhees, the murderous, hockey-mask-wearing star of the Friday the 13th movie franchise—including my favorite entry, Freddy vs. Jason—in which he goes toe-to-toe…er, machete to finger-knives with Freddy Krueger of Nightmare on Elm Street fame—is the subject of this piece of graffiti art that I came across in 2021, in a dead-end street (how appropriate!) in the East Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. I don’t know who the artist is—I can’t make out the signature—but the piece was too good notto take a picture of it!

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries, which include such sights as the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, and the regal Griffin!

Horror Street: Happy Halloween!

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Today is Halloween, as you’re obviously aware, so who better to scare the back streets of NYC than Oogie Boogie, the malevolent ghost haunting producer Tim Burton and director Henry Selick’s stop-motion-animation classic The Nightmare Before Christmas?

I came across this particular specter as I strolled along Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood in September 2021, during my pandemic-inspired wanderings through the less-populated industrial areas of New York City. No way to identify the artist, unfortunately—it had been tagged by others who no doubt painted over the signature. Still, it’s a great piece of art, and perfect for getting you into the holiday mood!

Be sure to check out my previous Horror Street entries. And stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! 

Horror Street: The Visible Woman

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Photo © 2021 Steven A. Roman

We return to the back streets of Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood for The Visible Woman, a building-wide mural that graced the side of a commercial building on the corner of Gardner Avenue and Randolph Street, which I came across in September 2021 during my pandemic-inspired wanderings through the less-populated industrial areas of New York City. Delivery trucks zipping up and down the streets made it impossible for me to get a wider shot of the mural, so here’s a pic courtesy of Google Street Views. And yes, the bottom half had been just as tagged by others when I took my photo; a shame, really.

Photo © Google Street Views

The mural is the work of a graffiti artist named Nychos, who’s a member of the Brooklyn artist community called the Bushwick Collective. And to see the unblemished version of the original painting, check out this YouTube drone camera footage taken after the mural’s completion. Very nice work, indeed. And appropriately horrific for us!

Be sure to check out my previous Horror Street entries. And stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! 

Horror Street: Nosferatu

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

This time around, we have an appearance by the nefarious vampire lord Count Graf Orlock, star of the classic 1922 German silent movie Nosferatu. I came across this mural in September 2021 along the border that connects the neighborhoods of Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg and Queens’s Ridgewood. No idea who the artist is, unfortunately.

Still, there’s no better time for the count to make his Horror Street debut than now, because 2022 is Nosferatu’s 100th anniversary!

Directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the rat-faced, corpselike Count Graf Orlock, Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, with character names changed and plot points slightly adjusted, in an attempt to avoid a copyright lawsuit—a ploy that ultimately failed when the Stoker Estate and its attorneys came calling; worse yet, they insisted as part of the settlement that every copy of the film be destroyed! 

Some prints survived, of course, and a very good thing that was, because Nosferatu is one of the greatest horror movies ever made, made memorable by the combination of iconic imagery from Murnau and cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner, and Schreck’s fearsome portrayal of the monster. If you’ve never seen it, or haven’t watched it in some time, do yourself a favor and give Nosferatu a look.

So, happy 100th Anniversary to F.W. Murnau and Max Schreck and all the cast and crew of Nosferatu—you made an exceptional horror film that’s still thrilling fans to this day. Congratulations!

Be sure to check out my previous Horror Street entries. And stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! 

Horror Street: Who Ya Gonna Call?

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

This time around, I’ve got something special. This Friday is the opening day of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, director Jason Reitman’s long-awaited (and long-delayed) sequel to his father Ivan’s iconic horror comedies, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Set in the present day, it’s about a young brother and sister (Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard and The Haunting of Hill House’s McKenna Grace) who discover their grandfather was none other than founding Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (played by Harold Ramis, who passed away in 2014). In no time at all, the kids find themselves picking up the family business, busting ghosts in the Midwest with the help of the other OG ’busters: Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddimore (Ernie Hudson).

So what better time for a visit to the Ghostbusters’ original headquarters in New York City—specifically the firehouse in lower Manhattan that became their office space (and garage for the Ectomobile)?

The intersection of North Moore Street and Varick Street in the neighborhood of Tribeca (which stands for the TRIangle BElow CAnal Street) is where you’ll find the home of the building’s real occupants, the FDNY’s Hook & Ladder Company 8. Yes, although it’s become quite the tourist attraction, 14 N Moore Street is still very much an active firehouse. But that doesn’t mean New York’s Bravest haven’t happily embraced their connection to the supernatural—or their location on Horror Street!

Besides the fact that the building is marked “Ghostbusters Headquarters” on Google Maps (look it up!), it was pretty apparent that the fire company was in the GB: Afterlife mood when I dropped by yesterday—as evidenced by the crowd of Ghostbusters fans I found on the sidewalk in front of the station!

Will you be dropping by GB Central this week? I’m sure the scene will get only wilder as Friday draws near!

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries: the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, the beast called Queens’thluhu, the scarifying Ghoulmobile, the regal Griffin, the Spooky Forest, and the Demon Door!

Horror Street: The Demon Door

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Today’s pic was snapped in 2019, while I was wandering the streets of lower Manhattan. I don’t know what might be lurking behind that ominous face, but all it would take to find out is by grasping that convenient—and oh so inviting—handle. Care to give it a turn…?

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries: the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, the beast called Queens’thluhu, the scarifying Ghoulmobile, the regal Griffin, and the Spooky Forest!

Horror Street: The Spooky Forest

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Today, on Wednesday the 13th, we pay a visit to the Spooky Forest, a mural I came across during my wanderings in the Queens, New York, neighborhood of Long Island City back in 2018. It’s a mural by Josh McQuary, aka McMonster—who, if the Googling search is correct, is a Portland, Oregon artist (clicking the link will take you to his Instagram page). 

An amazingly atmospheric bit of work, don’t you think? Although I’m not sure if I’d want to stop by this particular wood on a snowy evening!

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries: the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, the beast called Queens’thluhu, and the scarifying Ghoulmobile, and the regal Griffin!

Horror Street: The Griffin

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Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!

Today we return to the Welling Court Mural Project for another episode of monster hunting. Welling Court is a street located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York, and for over a decade it’s hosted a streetside art gallery showcasing the graffiti-mural works of New York area artists. It’s here that in 2018 I found the rarely seen mythological beast known as…The Griffin!

Griffin-WellingCt-2018

Amazing work, don’t you think? And now that I know that there’s a 2020 version of the “show,” even in these Pandemic Times, I can’t wait to see what creatures are currently lurking in the nooks and crannies of Welling Court!

Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries: the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, the beast called Queens’thluhu, and the scarifying Ghoulmobile!