Unveiling the Magic for 2023: It’s Almost Time for Gothtober

The Moon is out, and so is all that goes bump in the night

Hold onto your hay bales, we’re about to bring you our annual anticipated countdown of spooky and artistic Autumnal delights!

We’re pleased as pumpkin pie to report that Gothtober is now 21 years old. Gothtober is old enough do drink! Our 2023 edition contains creative offerings catered to this new milestone through the theme: “Potions and Elixirs” (in addition to the usual theme, which is simply “Halloween.”)

At the strike of midnight our calendar unveils a new contributor each day of October. In case you’ve never experienced it before, we’re taking you on a lil’ artistic journey.

Enjoy a celebration of the holiday’s rich traditions, and eerie charms, with an ability to stir the cauldron of your imagination. I don’t censor anyone, so it’s kind of a blend of both dark and delightful. For example, you can expect just about anything! There will be many short movies. Gothtober’s also got recipes, and crafts! We’ve always got a diverse ensemble ranging from veterens like Jenny Walsh, an artist who has been in the calendar since 2004 to her son, Harry, an emerging talent, who is now a Gothtober artist as well!

Best thing about the Gothtober Countdown Calendar? You don’t have to go anywhere or do anything. You can find Gothtober.com on your Desktop, tablet, or phone! While older parts of the calendar (dated all the way back to 2003) are not accessible yet, we’ve worked hard to make sure the NEW version of Gothtober can be accessed by anyone with a computer screen. As Head Candy Corn of Gothtober, I welcome you to the mysteries, the magic, the madness of this thing we build every year, brought to you, just a click away.

Yours in goblets of gross gooey gulps of rat’s blood and kitten eyeballs,

JP Head Candy Corn

Rockin’ to 10 in German with Harrison and Howe’s Gothtober Day 18

In the spirit of Oskar Fischinger and Len Lye and Sesame Street arrives the electro-power-pack indefatigable ROCK YOUR FACE OFF countdown from Howe and Harrison’s Pumpkin 18 on the Gothtober Calendar. 

The theme for Gothtober this year was to either go back to our roots, so to speak, and observe Halloween, OR do something having to do with the power of 10, since it is our 10th Anniversary! Weirdly enough, the countdown pieces we have so far are in observance of the German language (see Gothtober Pumpkin 12) but these two german countdown pieces could not be more different! I’m digging the fact that if you were never able to count to 10 in German previously, Gothtober help you. We can help you in a really pastoral trippy hand-made illustrations way, or we can help you in an electronic crazy pop colored abstract geometric way, you choose, and I hope you choose both!

The original music by Howe and Harrison is the kind I could imagine you putting in your headphones and running 10 miles at 5am. OR you could hear this in a club and sweat out all those well drinks you so unwisely imbibed earlier in the evening. You could just play this in your head to psyche yourself up before the big test, the huge meeting, the extreme housecleaning task you’re ready to tackle. However you use it, the motivational power of the drums and badass sneer of the electric guitar will force  you to conquer anything on your agenda, no matter how inconsequential.

Monica Howe is known as LaMuff, fine purveyor of musical things you should probably go see.

Robbie Harrison can be found at ToyMasulina where music, film and art are getting ever more weird and fantasic.

Gothtober by midnight

It is a late night, and The Head Candycorn and I are putting the finishing touches on Gothtober.com! Come back when we launch in under 24 hours!