Let the Blood-Curdling Begin Again...

 Well, it's been a minute! It's actually been several minutes. Six and a half years, to be exact, since regular posting occurred here on the Blood Curdling Blog of Monster Masks.

Let me begin by saying “Thank You” for all the positive feedback and kind words about the blog during the hiatus. It has been gratifying to know that the content continues to serve the mask collecting community. I regularly see scans from the blog showing up on the interwebs and socials. That is one of the reasons why I started the blog originally, to share resources with the community, and it's amazing to still see them being shared continually. Over the past 6+ years, I have been told by more than a few collectors that they miss the blog, and it has been customary for me to reply by saying, “it will return one day”. That day is today!

So.... why now? Well, keep in mind that I originally stopped investing my time running the blog to instead focus more of my energy on mask-making. This strategy paid off. The last 6 years have been my most productive by far in my 25+ years of mask-making. The Devil's Workshop has become my full-time gig, and I have had the pleasure of starting a new venture with fellow mask maker Aaron Lewis as we launched Rock Bottom Novelties earlier this year. Having firmly established a rhythm and schedule, I feel I can now devote some time once again to the blog. More than anything else, the timing just feels right.

So, this is what I'm hoping to accomplish with the return of the Monster Mask Blog...

1. Share more stuff - I have accumulated a lot of new material to share. LOTS of new catalogs. A big thanks goes out to all those that have given me catalogs to share over the past several years. Contributions make up a good majority of the new material that I have. I can't thank all those who have generously shared scans, or catalogs, with me enough. Over the past several Maskfests, I have been gifted all sorts of amazing catalogs and stacks of monster mask goodness. I look forward to getting it all out there. As always, I am constantly on the hunt for new mask related material and always welcome contributors. Keep them coming you creeps!

2. Revisiting old material – My secondary goal is to revisit, and reorganize, a lot of the old material that is already posted here to make it easier to find. I plan to add better tags and meta data to make the blog more searchable. For example, there are 269 posts on Don Post Studios. It would be easier to find information if I had tags that included Don Post Catalogs, Don Post Ads, Don Post Articles, and so on.

3. New regular topics – I have some ideas of regular topics, such as a Mask of the Month post of some of my favorite masks (Phantom Faves), and plenty of other new regular posts that I want to kick the tires on.

4. Self-promotion – In the past, I was never shy about occasionally announcing a new project that I was working on. Despite the fact that I haven't posted regularly here in over 6 years, the blog still has 10K+ visitors every month. I would love to be able to reach a larger audience and share my work. Especially in 2021, which is the 25^th anniversary of the Devil's Workshop. I've been putting out a number of DW25 special releases and it would be great to post them here and share some stories about the last 25 years of making monsters.

I hope you'll join me on this new chapter of the Monster Mask Blog as we once again explore the history of Monster Masks! Tune in tomorrow for the first catalog scan to be posted here in over six years...