My girlfriend and I created a mutual shop on Etsy called Pickle Fork. If you haven’t heard about Etsy, it’s like Ebay for artists and crafters. I intend to offer prints of some of my photographs at some point, and my girlfriend will be selling a variety of craft related items. Check out her original Etsy shop here. She makes the most amazing polymer clay beads you’ll ever see. I think there’s some kind of sorcery involved, but I haven’t found any lizard eye of newt laying around the house.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to show off some of the Pickle Fork graphics I’ve been working on:

The Avatar/Logo:

The Banner:

The Pickle Fork Mascot:

Filed under: Design by Ed No Comments »

Topics: Illustration, Logos, Vector Art

5. Undead

This movie has over the top zombie destruction, just the right amount of camp, and a twist ending that doesn’t come off as lame. Oh, and there are Zombie fish. You can’t beat that with a shovel.

Great quote: “When I was a kid, we respected our parents, we didn’t eat ‘em!”

4. Dead Alive (aka Braindead)

Peter Jackson’s zombie masterpiece revels in camp, gore, violence, and blasphemy. During the climax the hero straps a lawnmower to his chest to battle the undead. While the chainsaw and the shotgun are clearly the weapons of choice for fighting zombies, the lawnmower deserves honorable mention at the least.

Great quote: “I kick ass for the Lord!”

3 Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Yes, I like it better than the original. It’s just a tighter piece of cinema. Aside from the obvious improvements in special effects, the film flows better, and doesn’t suffer the pacing problems the original did.

Great quote: “I have an idea. We draw straws and the loser runs across the lot with a ham sandwich.”

2 Return of the Living Dead

This is 80’s horror movie camp at its finest, and funniest. If you’re a real zombie fanatic, you’ll notice a song by The Cramps on the soundtrack. Some other songs by this band also make references to the living dead.

Great quote: “You think this is a costume? This is a way of life!”

1 Shaun of the Dead

For me this film represents the pinnacle of the zombie movie pop culture resurgence. While most zombie comedies get their laughs with pure camp, Shaun of the Dead does so with brilliant writing, and great comedic timing.

Great quote: “Lizzy, how can you put your faith in a man you spectacularly binned for being unreliable? A man whose idea of a romantic nightspot and an impenetrable fortress are the same thing?”

Filed under: Blog by Ed 2 Comments »

Topics: Movies, Zombies

Just click on the resolution you need. If your monitor has a different resolution, leave me a comment and I’ll see what I can do. Enjoy:

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Independent artists and designers may use these images in any way they wish. Corporation or companies employing more than 2 people should contact me for any use beyond desktop wallpaper.

Filed under: Photos by Ed No Comments »

Topics: Photography, Wallpaper

Rejection is never pleasant., but the sting isn’t as bad when you get a personalized note. Today I received just that in regards to Hole in the Wall.

While we liked your writing, we didn’t see much point to the story or why all those things were happening to him.

This may not be a treasure trove of feedback, but it’s still valuable. Plus, it’s always nice to know that someone at least read the submission. When I get a form letter I have to wonder if the editor ever made it past the first page, or if they decided it was rubbish within the first paragraph and didn’t bother to continue.

On a side note, Hole in the Wall does have a point. I guess I buried it too far in the subtext. Back to the drawing board.

Filed under: News, Writing by Ed No Comments »

Topics: Rejection, Writing

Back in high school algebra, I would compete with a fellow student to see who could get better scores on quizzes and homework. For some reason I can’t recall, we dubbed the day’s victor “the hammer.” We would then say to each other “who’s the hammer now?” I believe this puts me somewhere in the Jedi master level of geekness.

Wednesday I took my first math final in over 7 years, and it looks like I am still the hammer. (I haven’t lost my place in the geek echelon, either.) Now that summer equation boot camp is over, I have until late August before the community college abyss sucks my life back in.

The first thing I intend to do with my extra free time is work on an entry for this contest. Miss Snark’s First Victim regularly hosts “are you hooked”, in which authors can get feedback on the first 250 words of a novel/short story/manifesto. The difference this time around is that a real live agent will be among the commentators, and will award a mystery prize to the author of the strongest submission.

The great thing about this is that you don’t have to “win” to get a prize. A few words of advice from a professional literary agent are prize enough. So I’m off to work on my 250 words. Regardless of the outcome, when the contest is over, I’ll once again be asking myself, who’s the hammer now?

Creepy Clown photo courtesy: jazzydan

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Topics: Contests, School, Writing