Happy Thanksgiving/Sports&Health/Columbus Day.

Okay, I know that the first Canadian Thanksgiving was originated by Martin Frobisher in 1578, Sports Day has been in honour of the Tokyo '64 Olympics since October 10, 1966, but why does the Capital of Ohio get a special day? It's a mystery to me.

Anyway, Sports Day & Thanksgiving are good times for kids, so let's take a look at some Yōkai that like to menace children!

Here we see an 大かむろ/(Ookamuro), a giant ghostly face which appears at the front door, freaking out a young lad.

Near as I can figure out,  しばがき (Shibagaki) is living firewood(?) that likes to throw stones at passersby. They seem to have pretty good aim!

オバリヨン (Obariyon) is a spook which rides piggyback on a human victim and becomes unbearably heavy.

ベトベトさん (Betobeto-san) is an invisible spirit which follows people at night, making the sound of footsteps. Good news though, it's said that if you stand to the side of the road and say, "Betobeto-san, please go on ahead," that the footsteps will stop and you can continue walking in peace.

What follows is a 10 minute interview with Gegege creator Shigeru Mizuki including some examples of him drawing illustrations and several examples (including Betobeto-san) from the very book I'm scamming these scans.

Speaking of kids though, I'll be doing my patented Halloween lesson for my Junior High Schools all month and last week I got to mark a few of the "Draw an image of Halloween" prints back. These are my favourites. Which ones are your faves? If you choose your favourite, I'll give the artist in question a prize!

Special bonus! This is the most Halloweenish Fits I've seen to date!