(The Abduction)

Tis the Friday before Halloween (or it was when I started this but work interrupted and thus you’re getting it a week late) and so today’s Friday Favorite had to be in some way slightly disturbing. Thus I bring you Kathie Olivas’ Misery Children series. Kathie can give you her interpretation of her works here, for me, I find them both cute and creepy and thus highly appealing.

(The Hostage)

Aren’t the rabbits in these pictures great? So sinister! Kathie’s works are fun in the way that Wednesday Addams and Lenore are fun. Odd, off, not quite right? Yes, but just entertaining enough to not be sick humor. At least that’s my opinion.

(The Provocateurs)

You don’t have to look too hard to realize that the Misery Children have problems. Many have limbs and other features that would make them right at home in Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas world.

(Girl with Bear Hood)

The Misery Children are also very apropos for the season as many of them look like slightly deranged kids that are dressed up for Halloween.

(Boy in Dogsuit, with lollipop)

I find the names of the various paintings as entertaining as the paintings themselves.

(Parasitic Baby with Monkey Stick)

There is some cartoon or comic that these characters remind me of and for some reason it is right at the edge of my consciousness and I just can’t grab hold of it. Any help would be appreciated.

(Boy with Bear trap smile)

Like many of the Friday Favorites that I feature, the work of Kathie Olivas features very rich, deep colors.

(Boy with Fake Smile)

If you go to her site and look at the larger versions of these images you can see the texture of the canvas which I also find visually interesting.

(The Traveler)

I enjoy how Kathie incorporates suckers and balloons and costumes and pets and cheery colors that for a moment can make it seem that all is right with the world. But then a slightly closer look makes you realize that it is indeed not all right after all.

(He was the independent, the Specialist)

Like the Addams family, it is easy to picture these kids living in a normal world and yet being the very creepy neighbors whose kids always look like they’re about ready to bite you!

(Boy with Red Beanie)

I can imagine these kids experiencing things similar to poor Squee in Jhonen Vasquez’s comic of the same name.

(The last temptation for his beloved)

Yes, these are definitely one of the more odd set of works featured on Friday Favorites and yet they are a fitting end to the holiday and R.I.P. season and are good representations of that slightly off part of my sense of humor that isn’t always out there for the world to see.

(Boy in bear suit, with goggles)

And so it is the end of Halloween (a few days removed). I hope that you all celebrated in a safe yet scary way. I could promise you that all other Friday Favorites until next October will be filled with cute fluffy bunnys and smiling puppies….but that would be a lie.

(Boy in Pig Suit)

I hope you feel brave enough to check out the rest of the paintings on Kathie Olivas’ site. There are page after page of them and they are all disturbingly fun.

(Boy in shark suit)

Have a fantastic Friday, everyone and a wonderful November weekend!