Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor
The Raven Pez, Revisited
Pez Poetry
Bret's World of Pez
And Finally...

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello out there, my fellow Pezheads and Pez-adjacent heads! We finally made it to October!

Looking back at this past month, it mainly consisted of getting lots of Pez scores delivered from Pez.com, eBay, and various other places. I also got some new stuff for my Pez room, including a spinning rack for my carded Pez, some lighting for some of my display cabinets, a great display stand for my Pez guns, and a nice center display for the middle of the room (for the IKEA enthusiasts out there, the piece that I got was the Fabrikor). One day I got 3 separate Pez packages! That was a good day, my friends. I also continued to make good progress in the Pez room, and I plan to push myself to get it ready to show, hopefully for the November or December 2020 issue of Pezhead Monthly. The challenging part will be not only photo/videographing it all, but also telling the stories behind some of the stuff in it. There's a lot to share, and this, I would imagine, might take more than one issue to tell.

One unfortunate thing about September was that I did not go to the Pez On The River convention in Minnesota as I was originally planning. By all accounts, convention hosts Cheryl and Sandy did an outstanding job of providing a safe, socially distant convention, while still allowing Pezheads to hang out, play games, buy and sell their Pez, and just in general have a great time with each other. The pictures and words I've seen makes this very clear and I am sorry to have missed the fun. For me, it came down to a 7-hour drive with only the chance to attend the Saturday floor show and I ultimately decided to wait it out this time around. Hopefully next year will be the one that I finally make it to this Pez convention that I hear great things about.

Getting back to my September Pez scores for a moment, they were, as the kids say, a-plenty. There were so many of them in fact that I wrote a 44-line Pez poem about them! You can read that further in the issue, but for now here is a picture of the assembled scores.

I'd like to highlight one piece in particular that is definitely the score of the month for me and maybe even the score of the year. It is the piece in the lower left of the picture above, and is also shown in the picture to the right (you can click that picture for a larger view). This piece was made by a talented Pez artist and groovy dude named Ken Foster. For this piece, he dissected a Batman Pez dispenser and then cast it in resin. You can't see it in this picture, but the other side of the piece shows the inside of the Pez dispenser along with some candies. It is incredibly cool and is going to look great in my Batman Pez display! I made a brief video showing a 360-degree view of this piece. You can check it out on YouTube here, like a record, baby.

In this month's issue of Pezhead Monthly, we kick things off with a spoken word rendition of a poem from the archives, The Raven Pez, which is a reimagining of the classic poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe and perhaps quite fitting for this Halloween month. Then there's some Pez Poetry, including the aforementioned poem chronicling my September scores, as well as a Halloween-flavored Pez haiku and limerick. We also have more of Bret's World of Pez, including the first-ever "three-fer" as Bret gives us 3 exquisite Halloween-themed pieces blending Pez and pop culture. In addition, the 2020 Pez Halloween pumpkin refresh brought to mind a certain classic TV show of which I am quite the fan. Lastly, you may have noticed that this month's cover image continues Pezhead Monthly's grand tradition of bringing the creepiest Pez dispenser ever, Egg Baby Pez, into the posters of some iconic horror movies. This time we have an homage to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." This is actually the seventh Egg Baby Pez horror poster parody! To see them all, click here. And while you're at it, check out the Pezhead Monthly Halloween page, freshly updated with some of the content from this month's issue.

Looking ahead to October, in addition to ongoing Pez room updates as mentioned above, I am quite excited to be attending the second annual IN Crowd Pez gathering up in Lowell, Indiana. I had a great time at the first one that took place last year and can't wait for this one. Next month's issue will have a recap of my experience there.

Did you miss last month's issue? You can still read it here. To search the full Pezhead Monthly archives, hop on over to the archive page, where you can browse by feature, Pez Poetry Slam, or issue. There's also a Google search bar to help you search the content across the site.

Thanks as always for reading Pezhead Monthly. Happy Autumn and Happy Halloween! Be safe out there and have a (Pez) flippin' great time.

Joe
Editor, Pezhead Monthly
joe@pezheadmonthly.com

The Raven Pez, Revisited | top

Back in May 2004, as part of the 2004 Pez Poetry Slam, I sought out to reimagine the classic Edgar Allen Poe poem "The Raven" as one man's troubled quest to track down the vintage Raven Pez dispenser. Titled "The Raven Pez" and painstakingly written to match the rhyme scheme of the original and the use of the haunting call of "Forevermore", this is one of my favorite Pez poems in the 20-year history of this publication. (It also happens to be the longest Pez poem I've ever written.)

This month, as we celebrate Halloween, I thought it was fitting to record a spoken word version of "The Raven Pez." This is captured in the below video. It is a pretty bare-bones production, with only the poem's words, an echo-filled narration, and some background music for effect. It also clocks in at 6 and a half minutes, which makes it the longest Pez video I've ever recorded. I hope that you enjoy it and that, like me, you celebrate the awesomeness of Pez, forevermore.

Direct link here

Pez Poetry | top

My Pezzy, Sunny September '20

Oh what a month! September '20,
Hello new Pez and goodbye money.
So many scores in 30 days,
So let's get to it right away.

I was very pleased to get
The Europe Mickey/Minnie set.
Two of each, could not look snappier,
My Pez collection just got happier.

My lovely wife gave me a gift
That caused my heart to quickly lift:
The brand new bride and brand new groom!
Just married and in my Pez room

With Autumn here, it's goodbye shorts
And hello flannel shirts and denim.
And joining two new Spideys now
Is quite an angry, toothy Venom.

Let's celebrate! It's 40 years
Since the Empire struck back
A giant Darth, decked out in chrome,
Is perfect for this time in fact.

Merry Christmas one and all!
Don we now our gay apparel.
And also 4 Pez ornaments
From the racks of Cracker Barrel.

Merry Christmas! Once again!
A Mickey/Minnie special box
And Ho Ho Ho, it's Santa Claus,
A timeless Pez that always rocks.

To the Batmobile we go!
My Batman scores, oh where to start?
A counter box display, for one,
And a retro, repro header card

A Europe card, a Europe box!
A double card, well now we're moving!
And four customs that I made,
With funky stems that I am grooving.

To top it off, I did receive
A score sublime and oh so pleasant
A jewel of my Pez display,
Dissected Batman, cast in resin!

September '20, quite a ride,
It brought such joy and happiness.
I bid it now a fond adieu,
So long and thanks for all the Pez.

Pez Haiku #148

Monster on the porch!
Oh wait, it's just another
Pez delivery.

Vlad

There once was a Pezhead named Vlad
Who partied all night, what a lad.
When sunlight was beaming,
He was sleeping and dreaming
Of all of the Pez that he had.

Bret's World of Pez | top

Bret Christopher returns this month with not one, not two, but three great pieces that celebrate Halloween. First off, Bret gives us Jack Skellington from "A Nightmare before Christmas" offering up some raspberry candy. Next up is the classic character Count Orlock from the movie "Nosferatu", seen here carrying a giant roll of peppermint candy. Finally, Bret gives us an image of Sam from the 2007 movie "Trick 'r Treat" with one of the newer Pez flavors, candy corn. Of this last movie, Bret notes that it's "probably the best film to capture the
Halloween spirit besides The Great Pumpkin." That is high praise indeed! I admit that I have not seen this movie yet, but I think I'll need to arrange a viewing soon.

Thanks again Bret for sharing your artistic talent with us all!

Image credit: Bret Christopher

Image credit: Bret Christopher

Image credit: Bret Christopher

And Finally... | top

For Halloween this year, Pez released a new version of the Pumpkin that was released in 2018. The new version is officially known as "Scary Pumpkin" and is available at stores everywhere this time of year. Here is a picture of the 2 versions side by side.

I can definitely see how the new Pumpkin could be considered scary. But to me, it also looks somewhat angry (and really, in 2020, both emotions seem on point). As soon as I came to this realization, I knew that a Pezzification of a particular scene from the classic TV show "The Incredible Hulk" was in order. And here it is!