[The eagle-eyed Ron McKenzie strikes again, this time with some awesome news about Rue Morgue's art director.]

The folks at Rue Morgue are a talented bunch, for certain. So it’s nice to see credit given where credit is due. Our art director, Justin Erickson, has been chosen as one of the finalists for The Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards. Justin has been nominated twice – in both the Best Illustration and Festival One-Sheet categories – for his Cabin in the Woods poster, originally commissioned for Mondo Tees/Lionsgate Films. The awards will be handed out on Wednesday, October 17th. More information on the Key Art Awards, including a full list of nominees can be found here.

It goes without saying, but we’re awfully proud of young Mr. Erickson, and we’re all rooting for a big win. Congratulations, Justin!

This year’s Festival of Fear came and with it brought the petrifying presences of John Carpenter (check out his Q & A with Dave Alexander), Tony Todd, James Marsters, Juliet Landau, Rose McGowan, Chris Sarandon, and the list goes on and on, but there is so much more to a convention than just the featured guests. The following photo round-up gives a glimpse into some other great artists, filmmakers, exhibitors and fans who haunted the convention and may have been missed even by some who attended the festival.

Today was a little like Christmas at the House of Horror — assuming, of course, your idea of Christmas has less to do with creepy home invaders like Santa Claus and more to do with creepy home invaders like Michael Myers. The official Festival of Fear print is here, and it’s a beauty. Designed by Justin Erickson, the 18″ x 24″ screen print is part of a signed and numbered edition of 200, available at the Rue Morgue booth at FoF. (Printing by D&L Screen Printing.)

Justin will be at FoF peddling prints and posters on behalf of Phantom City Creative, so be sure to drop in and say hi.

Imagine an alternative universe of Canadian horror movies that didn’t, couldn’t and maybe even shouldn’t get made… but we’d still love to see. RM’s Dave Alexander has brought together some of Canada’s most celebrated genre filmmakers, illustrators and designers to create If They Came From Within – a gallery of poster art for Maple Syrup genre films that don’t exist.

Join him for the gala premiere this Friday, July 20 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at La Cinémathèque Québécoise, as part of Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival (July 20 – 29), to see what happens when the imaginations behind such films as Hobo With a Shotgun, My Bloody Valentine, Father’s Day, Pontypool, Splice and Smash Cut intersect with acclaimed genre artists such as James White, Jason Edmiston, Ghoulish Gary Pullin, Justin Erickson, Vince Marcone, and more!

Check out She’s Still Dead’s gore-geous LP and T-shirt package for Immortal, Eternal. Pressed on “bone and blood red haze vinyl”…are you kidding me? The album’s available on CD too, of course, but that there is a thing of vile beauty truly befitting the dirty needle of the Hymns gramophone!

The Guillermo del Toro “Fright Nights” silkscreened posters, created by Rue Morgue’s illustrious art department of Ghoulish Gary Pullin and Justin Erickson, are now available to collectors in extremely limited quantities! The standard gold version of the 12×36” poster (limited to 100) is now on sale for $40 and the silver alternate edition (limited to just 30) is on sale for $65. Both renditions are printed with metallic inks on acid-free, heavy art stock, signed by both artists, and numbered. Gets yours before they’re gone from either Phantom City Creative or GhoulishGary.com!

This Halloween season, Rue Morgue, the TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St. W. – Toronto) and famed director Guillermo del Toro have teamed up to present Fright Nights – and wouldn’t you know it – the one-two RM art punch of Gary and Justin have done what they do best (which is to say stay up all night) and collaborated on this beautiful poster (click past the jump) to commemorate the event.

These beautiful screenprints go up on theMondo site tomorrow, but you get a sneak peek at ‘em now! It’s Werewolves on Wheels by our own Justin Erickson, and it will be available in two versions, both pictured below.

Just released today, Mondo’s Rabid poster, by our own Justin Erickson! Feast your eyes and weep… literally if you were hoping to get one, because they sold out before I could finish this post. D’oh!

Stranger!: A Curious Collection of Monstrous Tinies art exhibition is celebrating its opening night – Tuesday, February 22 at The Arts Project (203 Dundas St. in London, ON) – and featuring works by Clive Barker; Rue Morgue’s own Ghoulish Gary Pullin, Justin Erickson and James “Twitch” Fisher; Vincent Marcone, Jeremy Hobbs, Paige Reynolds, and many more!