If you’ve got $75, a residence near LA, a hankering to see one of the most-talked about movies of the year before most of the general public, and a secret password that we do not know, head here to buy tickets for tonight’s 826LA benefit screening of WTWTA. And if you’re really special (or rich) you might even make it into the VIP after party.

The East Coast (which always does things better) has it a little easier but not much. Chances are you won’t be able to get into Vice’s exclusive prescreening, but if you’re 21 or over please join us for the after party at Tribeca Grand where you’ll at least be able to speak to someone who just saw the film. Even better, there will be complimentary adult beverages for those who partake in that kind of stuff. Head here to RSVP.

Today we’re placing some mouth-watering cherries atop the delicious sundae that is this blog. If you scroll down about three posts you’ll see a new addition to our sidebar: custom iPhone wallpapers and chat buddy icons you can use for… well, your iPhone background and chat programs to let people (mainly yourself) know how excited you are about the upcoming release of WTWTA. And, for the more patience-challenged among you, we’ve gone ahead and posted every single interpretation of the Wild Things by our artists in a convenient, downloadable .pdf. Just in case you’re wondering why we went ahead and did that, a hardcopy mini-mag featuring all the of the artists that you will eventually see on this website wil be bundled with October’s upcoming issue of Vice. Snatch it up when you can. You can thank us later.

It seems artists everywhere are surfing the tidal wave that is the impending release of WTWTA, and the Terrible Yellow Eyes project is doing something very similar to what we’ve got going on here. Cory Godbey, the project’s creator, invited a laundry list of artist pals to create works inspired by Maurice Sendak’s seminal work. And, just like our little site, the fruits of their labor have been posted online for all to see. But Godbey and co. have gone a step further and curated a exhibition at a gallery called Nucleus in Alhambra, CA. So if you live in the greater LA area and don’t have plans this weekend, stop by Nucleus to see the Terrible Yellow Eyes exhibition (if you can’t make it this weekend, you have until next Tuesday to check it out).

We know this is a few days old, but our minds just became wrapped around the idea that Opening Ceremony is now peddling an official Where the Wild Things Are line of clothing. Yes, people are paying a lot of money to dress in the mock fur of disgusting imaginary creature and toddlers in “wolf” onesies. This is what happens when the inertia of a blockbuster combines with a coincidental trend (fake fur) and a fashion company willing to exploit it. But at least it’s good stuff, according to fashion people. We’ll just take their word for it. Most of it seems feasible with or without the movie’s attachment to the project–except for the Max suits and jackets with wolf ears. Those people just look like babies. Or maybe they’re just fancy Halloween costumes?

You may or may not know that Karen O and a coterie of her musical pals recorded the entirety of WTWTA’s soundtrack. And starting today you’ll be able to buy to be able to buy the thing a whole two weeks before having your eardrums blasted with it in a movie theatre.

Or you can listen to it right now by clicking that little red “…Read more” below.

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As you can tell by the lack of any posts before yesterday, this is a new blog. The reason you can only click on two names in that long list above is because those are our artists. They’re the reason we made this site. And we’re not just going to give them away like coupons in a Sunday circular.

Johnny Ryan, the Dane Cook of the underground comic world, handpicked 24 artists in his little baby hands (many of whom are frequently featured in Vice), and tenderly cooed to them over speakerphone until they agreed to illustrate an original piece of work based on the Wild Things. For now you only get one a day. As we get closer to the release of WTWTA we might begin to reveal more than one a day, but you’ll have to come back to be sure.

Until then, enjoy Ben Jones and Benjamin Marra (a very nice man who enjoys ordering pancakes for the table at fine eateries across the nation). Besides the art stuff, there will also be news on WTWTA, a few interviews with our artists, and lots of other loosely relevant stuff that you’ll probably still get suckered into reading. Bye for now.

Pennsylvanians have to look no further than the Rosenbach Museum’s Maurice Sendak Gallery to get eyefuls of the artist’s most fundamental work. It houses somewhere around 10,000 works, ranging from his roughest of sketches to the originals of some of his most celebrated images.

As you can imagine, the impending release of WTWTA has brought a fervor over the gallery’s curators. Right now they’re hosting an exhibition called Too Many Thoughts to Chew: A Sendak Stew that is centered around the theme of food: children going to bed without it, a breastfeeding baby who consumes his own mother, and other imagery based around the relationship between youth and sustenance. If you don’t live in or can’t travel to Philadelphia to see the exhibition, the Philadelphia Inquirer sums it up nicely.

Halloween is creeping up on us like an ax murderer, and suburbanites who like scaring their neighbors’ children will soon be shopping for their next “haunted front yard” decorations. And the extensive use of puppetry, digital animation, and remote-controlled monster faces in WTWTA got us thinking: What kind of stuff does Rob Zombie and other rich psychobillies buy to decorate their Halloween parties?

They probably call up a place like Fun House Theatrical, which is a costume shop that seems to specialize in elaborate “torture” animatronic props like the examples in the video below. Most of their creations are relatively simple in robotic terms, but it’s all about the illusion.

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In 1963 Maurice Sendak forever expanded the scope of children’s literature with the publication of his illustrated book Where the Wild Things Are. At first the story was considered by many to be too dark and frightening for youngsters, however, parents and librarians soon noticed that every kid who leafed through its pages became immediately engrossed with its premise: A young boy named Max dressed in a wolf costume is grounded without supper for “making mischief.” Overcome by frustration and boredom, Max sails through sea and time to a mythical world full of fantastical landscapes and fearsome-looking monsters who crown him their youthful king. All of this was conveyed in just ten sentences scattered across 48 pages.

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