Saturday, Oct 25

Locust Moon Comics Festival

If comics is your thing (or might be your thing or was your thing or is your partner’s thing) get yourself over to The Rotunda on Saturday for the third annual Locust Moon Comics Festival. This thing will include some fine independent cartoonists and creators, including: Paul Pope (Battling Boy), Bill Sienkiewicz (Elektra: Assassin), Dean Haspiel (The Alcoholic), Mark Schultz (Xenozoic Tales), Denis Kitchen (The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen) and Farel Dalrymple (The Wrenchies), as well as local stars like Box Brown (Andre the Giant: Life and Legend), Dave Bullock (Justice League: The New Frontier), and J.G. Jones (Wanted).

The festival will include workshops, panels and discussion on the art, history and business of comics.

Several artists will debut new work at the festival, including the Locust Moon work Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream – a kickstarter funded Winsor McKay Tribute.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Entrance is by optional donation. No advanced tickets are needed. Kids 13 and under are admitted free. Here is a schedule. 

Benefit Concert for Veterans

The St. Francis de Sales School is hosting a benefit concert on Saturday to benefit the Philadelphia Veterans House, the house for struggling and homeless veterans at 4108 Baltimore Ave., and for long-term patients at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Philly.

The concert and activities, including dinners at a small cost, will run from noon to 5 p.m. in the school’s auditorium next to the church at 47th and Springfield. Admission is $10 plus any practical goods you can donate, including: canned goods, pasta, socks, underwear, gloves, scarves, wool caps, sweaters, shirts, jackets, heavy coats, razors, tokens, bedding, towels, books on tape, or any other items of everyday use.

Lunchtime pumpkin carving 

If a little lunchtime pumpkin carving craziness is what you’re about, then you should head to The Coffee Market (formerly Earth Cup), 45th and Pine, for a pumpkin carving contest. The contest runs from noon to 1 p.m. They will supply the pumpkins, tools, judges and prizes. All you need is the creativity.

Sunday, Oct 26

A Halloween family throwdown at the Woodlands

The Woodlands (40th & Woodland) is teaming up with the Mutter Museum and Curio Theatre for a Halloween Family Fun Day on Sunday, Oct. 26. The event will include a “mini” Mutter Museum, which will include specimens to touch, a 19th Century amputation kit, bone games and more.

You can also take a walking tour that includes an introduction to a woman who served as a nurse at Gettysburg and a physician who gave his soldiers shock therapy (they are both buried at The Woodlands). An All Hallow’s Read and book swap and scavenger hunt is also on the agenda.

The event runs from noon to 4 p.m. and you can find more details on specific events, including times, here.