Rock 'n' Roll Monster Bash co-producer keeps busy

"It's hard to hang with me when I'm making 15 paintings, and I'm flying out of town to work on a haunted house, and I'm on tour with my band, and I'm doing makeup for a movie," Morton says. "The only time I actually can take a vacation is when I'm on tour, and that ain't no vacation. But it's my chance to get in a lot of reading."

Fittingly, he dates his lead singer, Amy Dumas — a.k.a. Lita, the retired champion of World Wrestling Entertainment fame.

"She's included in everything we do together," Morton says of Dumas, who also hosts the show "Punkrockalypse" on Sunday evenings on 96.1 FM. "We're both about educating people about the good stuff."

Morton took over programming for Monster Bash in 2007 after helping coordinate the event with owners of Netherworld, the mega-successful haunted house. He collaborates with his old friend Jim Stacy, the Starlight Six manager, with whom he's worked on everything from tattooing and haunted houses to bizarro rock projects like the Star Wars tribute band Grand Moff Tarkin.

Last year, Morton's second behind the helm, Monster Bash sold out for the first time. It didn't hurt to have the tie-in with the Silver Scream Spook Show, his collaboration with the vaudeville-inspired troupe Blast-Off Burlesque that provides an outlet for Morton's passion for vintage horror and sci-fi classics shown at the Plaza. (Co-owner Jonathan Rej likes to call Morton "the Robert Osborne of horror movies.")

The Monster Bash comes at a time when things are clicking for Morton. His lowbrow, monster-inspired art has sold well. The Luchagors draw large crowds on their tours, as does the 3-year-old Spook Show back home.