Cryptique Krewe

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Flyer-style graphic that says, "Cryptique FAQs. Number one. Is it too late to march with Cryptique? There's no such thing as too late! Next question!"

Flyer-style graphic that says, "Cryptique FAQs. Number two. How can I join Cryptique? Just show up! Join our mailing list. Receive info about our Mardi Gras shamble. Make a costume and show up!"

Flyer-style graphic that says, "Cryptique FAQs. Number three. What are the rules for marching with Cryptique? Rule number one: Good vibes only. Positive energy. Kindness. Respect. Fun! Just dress up as a monster, or something monster-adjacent, and join us!"

Flyer-style graphic that says, "Cryptique marches on Mardi Gras day in the French Quarter. Check our website and socials for our new route and lots more info!"

One week! 💜💛💚

Colorful image of the Carnival set for the WWL Louisiana Morning News. Featured in the center, a faux New Orleans gallery of textured glass panels stretching down to a low railing. Appearing in between the glass panels are, from the left, Grand Marshal Marty Graw, former WWL reporter Colleen Seeley, and Professor Carl Nivale. The Grand Marshal, dressed in his signature gold jacket and bejewelled cap, holds his traditional gold fan. Ms. Seeley is dressed in a deep green dress, with a gold lame wrap around her shoulders. The Professor is in his traditional black robe & mantel, wearing his Kabuki traveling hat. Below the railing is a clear glass panel etched with the logo for WWL TV 4. The studio is bathed in purple, gold, and green lighting. The trio are surrounded by video screens displaying colored Carnival beads, and a faux window featuring a morning view of the Vieux Carre.

Reveleers, we all need to remember the good things in life; like Carnival and Mardi Gras in the Gulf South! Let's flood Bluesky with images of our Carnival revelry, and the importance of #OurCarnivalHeritage!
#Carnival2026 #MardiGras2026
Follow me on FB & YT @profcarlnivale

I walked the Quarter yesterday to figure out a modified route that avoids all the gosh-darned (fucking) construction! We're taking some silly twists and turns. Sheesh, this town...

Text version of the route: We'll meet up at 9am on Esplanade on the neutral ground near Buffa's, but not directly in front of Buffa's; more like diagonal across, in front of 936 Esplanade. We'll start marching at 9:30am. We'll enter the French Quarter on Burgundy, walking two blocks on Burgundy and then turning left onto Governor Nicholls. Then we'll walk two blocks down Governor Nicholls and turn right onto Bourbon. Here we take a 15-minute break at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. Then we'll walk three blocks down Saint Philip, and then we'll take a 15-minute break at MRB Bar. Then we'll go back up Saint Philip and turn left onto Chartres. We'll walk two blocks on Chartres, and then we'll turn right onto Saint Ann. We'll walk one block up Saint Ann and then we'll turn left onto Royal. We'll walk one block on Royal and then we'll turn left down Pirate's Alley. We'll walk half a block on Pirate's Alley to Cabildo Alley, where we'll take a 15-minute break at Pirate's Alley Cafe. Then we'll backtrack up Pirate's Alley, cross over Royal, and do a slight right-then-left turn to take us up Orleans. We'll walk one block on Orleans and then turn left onto Bourbon. We'll walk on Bourbon for three blocks and then turn left onto Saint Louis. We'll walk one block down Saint Louis and then turn right onto Royal. We'll walk two blocks on Royal and then turn left onto Bienville. We'll walk three blocks down Bienville and take our last 15-minute break at Ryan's Irish Pub. Then we'll backtrack one block up Bienville and turn right onto Chartres. We'll walk four blocks on Chartres and then turn right down Wilkinson. We'll walk one block on Wilkinson and then turn left into the south-west corner of Jackson Square. We'll walk up the Square and turn right, crossing in front of the Cathedral, and then we'll turn right onto the Saint Ann side of the Square. Our final destination is halfway down the Square on the Saint Ann side. We stop at the stairs in front of the park entrance on that side.

The Cryptique Council is pleased to announce our parade route for Mardi Gras day, February 17th, 2026! That's just four weeks from today! See the map much larger on our website; link in bio. All scary monsters and super creeps are welcome to march with us! The more the scarier.

Flyer-style graphic with a big colorful horned demon head wearing a crown, with the text, "It's Carnival time with Cryptique!" The words are superimposed onto his face and shaped to fit inside his crown, sunglasses, etc, and the Cryptique logo is in his teeth. Text on the sides says, "Mardi Gras parade route coming soon. All are welcome!"

💜💛💚

Registration is now open for the second of our two free mask-making workshops for beginners; this is for the one on January 13th! Register here: neworleans.libnet.info/event/15161461

Wow, the first mask-making workshop is all full up! Registration for the second workshop (which is on January 13th) will open on December 30th. Can't wait for both of 'em!

Registration is now open for the first of two free mask-making workshops for beginners; this is for the one on January 8th! Register here: neworleans.libnet.info/event/15161456

Tonight! 👹

We'll have just 15 spots available for each session, so register as soon as you can! Feel free to hit us with any questions in the meantime! (4/4)

Here's the link to register for the second session: Tuesday, January 13th. Registration opens for this one on 12/30; we'll repost it then. (3/x)

Here's the link to register for the first workshop: Thursday, January 8th. Registration for this one opens on 12/25; we'll repost it then. (2/x)

A flyer style graphic with the text, Mask-maing workshops! Co-hosted by Cryptique. Tuesday, Jan. 13th, 5:00-6:30pm, East New Orleans Regional Library, Large Meeting Room. Thursday, Jan. 8th, 5:00-6:30pm, Algiers Regional Library, Large Meeting Room. Learn how to make a basic Mardi Gras mask using cardboard, wire, & paper clay. It's free! Registration required. In partnership with our friend Josh at New Orleans Public Library!

Cryptique is co-hosting two mask-making workshops for beginners in January! Registration is not yet open, but I'll post the links below in case you want to bookmark them... (1/x)

Flyer graphic that says, "Cryptique meet-up: Let's watch Krewe of Krampus! Saturday, December 6th. We'll meet at 7pm at Royal and Alvar, river side. All are welcome! I mean, it's a public parade." At the top of the flyer there's a furry monster head that's upside down, with long horns that frame the text.

Some of us misfit toys are gonna meet up to watch the Krampus parade next Saturday in the Bywater; come out and join us! Note: If you have been naughty we cannot guarantee your safety.

Colorful flyer-style graphic with the following text: Cryptique October meetups Bride of Frankenstein, Prytania Uptown, Oct. 20th, 5pm. City Park Brews & Boos, Oct. 24th, 8pm. Krewe of Boo meetup, Oct. 25th, 7pm, St Philip & N Peters. Nosferatu with live score, The Broadside, Oct. 29th, 8:30pm. Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Music Box Village, Oct. 31st, 7pm.

A jack o' lantern's jagged grin on a pink background. The mouth is vaguely shaped like the word Cryptique.

Hey all you scary monsters and super creeps! This is Manning from the Cryptique Council; I wanted to share some spooky October events that at least a few of us are going to. Feel free to join us for anything; we'd love to see ya! Happy haunting!

This is the same "happy spooky season" flyer image from the previous post, but zoomed and cropped to show closeups of some of the monster letters: H, A, P, S, P, O. See alt text of previous post for descriptions of all the monsters.

The same image zoomed and cropped to show closeups of some of the letters: P, P, Y, O, K, Y.

The same image zoomed and cropped to show closeups of some of the letters: S, P, O, S, E, A.

The same image zoomed and cropped to show closeups of some of the letters: O, K, Y, S, O, N.

A flyer-style graphic that says "Happy spooky season from Cryptique!" The 17 letters of the first three words are all individual monster drawings in bright colors on a black background. Here's way too much information: all the monsters, in order, are: a devil standing on his hands for the H, a witch for the letter A with her pointy hat forming the top of the letter, a sort of monster ostrich curving its neck around toward itself for the P, a severed hand for the next P, a gargoyle with his wings up for the Y, a curvy alligator for the S, the grim reaper holding a scythe and a severed head for the P, a jack o' lantern with a huge mouth for the O, a stretched-out curled-up ghost forming the next O, a sort of dragon for the K, Frankenstein's monster with arms raised for the Y, a sort of dinosaur thing with a huge mouth for the S, a demonic head with a huge mouth and long tongue for the E, a weird triangular quadrupedal moster for the A, a curvy evil mermaid for the S, a two-headed monster with two long curved necks and the two heads facing each other for the O, and a crouching howling werewolf for the N. The word "from" is just white text, and the Cryptique logo below has letters that are slightly monster-shaped, like the C has pointy teeth, and the Q has a long forked tongue.

Happy spooky season from Cryptique! (Well, spooki-EST season; for us creeps they're all pretty spooky!) Wishing you 31 nights of frights and fun!

A flyer-style graphic with the text, "Found! Blake's bitchin' bike is back! Thank you to all who've been asking. Details in post." There's a cartoon drawing of a biker skeleton with a spiky mohawk riding a motorcycle with flames shooting out the back.

One of our members had his dang motorcycle stolen months ago, and, against all odds, it's back! We posted about it 'cause lots a' folks have been asking... www.instagram.com/cryptiquekre...

So are we!!

Cryptique Creeps drawing of "Lady of Fate," a Garbage Pail Kids style drawing of a person wearing a dress made of black and gold tarot cards, with a headdress made of more cards, and they have gold fabric and two black skeletal hands covering their eyes. They're holding some more tarot cards fanned out.

Photo of Sheila wearing their Lady of Fate costume as described in the previous pic, walking in a Mardi Gras parade.

Another view of Sheila in their tarot card dress and costume, walking toward us.

Close-up of the illustration showing that the tarot cards are in fact a bunch of other monster illustrations of Cryptique members.

New Cryptique Creeps drawing: Sheila's magnificent Lady of Fate costume! Fun detail: instead of tarot cards in the drawing, those are all of the Cryptique Creeps series 1 cards photoshopped on there!

If you were in Cryptique you'd be at a swell barbecue right now.* (*potentially! if you wanted to!)

Pssst, hey kid, you like Creeps, don'tcha?

A group photo of a lot of colorful people in various monster costumes, including two mummies, Anubis, a rougarou, a Furby, a gargoyle, Large Marge, Bunnicula, several different animal and human skull masks, a person in a dress made of tarot cards, a black cat, a crawfish, a penguin, a fly, a goth ringmaster type lady, three swamp monster people, and many more.

All the nightmares came today. And it looks as though they're here to stay.

Yes please!

Whoaaaaaa we’re halfway there

Whoa-oh, Jack-o-lanterns everywhere

“Your costume’s great!”

“This is fake blood, I swear.”

“Whoa-oh, that’s a strange thing to swear.”

Spookin’s halfway therrrrrre

A flyer-style graphic in Halloweeny colors, with the text, "Happy Halloweequinox from Cryptique! Just 6 more months!" There's a purple jack o'lantern on the bottom left and a purple hourglass with green sand on the lower right.

A dark jagged shape which is a zoomed-in view of the smiling mouth of the jack o'lantern from the previous picture. The jagged lines of the teeth form vague letter shapes that spell "Cryptique." The rest of the image is solid purple.

Happy Halloweequinox! 🎃