WIGS, HANDS AND PUPPETS

I thought I'd put up a couple of the wigs and hands (above) that I scored at Halloween time. This rubber giant's hand is a thing of beauty. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Expect a story about a giant soon. I've gotta give this baby a test run!

And here's (above) the new Moe wig! What do you think?

It's (above) really versatile. Tilt it forward a bit and you get the emo look.

No, wait a minute. Emos (above) comb their hair over to one side! Here I'm a bright and happy side-combed emo.

Here (above) I'm a sad, dimwitted one.

Roll the wig back a bit, and you get Spock from Star Trek!

SPOCK: "Klingons on the starboard bow, Captain!"

Roll the wig forward and I'm Bones, the Enterprise's tempramental doctor:

BONES: "I'm a DOCTOR Jim, and I'm not going to have my sickbay turned into an amusement park!"

Spock again (above):

SPOCK: "It's LIFE Jim, but not as we know it!"

Let me turn on the color (above), so you can see what my new Esmeralda puppet looks like in blue.



I know what you're thinking: "Where's her arms?"

Here's one (above)!

And here's another (above). She appears to be shocked at something.

Boy, I love Halloween!

HALLOWEEN'S ONLY A MONTH AWAY!!!!!!!

Halloween is only a month away!!!!!!! I'd intended to do a review of what's on display in the Halloween stores this year, only they're still putting things up, so I guess I'll have to wait. In the meantime, here's a few pictures.

Here's (above) my favorite,  an astonishingly beautiful, die-cut cardboard Moon and cat, probably from Germany in the 10s or 20s. Man, the Germans were good at this sort of thing! The piece is a work of art, yet you could buy it for the change in a kid's pocket! Is Halloween celebrated in Germany?

A vintage, paper-mache pumpkin (above), possibly also German.



This picture of a skeleton sitting on an old porch (above) reminds me of a job I had selling door-to-door in small, Sleepy Hollow-type towns in Pennsylvania at Halloween time. The towns were nestled in the hollows of hills and from a distance all you could see were old, wooden church steeples rising above mounds of  October-colored Maples and Chestnut trees. All the Halloween decorations on porches and windows were home-made.



A terrific pumpkin design!

Plastic and day-glow paint (above) made into an art form.



Soon we'll all have robotic Igors (above) to do our bidding. Maybe they'll rebel and turn nasty.



It's great to see designers turn their attention to the holiday.



What part of the body is this (above) ?

A mask (above) that looks like a zombie version of the lead singer in the band "Sha-na-na."

Siamese pumpkins (above)!



This (above) is only slightly more exaggerated than what you see on the street. Robert Crumb would love this girl!

Painterly paper-mache masks with oddball fabrics (above)...a delight for the eye.

Nice, very nice!



It's hard to believe that God isn't a cartoonist.

This (above) is the reason you don't see Wonder Woman on the street anymore, catching bad guys. She had an almost fatal attraction to Twinkies, and now leads a quiet life in a small town, eating Jenny Craig and watching daytime TV.

No comment!

Aaaaargh! Where's the eyewash!? 

PUMPKIN CARVING IDEAS

Here's (above) a technique I haven't seen before. The pumpkin is stripped of all it's skin and the pulp is sculpted by itself. When it's lit with a candle the face is eerie and luminous.

Elsewhere on the page the black pumpkin is a nice reminder that pumpkins can be painted. The green cabbage head below is interesting. It seems that early Halloween theorists toyed with the idea of using vegetables other than pumpkins to represent the holiday.

MORE HALLOWEEN PICTURES

Here's some interesting ones. I thought you might like the horn with a picture of a witch who looks like a Jewish dad. Then there's the scarey moon that looks like it might be named Fred. Somewhere in this jumble there's also a cereal box from the 40s with a witch cut-out on the back.

 For comparison I included a contemporary Halloween-time cereal box with a monumentally stupid message about nurturing on the back. You should click to enlarge it so you can read the text. Below is a skeleton drawing by Harryhausen and a vintage pumpkin-and-devil picture from Halloween's golden era in the 1910s and 20s. Or maybe I should say "Hallowe'en" like the picture does. I've seen that spelling before. Does anyone know anything about this?

HALLOWEEN PICTURES

I have a small but well-loved collection of funny Halloween masks, which I keep year 'round along the top of some book shelves in my living room. I was hoping I could add one mask a year to the shelves but most years there are no good funny masks and I have to make do with what I've already got. 

This year I don't know what to think. I like the middle-aged man mask with the red nose and white glasses (above), I just don't know if I like it enough to give it a place of honor on the shelf. I mean I could get the cheesy Smith Brothers beard with the penile nose (above) instead. I know that would fit in. Then again living rooms are supposed to be tasteful. But then...well, I'll think about it.



BTW, how do you like the cardboard crescent moon with the black cat on its nose (somewhere above)? The guy who designed that is my hero. He made it possible for kids to own something funny and beautifully designed for the price of a candy bar! I also like the poster of the pumpkin on the stairs.

The hanging pumpkin with the teeth is really well done but it probably costs a fortune! I don't see the point in making Halloween things that kids can't afford. Some people want to turn Halloween into a kind of adult Mardi Gras. That'll be fun for us but it'll cut the kids out. Do we really want to do that?