HALLOWEEN PICTURES

Who are these people??? The masks look old but the shoes look more modern. I''m guessing that these are amusement park workers posing in the 40s or 50s. 

Here's another picture I can't identify. It looks like it's from an anime film.

A few of my own rubber masks are torn and brittle now. I have to cover them up with props to disguise the flaws.

Here's an old, brittle half mask that I accidentally crushed in storage. The lips bonded to the cheek but...surprise, surprise...it looks great this way!

This has been a great year for neighborhood Halloween stores. For one thing, it marks the introduction of the adult muscle suit. Finally we adult men can have muscles without all that tedious exercize.

Above, an upscale version.

There's some new masks this year, too! This one (above) would have looked better minus the snot and with a smaller head behind the nose.

Something like this (above, drawn by a cartoonist friend) would have worked better. The mask industry really needs to take in more cartoonists. Non cartoonists tend to be too literal. 

Latex masks are also limited by the necessity to fit over the head. That's why girls make good mask subjects. You can make the mask broad and disguise the width with the hair.

Who's this? It looks like a 90 year-old version of "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" from TV.

Hmmmmmm....masks for twins. Yeah, sure, why not?

 I'm happy to report that dog costumes continue to improve with every passing year.

Wow! What a great T-Rex mask! 

I'm still curious to see if someone can come up with a good Jessica Rabbit mask. The face above is from a figurine. It fits the movie perfectly, but could still be a bit more sultry and cartoony.

Here's (above) a reconstruction of the young Steve Buscemi, proving that he'd make a great mask. 

Geez, Buscemi and Peter Lorre could have been brothers.

Come to think of it, why haven't we seen a Peter Lorre mask?

The world desperately needs a good Rondo Hatton mask (above)...

...and maybe a cool hat to go with it.

  

This picture (above) shows how a decent mask might be made of Tippi Hedren.

Some of the best masks used to be free on cereal boxes.  Why are the cereal people so resistant to Halloween now?

This time of year Disneyland should sell cheap reproductions of their Haunted House paintings, don't you think?

Here's a great gorilla mask...or is it a caveman?...used by Ernie Kovacs in his famous "Nairobi Trio" sketch. It's very funny and may still be in print, but if it is a caveman, how accurate is it? Cavemen are always portrayed as ugly, but were they?

So far as I can tell cavemen would have been exceptionally handsome. Assuming they were polygamous, the handsomest cavemen would have had many wives and children, and ugly, mateless cavemen wouldn't have had any.  That means most cavemen would have looked like Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp...only with bigger browridges.

I searched the net for a better picture of the Kovacs mask and came up with nothing. In desperation I typed "Ubangi Mask" and to my surprise I came up with.....ME (above)! Yes, ME! My Photoshopped ears have earned me a place on the Ubangi sites!

For comparison (above), my unretouched ears.

Recently I wondered out loud if my buck teeth would look good on a mask. A friend suggested that I already have a mask (above). Maybe he's right. I shouldn't be greedy.

Here's an example of the starched cheesecloth masks that were all over the place when my dad was a kid. 'Kinda nice, huh? I like the transparent hat.

Last but not least, here's a frame from The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror XXVI." Wow and double Wow! John K continues to amaze!

BTW: my costume this year: Mr. Meek (above).

MORE MASKS 2014

Gee, this (above) is a nice mask. It's probably plastic but it I've seen similar effects on plaster and clay.

Polynesians used to have Halloween every day.

This (above) reminds me that I should buy whole coconuts around Halloween time. There's so much you can do with the shells.

The two mache masks on the right  (above) cover the whole head. I wonder how you make something like that?

At first glance I thought this (above) was a mustachioed Edgar Allen Poe mask then I looked closer and discovered the mustache was a nose and the red on the bottom is a mouth. It's a gorilla!

Haw!

Above, a yuppie mask. Not bad, not bad. 

Around Halloween time cereal boxes used to have printed masks on the back.

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Now they don't. I wonder why. That's (above) the back of the box I used this morning. Yikes! How bleak!

  

Nice (above), very nice.

If I understand right this (above) was an old seldom-used mask which the owner rehabilitated with a new paint job and some Styrofoam balls.

CHEAP HALLOWEEN MASKS

Well, they were cheap when they first came out. They're probably expensive collector's items now. Here's a bunch that Steve Worth turned me on to. It includes paper masks (mostly from cereal boxes, I'm guessing), and plastic masks, some of which required buying the stupid costume that came with them.

No expensive latex masks here. They're great too, but I'll save those for another day.

Among the plastic masks above my favorites are the imaginatively painted ones like the one on the top row, extreme left, and the bottom row, second from the left.

I like the color do-rag on the pirate mask on the bottom row, extreme right (above). Of course you need the grimacing mask and the red devil to set it off.

That Little Lulu mask (above) and the wide-eyed mask next to it are real treasures!

Man, I love Halloween!

HALLOWEEN MASKS 2013

I'm so busy...but I couldn't resist another Halloween post. What do you think of this (above) 50s cut-out mask?

This (above) is what's available locally.

If only you could buy masks like this (above) in my neighborhood.

Or this (above).

WOOOWWW!!! Where can I get hold of these (above)!!!???

Aaaah...vintage plastic masks!

Paper mache masks always look great!