Zombie!

[Toy Ranch]

Although Lucio Fulci's classic was called Zombie!, and the nude girl vs. zombie vs. shark underwater scene ranks as one of the top 10 scenes in the history of cinema...  (well, close at least)  this isn't about that.  This is about a zombie that was much closer to the hearts and burned into the minds of many monster kids. 

I'm sure most of you who read Famous Monsters in the early 70's remember this appearing on the back of some issues for a while, in full color.



I always thought it was cool, a long haired rocker zombie!  I remember showing it to my mom and her reply...  "I thought you wanted Frankenstein or Phantom or something.  That thing is $39.50 and even if you had $39.50 you are NOT going to get that mask.  It's a hippie!"   She didn't think much of hippies...

It was priced like the Don Post masks, and sometimes appeared in the same ad, so for years I thought it was made by Don Post.  Actually it was made by former Don Post employee Verne Langdon.  Langdon is also responsible for Electric Lemon Records, famous in our circle for Phantom of the Organ, Vampyre of the Harpsichord, etc.  In 2002, he released a CD called Music For Zombies, and reprised the photo from FM for the cover:



Verne Langdon is an interesting fellow, and if you are curious about him, there's a great interview at Boxomonsters.com

http://www.boxofmonsters.com/langdon1.html

Someone pointed me to it once when I mistakenly called it a Don Post mask.  Here's what Langdon had to say about it:

Your ZOMBIE mask is considered an icon. How did that mask come to be?


After I left Don Post Studios, while at CBS I decided to sculpt at home just for fun. I did a "Neanderthal man" which was kind of interesting, and The Zombie. Milt Lewis was by then doing photography for me, and he captured both on film, and I sent the color transparencies to Jim Warren. The next thing I knew I received a check from Warren Publishing for cover art, and The Zombie was on the cover of the CREEPY SPOOKTACULAR 1972 ANNUAL. I got a big kick out of that, and after that issue hit the stands Jim called to say he was getting inquiries as to when & where his readers could buy the mask. We struck what seemed like a fair price back then, so in my spare time I made Zombies. I got tired of that real quick, and turned the project over to a makeup artist Friend (the late Terry Smith).

I'd always assumed ZOMBIE was a Don Post mask, but it wasn't! So you turned Zombie production over to Terry Smith. Between yourself and Terry, how long did production of that mask go on? About how many did you turn out? Do you still have a photo (or sculpture) of the Neanderthal?

I think between myself and Terry Smith we did The Zombie masks for maybe a year. I recall making less than a dozen. About that time my partner in Electric Lemon Records, creator of Hollywood's famed Magic Castle - Milt Larsen - was opening his Mayfair Music Hall out in Santa Monica, and Milt and I were writing songs for the show. I was directing the first show as well, and working by then at CBS, and then later writing and producing for Stan Freberg (Stan lured me away from CBS to work at his Freberg, Ltd. - but not very! - advertising agency). My plate was full. I needed somebody to do The Zombie, and Terry was willing. He probably did less than two dozen before Jim Warren retired the ad.  Somewhere, in stored boxes of files documenting my life, there exist some color transparencies of The Neanderthal Man.

So there's a bit of history.  They made about 30 of them total, and of that, there are only 2 known to still exist.

Several years ago, Kelly Mann "The Mask Doctor", in cahoots with Langdon, did a resculpt of the mask.  Langdon himself only had pictures.   They made 30 of them and broke the mold.  Here's Kelly's story:

http://www.maskdr.com/Zombie/index.html

Those sold for $140 when they were released, but have rapidly escalated in price.  There is an original for sale for $3000 last I heard... 

There were a few recasts made.  Someone with an original allowed a mold to be made from it, and I'm a little foggy on the details, but apparently Langdon got wind of this and shut them down.  Now I'm not one to go violating people's copyrights, but I've really wanted one of these masks, and I didn't make the thing.  If I'd been in the know when the Mann version was issued...  but I wasn't.  Even still, the Kelly Mann version is great, but it's not the same.  The recast is about as close to an original as you can get.  People who own them tend to hold onto them, and rarely do you see anything offered for sale or trade.  I recently did manage to acquire one though, and that hole in my mask icons collection is finally filled.   



While I was looking for some pictures and information to compose this post, I ran across a really odd photo that has to be included as well.  It's the Kelly Mann mask and it was on a blog that was in another language and had some other pictures that were decidedly adult in nature.  This one, I had to do a little photoshop work to cover up some things that were falling out to make it UMAble and family friendly.



If I'd known the Kelly Mann mask came with one of those in it, I would have waited! 

[Monster Bob]

WOWWEE WOWWEE WOWWEE

[1975]

Wow, you really do your homework, thanks for posting this, it was a fun read. The mask itself is kind of iconic.

[The Phantom Creep]

A few years ago good ole' Verne was selling Zombie shirts based on this mask and also a Zombie tiki mug from Trader Verne's which I kept putting off buying. Then they ran out and the last I saw was that they had up the "last" one and wanted like $400 or $500 or something ridiculous like that.

Man why didn't I buy that mug when I had the chance.......

[poseablemonster]

Very nice...both versions!

[Minion]

Very nice score!
I added hair to one of those for somebody a couple years ago



Anybody else think this mask kinda resembles Boris Karloff?

Man why didn't I buy that mug when I had the chance.......

You and me both.
I did nab the shirt though. Haha
And copy #30 of the Kelly Mann version

[Toy Ranch]

And copy #30 of the Kelly Mann version

Was that the one that came with the girl in it?

[Minion]

Unfortunately, no...

[Dr.Terror]

Great stuff Bobby.  Thats one of Klung's photos I believe.

[roheimiana]

I was lucky enough to get one of Kelly's limited recreations of the Langdon Zombie. But then I had a serious problem... since this wasn't a familiar Universal Monster, I didn't know quite what kind of a context to put him in. Then I thought about the long hair and especially the oblivious facial expression and I knew exactly what I needed -- a laid-back surfer-type, slightly chilled to the gills, warming himself with rum and nicotine, and reading an article about his own fame while he slips, most gracefully, out of his chair:



I really don't know why but Verne stopped sending me his usual monthly newsletter almost immediately after I circulated this photo amongst a few friends. I guess I must have misinterpreted something about his original sculpt....

[RAGMAN]

I loved reading this thread and thought it was a fitting place to post a pic of a recent score of mine. To me at least it was obvious where the artist's inspiration came from.

[horrorhunter]

Here's mine. It's #15/30 of the Kelly Mann reissues. My Frankenstein Pozer loves it and insists on wearing it. 

[RAGMAN]

Here's mine. It's #15/30 of the Kelly Mann reissues. My Frankenstein Pozer loves it and insists on wearing it. 

Haha. Love it!

[Pete-I]

Awesome thread guys!

Bobby, congrats on scoring a zombie recently!  As you mention, it's a true mask icon. In my humble opinion, one of the coolest monster masks of all time. I scored a recast at Maskfest about 3 years ago. Although it's a recast, it's one of my most prized masks in my collection. I re-haired it earlier this year...



I also scored a bald Night Owl version just over a year ago at Maskfest 2012. I added the hair to this one too...



Here are the two together...



Here is another of my very favorite other zombie masks, the Bayshore Zombie. While both of these are recasts, if I had to widdle my collection down to just 10 pieces, these would both be included...

[poseablemonster]

I agree, Pete.  I have drastically reduced my mask collection, and I feel the same way about my zombies: