Old Halloween photos of you as a kid

[Monsterama2000]

Here's some of my favorite photos of me as a little kid and as a much larger kid!


1972 I was Batman and my brother was Superman.


Late 70's as Gene Simmons.


1984 The Nerd Family. That's me in the bowtie, my brother, mom and dad.


1987 The Grim Reaper.


1988 The Zombie Army.


1995 The Wolfman.


2004 as Uncle Fester.

You can see all of my Halloween photos on my Flickr page --
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsterama2000/sets/687963/

[ProfGriffin]

Awesome pics!!! 

But that photo as 'fester' is PERFECT!
So cool.

(snap-snap)

[Gary D Macabre]

OK I was at my folks place this past weekend and I took the UMA down time to dig through their old photos and found these.

Yes I'm the cat


And the bandit


Here's my gorilla/ King Kong costume (I was was afraid to hold the Barbie as Fay Wray because it was a girl's doll in retrospect it would have been so cool, but what are you gonna tell a 5? year old)


the classic pirate


OK here's one of my creative best, the Japanese B-movie alien bad guy


OK I remember my wolfman costume the best of all of them.  The hair was dr.scholls wool adhered to my face with corn syrup.  I got the idea from a kids costume book mid to late70's, but I have no Idea which one (Not Ormsby's)  Anyone have any ideas ??


The classic Drac is one I think we all were at some point or another.  OK the effort obviously wasn't the same here, but at least I wasn't in the same creativity drought that my sister seemed to be facing for the better part of the decade.

[The Phantom Creep]

Gary I love the Kong and Wolfman. Thanks for digging 'em out!!

[poseablemonster]

Those pics are great, Gary!  I love the Wolfman costume.  I bet that was a mess to make AND to take it off!  Definitely worth the effort, though.  Very cool.

[mike c]

Hey Gary!
I believe this is the make up book you used for that werewolf:

http://monsterama.blogspot.com/2006/07/back-from-abyss.html

If it is, I had that one too! I found it funny that the site even shows a few pics of the Werewolf make up in progress!

By the way, I also had the same monkey mask you are wearing as Kong... the jaw moved as you talked, it was one of my favorite masks ever... it was hollow, blow mold plastic, right? It was kinda like having a catcher's mask on your face but you looked much cooler.
Hadn't seen one, or even thought about it, in a VERY long time. Your great pics really shocked me back to it.
At any rate, I hope that was the book you were thinking of... the moment I saw your picture I thought 'Man, that's the lamb's hair werewolf from that old book I used to have!', haha!

The book Make Up Monsters was written by Marcia Lynn Cox, and was published in 1976. She followed it up in 1977 with Creature Costumes, which I also had. I think in 1980 or so, the publisher combined them into one book with the Make Up Monsters cover, but the title was simply changed to 'Make Up Monsters & Creature Costumes' (I know,genius...).
I bring all of that up to mention that copies of all versions are available used at Amazon and of course, on eBay, for very low $$$.


Mike C.

[Gary D Macabre]

Bang On Mike!  Awesome, I'll be looking for it now I know what it was.  And your dead on with the mask too.  My mom made a fuzzy brown hood to make it a full head mask.  I remember they produced a version with light and dark stripes that I recall didn't look as good, but seemed to be quite plentiful. 

[mike c]

Yeah, I remember the striped one too, and it was more common, but I had the non striped. I'm not even sure of the circumstances surrounding how I came by it, as it was a LONG time ago... but it was a favorite for many years.
I know I have a bunch more old Halloween pics, and that mask figured in at least one Halloween. The moment I find them, I'll post.

Mike C.

[ProfGriffin]

Awesome photos Gary!

LOVE that Werewolf...and the fact that he's about to go prowling around on Halloween night...on his bike...makes it even better.

Those were the days...when Monsters rode bikes...long into the night.

[mike c]

Those were the days...when Monsters rode bikes...long into the night.

Would you mind terribly, Professor, if I used that line (or variant thereof) in a short piece I'm writing? I'm serious! It's so Bradbury, so evocative in its simplicity. I'd love to use it.

I wrote a poem about our youthful Halloweens, which I submitted to one of the better fantasy lit mags some years back; they didn't accept it but sent the usual "Not what we're looking for this time, but keep submitting' letter! Oh well! I'll find it and post it here, if nobody objects? It might be a nice addition to a thread on Halloweens past.


Mike C.

[Gary D Macabre]

Thanks prof.  I was stoked to see that there were a good number of my elementary school days as those were the days that mean the most and lasted the longest.  In our memories there had to be a hundred Halloweens during that time of our lives, but the cold reality of an aging monster Kid there seems to be all too few.

The Ben Cooper years prior to Kong I wish I could recall what my costume was, but instead what I remember the most is the little breathing hole in the mouth.  I just had to stick the tip of my tongue through it,  It was this scratchy sharp feeling that wasn't enough to actually cut, and thus caused this bizarre compulsion.  I can only imagine how it looked as I went door to door.  There before them as they doled out hand fulls of candy was this monster/skeleton/whatever standing there before them sticking out its tongue.

[Monster Bob]

Great pics...and the Fester is absolutely AWESOME!

[darkmonkeygod]

Hey Gary!
I believe this is the make up book you used for that werewolf:

http://monsterama.blogspot.com/2006/07/back-from-abyss.html

By the way, I also had the same monkey mask you are wearing as Kong... the jaw moved as you talked, it was one of my favorite masks ever... it was hollow, blow mold plastic, right? It was kinda like having a catcher's mask on your face but you looked much cooler.  Hadn't seen one, or even thought about it, in a VERY long time. Your great pics really shocked me back to it.

It is rare that I get taken back by surprise like that, mostly because I either still have almost everything I got as a kid (or had it into my collecting years), but Gary's monkey mask and your description of it zapped me.  That thing is still in a box somewhere at my parents house.  Now I've got to ask my mother not only for old Halloween photos, but to find my monkey mask too!

The book Make Up Monsters was written by Marcia Lynn Cox, and was published in 1976. She followed it up in 1977 with Creature Costumes, which I also had. I think in 1980 or so, the publisher combined them into one book with the Make Up Monsters cover, but the title was simply changed to 'Make Up Monsters & Creature Costumes' (I know,genius...).
I bring all of that up to mention that copies of all versions are available used at Amazon and of course, on eBay, for very low $$$.

I checked that book out of my local library over and over.  Still don't have a personal copy of Make Up Monsters, and keep meaning to pick it up in hard cover (library binding, donch know).


Mike C.
[/quote]

[ProfGriffin]

Would you mind terribly, Professor, if I used that line (or variant thereof) in a short piece I'm writing? I'm serious! It's so Bradbury, so evocative in its simplicity. I'd love to use it.

Feel free....

And thanks for the compliment...Bradbury is one of my heros...obviously.

[Hepcat]

Excellent!

I agree! This whole thread is excellent!