As a kid, masks were mysterious wonderful things. I'd say something profound like they were a way to be someone/something else, but I don't think that was it. You'd see them in stores during the season, or in the back of magazines, or in the Bible of my youth - The Johnson Smith Catalogue (cause 'catalog' isn't good enough).
To see a mass of masks all in one place, well, that was a pretty amazing thing. And they always seemed to be way up high. Rows and rows of severed creature heads. Like the trophies of the world's finest monster-killer. And I can't say I ever wished to own or wear them...it was more like appreciating fine art. A rare art, since the only place you could find monsters was on Saturday afternoon tv or in a movie theater...or in those horror magazines those bad kids always had.
Later in life I discovered that latex masks will eventually decay and rot away. Had I known as a kid that all those rows of monsters had an expiration date, well, I think that would have made them even more mysterious and incredible.
Saw this photo over at the always-awesome Blood-Curdling Blog of Monster Masks and had to share it. When I saw it, my first thought was "Man, as a kid I would have dove into that and rolled around in all those beauties. Like a dog."
Which sorta makes all that art talk above kinda null and void.
Click the monsters:
Friday, September 13, 2013
A Sea Of Masks
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14 comments:
The first honest-to-goodness high quality horror mask that I bought with my own money was from Death Studios. :')
Love the themed presentation of the Behind the Rows table at Maskfest.
the First latex mask, i tortured my father to buy for me, was like this "Crazy Scary", Stereotypical Cannibal mask, black skin, giant bone thru it's nose..it was the MOST Dreadfully Beautiful mask, i had ever seen at the time.
hey, maybe Still even.
for some reason, i used to keep it in this rumpled up,
OLD brown paper bag, in my closet.
the bag was sooo crumpled, ANCIENT & so thin!.
i would pop the mask on & threaten the cat.
i would tell him to straighten up or his
hiney was gonna be Stew!!.
ohhhh & then i moved up to a WolF Man mask!!..<33333333333333
sigh...
i would give so Much to have that cat & mask back.
Man, I could just stand there and look at all of those for hours.
Joel, I am thinking about purchasing a mask from Death Studios. They look like they are well made.
Despite all the gorey ones, I still think that gorilla mask could scare the poop out of me in the dark. Gorillas....*shiver*
Oh and girl6, was it a classic wolf man mask? Like Lon Chaney jr status?
Jay, the one I have is awesome. Very detailed, excellent paint job, and surprisingly thick so as to hold its structure. Well worth the price tag.
girl6, I feel that your posts can occasionally be classified as poetry.
Zeezos was the place for masks, here. Which was a magic shop, so that made it twice as cool. Then, for a few years, there was a place called Peterson's Partyland, in a big, old house on the West side. Peterson's sold and rented costumes and was owned by the parents of Cassandra Peterson. That was before Elvira had become Internationally famous.
You know Rot, even as an adult, I still get the urge to dive into a big ol' pile of masks and roll around in 'em... Like a dog lol :-)
Hey Sara, check out "Gorillas in the Mist" sometime,
i think it may help with your fear of gorillas.
i hear ya on the mask tho.. :)
Oh yeah, my Wolf Man mask was totally a Lon Jr. rip off,
a very cheaply made one, no fur or anything like that.
i have a pic of my friend Timmy wearing it with a Kiss t-shirt..hahaha..
such a cute & funny pic, Timmy was a pretty small kid.
such Great memories.
Joel, Thank You so much, for saying such a Nice thing to me, it Really means a lot..You made my day!.. :)
So cool! Top-notch prose, as always! You really captured the allure of the mask...I felt that way as a kid too; still do, in fact. :)
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