"Why, yes... yes it IS a surgical cap!"

Just a quick flashback to the October madness that brought smiles to the faces of the local Brooklyn kids that flocked to our home-made spookhouse on the 31st last year...

Every year, my buddy Robert and I have a big costume blow-out for the local kids in his neighborhood. These are kids from a rough lower income area that don't usually get out to see the big parade in Manhattan... they also can't really safely trick-or-treat on their own... so they (and even their parents) flock in droves to our little open house every Halloween.
We go through POUNDS of candy every year, and each successive season promises even bigger crowds!

Last year, we put on the big "Godzilla vs King Ghidorah" blow-out...



After our big tussle... both costumes had pretty much given up the ghost... we REALLY went at it too!
Goddamned King Ghidorah's three heads had wire-framed paper-mache and chicken wire horns... all 6 of which went right through my Godzilla foam costume and left multiple welts and contusions all over my upper body when Robert gleefully pounded me with them in triplicate during the climax of our battle...
I simply resorted to punching him in the giblets with my claws in retaliation...

Here was my "default" costume... a home-made number I painted and cobbled together from various sources myself...



This was my "candy peddling" get-up... I actually got a little flak from a kid's impatient Mother who told me, "You'd be able to hand out candy faster if you weren't wearing those big scary hands..."
Unbelievable... free candy and show for her kid, and she still couldn't squeeze a simple "Thank you" out of her ungrateful cake-hole!

This year, we opted for the more classical approach... Universal style!
We had a whole mad scientist lab set-up... complete with operating table for the "Monster" to re-animate on.
I had about 4 hours to come up with a flyer for the show... from finished sketch to colored and lettered image.
I did the best I could with the little time I had... and still tried to get that old retro movie poster feel out of a rush job.
Here's hoping I was at least mildly successful...





My buddy Eric did the "Dr. Frankenstein" honors... and he aquitted himself famously... well... except for the moment when he forget his line about the the fiery torch prop and had to be prompted from the semi-articulate Monster himself! ("Eric... it's frikkin' RIGHT BEHIND YOU, man!")


Robert played the hirsute Wolfman and I was the infamous Frankenstein Monster. We had TONS of fake blood to toss around and a pair of fake hearts to tear out of one another's chests at the shows climax... it was a blast.



Messy and barely rehearsed, we did our best. The kids roared for more...
Maybe we'll do even better next year!



See? You hardly miss the perfectly fitted wig we wasted $30 and 4 hours searching for downtown the day before...


It probably looked better on Robert's upstairs coffee table anyway...