It’s day six of the countdown and once again we’re dipping into some familiar territory with another Don Post mask advertisement. This one hails from issue #14 of Fangoria from 1981 and brings the scale down a bit from the Starlog 1979 AD I posted earlier in the week…
There are some of the same classic masks returning, in particular the Hammer and Universal Dracula’s and the Star Wars masks, but there are also some new sculpts that are pretty darn awesome. First though, I know Star Wars was huge, especially back in ’81, a year after Empire hit theater screens, but one of these masks seems a little weird. Was the outcry ever so great for secondary Cantina scene character masks that Don Post Studios really felt the need to produce a Bith mask? See, I’m betting most of you wouldn’t be able to describe who Figrin D’an or one of the Bith were by their name or species alone. Even though the band in that sequence is sort of iconic, was it ever so popular that six friends pooled $300 together so they could rock their neighborhood to the sweet dulcet tones of “Mad About Me“?
Anyway, some of the stand-outs in this ad, at least for me, are the weird, mouth-tentacled Alien (#905) and Gills (#814), a really interesting and subdued take on the Creature From the Black Lagoon (both were also on the 1979 ad from Starlog, but now much easier to see.) Even though it’s in high shadow in the picture, mask #2020, Spock from Star Trek, is also a bit interesting, if only for the unfortunate amount of un-life-like paint application. I wonder if that’s zombie Spock? I’d also like to point out that mask #304 is the same Devil mask as in the 1977 Marvel Comics Halloween mask ad I shared at the beginning of the countdown…
Anyway, come back tomorrow for more mask tomfoolery, and if you’re looking for a ton of Halloween content all through the month of October, make sure to stop on by the official Countdown to Halloween site and check out the list of participating blogs for 2011. You’ll be glad you did!
