1989 (Fall) Great Cover Up Catalog

Day three of the Great Cover Up catalog week features the 1989 Fall mini catalog, which is an addendum to the full 1989 GCU catalog...

1989 Great Cover Up Catalog

Day two of the Great Cover Up catalog week features the 1989 catalog. The '89 line-up still consisted mainly of old Savage Eye and MAC (Mario Chiodo) pieces. While Mario parted ways with the GCU by '89,  Mr. Chiodo's work is still prevalent throughout the catalog.  1989 was also the year that GCU owner Bill Atcheson purchased interest in Don Post Studios. DPS did all development for TGC and DPS lines from '90 to '99. There are also early Jordu Schell creations in the line-up, including the "Demon", "Ogre", "Booger Man" and "Corpse" masks found on page 12.

Catalog scans provided courtesy of Matt Post

1988 (Fall) Great Cover Up Catalog

Your ol' pal the Phantom will be kicking off November with a week of  Great Cover Up catalog posts. We'll begin the week with this small "Fall" update, which is an addendum to the full 1988 GCU catalog. There are a few noteworthy masks in this mini catalog. Namely, the beautifully sculpted "Monster" mask and Alien w/ Hands that both grace the cover...

Catalog scans provided courtesy of Matt Post

Happy Howl-A-Ween!

Here's hoping that everyone had a very happy and safe Halloween weekend. Here's one more tidbit from the 1983 Don Post Studios marketing campaign...

Halloween

A very Happy Halloween to all. The subject of today's post is quite relevant to this very special of days... During the mid 70's (1974-78) New York based photographer Larry Racioppo snapped shots of trick or treaters out and about in the streets. Among the photos are some nice examples of the commercially available "dimestore" masks of the time. Fortunately, these photos were compiled into a book entitled Halloween. In addition, photographs from Racioppo’s Halloween series are curated in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections. Here are a few samples featuring young ghouls proudly wearing their monster masks...

Two More Days...

The Masks of the 2003 Paper Magic Catalog

The 2003 Paper Magic Company catalog is massive at 248 pages, with over 150 pages dedicated to costumes and accessories, and another 50 for home decor. For the purpose of this post, I'll focus on the 23 pages of masks in the 2003 PMC catalog. There is a nice mix of modern and vintage styles, many of my personal favorites appear on pages 164-65...

Even though these are "value" masks, I adore the retro vibe of this assortment (and actually have a handful of these rubber heads in my collection).  Here are a few other faves from the mix...

Paper Magic Co. "Father" mask

Paper Magic Co. "Franken Zombie" Mask

Paper Magic Co. "Hooded Heathen" Mask

And now on to the catalog pages...

1983 Don Post Studios Marketing Materials

Some of the Don Post Studios monster merchandise campaign materials from 1983...