Wonder Woman

Here are some shots of a Wonder Woman costume I'm making for a girl named Krystal in California for debut at 2009's San Diego Comic Con coming up toward the end of July. The entire costume is based on Terry Dodson's WW. The armor will be sculpted, made of fiberglass and painted chrome gold. I'll post shots of that as it takes shape. The corset is shiny red fabric on the outside but vinyl underneath for shapely support. Each star on the trunks has been individually applied. -Dale.

Sally Jupiter

The shots above are the drop-dead gorgeous Carla Gugino as sexy crimefighter Sally Jupiter from Watchmen. The following shots are of the best Sally Jupiter costume I've seen thus far, made by a beautiful fellow costuming friend of mine named Tally.

Today my friend Clayton Sayre made me aware of the fact that I had tragically neglected to include his fine costume of Dr. Carl Hill in my posts about DragonCon '08. So, instead of going back and working it into the previous post I felt it deserved a post all its own. For those who don't know, Dr. Hill (played by David Gale) was the villain in the classic '80s horror/comedy flick Re-Animator. In the course of the film he gets his head lobbed off after threatening one of his students, Herbert West, who then reanimates the doctor's body and head with his life-giving "re-agent" formula. The headless body, of course, then proceeds to carry around its disembodied head in a metal pan that it routinely replenishes with fresh blood. Clayton had talked about making this costume for some time but finally took the plunge this past year to absolutely hilarious results. He had acquired a copy of a lifecast of David Gale's face and from that created the latex head you see sitting perched in the bloody pan. Clayton could hardly see anything at all from his position inside the shirt and had to be guided into the hotel. But aside from these hardships it was an incredible hit and was one of the more unique and original costumes of the convention. "MORE PASSION!!!!!"

Plummy the Lighthouse

Here's an unusual mascot costume we just finished, a lighthouse named "Plummy", which stands for Plum Beach Lighthouse, located in Rhode Island. You see the finished costume and the design drawing on which it was based.

My ultimate Santa Claus suit

My son Sean's elementary school found themselves without a Santa this year for some unknown reason. My wife knew that I had always wanted to make an ultimate Santa suit for myself and she thought this might be a good excuse for me to finally tackle the project. So two weeks ago I threw myself happily into the creation of a costume based more on the Eurpoean Father Christmas rather than the typical Americanized Santa that you see in every department store, which I've never liked much anyway. My Santa has a hooded, floor-length red cloak trimmed in white fur, an inner cloak made of gold & pinkish stretch fabric overlaid with gold netting & gold corded fringe at its bottom, and the cloak is held together with gold chain and two faux diamond pendants. My very first appearance at Hurricane Town Elementary was today and was a tremendous success. Cindy accompanied me dressed in our Rudolph costume, much to the delight of the children. It was so much fun I hope to get other opportunities to don this fine costume and play jolly ol' Saint Nicholas for many more children. Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Hotties from DragonCon '08

Halloween Gathering '08

My annual Halloween Gathering took place Friday night and it was a tremendous success! We had a crowd of 25 and a lot of very cool costumes. Here are a few shots from the evening. For the complete gallery of photos, click HERE.

DragonCon Super Heroes

In order of appearance: Superman (Return to Krypton suit); Captain Britain; a group of Captain Marvels; Dark Superman (Kingdom Come suit); Batman (of course!); Captain America; Golden Age Superman; The Punisher; The Crime Syndicate (Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Ultraman); Iron Man; Batman Begins; Firestorm; 2 shots from the Justice League photoshoot.

DragonCon images

Here are some random images of really unique costumes from this year's DragonCon. Many more to come in the next posts, so keep a lookout! They are, as follows: A Wraith from Stargate Atlantis; Angel from X-Men; one of the many Steampunk costumers there; a really neat-looking horned skull demon; soldiers from Halo; my friend Sam Batman in a very imaginative costume of an issue of Crime Suspenstories; a couple in some beautiful white battle armor; an excellent rendition of Two-Face; a collection of Iron Men; and finally the "Yip-Yip" monster from Sesame Street. As you can see, the costumes run the gamut from anything and everything. -D.

Jor-el costume

Well, another DragonCon has come and gone, but this year I was in costume myself...as the father of Superman, Jor-El...as portrayed by Marlon Brando in Superman: The Movie. I did both versions of his costume, the black robes he wore in the tribunal sequence at the beginning of the movie and his more brilliant silver/white version he wore at the Kryptonian Council scenes. More pics from DragonCon coming up in the next post...

Victorian-era Joker sketches

Here are some sketches I did of The Joker had his character existed in the Victorian era of the late 1800s. The first sketch was based off of a drawing of the French artists Horace Vernet; the second was based off of Sidney Paget's drawing of Professor Moriarty; and the third was based off of Gary Oldman's Dracula attire.

Comic Con '07

Tribute to Stan Winston

Today's post is in tribute to one of my great idols, legendary make-up artist & creature designer Stan Winston, who passed away last week at the age of 62 from a seven year battle with colon cancer. For those of you who don't know, he and his talented crew are the geniuses who created the makeup & creatures for The Terminator, Aliens, the animatronic dinosaurs for Jurassic Park, Predator, Pumpkinhead, Edward Scissorhands, Interview with the Vampire and many, many others. As a makeup artist he personally won Emmy awards for his work on Roots and The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman. Winston had won several Oscars for his work and was one of the most influential makeup & special effects artists to ever live. He was in league with the great makeup artists like Dick Smith, Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Jack Pierce, Lon Chaney, Jack Dawn...men who created some of the most iconic and everlasting monsters to ever grace the silver screen. So, his passing has saddened me greatly. He was always one of the highest practical makeup luminaries to me simply because his design for Predator totally blew me away and it was that which inspired me to get into masks & makeup to begin with. Even though I never had the good fortune to meet Mr. Winston I did get to meet his Art Department Coordinator, a wonderfully nice and incredibly talented gentleman named John Rosengrant, when I visited Stan Winston Studio back in the summer of 1992. Here follows that story...

In 1992 I was in the middle of taking Dick Smith's Advanced Professional Makeup Course and had built up a pretty decent portfolio. My brother was stationed out at Ft. Irwin in the desert of California at that time and it was then that I took my second trip out West with the intention of shopping my portfolio around at the various makeup studios. I visited Rick & Bari Burman's studio, Lance Anderson's, John Beuchler's...and didn't really think I had a chance in hell of getting in at Winston's...but I called anyway. Luckily they said that they were in a bit of lull that day and gave me permission to drop by. I walked through the door on pins and needles, I must say, and was greeted by a model of the Queen Alien looming menacingly in the foyer. To my surprise it was Winston's art department head, John Rosengrant, who came out to greet me. I already knew who he was, of course, and I felt like a complete idiot in his presence. But he was extremely nice and invited me to sit down while he reviewed my less-then-stellar portofolio. I had already done a Predator mask of my own and he complimented me highly on it, then looked over the rest of my work, giving me advice and suggestions for improvement, information which I soaked up graciously. He then invited me to come back and see the workshop, something which I had not really expected (Stan Winston was not there that day...I would only find out later that he was in Hawaii while they shot the triceratops sequences). He led me through the drafting room where Crash McCreery's beautiful pencil sketches of dinosaurs hung on the wall, then into a work area that they had also set up as a sort of museum. It was nothing as elaborate as the showroom he has today but it still knocked my socks off. Before he took me back, though, he had to pull a large black curtain to block off the larger studio because he said they were working on dinosaurs for Jurassic Park and that I wasn't allowed to see those. What I did see, however, was an unpainted raptor skin hanging on a gantry and two raptor tails lying on a nearby table, which was really incredible. He then allowed me to photograph the displays as much as I wanted and I just couldn't get enough of what I was seeing. I only had the one roll of film and I used it up in minutes. That done I didn't want to waste too much of his time so I thanked him a hundred times and departed, still floating on a very high-altitude cloud. As my brother and I were driving back to the hotel I went to remove the used film from my camera...only to discover that I hadn't loaded the film properly. Not ONE shot had been taken!!! My spirits crashed to ground like a meteorite. I went from being on a cloud to wanting to crawl into the deepest, darkest hole, I was so dispondent. The next day I desperately called John Rosengrant back and explained what I had done and sheepishly asked if it would be possible for me to come back and re-photograph what I had shot the day before. Unfortunately, he said that that display area was now covered with skins that they were painting and that it would be occupied all day, but he expressed how sorry he felt that I had lost my pictures. It was all my own stupidity, of course, for not loading the film properly. Anyway, I thanked him for his time and spent the last two days of my trip in a very depressed state. I flew back to West Virginia and had to suffer through telling my friends this both wonderful and depressing story as well. I was depressed for the next week. And then....and then...something arrived in the mail. A package from Stan Winston Studio! There was a handwritten letter from John Rosengrant. It read, "Dale...Thank you for taking the time to visit the Studio during your visit to L.A. I'm so sorry you lost your pictures. I hope these will do as replacements." Inside the package was an undeveloped roll of film. I just about fainted! I rushed to the developers and in an hour I had the most wonderful shots of those figures and models as I could possibly ask for. John Rosengrant, as busy as he was working on the dinos for Jurassic Park, had actually taken the time to reshoot my pictures for me and then send me the film. I have rarely been the recipient of such kindness from such a person and this experience just underscores the kindness and consideration that Stan Winston instilled in the people that worked for him. John Rosengrant could have easily dismissed me as a complete nobody...but he didn't....and I will remember that act of generosity until my dying day. It's acts of kindness such as that that inspires us to act with equal kindness toward others, which I try my best to maintain, following the example of Dick Smith, Stan Winston, and John Rosengrant. And here are a few of the shots that John Rosengrant took for me. Enjoy them in the memory of Stan Winston, for there will never by anyone quite like him. -Dale.

I also wanted to share a nice tribute written by my good friend and fellow makeup artist, Clayton Sayre, who basically was the one who got me into mask & makeup at the very start. I thought his words about Winston were very appropriate:

After reading the various tributes, I thought that of all things, Stan Winston gave the field of makeup effects a face and a personality. Moreso than Dick Smith or Rick Baker, Winston "emerged into the sunlight", so to speak with his everpresent smile and buddy-buddy comraderie with Hollywood elites like Schwarzenegger, Cameron and Spielberg. This coupled with his immense diversity, be it straight makeup effects, makeup/animatronics, or straight animatronics leading into CG, he didn't just approach them professionally...he downright attacked them....and always pushed the envelope in doing so. I have always felt that his direction of Pumpkinhead went underrated. It would have been nice to see how he would have grew as a director as well.

BibleMan???

BibleMan? BIBLEMAN??? Conceived of and portrayed by washed up actor Willie Aames??? I've seen some ridiculous concepts for superheroes before but this one takes the cake. What's he do, hurl little New Testaments at evil-doers? Does he have little crucifix throwing stars on his utility belt? A gun that squirts holy water? Or does he simply speak the Word of God and the enemy cringes in fear? I'm sorry but this is really a pathetically stupid idea. And what's with the lightsaber???

Han in Cardboardite

Medieval Batman

WOW! Great response to the Medieval Superman. Thanks everyone for the replies.

Okay, continuing my "RenPunk" superhero costume concepts, here's my medieval Batman design. Now the problem with doing a medieval Batman is the fact that the Batman costume is pretty darn medieval to begin with, so he's likely to look incredibly similar no matter what age you draw him in. In this drawing I have him wearing a leather hood with ears sewn onto the top that ties at the front of the neck. Over his face he's wearing a black theatrical mask crafted of leather attached to lengths of fabric tied around the back of his head, bandit style (such masks were quite common at the time and are still made today by pressing wet leather into or over top of a pre-made plaster form). His cape would probably be fabric of some sort covered by a leather piece draped over his shoulders and covering his upper chest and back, not unlike the type of leather chest protectors that were in use in the period. I'm thinking his chest symbol would be crafted of polished metal with a black metallic bat in the center. His shirt would be thin leather but his upper "body armor" would be much thicker, sleeveless, tied at the sides with the abs formed into it using the same process used to make the mask. His gauntlets would be leather with ties running up them with metal spikes at their backs. Fairly standard utility belt with pouches, rope with grappling hook, and sword or perhaps even a dagger. Finally I've given him the thigh-length riding boots with buckles up the sides. Anyway, I hope you like it and I welcome any and all comments. I'm also working on a more armored Batman costume, too. I would LOVE to make this costume and have someone wear to a Renaissance Faire.

Medieval Superman

Here is an idea I've been toying with lately...a medieval Superman. I've been quite caught up lately in this whole Steampunk movement, the incorporating of turn-of-the-century design styles (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Victorian-era type stuff) into modern-day apparel, technology, costumes, etc....but since I'm such a fan of Renaissance-era costuming I thought it would be really neat to go back even further and conceptualize what Superman would have looked like had his father, Jor-El, made a time-error and sent his infant son to Shakespearean England instead of 1940s midwestern America. What would Sup's costume look like? What would he look like? Well, here's my take on the idea, complete with Elizabethan mustache and goatee. I'm also working on two medieval Batman costume drawings as well as a medieval Wonder Woman. What an impressive thing for a medieval Justice League to be able to show up at a Renaissance faire! I would love to make this costume someday soon but I'd have to make it for someone else to wear since my physique is more aptly suited for Henry the VIII! :-)

Furries

Here are some very impressive furries seen at DragonCon '07. I have no idea who made them or who the people are in the suits but they are absolutely exquisite work.

Nice Shadow costume

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

Heath Ledger Joker costume (UPDATED)

In the wake of the tragic death of Heath Ledger, a costumer on The League of Heroes posted these shots of his very own home-made Ledger Joker costume from The Dark Knight, this summer's sequel to Batman Begins. Aside from Ledger's incredible interpretation of The Joker, which promises to be very dark and unique, this gentleman (who goes by the name Electricsixx) is one of the first to duplicate the costume faithfully and has done an absolutely fantastic job of it, not only on the costume but on the all-important makeup and hair. If you wish to drop him a line and offer your praise you can reach him at electricsixx@hotmail.com. And if you want to see many other impressive comic-book character costumes then be sure to visit The League of Heroes .

Here is an updated Ledger Joker costume that ElectricSixx sent me this morning. I LOVE the socks and shoes!!!! Enjoy!

TEX

This is "TEX", the most eloborate, most expensive costume we have ever constructed. It was made for the Lucasfilm subsidiary THX, the company that creates and installs the THX sound system in movie theaters all around the world. The character of TEX is a funny little computer generated robot that appears in the pre-feature THX promo animation that is shown in every theater that uses this sound system. This costume was commissioned for use at an electronics trade show being held in Las Vegas in January. All of the red pieces are made of fiberglass and had to be sculpted, cast and made here in the Studio. The silver parts of mostly acrylic and polycarbonate. All the pieces were professionally painted by my brother who does custom auto body paint work. The rocket pack was created by combining four different plastic gardening pots from Home Depot, as well as some other odds and ends. Overall, it turned out very nice and they were very happy with it.

Scottish Batman???

I pulled this off of League of Heroes, a shot from the Wizard World Texas convention. I've seen some crazy costume concepts but this one is one of the coolest. A highland Batman, complete with kilt and utility pouch. N'now if he cun only get 'imself a bonny bot'tle o'Scotch!

A few Trick-or-Treat shots

My 13 year-old son Bryant as a knight, my 6 year-old son Sean as Venom, and me in my black cloak. One of the most original costumes we saw was this snack machine costume that had actual snacks in it. The poor girl couldn't even walk in it, her parents just pushed her around in a wagon. Frankly, she looked quite exasperated with the whole situation! :-)

Halloween Gathering '07

Well, my 4th Annual Halloween Gathering took place this past Saturday evening and it was a resounding success! In fact, it was the biggest crowd we've ever had with 21 guests attending. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time even though a few had to leave a bit early and everyone really got into the spirit of it, with nearly everyone arriving in costume. Without question the award for Best Costume Stunt of the evening goes to Ronn Smith and Tammy Lowers. Ronn arrived dressed as Dr. Who #3(Jon Pertwee)...but halfway through the evening he slipped away and regenerated into Dr. Who #4 (Tom Baker) without anyone having noticed. It was Tammy's idea for him to do this and both costumes and stunt were executed beautifully. We had various readings from Poe, Dracula, WV Ghost Stories, and Sam managed to totally offend one couple with his reading of the politically incorrect Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program. Good job, Sam, the evening wouldn't be complete without someone being offended or disgusted by something. The music segment went especially well with the playing of selections from Interview with the Vampire, Close Encounters, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Legend. We then watched some scenes from An American Werewolf in London, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Fantasia. Below are some images from the evening...and thanks to everyone who attended and especially to those who helped in cleaning up the next day. Happy Halloween!

More costumed hotties from DragonCon '07

Lovely ladies of DragonCon '07

As usual, the cadre of really hot babes at DragonCon was vast, as demonstrated by the following shots of some of the more awesome-looking ladies. The first shot is of one of the many women dressed as Queen Gorgo from the film 300, which was very big this year, Spartans everywhere it seemed. The second shot is of one of the hottest girls at the con, Margie, who is dressed first as Psylocke and then as Wonder Woman in the 3rd image, along with another girl dressed as Wonder Woman in her golden battle armor from the graphic novel Kingdom Come. The 4th shot is of a very sweet chick dressed as a Sith apprentice from the Star Wars universe complete with Darth Maul-style red and black tattoo make-up and yellow contact lenses. The 5th is a very elegant take on the traditional Wonder Woman costume. The girl dressed in white in the 6th photo is a character I'm not familiar with, although I've seen others dressed in this same outfit from past years. I have no idea what the girls in the 7th shot are either but their outfits were really neat and they were really hot, hence they are included in this posting. The girl in the green outfit in the 8th shot is a mystery to me as well but she's worthy of a showing, no doubt. And finally, we have a very sexy Black Cat. Everywhere you turned at the convention there were gorgeous women showing off their physical assets in one costume or another and that's one of the reasons why DragonCon continues to grow each year. I heard this year the turnout was around 53,000!!! I also want to give credit and great thanks to photographer Donovan Johnson who was kind enough to grant me permission to use a few of his photos that I lifted from his website. Please visit when you get a chance, his images are quite superior and he captured shots of soooo many costumes that I didn't even see. There were so many costumes and so little time that one can't possibly see them all. More shots of hot costumed babes to come in the next posting. Enjoy!

My new vanity plate

After years of wanting one...I finally got one!

AWESOME CONCEPT

The following mask and suit is a female variant of Tim Curry's character Darkness from the movie Legend. This is really one of the coolest concepts I've seen any costumer attempt to pull off and it just blew my socks off when I saw it. This wonderful suit is being created by a very talented artist named Melanie in California who I found on the League of Heroes website. I hope she posts more of her work because she is exquisitely talented.

DragonCon 2007

Here are some shots from my first ever DragonCon and may I say, it was a BLAST!!!!! Four days of sci-fi/fantasy/comic book costuming, forums, celebrities, costume contests, a massive dealer room, and COSTUMES, COSTUME, COSTUMES GALORE, all taking place across three major hotels right in downtown Atlanta, the Hyatt, the Hilton, and the Marriott. Click the link to my PhotoBucket album and you can see most of the good shots that we took: http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb214/Vermthrax/DragonCon%202007/

The ULTIMATE Superman costume

This is, without question, the BEST fan-made Superman costume I've EVER seen! This is, of course, based on Christopher Reeve's costume from the movies. I've seen a LOT of Superman costumes and more often than not there's usually something not quite right about them, either the trunks are too big, the boots are too short, or the guy wearing it just doesn't live up to Superman's physique. But I've never seen a costume more impressive and accurate as this one. Everything about it is absolutely perfect and the bloke wearing it actually makes a pretty darn good Superman. I would give the man credit but I have no idea who he is, only that he calls himself Martin-El and is located in Birmingham, England. I found these shots on a really cool site called The League of Heroes, which is comprised of fans who are really into super hero and movie character costuming. Check it out when you get time, it's pretty neat. Great job on the costume, Martin! Up, up and AWAAAAAAY!!!!!!