Halloween post, part 2 - "Immortal, Invisible" paper mask activity

Charlie Clowes wearing our prototype paper mask.

Halloween is just around the bend, and this year, as announced earlier this week, we're encouraging Daniel Clowes character inspired costumes with a small contest (<--click for details.) 

For those with jobs and school and families and stuff who might still want to participate but need a less elaborate endeavor, we've created this danielclowes.com exclusive holiday time saving DIY activity for you!

Here's our FREE olde tyme style paper monster mask (some assembly required) as seen in Clowes's classic Hallowe'en strip "Immortal, Invisible" from his anthology Caricature. 

Click here for the print ready, human head sized PDF .

Suggested assembly: You'll need about 30 minutes, access to a printer, a sheet of standard size computer paper, glue, a piece of flat cardboard, some scissors, a hole punch, and string.

1. Print out the hires PDF file of the "Immortal, Invisible" paper mask. (If your printer will take cardstock without jamming, use that and skip step 3.)
2. Color as you please (before you glue.) I used a cheap blue brushpen and mostly just followed the hatchmarks for the example shown above.
3. If using standard computer paper, glue your printout on a piece of cardboard (I used a "free" USPS priority mailing box.) For adhesive a gluesitck works well, or if you want to get fancy, a brush or roller with some PVA is ideal.
4. After it's dry, use a good sturdy pair of scissors to cut around the heavy black outer line leaving the tabs above the ears attached. 
5. Use small sewing scissors or an exacto to cut the eye and mouth holes out. 
6. Wrap black duct or electrical tape around the tabs.
7. Punch holes in the tape reinforced tabs and tie string or an elastic band through the holes and adjust to your head.

Advanced optional materials: a printer friendly piece of card stock, a hobby knife or small sewing scissors, something to color with, a bookbinding screwpunch or hole punch, elastic.

3 minute option: For the socially phobic, the craft challenged, the materialess (perhaps looking at this in a library), or the just plain lazy folks, you can photoshop the mask jpeg above (or anything really), on a picture of your own face and post it on your Facebook page, buy ( or steal) your own bag of candy or a cheeseburger to numb the lonliness, and just say you went out.  

Oh, and please be sure to send pics to halloweenclowestumes@danielclowes.com or submit a post to our new tumblr page of fan posts, the Eightball Tumbl-o-rama.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Clowestume Contest

There's only 10 days until Halloween... Still trying to pull a costume together for the big night? How about dressing up as your favorite Daniel Clowes character and sending us a video or photo while you're at it? We'll pick our three favorite submissions (if we get that many) and post them here on danielclowes.com, all others entries will be added to our new Eightball Tumbl-o-rama page of fan Clowes inspired fan posts. The grand prize winner will receive the rare SPX 2012 totebag signed be Daniel Clowes (shown below). Bonus points for anyone that can pull off a convincing Blue Bunny, Pogeybait, or Tina(?!) I'm dressing my cat up as Wilson. 

Please send submissions to contest@danielclowes.com or submit your entry and/or any other Clowes inspired posts on our tumblr page. Please include your name, where you are from and the best way to reach you if you are this year's winner.

For some inspiration, we've pulled together some Clowestumes that we've found on the web from over the years, many of which are on the Eightball Tumbl-o-rama.

The grand prize which you can use to go trick-o-treating in style (or use as a bag for your weekly groceries):

...and check back on Wednesday for a special Halloween offer exclusively available here at danielclowes.com

Clowes inks Ditko and Kirby

Every once and a while, here at danielclowes.com HQ, we'll pull out unusual artifacts that were uncovered while rummaging through the artist's archives (often to the discomfort of Mr. Clowes) to share with all. Today's is a double post in honor of our 300th tweet (and coincidentally the 100th blog post) and the first item for our "Oddities" page:

Here are two pencil drawings from Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, inked by a young Daniel Clowes. The first was done for the artist's own amusement during his formative years as a cartoonist, when he got a hold of a photocopy of a page of Steve Ditko pencils through a friend [1985]. The second was done for a Jack Kirby tribute 'pin-up' anthology where he was supplied a pencil sketch of "Vollstag," a character from the comic Thor, and asked to ink it [1994].

(Thanks to Eric Reynolds for this photo of the Kirby/Clowes 'Volstagg' drawing that's on his home office wall!)