The ComicsAlliance Reader Halloween Costume Spooktacular!
Over the weekend, we asked our readers to send in pictures of their Halloween costumes, with the caveat that we would most likely be making fun of them. Today, we fulfill that promise, as ComicsAlliance's Chris Sims and special guest Matt Wilson, creator of @FakeEEtiquette and author of Hate You Forever: How To Channel Your Rage Into Effective Supervillainy sit down with over 25 costumes sent in by our readers!
Matt: I understand this guy showed up at 19 different parties on Saturday and 25 Sunday.
Chris: Deadpool: The Merc With A Mouth And A Tenspeed.Matt: I don't know if it's like this anymore now, but when I still read Deadpool, Wade Wilson's house looked EXACTLY like this.
Chris: It does seem pretty accurate, doesn't it? Like you'd expect Blind Al to be in the back there making coffee while Weasel tried to figure out how to get the flash to work.
Matt: Usually the background ruins pictures like this, but here it's part of the costume.
Chris: The only thing that keeps it from being a 100% accurate costume is that the guy went with cargo pants rather than spandex tights, but a) I think we can all agree that we're pretty okay with that, and b) Deadpool was created by Rob Liefeld and cargo pants have pouches BUILT IN. It might not be accurate to the letter, but it's accurate in spirit.
Matt: My main nitpick is that he has feet, and we can see them.
Chris: Only one though. Points for cropping!
Matt: At least he went as a Liefeld character that didn't require him to grow more teeth. And with that, we complete the Liefeld joke trifecta.
Chris: Tony Stark / Makes you feel / He's a cool exec / With a heart of corrugated cardboard.
Matt: Have you seen that Target commercial where the mom makes the homemade costume for her kid? I feel like this is meant to recreate the pre-Target version.
Chris: To be fair, it is a pretty sweet Jailbot costume, although the colors are all wrong.
Matt: And his head dressed up like Tobey McGuire as Spider-Man, which is neat.
Chris: For a guy who's on the bleeding edge of technology, I'm pretty surprised that Tony Stark owns that many VHS tapes.
Matt: Sometimes you just need to see M.A.N.T.I.S. as it originally aired.
Chris: This is one of a couple costumes that we got that also has action features.
Matt: The LEDs are pretty dang cool. And if it's really dark, the costume could double as a subway train.
Chris: Agreed. Still, that torso is less "Iron Man" and more "Iron Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle." Which, now that I think of it, is actually a totally awesome costume.
Matt: SHELLHEAD ON THE HALF SHELL! The cut-off fingers on the gloves gives him a Casey Jones element, too. A lot of thinking went into this.
Chris: Speaking of action features, check this guy out:
Matt: I expect a lot of unintentional deaths happened because of this costume.
Chris: For our readers who might not recognize it, this is a costume of the Bat-Sentry robots from Kingdom Come. And it's basically great.
Matt: It is, but I have no idea how a person could actually move around in that. Add in some big sharp armpieces and a background house to show just how big and unwieldy this thing is and you've got a recipe for terror.
Chris: Yeah, it's not really the kind of costume you can actually wear out to a party. I will guarantee there was no Monster Mashing in this thing. Maybe -- MAYBE -- he pulled off half of a Transylvania Twist, but that's IT.
Matt: I would be willing to give up all of that, though, to have that helmet and those glowing eyes. When I was 7 or 8, I used to pray to God for a costume that cool looking.
Chris: It's hard to tell in the photo, but the Bat-Signal in the chest lights up too.
Matt: Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?
Chris: Hey, cheer up. If you'd had this when you were a kid, you wouldn't have been able to carry a pillowcase for your candy. You would've just had to settle for being the coolest kid in the history of the world.
Matt: The manslaughter charges and stint in juvie would have been worth it.
Chris: Another background that really adds to the costume: I totally believe the Joker would have a Batman magnet on his fridge. Probably holding up his list of ways to kill Batman.
Matt: The Joker also seems like a guy who would love coconut patties, just to confuse people like me.
Chris: They've downgraded pretty hard from the hyenas, though. Maybe instead of going for his throat, they think the dog's going to make Batman stop what he's doing and go "Who's a good boy? WHOOSAGOODBOYYYY?"
Matt: Cuteness is the Batman's true weakness.
Chris: It's worth noting that this is the Arkham Asylum version of Harley Quinn, which -- if my regular Google Image Searches for "Harley Quinn Costume" are accurate -- seems to have overtaken regular Harley over the past year.
Matt: And yet it is not a Heath Ledger Joker, which is the costume that seems to still be dominant two years after The Dark Knight. Way to be a Joker rebel, guy!
I kind of have an immediate visceral reaction to seeing Joker/Harley costumes. They are ALL OVER comic conventions. One year at Heroes Con I was going around asking people in costumes who they were supposed to be (it's what I do) and the Harley, in perfect Harley voice, says, "Harley Quinn and the Jok-ah?" To which I replied, "Ohhhhhhh." The Joker guy sighed a huuuuuge sigh and they seemed really upset. I always think of them.
Chris Even though we put out the call for costumes for a comics website, I'm pretty impressed by how obscure a lot of our readers got this year. Case in point:
Chris: Dogwelder, from Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Hitman.
Matt: From that issue where he hung out at a Moose Lodge, I guess.
Chris: Again: Totally in character for anybody in Hitman. The only thing that could make this costume better is if he had a friend dressed as Lobo with a dog welded to his back. That's what Dogwelder does, for those of you who don't know: He welds dogs to people. To fight crime.
Matt: It really is terrific. Even the little dog is perfect. The only thing might be the actual torch he's holding. It looks like he wants to suck all the liquid out of my mouth, maybe.
Chris: At first, I thought this guy might've had a hard time explaining his costume to people since it's so obscure, but then I realized that "Dogwelder" pretty much covers it.
Matt: It is the most self-explanatory name in comics history.
Chris: At the other end of the spectrum, we have the least obscure costume of all time:
Chris: Guy Who Wears a Superman Shirt Under His Suit On Business Casual Friday!
Matt: I saw about a hundred of these costumes at the rally Saturday, all of which were overshadowed by the guy dressed as a Care Bear with a sign that said "Furries are Under Represented." What I'm saying is I hope this guy wasn't in DC this weekend, because he would have not stood out.
Chris: I like that he took the time to get the hair right, but I also like that he's got an expression that I think is supposed to be heroic intensity, but really comes off more as "I warned those kids to stay off my lawn. Now they get the heat vision."
Matt: Or maybe, "Yes, I'm a specialty stripper, but I think I'm better than that."
Chris: Hey everybody, it's former WCW World Heavyweight Champion David Arquette!
Matt: If only the Iron Man movie franchise had taken such a risk.
Chris: You don't consider the first Iron Man movie to be a direct sequel to Ready To Rumble?
Matt: Iron Man: Ready 3 Rumble: The Rumblenating. Do we know what that thing in his left hand is supposed to be?
Chris: I have no idea. If it was a little bigger I'd say it could be Tony Stark's hip flask, but I really don't have a clue.
Matt: Tony's special suit thermostat. "Pepper, you've got to remotely control this! Keep it at 72 degrees at all times!"
Chris: It's a prop from Iron Man 3. If you thought it was cool when he shrunk his suit down to a briefcase, wait'll he turns it into a credit card.
Matt: So if Charlie Brown wasn't already depressed enough, now he wants to feast on human flesh.
Chris: He'll never get that little red-haired girl('s brains)!
Matt: THE CORONER IS IN 5¢
Chris: I think the best part of this one is that it works so well as the setup for one of Snoopy's fantasies. "Here's the World War I Flying Ace in his Sopwith Camel, descending over the charnel house that was once a city! An uneasy alliance has been formed with the Red Baron, but how long can they hold out?"
Chris: I wonder if we're on the same page here, Wilson: Who do you think was responsible for the Zombie plague hitting the Peanuts?
Matt: Pigpen. It's got to be Pigpen. Or maybe Linus' blanket was attacked by an infected monkey!
Chris: See, you went science, I'm thinking mystical. This totally has the fingerprints of Linus's unholy veneration of the Great Pumpkin all over it.
Matt: The saddest thing to me is Zombie Charlie still thinks he can win that baseball game. Soon he'll be naked Zombie Charlie Brown after that line drive.
Chris: I think Naked Zombie Charlie Brown was inevitable as soon as someone dumped a bottle of rum in the punch.
Matt: He dies, gets reanimated and suddenly he's a party animal! (Imagine Sally saying that.)
Chris: "We're coming to get you, Lucy!"
Chris: I like Dr. McNinja the comic a lot, but I might like Dr. McNinja the Halloween costume just as much. It's like the perfect evolution of costumes getting more and more complex. I mean, we just saw Zombie Charlie Brown. After that, "a doctor who is also a ninja" is just logical.
Matt: This is Dr. McNinja: The Teen Years, back when he let his shaggy hair all hang out and he wore skinny hipster ties.
Chris: A doctor who is also a ninja who is also a hipster.
Matt: "Get me 60 ccs of PBR, stat!"
Chris: You know, I just sort of assumed this was a Dr. McNinja costume without looking at the email that accompanied it. There's a slight chance I might've just broken an embargo on screenshots from Delocated: Season 3.
Matt: Nowhere better than ninja medical school to keep your ID under wraps.
Matt: Somewhere, Kevin Church just had an episode.
Chris: Hey, it's I, Zombie writer Chris Roberson as Captain Kirk, Sonrisa Trippe as Amy Pond, writer and artist Dean Trippe as Batman, and... Well, that's Allison Baker there on the right, but I have no idea who the costume is.
Matt: She's that girl from that space movie. You know the one. The Last Starfigher.
Chris: Oh, she's the space princess from that one movie, right? Flash Gordon! But you know, that's not really a great Alura costume.
Matt: They blew their budget on the TARDIS curtain, which leads me to believe this is a fanfic adventure in which Amy stole the ship and traveled to every other sci-fi universe in insane fandom.
Chris: I notice that the Doctor's absent, having been replaced by Batman. Amy's trading up.
Matt: Sounds like someone's jealous. (Of Amy.)
Chris: Don't even act like I haven't earned the right to go on a series of wonderful adventures across the galaxy with Batman, Matt. We both know it's true.
Matt: You and his sneakers. The Daleks never stood a chance. You know, now that I look closer, I think that costume might be Princess Leia from the Star Wars movies. But where's the metal bikini? It's all wrong.
Chris: No way, dude. Trust me, I've seen a lot of Leia costumes at conventions, and they look nothing like that.
Chris: This one was actually a little obscure for me.
Matt: It's Noodle, the former Guitarist for Gorillaz who they recently replaced with an evil cyborg.
Chris: Oh, of course.
Matt: Gorillaz continuity is something else and a half. Anyway, I'm sure many people identified this costume as a "not very good kitty."
Chris: It's dead-on accurate to the video, though. But the best part? Dana included a second picture where she's in costume with Jamie Hewlett.
Matt: I haven't seen that picture, and now I don't want you to show it to me, because I'm just imagining her hanging out with the character Murdoc and it is amazing.
Chris: It's pretty awesome. I mean, if there's a way to win Halloween, I think that pretty much does it.
Matt: Get Damon Albarn to follow you around singing and you may win it forever.
Chris: Speaking of obscure costumes...
Matt: Obviously Marvel Dracula has stolen Dell Dracula's baby from Fleeta.
Chris: That's right: This is Jen Vaughn as Fleeta, the sidekick/girlfriend of Dell's version of Dracula who was only seen in six issues, three of which were reprints. In other words, this was a costume that me, Andrew Weiss, Chris Haley and Benito Cereno will get, and everyone else will be completely mystified by.
Matt: "So who are you dressed as?" "Fan service for four dudes."
Chris: I'm trying to think of a costume that could possibly be more obscure, and the only thing I can come up with is Henry Knickerbocker, the millionaire who died and left Frankenstein all his money in Dell's Frankenstein comic.
Matt: Maybe Chris Sims. BURRRRRRRRRN! (Says the guy who will co-write one ComicsAlliance article.)
Chris: I wonder if there's one guy out there who dressed as Dell Dracula who's frantically searching Facebook right now because he knows it was meant to be.
Matt: DellDraculaMatch.com
Chris: That would be the most useful dating site ever... for exactly two people.
Chris: Congratulations: You just ended your ten-year streak of not thinking about Captain N: The Game Master.
Matt: I'd say it was weird that Captain N is hanging out with the two Nintendo characters that weren't on his show, but who'd want to be vain Simon Belmont or weird, froggy Mega Man? He maybe should have picked a better game to get sucked into than Parking Lot Adventures.
Chris: I seriously love this picture.
Matt: It is indeed happy as all get out. I saw at least two other kids dressed as Mario this year, and I think it's a parent thing. One of the kids walked by me with his dad. "Get Koopa for me," I told him. The dad laughed. The kid? Stonefaced.
Chris: He probably would've laughed if you'd mentioned Bowser Jr. or kart races.
Matt: Or star collecting.
Chris: But young Mario here looks like he's totally enjoying himself, and I've got to give props for actually making the taller youngster Luigi.
Matt: And that's a real NES controller and Zapper™. Fidelity, Chris.
Chris: I wonder what would've happened if they'd met this guy while they were out trick-or-treating:
Matt: AHHHHHHHHH! Thanks, Mark Ramsden. For documenting my nightmares.
Chris: Odds that there's a homemade flamethrower in his mouth: 1 : 1.
Matt: When I was a kid, I repeatedly watched the movie Jabberwocky to freak myself out. That was nothing compared to this.
Chris: You know what's really weird?
Matt: The fact that it's looking right at me?
Chris: There was a message included with the picture. It said "MW - You will never answer my riddles. Your soul is mine. FOREVER." Kinda weird, right? I mean, my name's not "MW"...
Matt: CHRIS SOMETHING'S KNOCKING AT MY DOOR. IT'S WINDY INSIDE WHAT'S HAPPENING.
Chris: Probably best if we just move on.
Matt: Agreed.
Chris: Hey, listen, I know I said we'd do this article together, but, uh, I need you to do me a favor and finish things up by yourself. I have to run out and get a dozen roses and an engagement ring. I need to make sure I do this right.
Matt: In all seriousness, given all the recent discussion about judging female writers and artists on their work rather than their appearance, seeing an accomplished writer dressed as the Baroness has left me dumbstruck. I wonder what check-out was like at the hotel.
Chris: "Dr. Mindbender, the mini-bar tab is coming out of YOUR share of the bill! THIS... I COMMAND!"
Matt: "I insist that I did NOT order Where The Boys Aren't 6 and demand I not be charged! COBRAAAAAA!"
Chris: "Hurry, Commander! We stole..." "...a bathrobe and three towels!"
Matt: "RETREAT! COBRA RETREAT!"
Chris: Great, now I want a sitcom where Cobra High Command gives up international terrorism to run a Bed & Breakfast. Are You Being Served Again... By The Forces of Cobra.
Matt: Xamot Towers.
Chris: This costume just redefined right.
Matt: I hope so much he went to parties and asked the dancing girls to imagine they were girls...at a dance.
Chris: You have to respect the dedication that leads to even having weird lighting for your snapshot of your Professor Pyg costume.
Matt: Much more commitment to realism and you end up with unhappy trick-or-treaters.
Chris: Better than happy Dollotrons.
Chris: This is pretty much the best group costume I've seen all year. The only thing that would make it better is if they went to a party and ran into another group with Scrooge, Donald and the Nephews. Just warily circling each other. Scrooge checking his pockets for his Number One Dime... then suddenly! DANCE-OFF!
Matt: And when you least expect it...Ma Beagle with the pop and lock! Even the numbers are right, which is great. My one complaint here is that their clothes fit too well. The Beagle Boys had the worst prison tailors ever.
Chris: Just like a Calisota liberal, caring more about the criminals than the hard-working ducks who filled that Money Bin with their own hard work.
Matt: It's a revolving door, Chris. And it's the rich who single-handedly apprehend these poor criminals.
Matt: The one time he isn't naked, and he's getting on the subway, where it doesn't even matter.
Chris: Do you think he blued himself, or do you think he had a friend come over and blue him?
Matt: What's more important is whether he's got his cutoffs on under there.
Chris: Funny you should mention it, we actually have a picture of him from later that night when he was on his way home, although I had to get it blurred out to put up on CA:
Matt: Man, that guy is just all genital.
Matt: Robin sure is happy to have shrunk and stuffed Batman like that.
Chris: It's the end result of a diabolical plot we can all enjoy. Say, have you noticed that Robin seems to be a pretty popular costume for women? I mean, I've seen a lot of Tim Drakes, but I'm pretty sure all of them have been young ladies.
Matt: Is this one supposed to be Tim Drake? What makes him preferable to Carrie Kelly, I wonder?
Chris: This is in fact Robin III. Specifically it's Robin III who was just joybuzzered by the Joker, a backstory she sent along with the picture to explain why her hair's sticking up so much.
Matt: So we got an explanation of the hair, but not why she's standing in front of copies of Women of Gold Digger. Got it.
Chris: Okay, this next one isn't really comics-related, but it's totally ComicsAlliance-related:
Chris: I'm glad we got to see a good Tommy Wiseau costume now, because I get the feeling the clock is ticking on that one.
Matt: Chris, he's an institution. Haven't you seen The House That Drips Blood on Alex? That's a breakneck output of one feature and a short every six years.
Chris: I do like the level of commitment on display. Sure, you'd expect a guy in costume as Tommy Wiseau to shave his beard, but just phoning it in is more in character by far than actually trying to look the part.
Matt: And look at that body language! I can almost hear "Why would you do this, Lisa?" in an indistinguishable foreign accent. I'm sure he could pull off Wiseau's greatest roles, e.g. the Pigman.
Chris: He should start touring, like Gallagher 2. Wiseaumania: Not Tommy Wiseau But An Incredible Simulation!
Matt: The Flash and Thor await the arrival of Randy "The Ram" Robinson for a signing.
Chris: "Flash Fact! Jeans are sensible AND comfortable!"
Matt: It's gotta suck to run at several times the speed of sound and keep having to flip your hood back up.
Chris: "Heed my words, mortals! Yon champion of Midgard and I are here to take you on a perilous quest suited only for the pure of heart! The grand adventure... of FRACTIONS!"
Matt: When the Flash and Thor start entertaining you with a paper-bag puppet, they may not save the world, but they'll warm your heart.
Chris: This has nothing to do with comics, but it's awesome: WWF Legend Bam Bam Bigelow, from that time he put pantyhose on his head and tried to rob a Barnes & Noble.
Matt: Change the clothes and you suddenly have a Ray Liotta in HANNIBAL costume. Oliver Humperdink wouldn't stand for it, though.
Chris: I'm sorry, I'm just dumbstruck by the beauty of a homemade Bam Bam Bigelow costume. They... they should have sent a poet.
Chris: Some people aren't content to base their costumes on established properties. Thus, Emo Lantern, capable of great angst.
Matt: His color on the spectrum is blacker than black.
Chris: "In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night... you know what? You'll NEVER understand me. Whatever."
Matt: Then it's just all the lyrics to The Cure's Disintegration.
Chris: This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen on this website: Someone actually made and wore the Sexy Commissioner Gordon costume that Max Huffman, Caleb and I created for our article last week.
Matt: You should get some kind of plaque. "For Great Achievement in the Field of Improbable Costumes Made Real"
Chris: Today, Sexy Jim Gordon. Tomorrow: Sassy Alfred Pennyworth.
Matt: I think the story here is that Gordon has discovered Just for Men, but has no idea it works for the 'stache, too.
Chris: The great thing about the eyebrows and moustache are that you just need to change the jacket, and you've got Sexy Einstein.
Matt: Or sexy Twain!
Chris: Twain was already Sexy Twain.
Matt: "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Caleveras County." That had to be a euphemism.
Chris: I imagine there were a lot of Scott Pilgrims floating around this year, but Kiel went the extra mile and actually had chocolate coins to give out to people who recognized him. But you know, if he got those coins by any other method than headbutting people so hard they exploded, he's not really committing to the costume.
Matt: If we're truly seeing the aftermath of an evil ex fight here, this was one extraordinarily small arena. APARTMENT AVAILABLE, 700 SQ FEET, EVIL EX BLOWN UP INTO COINS HERE
Chris: I'm going to out on a limb here and say that between June 2010 and present, Plumtree T-shirts saw a sales increase of somewhere around infinity percent.
Matt: I'm not gonna lie, if wearing the t-shirts Michael Cera wore in the movie constitute a Scott Pilgrim outfit, I'd be Scott Pilgrim every day.
Chris: And finally, why, it's ComicsAlliance's editor-in-chief Laura Hudson as Ramona Flowers! I am contractually obligated to say that this costume is great.
Matt: I said this on Twitter earlier today: People will say it's the bag that makes the costume. But discerning observers know it's the goggles. But here's the big question: No skates are pictured. Did you wear skates, Laura? I'm taking it to you on your own site, Hudson! SHOW ME THE SKATES
NO SKATES NO PEACE
YOU WON'T SILENCE ME, COMICS ALLIA----
Chris: And with that, we officially bid farewell to Halloween 2010. And I've got to say, you guys didn't make it easy to make fun of you. We had some fantastic costumes this time around, so thanks for sending them in!
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