costume Archives - Sludge Central

Our Monster’s Ball Halloween Costumes 2014

Posted on October 29, 2014 by sexyarmpit

View our Flickr Album from this event for larger photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sexyarmpit/sets/72157648613469690/

Last Saturday I worked on my costume right up until the moment I walked out the door. Where was I off to? The Trenton Artworks Monster’s Ball which was a masquerade-art show-concert-party. Have you ever been to one of them? Well, neither have I, until now! We had a blast and it wouldn’t be a Halloween celebration here at the blog unless I documented the festivities for you, so here we go!

As I mention here every year, choosing who I want to dress up as for Halloween is never easy. I need some sort of divine inspiration, which sometimes doesn’t come until the very last minute. This year, I went with a character that I wanted to tackle for about 6 or 7 years now, but didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off properly.

The Diabolical Disc Demon a.k.a The Phantom was a Scooby Doo Villain in ONE EPISODE, but that was all it took to leave a lifelong impression on me. I’ve wanted to be him for Halloween for so long and I’ve had his mask at the top of my closet for 4 years now. He scared me the same way as Gene Simmons did when I was a kid, but as I grew up I realized he was just a knockoff of Gene, or more accurately a mixture of Gene’s makeup style and hints of Ace Frehley’s costume (hell, they even lifted his nickname ACE Decade.) I made up my mind and I knew it was high time that I finally embodied the Disc Demon for a night.

Miss Sexy Armpit decided she wanted to be Frankie Stein, my favorite Monster High doll this year. A couple of years back she was Draculaura which came out awesome, but I’m biased toward Frankie though. She did a great job with her costume and makeup as always. So, we were locked in with our costume decisions. It was just a matter of completing our costumes and then figuring out where we would actually go. It’s one thing to have kickass costumes, but if no plans are made, then we’d just be taking selfies in the bathroom at home all night and eating guacamole and passing out on the couch.

I made the executive decision to head off to Trenton, NJ for the Monster’s Ball.

The early evening on Saturday began pretty typically for me. And by that, I mean disastrous. With me, you know nothing’s ever easy, so realizing that I bought the “standard size” blue spandex suit was quite a debacle. Seemed like the right choice, but NOPE. What a dumbass! This thing couldn’t have been more constricting if I had Damien the snake wrapped around my entire body. It’s only for guys from 5’4″ – 5’10” and 120-165 lbs. I’m 6 ft and about 190 some odd lbs. I was a bit uncomfortable, but I toughed it out in the name of Halloween.

Once I got myself situated, we took some pictures. After all, the photos are the only way to commemorate these occasions. Apologies to Mike and Lauren who were waiting for us outside for like half an hour unbeknownst to me as I took creepy bathroom selfies at my friends house. Mike was the Red Hood and his wife Lauren was Jean Grey/Phoenix. Finally, we piled into Mike’s (@IdiotatPlay) car and headed to Trenton. Lots of cars whizzed by and stared at me as if I looked out of the ordinary or something.

Literally as soon as I walked in the door to check in, one guy was like “Whoa the Disc Demon, right?!! So cool man!” I couldn’t believe I was recognized so quickly as such an obscure character, but it started the party with a positive vibe.

Once inside, Miss Sexy Armpit immediately grabbed me to point out the costumes of a couple in front of us. Our first choice this year was going to be Dick Tracy and Breathless Mahoney, and boy am I glad we opted against it because this couple looked fantastic as them. They knocked it out of the park.

The entire Artworks building was decked out for Halloween with all kinds of homemade creepy decorations enhancing the atmosphere as well as pieces of art based off horror movies and Halloween. We met up with our good friend Bob Burke who created that kickass glowing Halloween 3 print I got at the Punk Rock Flea market not too long ago. One of his pieces of art was on display here as well and it’s one of my favorites of his, here I am in the pic below posing with it.

Take a look at some of the other cool art on display at this party:

https://www.facebook.com/bobburkeart

Not to sound purposely vague, but there were several rooms with different things going on. One room had activities like a photo booth and some kind of other situation that I have absolutely no recollection of. I’m hoping to continue being less descriptive about the random activities going on. All I remember is Bob and I bringing up Step Brothers and how much space there was for activities. Always. Any time someone merely says the word activities that’s what comes up, it’s a prerequisite. Another activity was EATING. Here’s the room with the hors d’oe uvres, NOTE the cheese balls! My kind of f’n party!

One thing I remember for sure was the room with all the drinks had horror films and spooky animated shorts showing being projected on a screen. There were also some cool blacklit glowing trees. I tried putting one in Mike’s trunk but it was way too big. I tried to avoid the blatant sexual innuendo in that sentence, but there was just no other way to describe that. Ultimately I wanted to tie it to the top of his car like Aunt Edna, but they all talked me out of it considering how I was dressed. The cops would’ve loved that. “License and registration sir, wait, is that a glowing tree tied to your roof? And a Disc Demon in the back seat? I’m calling in some backup…” In New Jersey that’s ground for incarceration. Ok, so I didn’t try stealing the glow tree, but I did have to drink my beer through a straw. I stuck it in the mouth hole. Boom, there’s another one for ya.

Once the party was in full swing, I got that feeling. That type of feeling that I used to get at the high school Halloween masquerade party. Those were the best. I looked forward to them each year. Sophomore year I won runner up, while junior and senior year I won scariest costume. All 3 years I dressed up as Gene Simmmons from KISS. What really put it over though was that I was completely in character. I’d go up to a circle of people whether I was friends with them or not and I’d stare at them and very slowly and subtly started drooling blood out of my mouth. I would go to these parties with literally 200 blood capsules. The best part was that even though everyone knew I was the resident KISS fan, one of the only ones in the school mind you, people were scared and they weren’t sure if it was me or someone that was planted at the party as some sort of creepy entertainment.

Back to the Artworks party. The DJ was pumping Halloween tunes like “Nightmare on My Street,” and it was my kind of crowd and vibe. Everyone was having a good time and they weren’t getting out of hand, which was good because I didn’t feel like kicking some ass in a spandex body suit and 35 lbs of felt. Then, without any warning, a troupe of belly dancers joined together in the middle of the dance floor and began their exotic gyrations. That’s when everyone knew the shit was on. It was like a mango sorbet aged about 60 years to cleanse the palate of all those cheese balls.

It was about 10:30 which signalled the costume contest. There were some cool costumes I scoped out throughout the night including a dude Maleficent who I referred to as MALEficent. Each entrant to the contest went up on a little stage and showed off for the judges. For some reason I was at the front of the line with Miss Sexy Armpit, but I was asked to go to the back of the line for some reason. I thought I was in trouble, or I was just too damn tall in these 6 inch boots.

When they were ready to announce the winners I had absolutely no clue who would win, but my theory was that it would be the girl who dressed as the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. She seemed like a safe bet. They gave out prizes to one or two runners up, and I wasn’t even paying attention then I heard the woman announcer yell “there’s only ONE Diabolical Disc Demon…” I couldn’t believe it. I never go with what will be popular in terms of costume choice, I go with what inspires me, and this time it really impressed the judges! The last time I’d won a costume contest was when we got 3rd runner up for our Macho Man and Elizabeth costumes at a masquerade about 5 years ago. This time I won First place and took home $100 bucks. Not too shabby. I probably spent nearly double that on putting together te costume though, but I’m not complaining!

After the contest was over, the energetic band with the tiny frontwoman wearing the aerobics costume, Molly Rhythm, started their set. After checking them out for a bit, we capped things off appropriately, the way most late nights in New Jersey end…at the diner.

Now…to do it all again on Halloween!

HALLOWEEN 2013: Prime Evil and Jem!

Posted on October 30, 2013 by sexyarmpit

After a couple of Halloweens in Jersey full of shitty weather, including a hurricane, I set out to make this year’s Halloween more of a success. It doesn’t even matter what Miss Sexy Armpit and I wind up doing for Halloween, it’s more about the costumes for us. This year Halloween falls on a Thursday so most Halloween themed parties and masquerades happened last weekend. Adult Halloween activities usually involve alcohol in large quantities rather than tons of candy, but I kept my consumption to a minimum this time around, mainly because I was wearing a mask.

Whether you know me personally or you just enjoy reading the site, you know that I’m pretty serious about Halloween. Even before October arrives, I start looking at all the events and masqerades in our area and the costume making commences! Not since I was a kid have I actually purchased a costume at a store. I prefer to put together my costumes using my creativity. Miss Sexy Armpit and I tend to put a lot of time and effort into making our Halloween costumes. How do I decide on what I am going to be? Well, it’s 90% inspiration and 10% feasibility. If I’m overcome by a feeling about a character a couple of months prior to Halloween and pulling it off is within the realm of possibility, that’s how I arrive at my choice.

As a kid growing up in the ’80s, I loved villains. I still do. The 80’s had some of the best villains especially from cartoons. I was a fan of Real Ghostbusters, but I was also a huge fan of Filmation’s Ghostbusters. It confused a lot of my friends back then when we discussed Ghostbusters because you’d have to specify which one you were referring to. The thing with Filmation Ghostbusters is that it didn’t seem to have the same widespread appeal that Real Ghostbusters did, probably because it wasn’t connected to a blockbuster summer movie. It was popular for a short time, but I remember having the hardest time finding a Prime Evil figure (I still can’t find one unless I pay a fortune on eBay!).

Prime Evil, the main villain, was so cool looking and he was my favorite part of the show. The fact that I have such great memories of the show and the character reminded me of something out of horror movie, Prime Evil was my choice for Halloween this year. He’s been on my mind for the past few years, but I didn’t think I could pull it off without looking too cheap. Intensifying my inspiration was the fact that Prime Evil was the most elusive figure to me as a kid. I rarely went crazy looking for a specific figure unless it was from LJN’s WWF line or later in the Kenner Batman Dark Knight Collection line. He’s the one that got away! My goal this year was to base the costume off of the action figure that I never owned.

Usually, Miss Sexy Armpit and I begin working on our costumes in early September, sometimes even late August. This gives us ample time in case we run into any unforeseen difficulties while creating the costumes. This year was no different.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was finding the right mask to use. Creating one myself wouldn’t have been the best idea because it would’ve looked like shit. Early in the summer I started scouring the Internet for online stores that had a proper mask that could work as Prime Evil mask. I finally found a couple on Amazon and ordered both.

Neither mask instilled me with any confidence that I’d be able to pull this off. One was latex that flapped around and got all bent up in transit and the other felt like it weighed about 40 lbs and hurt like hell when I put it on my face. The heavy one, which was basically a Terminator Series 800 mask, didn’t cover my entire head, but it did have a cool feature: red LED eyes! Actually the eye lights were pretty lame because they blinked incessantly which isn’t an attribute of Prime Evil’s. There was no mouth or nose holes either, so I was able to eliminate that one rather easily.

Now, with the decision made on the mask, I began working on other aspects of the costume. At that point I didn’t worry about how I would doctor up the mask, I had a feeling I’d be able to bring it up to Prime Evil standards without too much difficulty and if I couldn’t it would just have to suffice.

In between working on her own JEM! costume, Miss Sexy Armpit lent her ingenuity to the creation of my costume. We picked up some red and orange material and cut it in a similar pattern as Prime Evil’s flowing red cape and gown. We used a picture of him I had on my iPad as a guide while cutting.

Miss Sexy Armpit did such an awesome job with her JEM! costume. It was mostly homemade except for a few parts that were purchased. I picked up the wig for her and she worked her hair styling magic on it. With her dead-on balls accurate makeup job she looked truly outrageous!

One of the most important aspects of the Prime Evil costume is his pale yellow and sometimes neon skin. Fortunately, Green Man from Always Sunny made those second skin costumes super popular and it was easy to find a similar color to the one I needed. The only issue with that costume is that there’s obviously no eye, nose, or mouth holes, so I had Miss Sexy Armpit cut the face open. The “skin” is a main component to the costume because it pulls it all together. It really did give the impression that I had neon yellow skin.

As for the other details of the costume, I improvised. I found a reasonable long red cape with a big collar on a costume website. I don’t think it cost more than $20 bucks, which was great. As for the gloves, I found silver stretchy gloves that were probably meant for a woman to wear to some ritzy gala in the ’20s, but I got them because they were super cheap. When they arrived, I immediately cut the fingers off. I said “f*ck those fingers,” and bam, I had Prime Evil gloves. The mask took a few coats of acrylic paint. The yellow parts glowed in the dark too! Next I needed to create a fake oscilloscope for his mouth. I found a picture of Prime Evil online and opened it in Photoshop. I cropped and enlarged the sound wave in his mouth and printed it. I cut out a piece of cardboard that I bent on both sides. Then I taped the sound wave picture to the cardboard with black electrical tape. I finished it off by covering all the exposed cardboard with the black tape and pinning it to the mask. The red boots were actually repurposed yellow boots from my Kick Buttowski costume in 2011 that I spray painted red. Last but not least, a little black makeup around my eyes and my costume was complete!

Ultimately, our costumes were hits. Wearing the mask throughout the night proved to be quite a challenge, but provided much comic relief. I had to drink from a straw the whole night. This year’s outing was medicore at best and it definitely wasn’t the fault of our company though. We might as well throw a party at our place because we usually wind up having a better time just taking pictures, having a few drinks, and bullshitting before going out. I wasn’t able to eat with the mask on so I was starving by the end of the night. The best part of the outing was heading over to Hooters for a late night snack. By that time I had to take all my Prime Evil gear off because I wanted to eat without sucking my buffalo chicken sandwich through a straw. How the hell did Prime Evil eat? I wondered that while wolfing down my food. I didn’t really think that part through!

“Hey Fun-Ghoul, I’m Sexy Armpit!”

Posted on October 1, 2013 by sexyarmpit

In my last post I recapped the NJ KISS Expo, but that wasn’t the extent of our adventure that day, nope, not by a long shot! It was a gorgeous Saturday and there was much more to do. Next on the agenda was a place that falls right in line with the Halloween Countdown!

Not often will one of my posts feature a title inspired by one of Rizzo’s lines in the movie Grease. If there are any Pink Ladies out there, savor it while you can. I’m always a sucker for a cheap double entendre, but I’m also a sucker for a good old fashioned, brilliantly named costume shop, and for 26 years the Fun-Ghoul Costume Shop in Rutherford, NJ has been all that. Checking this place out has been on my agenda for a very long time, but over the weekend we finally took a trip there.

I had no idea what to expect from this place before going in. As I mentioned, I’ve heard of the place, but it wasn’t like anyone ever recommended it to me. I’ve seen ads a long time ago in Weird NJ (at least I think I did!), but other than that I was going in blind. All I knew is that they sell costumes. Judging by my Apple maps, I didn’t even think the place existed anymore since it kept bringing us to the same address in the next town over. For a good 10 minutes I was absolutely convinced that this place had become a chiropractor’s office. The Fun-Ghoul Shop is located at 155 Park Ave in Rutherford, but we kept getting directed to 155 Park Ave in Lyndhurst which is exactly a mile away. It was frustrating, but by the time I became officially fed up, we’d finally found it!

While walking up to storefront, My friend L.C and I agreed that it felt like we might have been headed into the Magic Shop in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Upon entering we were greeted by an employee who offered his help if we needed anything. Things weren’t incredibly organized, but the place definitely had personality. I saw a few animated Dracula statues, mannequins, and some random masks and wigs around the store, and it was pretty cool, but I had this feeling that there had to be more. The shop had a healthy stock of costumes, but it wasn’t anywhere near as vast as a Spirit Halloween store. It’s unfortunate, but the Spirit stores are like the Wal-Mart and Targets of costume shops and they don’t give local businesses much of a shot. In Fun-Ghoul’s case, they’ve survived because they diversified and they’re open all year long.

See, it’s not just a costume shop, the Fun-Ghoul footprint spans 3 connecting storefronts on Park Avenue. I knew there was more to this place! The tall gentleman who greeted us began chatting with us about what kind of costumes we were looking for and I explained that for a long time I’ve wanted to stop in to see what their place was all about. Then I asked him what was in the other adjacent shops.

I didn’t think it would be anything too offbeat like a taxidermist or shrunken head supply store, but I admit the possibility of that was there. Once I probed a little bit, the guy told me that he was asked to work the 3 shops all day. I sympathized with him and said “So that means you have to walk back and forth to the stores and lock up after you leave each one?” He verified that was precisely what he had to do. Knowing that info, you’d think I would leave the guy alone and not make him go crazy, but I was so curious to see what was in the other shops. “Can you take us into the other stores?” Yes, I was that annoying guy who’s bothering this dude on a beautiful Saturday.

It was early afternoon and neither the town, nor its stores seemed to have many people around. Fun-Ghoul was empty when we got there, so it gave us ample time to walk around and snap photos, something I may or may not have been allowed to do. Thanks to our Times Scare fiasco, I now have an irrational fear of using a camera. Plus, I didn’t feel as bad basically asking for a store tour.

“Before we ask you to lock up and take us in to the other shop, what do the other stores sell anyway?” He explained to me that they have the costume shop, the costume rental shop, and…a PROP shop. My ears must’ve perked up as if I was a dog because the idea of a prop store piqued my interest.

“Oooh can you take us into the prop store?” I was like a little kid. He locked up and brought us over into the other store. Upon entering I thought to myself “this is exactly what we came for.” Picturing this place in your mind isn’t difficult. Think of your neighbors half finished basement filled to the brim with the most random and elaborate Halloween decorations ever. That is this store, and it was glorious.

The first thing I noticed were the two humongous Oscar statues. Not everything was Halloweeny, but the majority of it was pretty macabre as you can gather from the photos. Everything was for sale. I didn’t ask for pricing on anything because I just unloaded a wad of cash earlier at the KISS Expo and I knew the day wasn’t over. As I stood in awe snapping 650,000 photos, I noticed our store employee was nowhere to be found. Our friend L.C said “Hm, what’s back here?” and I looked toward the back of the shop where I saw an open doorway that let a dim light peek out. L.C started to walk toward it.

Still unaware of where our shop employee vanished to, I cautiously shouted “Is it alright if we go back there?” And I heard him say “Yes, come back here.” It was time for a Shaggy and Scooby-style GULP. His voice sounded like it was coming from the back room which indicated to me that he was just waiting for our curiosity to lead us there.

Fearlessly, I walked toward the doorway. Once inside, it all made sense. I knew a place like this must have had a secret room or something. It was right out of a movie. The room was like a dark ride without the boat ride. It’s like a mini-haunted walk through that must be seen to be believed! I don’t know if I’m just not hanging out with the right circle of friends or what, but I’ve lived in Jersey my whole life and never once heard about this. I guess it’s just something you need to stumble on yourself, but if I hadn’t asked the nice guy at the store if we could check out the other shops, we would’ve left having seen only a costume shop.

I didn’t even ask to go into the costume rental part of their store because I felt I reached the pinnacle of what they had to offer. Besides, there were Smurf heads, Easter Bunny, and Frosty the Snowman heads with their respective full body costumes neatly organized for people to rent. It’s kind of creepy when you walk by the storefront and see the heads staring back at you through the window. Totally different experience when someone is wearing one and taking pictures with children.

I didn’t make a purchase at Fun-Ghoul, but it was well worth the confusion of getting there. If I ever need a sarcophagus or a squishy, life-size alien body for a staged autopsy, I know where to go. More stores need employees that lure you into secret rooms that spontaneously transform into haunted attractions after switching on a black light.

The Fun-Ghoul Costume Co.
155 Park Avenue
Rutherford, NJ 07070

AD JERSEUM 16: Girls Costume Warehouse!

Posted on September 9, 2013 by sexyarmpit

This video was featured on College Humor several years back, but it’s definitely worth a watch if you are A) a girl in the market for a Halloween costume or B) a person who has never seen this video. I never said I couldn’t feature a commercial parody for the Ad Jerseum column! This one is hysterical and extra points for creating the little nuances to make the video look as if it was ripped from an old VHS recording. Look at all these f*cking costumes!!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rUiV_Hh74?rel=0]

Nerd Lunch Podcast: Artist Des Taylor!

Posted on January 23, 2013 by sexyarmpit

Click on the picture above to start listening to Episode 69 of The Nerd Lunch Podcast!

http://nerdlunch.blogspot.com/2013/01/nerd-lunch-podcast-69-des-taylor.html

I joined host C.T on his Nerd Lunch Podcast once again. I love being on the show because it’s a chance to geek out with my friends and talk about pop culture minutia that you won’t get to hear anywhere else. In Episode…wait for it…69 dude! we had the chance to interview one of our favorite artists, Des Taylor.

Des Taylor Blog photo destaylor_zps09236454.jpg

Stop by and admire Des Taylor’s blog and Online Gallery

If you aren’t familiar with Des’ work, he’s got a retro ’40s style that blends so well with all kinds of superheros and hot pinup girls that he loves to draw. It was extremely hard not letting it turn into The Chris Farley Show, but I think I did nervously say “That was awesome” at least twice during the show.

We talked about how he made it to where he is today as an artist, which was mighty interesting, especially in comparison to other artists who “just started drawing.” We also went back and forth on our favorite superhero costumes and also came to some solid conclusions on Star Wars and the Batman franchise. It was a fun conversation, so download it! IT’S FREE on iTunes and it will provide you with a fun diversion on your way to work. Or just click the Nerd Lunch logo and listen NOWWWW!!!

Halloween In A Hurricane

Posted on November 6, 2012 by sexyarmpit

Halloween actually took place today in many parts of New Jersey. Not to jump the gun, but I have to make a Christmas reference. After all, this is truly a belated Halloween post. You know when Springsteen talks at the beginning of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town?” The line “the wind’s whipping down the boardwalk…” reminds me of Saturday October 27th, the night we celebrated Halloween. On the Atlantic City Boardwalk though, it wasn’t calm before the storm.

Down on the A.C boardwalk Miss Sexy Armpit and I were all dressed up for some Halloween fun. The night was chilly, the sand was blowing wildly off the beach right into our eyes, and the wind literally swept us into A.C’s newest resort, Revel, to hang out at their Royal Jelly club. We knew that the impending Hurricane Sandy was on it’s way, but this was just amateur night, the real thing wouldn’t hit until Monday night. Meanwhile, speaking of amateur night, at Royal Jelly, the costumes were optional, but most of the attendees did actually come in costume. I think that if you go out on Halloween weekend it should be required that you walk around with a costume. I was pleased with everyone’s participation.

Not many of the people in the club that night displayed the same kind of dedication we do to Halloween. We carefully pieced together our costumes, and took a lot of time and effort as always to make sure we looked excellent. This year I had an inkling of what I wanted to be for several months, but I wasn’t 100% sure. I’m usually all geared up to create a costume and wear it out somewhere to celebrate my favorite time of the year. This year I was apprehensive because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull off the costume. With the help of Miss Sexy Armpit, all of that was squashed because as usual she did my makeup and worked her magic on my wig. And in return, I helped her decide what she should dress up as.

This year I dressed up as the Johnny Depp version of Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows while Miss Sexy Armpit dressed up as Draculaura, the Monster High Doll. Being one of the only people I know who enjoyed the new Dark Shadows movie, I knew while I was watching it in the theater that I wanted to be Depp’s Barnabas for Halloween. I also thought it would be neat for Miss Sexy Armpit to be a Monster High Doll, not only because I dig them, but also because there wouldn’t be many adults dressing as one of them. She picked her favorite character and went with it full steam ahead.

We left Atlantic City on Sunday. The very next day the tri-state area was obliterated by possibly the most destructive hurricane to hit our area in history. You’ve seen the photos and news reports. People were killed and people’s homes have been destroyed. On a personal note, the majority of our favorite places to go all along the Jersey shore have simply been annihilated. Even before we knew about Sandy coming to town, Halloween this year didn’t have that same feeling for us. It sort of felt like things were slightly off kilter. If that night happened to be the end of the world, it was exactly the way we would’ve wanted it to go down: all dressed up in our Halloween costumes and ready for anything.

*Donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Hurricane Sandy Relief fund or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 dollar donation.

Kick Buttowski, Amy Winehouse, and a Snowstorm: Happy Halloween 2011!

Posted on October 31, 2011 by sexyarmpit

new jersey,kick buttowski,disney,costume,halloween

19 inches of snow fell in West Milford, NJ over the weekend. Many people around the state lost power, but that didn’t stop us. It was the weekend I’ve waited for all month long…Halloweekend!

Despite the unexpected and unwelcome snow storm, October is still without a doubt my favorite month. I know that many of you share that sentiment otherwise you wouldn’t be part of the Countdown to Halloween blogathon that takes place all month long. Every year since I was a kid, I had my costume picked out and prepped well over a month ahead of time. Actually, to the many people who don’t give two shits about Halloween, this post is not for you!

This year for Halloween I was inspired early on. One of my favorite cartoons for the past couple of years has been Disney’s Kick Buttowski. I watch it any time it’s on so I decided to get a little animated and become him for Halloween! Coincidentally, the little suburban daredevil is voiced by New Jersey’s own CHARLIE SCHLATTER, an actor who is basically a cult icon around The Sexy Armpit. You may remember him from playing Ferris Bueller in the short lived TV show incarnation. No one really knew who I was, which I expected. This one was for me. A ton of people thought I was the race car driver who recently passed away. I never insult the recently deceased like that unless I’m paying homage. Speaking of paying homage, pictured below is Ms. Sexy Armpit paying tribute to Amy Winehouse. She was easily the best Amy Winehouse I’ve seen this season.

We attended Paranormal Books’ Annual Halloween party at Asbury Lanes on Saturday and yours truly was asked to be one of the guest judges for the costume contest! What an honor! You can see inside the bookstore if you watch The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special on our YouTube page!

I want to thank you as always for stopping by The Sexy Armpit this month, even if it was for a few minutes. Also, a BIGGER thanks if you watched The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special! If you enjoyed it, there’s more shows like that on the way. On behalf of everyone who makes The Sexy Armpit happen, we had a blast all month long. Thanks to you and all the other bloggers out there who entertained us as well with their spooky countdowns! If you have a moment, please leave a comment and let us know what your costume was this year! Happy Halloween…mwahahahahahaaaa!

New York Comic Con 2010

Posted on July 21, 2011 by sexyarmpit

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cInhVCrM8Cs?rel=0]

My video montage of The 2010 New York Comic Con

Music by Kevin MacLeod

I say screw all the people having a blast in San Diego right now! I’m content waiting a few months for the 2011 New York Comic Con! Originally, I had plans to publish my review of The 2010 New York Comic Con shortly after it happened in October, but for several reasons I held out. The Internet is blitzed with all kinds of content and updates about both the New York Comic Con and it’s big brother on the west coast so I figured I’d wait it out a bit. Then before I knew it, months began to pass. I had my review on the back burner to drop it when no one was expecting a review of an event that they’ve already heard about months prior. My theory was that geeks, fanboys, and even your typical everyday Joe Schmo ALWAYS want to read about Comic Con. If you continue reading this, then you have proven my theory correct.

Trick, Treat or Comics?!?!

MORE? That’s what last year’s New York Comic Con offered. Demos, Artists, Dealers; there was more of everything. Even though I’ve never been to the San Diego Comic Con, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that the New York show’s reputation pales in comparison. I’m actually glad that the New York show hasn’t gotten as out of hand and ridiculous as SD because I would start to fear going to the Con rather than wait in baited breath all year for it. Ultimately I just want to walk around the floor all by myself.

What’s the allure of the con? Is it the crazed fans dressing up in their favorite characters costume? Or maybe the stars that come out to promote the blockbuster movies that will be hitting theaters and DVD in the near future? In the midst of all the glitz and glam of the Con, we cannot forget the comic book artists. The main reason why the real hardcore comic fans go to this is to meet, interact with, and perhaps even have a custom piece signed by their favorite artist. To me, that’s the biggest thrill. Most of my time at Comic Con is spent in Artist’s Alley drooling over their portfolio albums.

“Mictlantecuhtli”

A cool looking limited edition 4GB drive created by Julio E. Carrillo

Thanks to the jovial Jessica Smiley from Mimobot – maker of designer USB flash drives.

While I was tempted to grab a Batman or Star Wars drive, I opted to support original art!

While some of the costumed characters walking around the Con were employed by exhibitors, others are simply fans who seem like they just want to get some attention and their photos plastered all over the Internet. To the attendees who are just looking for attention, you’re really just clogging up the Con floor! And to the cosplayers who are loyal to the art of cosplay or just obsessed with a certain character – you are definitely worthy of making the local tri-state TV news broadcast. I commend their creativity and the time and effort they put into it!

Archie and Friends at the Riverdale Shore

Archie’s Jersey Shore parody
The folks at the Archie Comics table saw me eyeing their last issue of this
and gave it to me after they found out what The Sexy Armpit was all about!

I was stopped by a few guys at the Ultimate Comics Group table. They are an indy comic publisher out of Egg Harbor, NJ. I picked up a few of their books. Lots of comic book boobies.

The Lone Ranger, Tonto, and Katy Perry Walk Into a Bar on Halloween 2010…

Posted on November 3, 2010 by sexyarmpit

The Lone Ranger (The Sexy Armpit) and Katy Perry (Miss Sexy Armpit)

I always need inspiration to dress up for Halloween. Playing a character makes me feel like a kid for a whole night, but I require some sort of revelation every year to generate my interest. It takes motivation to create a good costume so I need some sort of spark. If I don’t experience that I won’t be very enthusiastic and I refuse to settle for any old costume off a rack. Mind you, I don’t go crazy insane with my costumes like multiple time costume contest winner Rollie over at Beauty and the Robeast, but I always have fun with it. In the past 10 years or so I’ve gone with a rock star motif and dressed up as Billy Idol, Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue, Gene Simmons (Dressed to Kill style), and Billie Joe from Green Day. Last year I began with a pop culture theme when I was Macho Man Randy Savage circa 1985 during his Intercontinental Championship reign and my girlfriend was Miss Elizabeth. This year, I channeled another childhood hero of mine, one who doesn’t carry Slim Jims, but silver bullets.

Tonto (Nick, Armpit’s cousin) and The Lone Ranger

This year I was inspired by Dynamite Comics’ Lone Ranger series. Ever since my Dad introduced me to the Lone Ranger radio show as a kid, I’ve always loved the character. I grew up collecting the paltry amount of LR collectibles that existed and watching DVD’s of the TV series. I had a feeling that the edgier style of The Lone Ranger’s costume in the latest comic book series, would translate well to a Halloween costume. It felt cool to be a classic character with a modern upgrade. Plus, I didn’t think there would be tons of dudes clamoring for a Lone Ranger costume, not as much as say…The Situation’s fake ab pad.

I began the project early in September and noticed that it would be more of a challenge than I thought. All the pre-made Lone Ranger costumes available online were super cheesy. The shiny blue shirt included was made of rayon and is a few letters short of saying “Hi My Name is The Lone Ranger,” on a name tag on the left side. It came with a terribly cheap and disheveled looking cowboy hat, but that wasn’t all! On the back of the shirt there was a full back graphic of The Lone Ranger riding Silver branded with The Lone Ranger logo. I honestly don’t think The Lone Ranger is so self absorbed that he would wear a shirt with a huge graphic of himself on the back of it, let alone one made of cheap polyester. Obviously, I stayed far away from this $40 dollar piece of crap and put it together on my own.

Finding a reasonable cowboy hat required some digging. Some cowboy hats that claim to be replicas of the one that Clayton Moore used in The Lone Ranger TV series go for upwards of $400 bucks! Screw that! I got mine for less than $40 bucks from an online costume shop and it looked damn good. It was a little tall on top, but it did the job. Don’t be fooled by cheap $5 dollar “cowboy” hats like this one, they suck, so don’t waste your money.

One modernization that you’ll see in the pages of the Dynamite Comics is that The Lone Ranger no longer wears blue pants to match his shirt, but leather pants depending on who does the art/ink in the book. The black leather pants I used when I dressed up as Nikki Sixx years ago came in handy for this. I then found a bandit mask, and a gun holster with a belt on a costume website, two silver toy guns with off white handles, a red bandanna, and bullet belts all on Amazon. The boots are actually motorcycle boots, but look very similar to the ones LR wears in a few of the comic books. I purchased them from Leather Up.

Most importantly was my shirt. I was very particular about this because I refused to walk around in a shirt that did not look similar to how it looked in the comic I was basing it off of. After several days of searching, I finally found Delilah’s Keepe, a website who customized a Lone Ranger style shirt for me! They were great to deal with and the shirt looked absolutely perfect, so keep them in mind if you ever need a shirt for a costume: www.delilahskeepe.com.

Winning The Sexy Armpit’s Halloween Costume Contest this year by a mile was Miss Sexy Armpit who probably put more time and effort into her costume than I did since she had to make the entire thing herself! She made the candy button dress and bracelets, cut and styled the wig, and found comparable shoes. I also took a screen shot of Katy Perry’s makeup from the exact moment in the “California Gurls” video that she wears this getup. From there she took the picture with her to get her makeup done. The “Jersey Gurl” was carrying around an Elmo doll all night which everyone got a big kick out of as well.

All the costumes were worth the effort when seeing how awesome they looked and I’m already devising plans for next year! I can’t wait!

Happy Halloween!

Posted on October 30, 2010 by sexyarmpit

I took this picture last night at the Chiller Theatre convention in Parsippany, NJ. There was a host of celebrities there for autograph signings and I was able to meet with stars from Dallas, which might sound odd to you, but was awesome for me! I also spent way too much money but got a lot of cool stuff though.

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween weekend. I’ll be posting pictures of my costume tomorrow which has been kept a secret to everyone I know thus far. I’ll be headed to Asbury Lanes for the Disco of the Damned party. It should be a fun time! From there it will be back to regularly scheduled programming here at The Sexy Armpit. If you have stopped by throughout the month for the Countdown to Halloween, I greatly appreciate it. The Sexy Armpit has had record hits this month and it’s because of your continued readership. Thank you so much!