GWARRIORS WEST COAST
COME FORTH, HUMAN.... ENTER THE ANTEROOM OF TORTURED SOULS.
(Don’t forget to wipe your feet, dearie)
IF you're NOT FAMILIAR with the metal group GWAR (who've been around for 30 years +/-, can you believe it?)
Please either do a Google Images search on GWAR or check out GWAR’s Homepage first. It’ll help what follows here make a whole lot more sense…. maybe. :)
Scroll down for more, or jump ahead to pics by year of these cool home-made GWAR costumes I once had:
‘92,
‘93,
‘94,
‘95,
‘96,
‘97,
‘98,
’99,
’00,
’01,
’02.
NOTE: In Early/Mid 2003, I handed everything off to someone in Southern California: I hope they’ve been worn/seen at maybe Burning Man in Nevada, and/or a haunted house somewhere near Temecula, probably continuing to evolve with repair. “Have you seen Me?!?” :)
A couple other guys who did their own GWAR costume stuff.
Some pics of the KISS outfits I once made, before I started on GWAR.
FAQ:
Did you win a lot with these?
How do I make a GWAR Costume?
WHY the hell would anyone DO this?
Some of my favorite spots on the web.
A Little PREhistory
I wasn’t really in GWAR, but that's probably pretty obvious. We didn’t sing or give performances (though I tossed the idea around of a tribute/cover band, once) or officially represent GWAR, Slave Pit, or members or interests thereof. These outfits were just like any other costume. However, IMHO…..
GWAR RULES (duh)
Highly skillful music, lyrics outstanding in quality and delivery and theme, and I really dig their powerful, timeless, dark-humor image. If they'd just been (or, well, stayed) some drunken, growling goofballs wearing sodden paper-mache and belting out crap like Exodus, Overkill, Slayer, Sepultura, etc... I surely wouldn't have bothered. Even as I have moved on into other artists and genres, GWAR will always have a special place in my heart. :)
I first heard of GWAR in mid-'91 when a customer at the RPG/Wargame/Comic shop I used to run in Citrus Heights, CA, brought in the video "Live from Antarctica". I'd never seen anything like it, it was quite inspiring. That year, I wore my Gene Simmons outfit for the last time. I'd actually just been looking to retire Gene in favor of something more grotesque, and suddenly there was GWAR. WHAT a co-inkydink….. I scratched enough cash together to start the first year, '92. I remember going to see GWAR at some place in SanFran later in '91, and asking Oderus (Dave Brockie) outside the venue "Hey, I'm thinking of making some GWAR costumes- any advice on where to wear them and not get arrested?"
That consideration turned out to be unimportant. I went on to events at Hotels, Nightclubs, Bars, Renaissance Faires, Haunted Houses, Parades and other spots, and no one ever asked us to leave, much less got bent out of shape enough for police intervention. At a Renn. Faire in '96 they made me cover up my butt, but they somehow had no problem with the big blue fish.…… Each year doing this I usually started somewhere between June and September, updating and repairing and improving what I had, and sometimes building new parts too. I initially made all this mostly after hours in the back of my shop. BTW, this wasn’t a sexual thing at all for me, and believe me for some reason plenty of people have asked. I imagine some of my audience, esp. the drunk-as-fookin’-ell crowd, could have found it so. I totally used to joke about someday wanting to have sex wearing Oderus, though, just to have done it.
The pic above is my favorite picture out of all of what follows, of myself anyway. It’s from Seattle Pride 2000 and shows my Oderus suit at its best, IMHO. That one, I actually made into a poster and framed.
1992
For contrast to the above, here’s the first-year version for Halloween ‘92. It was crude and far too clean, but it was an okay result for a first-time effort anyway. I never used paper-mache, though, like GWAR started out with. This year we made it to one of the last EXOTIC EROTICs in San Fran.
My Wife at the time, wearing the Beefcake The Mighty suit I made her. She was actually way more into this kind of music at the time, than I was.
A friend of mine, who made this Balsac the Jaws of Death as I scratched together my two, to join/start our group. He'd been doing assorted costume and FX things for years, and taught me a LOT.
1993
My new look for this year, there were many changes and additions: the sword, larger shoulder spikes, kewler shin-fins, longer toeclaws, ridiculous orange fake-tan bodypaint…..
The Beef costume got an updated axe, but no other changes really. She’d lost some weight, and at the time it was built around a T-shirt, leather straps and snaps, so it was starting to really hang on her.
One common reference people told us we resembled, was something out of “Where the Wild Things Are." I cannot imagine why.
The cute little Sexicutioner who joined us, just for this year:
The perky little Slave we captured and tenderly savaged:
We went back to the (last, it turned out) EXOTIC EROTIC, but they futzed up the contest so we didn't even get to parade fully before the masses. Oh well, some judgings are run better than others. On the other hand we gave a good showing at Lake Tahoe.
I’d crafted a little sillystring-shooting mechanism into the fish (not unlike some spiderman gear you can get at Toys-R-Us, but a more subtle mechanism), but it only worked part of the time. Too hard to keep the nozzle clear, mostly. :)
1994
This year just Sucked. Great steaming, shivering, mewling heaps of corpulent Ass, it seemed at the time. All sorts of poor things happened that year. I wasn’t happy with how my suit’s changes turned out, there was a lack of time to finish parts, admittedly due at least partly to poor time management….. Some parts just failed altogether and were abandoned, and other unfortunate issues came up. Notice I’m wearing Beef’s cast-off Anklets this year. I did manage to make a new fish, which failed miserably onstage someplace. Sexy tried to join us and update his outfit, but eventually had to back out. I'd been working on a Flattus too, but it just didn’t come together in time. The Renn Faire we tried to go to (supposedly the last at the Black Forest, in CA) was too full to let us in JUST as we drove up after a 100 mi. trip, then we got blackballed in Lake Tahoe because we weren’t local, there were injuries during and after costuming.…. But we three were still impressive, I suppose. I also took the padding out of the football armor I wore, which cut way down on sweat but increased bruises, scars and other cool abrasions:
This year, a guy wore Beefcake for the first time. He was taller and heavier, filled it out better and was more into character. He got new Anklets.
Balsac REALLY did a lot of big and little things to his outfit: little ‘horn’ textures over all of last year’s naked foam round spikes, new thigh-rings and arm-bracer matching new shoulderspikes: much more substance and texture to them, now.
Perched to ravage the city. This was the first year, I believe, that we performed at GYRO's World of Terror in Rancho Cordova, CA. Sometimes you can get better reactions out of people who are expecting to be scared. Me, I haven’t found a Haunted House scary since I was like, 10.
1995
This was the last year I made changes to the structure of my outfit. Things kind of froze, appearance-wise, at the “America Must Be Destroyed” album. From then on it was just maintenance, repair, cleaning and re-inforcement to keep it serviceable. This year I made many gnarly changes to the sword, did new shoulders, fish, nads, anklets, feet, hands, and added an accidentally perfect texture & camo to the head… plus I installed a brain. This year we made the Black Forest Renn. Faire in Novato, CA, finally. I believe we also hit GYRO’s again, for a few appearances.
I did camp it up as often as appropriate (and where would THAT be, exactly?), adopting what I could manage of the Liberace/Leatherface Oderus persona.
Beef got a new Axe and a new chestplate. Hu-FREAKin’-zah!!
Balsac neither made, nor needed, any improvements.
Don’t look at me, YOU got his leg a-thumpin’:
Mobbing the GWAR-Mobile, the boxvan I used to haul people and costumes about:
Unca Balsac's Traveling Lair:
We were an “A” ticket at the Renn. Faire that year. Several people threw themselves at our feet to grovel, it was quite satisfying. :)
Note his right shoulder- Balsac’s new shoulderspikes were so much heavier now and unfortunately droopier too, that the whole lower rack just fell off along the route. They were certainly more durable though, than what he’d had on since 92.
From late '92 until we closed in late '96, the evolving heads and weapons and other décor were on display at the back of my shop. A little 'GWAR Shrine', of sorts. My shop carried a bit of GWAR merchandise, too: pins, patches, comics, video, T-shirts… This was probably right after Halloween ’95:
1996
An interesting year. I started to seriously get into food coloring for fake blood, and it finally achieved the necessary overall color morass I'd been seeking. I can’t recall specifically, but I believe we may have made it to GYRO’s for a third and final year, a couple times. I remember being a “Hall Monster” rather than having a specific room/terrain to jump out from.
We had 6 people, though I don't have a full shot of ALL at once (for this year). I made a Slymenstra outfit for a woman actually willing to wear it, and whipped together an Armored BannerSlave's outfit out of cast-off Oderus parts. Balsac's builder/wearer made a fantastic 9 foot Battle Standard, and also made what little the Stripped Techno is wearing.
I, Beef and Balsac wore our stuff to the close of my shop in 8/96, to which I invited a bunch of longtime customers and acquaintances for a small costumed get-together.
We made the Black Forest Renn Faire this year again, for the last time. They made me cover my ass this year, because 'someone might have a problem with it'. Took us aside and quick-fashioned little butt-flaps for us out of burlap or canvas or something. Such creeping prudery was misplaced, IMHO: Renn. Faires have a lot of skin anyway, it was a symptom of what we then called the unfortunate ‘Disneyfication’ of the Faire.
L7 played at a venue we made it to the event for, I remember them mentioning us onstage. I'm glad we happened to come in exactly between opener sets, or the band onstage would have been pissed. I think the crowd was actually wondering if GWAR had really showed amongst them... It was pretty cool.
Four pix of Slymie, from about the only real event we got to in '96. The middle 2 are from VHS.
BLEAAAHHHH!!!! Stepping out of a Halloween event after dancing for three hours; battered, filthy, steaming, still quite jazzed:
1997
We didn’t get to take real ’96 pics until early ’97. These are from a shoot in a freezing warehouse in Rancho Cordova, CA someplace, which Slymie couldn't make it to unfortunately.
My thonged, non-existent frog-butt ass at the time, and the magic-marker simplified Chaos Yog tattoo (pretty small here, usually a lot larger) I had applied to me prior to an event. It took a few days to wear/wash off.
Balsac crafted a mighty fiberglass trapjaw. Much heavier, much nicer effect. No other changes though, I think.
Beef loved Techno, our ever-eager Abuse Sponge:
Always the equal opportunity underling-thrasher:
Our stripped Techno was great. Excellent character, Slymie dragged him around by a chain and he made a great human chair:
Larger than life, and twice as ugly:
The Banner was one of our most important and highest-profile features. To all who ever carried it, I salute you:
This pic would be my next choice after my favorite above, for having made into a poster.
MY mighty Cuttlefish of Cthulhu: when I got rid of all this stuff to someone with more time, money, space and people to keep them going, I should’ve kept these bits and mounted them, deer-head style, on a wall.…
More goofing around:
Now available as Poseable Action-Figures:
Pinkety Pokety POUND, I SAY! AD NAUSEAM EX CRUCIO!!!!!
Few mess with us, and wish to survive the experience…..
Bow before our sickness, Thrall!
The above were the last ones taken in CA. In April '97 I moved to Seattle.
In August '97 GWAR played at RCKNDY, a little dive downtown that's since been closed, dozed and built over. I showed up with my outfits, which GWAR thought were pretty cool- Hunter said I should come make costumes with Slave Pit. I'll tell ya, if they'd been HQ'd anywhere say, west of the Mississippi, I would have jumped at that. I sure appreciated the kudos and the offer.
Anyhow, they had me onstage for a bit as a 'second Oderus' to beat on Techno. It was short, but damn cool. I got to hang out watch them and their crew set everything up from like, noon. I recall Slymenstra draped on a couch watching me suit up, she said I was crazy. High praise indeed, mistress. :)
Halloween that year, I wore Oderus by myself to but one event in Seattle- Bump In The Night. I didn’t go completely alone, my fiancee graciously stepped up to wear the Peter Criss bits I’d made for my ex along with my Gene suit, long before GWAR (see far below, with the rest of the KISS stuff):
1998
This year I’d wanted to be in the Pride parade, but I didn’t manage to get ahold of the Freedom Day Committee here in Seattle so I wasn’t. Busy doing other things too, like getting married. The only place I wore Oderus (alone) to was a little rock club a home run’s distance from my place. Like 8 little nobody bands played, and at 3 in the morning there were maybe a dozen people to judge the contest. I got third: lost to storebought dragonheads and stilts (see my costuming rant, far below).
1999
These are from our suit-up area just before our first Gay Pride Parade. Balsac took all these pics except the last one. Just three of us this time, out there in the street, but it still ruled. Nothing like 50 to 60 thousand spectators to work, counting the Parade and Volunteer Park afterwards. We got a 'prize' in this and in the '00 parade, to be donated in our name to some gay cause or other. Both times we pledged it to the Seattle Lesbian Resource Center.
The second girl to wear Slymie. She had a lot of fun, and I was really glad to have her aboard.
After the Parade, a pic from some tourist. Balsac's builder/wearer came up from CA to wear the costume. You can see, he and I had both gained a lot of weight since ‘97. Wearing these suits is punishing when you’re in good shape and it’s NOT overly hot, two situations we didn’t have that day.
2000
Seven people in our Pride contingent, 75,000 spectators estimated. After that, for Halloween I actually wore my outfit to WORK and got a co-worker to wear Beef.
Some Balsac Bitz:
Primping the great shaggy beast:
Getting my pre-event blooding-down with our food-coloring squirter…
Slymie's lovely second wearer (from the '98 Parade) left WA for school, so Balsac’s wearer hooked us up with his god-daughter, a stripper. Slymie’s face went on her powerfully Marilyn Manson-sh, IMHO, and she filled out the costume quite nicely; I don't have a single good front-on shot of her really, but many other nice ones…..
A co-worker of mine picked up the Banner. It only weighed 22 pounds, but it could catch the breeze quite well.
Our two Slaves. Slymie held their chains, and they grovelled and cavorted admirably…..
Here’s my favorite pic again, lower-res version. Just standing around, chafing to mingle with the Mundanes, waiting for final pix-before-step-off and then to button up the Van. I got a cool fishnet sunburn on the back of my legs, this year:
Okay, ready to ROLL- Say Sleaze! With FEELING!!!
At the staging area…..
A few near the beginning of the Parade:
When Balsac’s builder/wearer couldn’t come up to Seattle this year, I was lucky enough to find another guy locally willing to strap him on.
Boo! Heheh…
I don’t remember now, who took these three from the sidelines about mid-route and emailed them to us afterward, but they were really great to have..…
A sequence nearer the end, and thickest part, of the parade route:
Sometimes a costume/part just breaks right in the middle of things, usually due to unforseen wear or sudden materials failure, heat & sweat finally working glued stuff loose, etc. THIS failure though, was mostly my fault- This guy was WAY smaller than the original builder of our Balsac suit, so it suit didn't fit him terribly well and I should have cinched things up better. So after the guy tripped several times going up the street, Balsac just started falling off him below the waist. It was embarrassing, I guess, but no moreso than just BEING out there… He was a real trooper.
GWAR at Work
In wearing the outfit to work, I left the nastier bits at home and put some pants on. Another co-worker donned Beef. It was about here that I realized I was essentially wearing a great, bloody clown: the kind of nightmare image that people who are afraid of clowns no doubt sometimes visualize, in their fear.
2001
Our third year in a row doing Pride: we had 7 folks again this year, but started with only five- Slymie kinda hooked two guys outta the crowd to be Slaves, and slapped chains on them. They did a GREAT job, too. This time, I heard that about 100,000 people attended. Last year’s Balsac wearer took up the banner this year, and last year’s Slave with the Shades got into Balsac. It rained a little, mercifully, so we actually made it to the park afterwards without near-dying. Overall, it was a ton of fun. We got a cool trophy with a plastic majorette on it, for this.
So what was it like to do this? It was grueling but nothing, I’m sure, like what GWAR goes through in just one day on tour. I don’t even pretend to compare us to that. Our outfits were built far more precisely but less durably, and weren’t made to suvive anything resembling a tour. We typically got on the road at the butt-crack of dawn to make it to a pre-chosen suit-up zone. Usually, that was just a grassy spot wherever we could park nearest the event. Pulling up in the van, we kicked everything out onto the ground in neat piles, and got cold and kinda naked getting made up and suited up. I was usually the last one getting dressed, as I helped get everyone else into theirs first.
On our way to the staging area, lookin’ for trouble….
We found a cool place to park and ham it up (on the bone, naturally…)
The Standard Bearer and Slymie didn’t do as well as hot-and-sweaty Moi, in this year’s light rain and wind.
This guy, you gotta admit, looked a lot more like the real ‘stickboy’ Balsac.
Waiting around for things to start- it was always fun getting to see and talk to some of the other contingents near us, before stepping off..
We are loosed upon on the Streets!!
Slymie’s Slaves this year:
So afterwards we either called or were taken to the Van, peeled everything off in a great steaming heap, and tossed it carefully into the back. I took it home to dry out, and with a little repair and washing it was ready to go again.
For Halloween this year I wore just the Oderus head/hands/feet, with a cool black robe and staff, to an ex co-worker’s party. Sometimes there was nothing big around worth going to, or other life events precluded a full run-up of people and repair and everything.
2002
Our fourth (and last) year doing this in the Parade. This year, we were #34 out of 100+..
Loaded to the walls the morning-of, ready to go….
Incidentally, this year before putting that snazzy plywood-and-carpet floor into the van, first I washed out all the blood- er, food coloring that had built up/dripped off my costume bits since I started seriously using that in ’96: post-Renn faire but certainly by Halloween. Heh....
Suiting up, nearly finished. I had a hell of a time finding any slaves this time, so my cousin came up from Sac to be our only one. This year I finally just broke down and got a wig for Slymie, for a standard look going forward. My Bannerslave of last year backed out, so I just carried the lower half myself.
Everyone Strike a Pose….
Waiting around, for the signal to go baying up the road….
These five pics were shot by a local seattle guy not part of our group. If you like his work, please drop him a line at: james@nawashibari.com
This was from yet another spectator. Note the parents bringing their kids right out into the street like it was (again) Disneyland or something, or maybe to show their kids that we’re “not really monsters”. It was a problem the whole length of the route. At one point we had to stick to the suicide lane because throngs of people and their kids were OUT (as it were) in the street, slowing the parade down. This year, the Pride committee asked everyone (not just us) to cover any ass-cracks with a strip of at least a certain width, which we did. IMHO, things were getting a little ‘trendy’ like sort of happened to Renn. Faires a few years back. Pride was starting to become more of a “Family” event, and was being dumbed down/softened up to cope. It’s just as well that I don’t have these outfits anymore, I’d’ve had to stop doing Pride to avoid the “creeping kinder” in favor of older, more mature crowds at mere Halloween events.
The horse behind us was kinda cool, ‘specially when it pissed all over the street like a freakin’ firehose, even though the carriage RODE OUR ASS all the way. Hey, LEAVE SOME SPACE!!! Wonder how many people thought the Horse & Carriage was part of OUR group…. :)
As usual, everything piled in for sort/dry/store later back at base.
2003
In late Spring/early Summer, I handed the costumes off to a guy I met via Hauntworld (a Yahoo Group). I’d gotten tired of motivating this pretty much by myself, doing CPR on the outfits for days or weeks as time permitted before each event, trying to drag people together to keep it going, etc… If I ever get pics of the outfits’ appearing someplace, I’ll post them on this site. If YOU’ve seen them someplace, let me know please. If I ever win the lottery or something, I’ll re-make them even BIGGER and more grotesque, and more as GWAR appears today… so watch out… :) Also, in the interim since handoff, I took up gently perverting innocent (mostly Country) songs, a la “what if GWAR had raped Weird Al to death, then kept the corpse around to make songs for them?” Some of what issued forth is quite divinely depraved, even _I_ must say. Eh, everybody needs a hobby….. If you’re REALLY interested, ask and I might send you some lyrics.
If anyone cares, I often once looked like this, about mid-2000 for instance:
Other Gwar Nuts
Here are some pics of a guy on the East Coast I never actually met, Shambone@aol.com, who made his own pretty damn cool Oderus Outfit. For one thing, he nailed Oderus’ ears far better than I did: I so worked HARD to make and keep them so WRONG like I did, from the very beginning (listen to the perfectionist bitch and whine, folks). And his overall coloring, while perhaps lacking in a proper sheen of murky bloodcum, well-captured the cartoonish essence of the character I think.
And a guy who made his own awesome Techno outfit back in '11 after I sent him one of my 'how I made these' discs:
And, two pics from Halloween 2014, ANOTHER guy who made his own Oderus costume.
My KISS outfits
Here are some pics of the KISS outfits I made, before I did the GWAR outfits. Actually I started my Gene outfit in early ’89, while I was in a Rocky Horror cast: After tiring of doing the Criminologist (and Frank’n’Furter and Magenta a few times each) I moved into Security and stalked the aisles in real armor (minus the dragon plats, natch), mostly confiscating cigs & bottles. My outfit here is from around the Eric Carr/Creatures of the Night/Music from the Elder era…..I think. I know it was before that stupid “Silver Apple Fritters” armor he wore for a bit…
Halloween ‘90
Halloween ‘91
"Darkness" in these pics is our Balsac starting next year, and also made arguably half of the GWAR stuff we churned out: his Balsac costume, Beef’s first foam-on-t-shirt chestplate, the Battle Standard, and our Techno’s little bits. After the first year of doing GWAR, I held onto but didn’t wear Gene again.
Halloween ‘97
This is my Fiancee at the time, who was gracious enough to wear this outfit to go with me to Bump in the Night, Seattle. We had like, JUST met less than a month ago. :) While I owned these suits, no guy ever wore Peter… um, as it were…
After this, I sold these costumes to someone who wore the Gene outfit at his wedding, in Nov. ’03. Best man wore Peter, bride was an Elvira.
Some questions I commonly get:
“You probably won a TON of contests, right?!?”
Actually no, we didn’t. For one thing, competition was, and I’m sure still is, fierce. Tons of people, of hugely varied skill and resource levels, are into costuming, stage prosthetics, scars and highly detailed costumes and skits as a hobby; it’s quite a widespread thing. Some spend a whole year preparing their entourage, for the express purpose of winning contests. I’ll admit, for the first couple years I was trying to be like that too. Then I learned, slowly, the realities of such contests. Here’s my advice to budding costumists, for what it’s worth:
”What do you need, to win Costume Contests?”
HEIGHT: You have to be tall enough for the drunks to see and cheer for you. The dumbest, storebought, thrown-together crap can win if it’s up high enough to be seen. I saw one guy go as a bat on stilts, made from hefty bags, black duct tape and PVC pipe, and he won. You might want to scout a venue ahead of time to check the ceiling height, maybe even ask what kind of decorations they intend to put up. If they’re too extensive, they might prevent your being able to move easily there. At an event in Tahoe, our Balsac got wrapped up in fake spiderwebbing crap they’d strung up near the ceiling. Had to be a fire hazard, it started at a couple feet down from the ceiling and got thicker going up. His spikes tore most of it down.
TITS and/or ASS: It doesn’t matter what the character. I can’t tell you how many idiots came up to our Slymie and said “Hey, are you XENA!?!” To a point, it doesn’t matter what the girl looks like. Flaunt it and/or Vamp it, and you’ll get more cheering.
SPECIAL EFFECTS: Little fire puffs, a fire extinguisher, lighting, dry ice, a really loud noise, etc. Something flashy, fast, memorable, and dependable. It’s got to be safe, too. Test it out on people standing nearby, electric cords like you’ll probably be standing on onstage at an event, etc. Call the venue if you think they might have a problem. Steer away from liquids, smells, temperatures, glitter, anything that uses chemicals or might leave a residue, etc. Use common sense. Sillystring was probably about as far as a special effect should go, for an on-stage costume contest.
BE RECOGNIZABLE: Excellent “Demon” costumes routinely lose because they don’t have a name. Consider Pinhead, Hellboy or Crypty (or Darkness), something with a known name. GWAR is pretty recognizable, ya gotta admit.
TALENT, ATTITIUDE, maybe a quick SKIT: You’ve got to work the crowd with whatever opportunity you’re given, even just 5 seconds onstage, and with everyone who approaches you before the contest with Kudos or picture requests. Lots of people will want your picture, with or without their posing with you. Some folks FOLLOWED us around, taking pics for quite awhile, waiting for you to do something COOL. I'm sure I'm on thousands of people's video and still footage, whom I’ll never meet.
FURNITURE: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen some guy wearing an outhouse, or a table on their shoulders for the bloody-head-on-the-plate theme, win a contest against far superior contestants. It’s pathetic, really.
A GOOD MC, OR DJ: at an event, can make or break your presentation. Get friendly with them if possible, before or during the contest. Don't count getting to give a little monologue onstage: very few events will hand you a microphone; they know better than that. :)
STOREBOUGHT Parts: Lastly, don’t shy away from this. Even the drunks seem to be able to tell, but they’ll cheer anyway if it looks good. The quality and durability of Storebought stuff has absolutely exploded last decade or so, and for around-or-less-than the cost of making a costume you can often buy something quite similar instead. In fact, Halloween is #2 behind Christmas in dollars spent for a cultural event: realize that’s only partly candy, it’s mostly décor. And it isn’t even a holiday, though it should be IMHO. I know I take it off, every year.
Do some looking around- There’s an unholy amount of really decent stuff out there, for a price. I’d bet you could even assemble half of a passable GWAR suit. Beef’s bare feet were originally storebought, simple oversized latex goofy-foot shells which I trimmed suitably and built the sandals around. The bannerslave’s head-armor is storebought, it was big enough to hold a basketball before I carefully trimmed it down to fit a human head, and glued some velcro into it. These items saved me trouble and helped me make deadlines. Even having a costume made for you by a shop can come out better-looking, more durable and maybe even cheaper than you’d have had time, money, skill, etc. for.
Costume Contests seemed to run in two flavors, or some mix of the two:
---Judged: Sometimes just during the event, with obvious walkabout judges or anonymous or hidden ones, or a central registration/show point like a judging table. Sometimes they give you a number to wear. Other times the judging is done on the spot at the end, typically onstage.
---Win-The-Crowd: Based on audience volume, or so they’d have you think. Mostly the audience’s opinion is just taken into consideration, but there’s still a judging group. These are naturally more popular, but less predictable.
Some venues wouldn’t have, or wouldn’t give, detailed information on their Halloween event like prizes, the prize structure, categories if any, judging time, etc. If an ad for a Halloween party in a local paper or radio spot said “$2000 in prizes!!!” The breakdown was most often: $1000 first, $500 second, $200 third and the rest in gift certificates, a DVD player, Ski Lift Tickets, etc. An event like that can attract the biggest and the best costumes within 100 miles. You might consider skipping it if you know there are lots of costume hobbyists in your area, and instead go to smaller or lesser-prized events. I’ve seen great costumes show up and then leave well before the contest, after seeing the kind and/or amount of competition.
I suspect a given venue’s dodginess about event specifics was usually due to the fact that generally they make most of any event evening’s money from alcohol. While patrons are screwing around watching or judging the contest, they aren’t buying booze. Management also knows that after the main event of a Halloween evening, a lot of the patrons will leave. Sometimes, much of an event’s attendance is the costume participants and/or their support crew or groupies, who have no reason to stick around after the judging. So many contests are held very late, or in multiple rounds going right up until they can’t sell anymore, to keep people there and buying. If there IS an early event or two in your area, don’t count on being able to make it and another in the same night. It’s possible, I’ve seen it done. But more likely the early one will be rescheduled or delayed to later for some or no reason, throwing off your plans.
It is also not appreciated to show up just before (just for) the contest judging, which may be another reason they sometimes didn’t readily give that time info out, or at the actual event often delayed judging it an hour or more past advertised, or had an Early Registration cutoff/Late Judging format. You could simply find yourself ignored or downplayed onstage, or even barred from participating.
Appearing too professional seems to be a no-no too, though this is hard to avoid or quantify. There may be bias, among judges at least, against anyone who looks like they do this for a living. So paradoxically, sometimes the better you look the less likely you’ll win.
If you should’ve won but didn’t, people will tell you this on your way offstage, out the door or to the dance floor, whatever you’re doing after the contest. I can’t count the number of people who've said: “Hey, you got ripped off! You shoulda won!!” And yes, sometimes, we should have. And sometimes, even better costumes than ours didn’t win either, and should have.
“(Dude!) HOW DO I MAKE A GWAR COSTUME?!?”
This is what I heard the most, and if you’re asking that yourself, this is your lucky day. As I handed off the outfits, I took pictures of ALL the parts and whole costumes, molds, patterns, etc. and typed up a “How I Made These” document that references that. If you want a copy of these pics and words, plus vid bits of my workspace(s) and us screwing around in costume, email me. (legalese bs)- In doing so, you’re saying you’re at least 18 or have parents’ knowledge & permission, and that I’m not in ANY way responsible for anything you might do with this info. I can’t send it via email though, I’d need to burn and mail you a disk. Bear in mind this is how _I_ made them, GWAR has long since moved much farther into fiberglass and such. And, while GWAR’s stuff of the day tended to be largely velcro-affixed for quick on/off & adjustment/repair, my parts were mostly snap-oriented and even slight mods required at least a basic leather kit. Still, you’d probably learn a useful thing or two from this info pak.
Anyway…here’s what you need to do this stuff, at LEAST:
TIME- Many, many hours watching GWAR videos/movies, making drawings and notes, etc. If you’re one of those amazing few who can whip together half a costume in an afternoon, from the contents of a dumpster, I’m in awe of your mad skillz, seriously. But I have to plan.
MONEY- I have no idea how much I’ve spent, but I know I’d never have broken even through winning costume contests, even if I’d took first prize at most of them. Don’t go into this thinking you will, either. Plan on spending hundreds to thousands of dollars for start-up possibly. plus each year you’ll need at least a few things for this or that bit of maintenance and repair.
SPACE- a garage or a decent-sized room you can screw up, at least. At least 100 to 150 square feet for a Small area, with shelving up most of the walls to the ceiling. I’ve managed, though, to at least do repairs and upkeep in less than that.
TOOLS- grab everything in the house, and then go buy more. Sculpting, pounding, cutting, sanding, punching, binding/clamping, drilling, protective eye and hand gear, to start.
SKILL / TALENT- Can you Sculpt? Draw? Sew? Paint? Have any craft-skill in Leather, Plastic, Latex, Cloth? Can you make more than a mess out of a given material? Without injuring yourself? Take a class in puppetry at a local community college, to learn to work with foam. Maybe one in Leatherwork or other Crafts and Arts. Stage experience might not be bad to have, too. Hook up with other local costume nuts, they can teach you a lot of good (and bad) techniques and habits. Gather books, magazine and online articles/advice on doing this sort of thing.
MATERIALS: Clay(use oil-based), Plaster, Thick Leather/large leather swaths (hippie jackets/purses from thrift shops) Watch out for Suede and other fake leather-oid substances; you need strength, not appearance. You will become very familiar with assorted kinds of Rivets, D-Rings, Snaps, Velcro, Glues, etc. Some glues are useless on some surfaces (like most storebought latex costume bits), even if you apply them just right. Get several kinds for different materials, and read the instructions. Good Ventilation is a must. I repeat: breathe too many fumes and it will eventually fawking kill you. Ask questions where you buy glues & stuff (where applicable) about how to use them.
NO FEAR: More with GWAR and less with other things of course, you can’t be afraid of being the center of attention. You’ve got to be willing and able to act out at a moment’s notice, in character, appropriately and consistently, even as you get more and more tired through an evening or event. Still, we never told people we were actually GWAR, not even as a joke, but it’s telling that we were good enough to fool obvious fans. And going to the Renn. Fairs in CA: it’s quite a charge to stomp into a crowd of a couple thousand people, and not see the back of ANYone’s head. If this idea bothers you, don’t make GWAR outfits, at least.
FRIENDS, also with no fear- Unless you’re doing this alone, you’ll need people to build, wear, and finance some of your stuff. Be sure about who you sign up: Lots of people will say they’re interested, but can’t come up with money or time for fitting and materials. Sometimes, it wss quite hard to find people to wear these suits. Mostly I got: "Wow, those are REALLY COOL!", followed by "Oh, but I could never wear something like that." Buncha damn wussies. :)
Recommended Product list: (what I’ve used, anyway)
GLUE: I use BARGE Cement, by Quabaug in New England. It’s for putting shoes together. Pretty damn strong, if used correctly.
BLOOD: Smart & Final brand Red. S&F is a restaurant-supply discount chain, I bought from them most recently in Sacramento, CA. Great stuff: It washed off (my) skin easily, it dried somewhat clear and wetted back to blood with water, and didn’t stain my costume parts neon PINK upon washing off, like some red food colorings did.
FOAM: Cushion foam, sold in rolls and sheets. Douglas & Sturgess in San Fran, for expanding 2-part squishy and non-squishy-foam, resins, etc.
LATEX: Liquid, Mold Builder brand from Tap Plastics. But I made my parts out of it, not molds.
PAC PAINT- I think that’s what it’s called. Kryolan Prosthetic Adhesive, with Liquitex Acrylic Color mixed in. Paint it on, seal the outer tacky side with transparent facepowder. You buy the glue and paint separately, mix it yourself.
COLORED Latex: If I’d kept these costumes (or started a tribute band), I would’ve moved from PAC to colored Latex as I replaced/upgraded things; it’s more durable. I got to see some of GWAR’s stuff close-up… back in ’97. It seemed to be largely rough-cut or assembled from foam, then latexed heavily and strengthened with gauze laid down on the surface, and latexed heavily even more.
FOOTBALL ARMOR/Athletic pads. Most of your parts will be hung on or based around some parts of this.
PLASTER: I mainly used the basic plaster-of-paris found at Home Depot. There are many grades, some only available through dental supply shops, I used those sometimes, too. The tougher the mold, the more latex skin-pulls you’ll get out of them before they degrade. You can also protect plaster molds with wax-like substances and/or release-agents. Never did that myself, but if you do something like this, you’ll make lots of molds. With some molds serving more than one costume, about 17 went into Oderus, and about 6 each for Balsac, Beef and Slymie. We copied a GWAR medallion in resin several times, too, for dressing; that was a latex peel-off mold backed with a plaster one for rigidity. All of my molds were one-sided. I just never needed to mess with two, three, or more-part molds, except for 2-part full headmolds.
PLASTIC CHAIN: There are several sizes available in this. It doesn’t take paint well, though you might be able to sandblast or chemically etch the surface so it’ll take metal paint better. I never found metal-colored plastic chain. Probably makes good sense not to make it, someone might mistake it for real chain. Remember, some spots on your costume might need (smaller-link) real chain for support, but Plastic (or maybe aluminum) chain is a better and lighter decorant.
To answer the Question: “WHY?” (did I do this?)
1. Well.... bear in mind that though I’m pretty left-leaning (no!), these suits were mostly made and worn in the Clinton years: even under a Democratic regime in the US, things continued to suck in major, MAJOR ways. I was pretty new at the time, to the following indignant realization: Big Money/Organized Religion/Organized Crime/Governments (which are all, in essence, the same bunch of people just wearing different hats), have about RAPED the life right out of this planet, and the body, mind and soul of everyone on it. Sometimes being even marginally socially/globally aware can be a real downer? Perhaps these were ‘armageddon suits’, like those those folks who walk about wearing a sandwich board that says ‘The End is Near!’ I suppose I COULD have been doing something a little more productive….
Coming out of the Clinton administration and into the reign of Prince Dumb-ya, really took most of the remaining fun out of doing all this: The Idiocracy had won. 2000-2008 saw the poorest decisions made, at the worst possible times, in any way you care to look at it. It was about time to let the outfits go to someone with more enthusiasm, before they rotted entirely away or something.
2. I’d been into costuming since about Jr. High, and the affliction just grew and grew. I sometimes wonder what, if anything, I could’ve built to top THESE outfits. Especially pretty much alone…
3. I got the question: “What does GWAR have to do with Gay Pride? Well, I don’t claim to know if any members of GWAR are specifically gay, bi or whatever, nor do I feel that GWAR is necessarily a Gay band. I just went by what I saw, which (until the album We Kill Everything) was a tendency for singer(s) onstage to say things like “Here’s a little song about my penchant for gay sex,” or “I’m Gay and I’m Proud.” And there’s the strong BDSM theme, and of course the powerful earthmother goddess in Slymie. That was all certainly close enough for me. It was also a good reason to wear the suits sometime other than Halloween. For the record, I'm not Gay or even Bi; just a supporter of same. Blame years in a Rocky Horror cast, if you must. :)
4. I'd long liked being able to shock folks, test their intake limits and sensibilities. You just can’t see something like this without getting SOME sort of impact. These suits are a great combo of assorted popular costume themes: Clowns, Barbarians, Dead things, Near-Naked things, etc. Something borrowed, something blue (my fish).. heheh.
5. Some folks asked me: Aren’t you embarrassed to be seen like that? Of course not; if I were, would I have been out there doing it? The point was for YOU to be embarrassed, at having to see me like that. :) For that matter it wasn’t really ME out there, I was just animating the suit and providing adequate Character. By now easily half a million people have likely seen my ass at least fleetingly, but they never really saw ME. It was remarkably freeing…..
“Never Underestimate the Power of a Dark Clown!!!” --Darph Bobo
P.S. JUST the other day (2012/10/29) looked up Dave Brockie's Birthday, it's 8/30: mine's 8/29. Uncanny (and I can't BELIEVE I never thought to do that before now), but not as perfect as when I did the "Criminologist" in a Rocky Horror cast for almost a year before someone pointed out I share Charles Gray's (the actor playing the Criminologist) birthday. Of course, we share this additionally with both Michael Jackson and G.G. Allin....
So... R.I.P., Dave. "Blessed are the Cracked, for it is They who let in the Light." Gonna miss ya.
Some of my Favorite Websites
Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive Always been a big fan of nature and space, there are some breathtaking pictures on this site.
Icanhascheezburger.com Who can resist cute cat pix with gut-busting captions? Not me.
GWAR's Official Website
A site just for Home-Made Costumes
Rotten.com: Not for the faint of heart.
Ouchy The Clown: Adult clown entertainment. Never seen the guy personally, thought the site was funny.
I Love Bacon.com: Just a bunch of weird stuff. Less gore, no nudity anymore I think (they took it all off to another site), but still quite interesting.
Adbusters.org a cool counterculture site.
Burning Man. Official Site, the Pic gallery is not to be believed.
Alternet.org An alternate, perhaps clearer, interpretation of current social and political events.
Snopes.com Urban Legend Clearing House: PLEASE visit here and search, before you forward that latest inspirational email or chain letter you’ve received.
This Is True.com Truth is stranger than Fiction, for Fiction has to make sense. He has a couple weekly newsletters, and cool ‘Get Out Of Hell Free’ Monopoly-type cards, which I carry one of in my wallet. Just in case, y’know?
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to worship this crude GWAR wanna-be.
Send me mail: Oderus725@comcast.net
First set-up roughly 02/07/01, updates in ‘03,’05,’07, '09, '12 (’05 reset counter). Last update: 2013/02/21
