Simon Dark Mask Replica: Steve Niles & Scot Hampton

[jimmydellamorte]

(I've posted this before but it was my first post ever and turned out shyte so I decided to repost it properly.)

So for Halloween '10 I wanted to be Simon Dark based on the DC comic book created by Steve Niles (Writer) and Scott Hampton (Artist):

He is a really freaking cool looking character... The plot however and his backstory, kinda dorky.
I mean it's kickass he's basically a Frankenstein's monster and all, and that he looks so awesome... But a plot about how he was created by a Satanic cult to be a Neo type martyr and how the cult's master plan involves demon possessed bars of soap that turns Gotham City of all places into a zombie infested field of chaos?

I dunno.

But did I mention the character looks really, really kickass?

So...
My fiancé is a big SFX enthusiast--HUGE Savini and KNB and Dick Smith fan--and wanted to sculpt it herself. Took two days of work with oil based plastelline clay:

and then I molded it with ultracal backed with ultracal soaked burlap for strength.
Afterwards, I did a latex pour/pull slush cast style that turned out looking wickedly sweet:

Then it went back to Jenna who painted in the little details like the lines where the stitching will be, the eyes and the mouth:

She then cut out the eyes, which took forever because we casted this thing THICK, and stitched the little details.
Then, she distressed it a bit and stitched/glued a wig onto the thing and voila!

Beautiful piece of artwork.

Wish I documented the process more thoroughly and with a better camera, but we were rushing too hardcore to meet our H-Ween deadline.

I put together the costume and added my overseer's direction while Jenna worked on this amazing mask and even with such a close call of a deadline (we finished it the NIGHT before October 31st), it turned out amazing.


In fact, turned out good enough that creator of the comic Steve Niles opted to purchase one- which is now in his personal collection.


As far as anything else...
The costume consisted of a Freddy Stripe Allison long sleeve, TRIPP NYC trench coat, black Dickies pants with black Chuck Taylor shoes and Damascus (Dexter) gloves.

Here is a "movie poster" with the full costume:

And here he sits now:

On the shelf next to my next project, Dollface (well, after I finish my Evil Dead chainsaw), all beat up from a great Halloween.

Everyone that saw the mask loved it!

 

[jimmydellamorte]

I say the plot is dorky... But this is coming from an avid fan.
I love Nile's work, it just seems like someone was smoking the wacky tabacky on this story.

 

[Unresponsible]

I tend to think that Niles may not have hit his proper pacing yet. Some of his stories are too sparse, some are over-thought. Not to say he isn't talented of course, just think that in a few years he'll really be blowing minds.

But the mask is looking fantastic! Great likeness. Would you consider stitching some real thread along the stitch marks at some point? Maybe some sort of yarn, just to make them pop.

 

[jimmydellamorte]

She used real thread... Thin thread, but all the stitches you can see on the final mask are real.

 

[Unresponsible]

That is phenomenal.

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Thanks.
It took her longer to stitch the stitches than anything else on the mask! We accidentally cast the thing way too thick and pushing a sewing needle through latex is very, very, very difficult.

But it turned out great... If you compare it to the first picture of the actual mask in the comic you can see the attention to detail.

I'm happy with how this turned out.

 

[DARTH SABER]

Pretty creepy mask.

Niles is a pretty cool and down to earth guy.
A couple of years ago I hung out at his house in LA after a party. He's got a badass collection of original comic art framed all around his house.

BTW, great work on that mask.

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Yea I've been a pestering fan of his for years.
He mailed me a few signed comics ages ago, I thought that made him even cooler so I decided to start wasting my hard earned cash on his work(s).

So far I've only been disappointed with Nail but I blame Zombie.

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Wait... You're the guy that made the vampire hunting kit!!!!!!!
You're like an internet celebrity in a way, damn... Thanks for looking at my measly post.