Crazy Costumes: A Celebration of Halloween and Beyond

This Halloween promises to be more Track & Trace than ‘Trick Or Treat?’. But the past is always with us. So here’s a look back to ‘Halloween and Beyond’. “The reason for the title is that I am not sure all these costumes were worn to celebrate Halloween,” says photograph collector Robert E. Jackson, “but the Halloween season is a good time to focus on unusual costumes people have made to celebrate all kinds of holidays and such.”

Are you dressing up this year, strapping on a fright wig, long nails and a strange outfit? At least there’ll be no last minute panic to get the right look for Halloween 2020. After all, you’ve been wearing that scary look for months…

 

 

I was a teenage werewolf
Braces on my fangs
I was a teenage werewolf
And no one even said thanks
And no one made me stop
– I Was a Teenage Werewolf, The Cramps

 

 

 

It says in the Bible
The dark cometh and the beast will reign
It says in the Bible
The dark cometh and the beast will reign
And you’ll be like the beast, too
Sharp, sharp pointed fangs
– The Beast, Roky Erickson

 

 

 

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”
― Macbeth, William Shakespeare

 

 

Welcome to my breakdown.
I hope I didn’t scare you.
That’s just the way we are when we come down.
We sweat and laugh and scream here.
‘Cause life is just a dream here.
You know inside you feel right at home, here.
Yeah, Welcome to my nightmare yeah, hey, hey, hey…
– Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper

 

 

“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character…Would you slow down? Or speed up?”
— Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk

 

 

 

“The wind outside nested in each tree, prowled the sidewalks in invisible treads like unseen cats.
Tom Skelton shivered. Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.”
― The Halloween Tree, Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

J’suis the Grand Zombie
My yellow belt of choison
Ain’t afraid of no tom cat
Fill my brains with poison
– I Walk on Guilded Splinters, Dr. John

 

 

 

More from the excellent Robert E. Jackson here – and on his Instagram page.