Years ago at the very first Horrorfind Weekend in Baltimore – when I was just getting into Halloween and haunting houses – I got to sit in on a seminar by Leonard Pickel, editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine. After the seminar we got to talking, and I asked him what good how-to books he’d suggest forking over cash for. Well, his answer wasn’t much help; he said, “Buy them all.” That wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, me being a nobody on a budget, but I couldn’t argue with his reasoning: if each book gave you just one good idea then the thirty or forty bucks you spent on it was worth it. As a man who has wasted countless dollars learning lessons by making mistakes in prop building that a couple of books could have rescued me from, in hindsight, I have to agree. One good idea can save you money, time, aggravation and maybe even a trip to the Emergency Room – don’t ask.
Now let me suggest to you one book that I guarantee you’ll find more than one good idea hidden within its digital pages.
This week I managed to get my hands on not one, but two copies, of “Creature Creation with Mike Melillo: Special Effects Secrets for the Halloween Enthusiast”. One copy is in the Winter Solstice Let-It-Ride Contest and the other I plan to give away sometime soon so keep watching here. For those of you that lurk about on the various Halloween forums you might recognize the author more by his Internet handles: Dr. Slickshill or Blacklightmike. Melillo truly is a Monster Kid after my own heart who was weaned on a steady diet of the requisite Chiller Theater, Creature Feature, and Kaiju that spawned many an obsessed haunter – myself included.
In fact the first part of Creature Creation is an autobiography – at least the important parts to anyone interested in making creatures. Yeah, you could probably skip this, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I could name a couple of how-to manuals right off the top of my head that would benefit from getting to know the authors; the “who” and the “why” of haunting to me is just as important as the “how” in my opinion, and Melillo’s story telling encompasses everything from his early childhood makeup experiments with sawdust and glue to his involvement in the comic book industry is engaging and entertaining.
Next “Health and Safety” is covered , which I also recommend you don’t skip, after which the author spends a lengthy bit of the book on sculpting techniques and mask making. I’ve seen other manuals cover this, and I bet you have too. However, if you have ever made and been frustrated with a two-part mold over a mask or some other sculpted creation then you do not want to miss this part. Ever hear of a Dumpka? It’s a blindingly simple armature – so simple I can’t believe I’ve never seen something like it before – that will let you create a mask with no seams left from the two-part mold. How? Because by using the Dumpka you will be able to instead create a one piece mold over even the most complex of masks. Heresy you say? Read the book, and all will be revealed by Mr. Melillo.
Next up is where you will be glad you have an e-book. At 167 pages with full color photographs the cost of publishing this behemoth of a book would be prohibitive for most folks to buy. However, because it’s an e-book you will have all the full color photos of Melillo’s mask painting instructions, and I guarantee that when you see “The Bride” come to life one layer of paint at a time the techniques will be clearer to you than from any web page or book you have previously seen.
In fact that’s what the author has endeavored to do and has done for the most part – Creature Creation fills in some of the gaps of missing information on similar how-to’s on the web in order to save you those precious commodities I mentioned earlier: time, money, aggravation, etc.
Throughout the rest of the book you’ll recognize such topics as: Fast Weatherproof Hands, Basic Makeup, Tweaking Props to get that edge over store bought and even many home made props, Building Small Creatures and Large with different techniques, and more. More than I can list here, and I promise you will get at least one great idea from each section of Mike Melillo’s Creature Creation – some of which may cause you to smack your head in wonder because you didn’t think of it – and each will be worth the purchase price of the book.
Now for the important stuff. You can get “Creature Creation with Mike Melillo: Special Effects Secrets for the Halloween Enthusiast” from the Black Light Fright website for $29.95 plus $5.00 shipping – a mere pittance for the one zillion good ideas you’ll get from it. Click the blurb graphic below to be taken right to the store and do check out Mike’s haunt Dr. Slickshill’s Sideshow of Monstrous Oddities as well.
