Miss Evil Gleeful & The Fantabulously Delightful Sins Of People

Besides looking like something ripped straight from the nightmares of a 10 year old, this mask has a almost hauntingly Jim Henson quality to it, doesn't it? Like something you'd see on the early days of Sesame Street or perhaps somewhere in Labyrinth. Those aren't insults, either, for the record. Well, maybe the nightmares part, I don't know. I'm not a 10 year old any longer and frankly my nightmares were never filled with things like this and were more filled with the dawning horrors that nobody loved me. I was a messed up kid alright?

But my declining mental health aside, this thing is genuinely eerie. Every last proportion on this face is inaccurate or over exaggerated, and it reeks of theatre masks. You know the ones I'm talking about, right? The happy/sad theatre mask dichotomy you often seen. Perhaps one day I'll discuss those more in depth. Anyway, while it's certainly easy to picture this thing half lit in back shadows lumbering ever slowly towards you down a long and endless corridor, let's not forget why we're actually here. To give love and respect to masks. And as I said about masks made in the style of actual people, it's always a little off putting. I mean, humans are inherently monstrous so I guess it's not too surprising exactly to see masks modeled and shaped after our own image. Still...it's somewhat offputting isn't it?

And, sure, while Miss Evil Gleeful here looks like she's most likely to just invite you in for a spot of tea and a blueberry crumble, there's still an edge of creepiness to her, and that's the design I love the most next to outright monstrosities. Something that, on the surface, looks cute and sweet but also wrong and creepy. She's got, like, a goddamned quadruple chin, for starters. Then she's got an enormous nose and short blue/greyish hair and possibly a little bonnet on her head? Not sure. Don't wanna get close enough to find out, either. She's got big bags under her eyes and her lips jut out in all the wrong ways.

I'm fairly confident in saying that this is one of the creepiest masks I've ever looked at, and considering it's just made of latex apparently, that's pretty impressive, given the medium is often nowhere near as well done as the full cover rubber masks we generally discuss here. Kudos to you guys. Again, no name on who made this or where it came from, so it very likely could be an artifact found in an archeological dig that was buried because it threatened to ruin the very existence of the society that spawned it, not knowing what horrors they'd unleashed upon themselves at the time of its creation. It's also possible it was mass produced somewhere in Philly. Just as terrible, but you know. Not nearly as overtly evil, I guess. Actually, one of the things I really love about this piece are the colors, man. The colors are so good. They're vibrant and they pop and they, surprisingly, work super well together.

Miss Evil Gleeful, however, isn't entirely threatening, and that's what I really love about the design, as I said. She's got charm to her. Yeah, she's exaggerated and yeah she's kind of spooky because of it, but at the same time she's got such a sweetness to her that you sort of want to be her friend. As I said, she's very reminiscent of Jim Henson design work to me, but maybe that's just to me. The linework is also fantastic, like, whoever actually sculpted this did a tremendous job because it's beautifully crafted to boot.

The thing, however, that truly got me to want to talk about this mask is that it viscerally reminded me of a woman that lived next door to my grandparents as a little girl. When I was but a chittlin', my grandparents had this neighbor named Jeanie, and she was about their age, and she was one of those "I don't have a husband, I have like 15 cats and an enormous garden" women, and her house was filled with fine antiques. But she was the absolutely most nicest person I've ever known, and that's what this mask reminded me of. As soon as I saw it, I thought "That's Jeanie". I could almost hear her voice coming out of its mouth, which is impressive cause it had to pass through a computer screen too.That's not easy to do, sentient mask from a dark timeline or otherwise. So yeah, I'm fairly certain Jeanie is dead at this point, but at least her spirit can linger on in the face of Miss Evil Gleeful, because it really captured her essence in a way that nothing else ever has. Also I'm most likely to wind up one of those ladies one day, except I'll have my partner AND 15 cats, so I'm probably just more partial to this mask than others would likely be. Either way, I love her.

In the end, Miss Evil Gleeful is just another prime example, perhaps the best honestly, of not only superb craftsmanship but also simplicity at its finest. What the concept of simplicity can achieve, even, when done correctly and done effectively. Whereas The Lovely Terror reeked of 5 year olds craft time project, this is someone who knows their craft and knows it well. It's over the top, yet it's too reserved, the colors are perfection and the linework is dynamite. Miss Evil Gleeful is really a top tier mask design that I would, honestly, love to hang on my wall. Sadly, if you want to own her, she's going to cost you about 90 dollars on eBay, so. Too rich for my blood.

And Jeanie, if you aren't dead yet and somehow stumble across this post, which is highly unlikely considering people your age generally fear technology the way cavemen feared fire, please get in touch with me. I'd love to have some tea with you.