Gerald Bojangles & His Boneyard Jamboree

Really kinda slept on this way this Halloween, didn't I? Missed the train, I did. Ah well. Here we are now, so put your skinless hands together for good ol' Mr. Gerald Bojangles & His Boneyard Jamboree! This is a Ben Cooper style mask (I don't think it's made by Cooper himself, but don't quote me on that), and, honestly, it makes me so happy. Gerald Bojangles just looks so goddamned happy doesn't he? So utterly thrilled to be here with you, in pure skeletal format, so he can play you the organ without his organs. He just looks so very jovial, doesn't he? I mean, he's got a big grin on his face, and an absolutely adorable tiny bowler cap, which just screams "I'm fun!" He looks like the leader of a big swing band in a jazz club, and I'm all for it.

I also like the thick black outline that encompasses his entirety, almost like he's ripped straight out of the pages of a comic book. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cute little crossbones on his hat. Brilliant little detail.

Skeleton masks are often so very hard to do properly, because we're all skeletons, so it's not like there's a whole lot of room for originality. That being said, I think they knocked it out of the park with Gerald Bojangles here, and it's good to see that level of creativity come out of a concept as creatively sterile as just "a human skull". The best part is too that because the mask is so straight forward, all there is, you can create any kind of amazing costume to go with it. A nice dapper zoot suit, or perhaps just regular business attire. Personally, a sort of 1920s-1940s look would be best I'd think, but hey, you do you. I'm only sad that this is the only photo I could scrounge up of Gerald Bojangles (and by 'scrounge up' I mean save directly from the eBay listing I found it on). Without more images, it's kind of hard for me to say anything else beyond what I've already said, but really, I also think perhaps not a whole lot needs to be said and not a whole lot needs to be seen. Perhaps that singular image truly is enough to suffice.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, after all.

Gerald Bojangles does, however, warrant a discussion on something I touched on earlier, which is the blandness of skeletal designs. Skeletons are a long since beloved icon of the Halloween season, and skeleton costumes are not anything new by any stretch of the imagination. But the issue is because it's such a basic thing - a human skull - you can only go one of two ways with it. You can do the standard skull design, which is, well, a skull. Let's not mince words, it's just a skull, no way to make it anymore fancy than it is.

But see, it's just so...ordinary. It's not poorly made, I mean that thing is well shaped, well detailed and well shaded. It's anatomically correct even, which just adds an extra level of professionalism to it, but it's exactly what it looks like. A skull. Nothing more, nothing less.

Or, you go the complete opposite route and go over the top, because, as I said, there's only two ways to go. Mundane and ridiculous. And while the ridiculous can at times be neat, it's rarely because it has a personality or an attitude about it. It's more ridiculous in the sense that it's so over the top that it's downright goddamned goofy, while Gerald Bojangles has attitude and personality.

Which is the case here, where it's so removed from basic context of either skull or whatever the fuck they're trying to do here - maybe a skeleton army or something? I don't know man - that it makes it all the more hard to know what to think about it. I mean, sure, it's well made too, and the little skull atop his head armor is a super neat touch and everything, but it's still, in the end, just a skull, and really not even one worth all that much discussing because it's not only kind of basic but also not all that cool.

And that's the problem with skull masks, is that you only have two directions to go and they both kind of suck. So that's why Gerald Bojangles warrants so much praise, because good lord, here's something genuinely cool birthed from something so genuinely basic. He's got enough of a original design to him that you can easily see a personality or create some sort of backstory for yourself, and that is worth a thousand times more than any kind of "generic skull mask" is worth. Nothing better than being able to form some kind of idea about something because the creators gave you so much to go off on. And don't lie, you know you'd totally go see his Boneyard Jamboree while you sip neat scotch and smoke a stogie while you've got a bombshell blonde in a lowcut dress hanging from your arm. You know that sounds great, don't deny it.

So let's give a big round of fleshless sinewy applause for Gerald Bojangles and his Boneyard Jamboree for keeping the dream alive and being so totally himself. For somehow managing to differentiate himself from all the other skeleton masks in the field, and for proving that beauty isn't only skin deep. It's also bone deep.

...heh. Bone deep.