Monster Kid Birthday Party

For Mr. Husband's birthday theme this year I went with Monster Kid!
Monster Kid is a term used primarily for kids (boys) that grew up between the 1960's-1980's and were into monster flicks, magazines, comics, and all of the Halloweenish stuff that goes along with it.
He is a huge fan of all things creepy, spooky, icky, and ooky.



Comic ads, gags, and cheap dime store trinkets were a big part of this era.
I printed out several vintage comic ads poster sized to use as the focal wall decor.
The gumball machine is actually his birthday cake.



The top thin section and the bottom are made of cake.  The middle is a plastic mini critter tank turned on it's side.  I put a print of a vintage monster head gumball insert inside with some of those goodie globes, then covered the open front area with clear cellophane hot glued to the edges, red electric tape as edging. It's hard to make out but I made a turn knob and dispenser flap for the lower section out of thin cardboard covered in aluminum foil.   The 51¢ sign is a reference to Mr. Husband's age.

For decor I scoured our Halloween stuff for appropriate pieces.

Skulls, snakes, spiders, dismembered parts, rubber monsters....





On top of the china cabinet, I created a mini Joke shop featuring reprodution rubber creepy masks, groucho glasses, Igglee Wigglees, and ads.



On the front of of the cabinet I put prints of other items appearing to be still in packaging along with more ads and monster stickers.

The table centerpiece features reproduction Monster Name Stickers and other plastic creepy bits.

I used the book Mail Order Mysteries  written by Kirk Demarais as inspiration for this party.  We LOVE this book.  It features vintage comic book ads for stuff that sounded amazing but then Kirk has gotten his hands on what you were really sent and gives a review about the products.  It's super fun and funny. 

Kirk Demarais also made an awesome 2004 short film called Flip which features a Monster Kid in the 60's mulling over what comic book ad item he should buy with his birthday dollar.  The film did a wonderful job of portraying the period look properly and the story is sweet.  We watched the film as part of the birthday activities.  Mr. Husband has an original poster from the short film as seen in the above photo because Nightmare Theatre, his horror host show, played it during a film festival when it was first released.

  Got MC Bones on the turntable scratchin' out birthday beats!


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Scary, Life Size Monster Ghost!
Obeys Your Commands!



I decided to try my hand at making what I thought the "life sized" monster would look like as part of the party decor!  It's a black plastic table cloth, a plastic clothes hanger and a green balloon that I drew a face on similar to the one in the ad.  I hung it up with fishing line so it could then "obey my commands"!



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One of the gifts I got for Mr. Husband was a set of Monster Magic Action Trading Cards from the 60's or 70's.  As shown above with the vending machine insert, the cards were sold individually and you used a lenticular plastic "magic" lens to make the scene move!



They are beautifully illustrated and I am easily entertained by this kind of stuff.



Here is the Monster Kid about to hack into his cake with an oversized Pee Wee Herman knife and fork!  I also made ice cubes with plastic spiders in them for the beverages.


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This vintage ad is a work of art.  I could not figure out what the shape of the order form was suppose to be though.  All I could see, because of the current state of things, was a half medical mask but I knew that wasn't what it could be.  I asked Mr. Husband and he figured it out.  Can you?  I'll put the answer in the comments.

All of the images I used for this party are sourced on my Monster Kid Pinterest Board .