We Made A Thing
The Fantastic Four movie hits theatres this week. If you’ve seen the trailer, maybe you’ve noticed the scene where some middle-school kids are out and about wearing Ben Grimm Thing masks. They’re modeled after the vintage masks Ben Cooper, Inc. put out in the 1960s. When we saw that movie clip, Michelle and I knew we’d have to try to make our own version of the mask.
If you’re into Halloween Pop Culture, you know that Ben Cooper costumes, popular for decades, hit their peak in the ’60s and ’70s. They’re a chef’s-kiss detail that supports the mid-century modern look and feel of Fantastic Four: First Steps.
A quick search reveals a number of vintage Ben Grimm masks available online. The one below on the left looks like an actual Ben Cooper mask from 1967 (a dead ringer for the ones in the movie). The more cartoony Ben Grimm on the right is of unstated origin, but dated to the early 1990s. Both are currently being auctioned on eBay.
While those masks are amazing artifacts of superhero pop culture, Michelle and I wanted to develop our own design for the Thing mask, and so we began by doing some sketches, and tossing around ideas for materials. We knew we’d be building onto an existing blank mask. But I was planning to sculpt The Thing’s rocky complexion in foam clay, while she thought the more firm, blocky feel of XPS foam would better resemble Ben’s stony surface. We gathered some supplies while debating which course to take.
The thing about Michelle’s plan is, as usual, she’s right. XPS foam can be easily carved with a sharp craft knife into just about any shape you need, including Ben Grimm’s stubby little nose. And it can certainly be made to resemble rocks. I’d just never created facial features with it, so maybe I was a little hesitant.
Beyond that, the XPS foam needs to be attached with some sort of adhesive. Hot glue seems the easiest, but that would also require us to carve out every single rocky plate, fit them to the face (and to each other, since they interlock) and cake the mask in glue. Not a process I was looking forward to.
My stance was that the foam clay sticks pretty readily to the mask blanks, and can be sculpted to look like interlocking rock plates. However, as Michelle pointed out, it does tend to take on a softer profile as it cures, not as sharp-edged and angular as Ben Grimm’s rocky skin in the comics. Because the foam is so airy, any marks made with sculpting tools tend to rebound a little as the clay cures, potentially softening those deep, dramatic cracks visible in The Thing’s face.
Both methods have their benefits and their drawbacks. So, like the Fantastic Four have done many times, we realized conflict could become complement. The hard foam was perfect for the nose and mouth, the soft foam was a smooth transition that sculpted easily and blended everything together. We’d never made a mask that way, but it was worth trying. It was now, officially, clobberin’ time.
Once the mouth and facial planes were squared away, we wondered if there was anything we could do with the unused roll of EVA foam lying on the bench. Maybe it could work as the base of The Thing’s prominent brow. Time for another experiment.
After a little cutting, carving, and sanding with a rotary tool, the EVA foam made for a nice, heavy brow that juts out over his deep-set eyes, giving The Thing that angry, intimidating expression. Eventually, I sculpted more foam clay on top to really make it pop.
The special effects used for The Thing in First Steps look like state of the art motion capture/CGI. I can’t imagine they stuffed Ebon Moss-Bachrach into a muscle suit and make-up. I’m guessing FX-heavy blockbusters still using latex appliances on their actors are likely few and far between. But while the CGI is impressive, I kind of prefer the classic look of practical effects, and the hands-on artistry that brought them to life.
I know, when October rolls around, Disney/Marvel will likely release screen-accurate, full-head rubber masks of Ben Grimm that kids all over will wear while tripping over lawn gnomes in the dark on Halloween.
And I’m sure those modern masks will look amazing, but they won’t hit the same as those vintage masks from Ben Cooper. And they won’t be nearly as much fun for me as the foam monstrosity Michelle and I put together. The question now is — which one of us gets to wear it to the premiere?
You can watch how we put all of Ben Grimm’s pieces together in this week’s video at the link below.