Ghosts of Costume Parties Past

Now, you may be wondering (you may not be wondering actually, I've no idea), "Since you guys are experts in disguise, you must love getting dressed up for little or no reason, so why do you only have ONE costume contest per year?".

Well, it's true, we ARE rather fond of dressing up. And we LOVE a good costume party.

Us with Marissa at the 1968 Halloween Mixer. Who's who? Hint: Marissa's on the right.

We've been holding costume parties since forever. But it was only after a couple years we realised what a good opportunity fancy dress balls present to us crimefighting types. Opportunities to gather information.

We decided it would be a rather brilliant wheeze if we were to put the word out on the grapevine that we were hosting a costume party, knowing that eventually, word would reach the criminal underground.

Master criminals are very fond of dressing up and showing off (think The Joker, The Penguin, et al). Even ugly toddler Henri Petit and the diabolical Lester Von Hornrimm have been known to slap on some greasepaint and funny clothes from time to time - and to dress up for a party too (see what I did there? Ha ha ha!).

That's Henri in the middle.

Any road up, what we'd do is this...

Get some of the Unbelievababes to work the door, serve the drinks etc. All in costume, of course.

Guests arrive, in costume.

Everyone's in costume, nobody knows who is who, the guests eat, drink, relax and start talking shop.

We have microphones placed everywhere, recording conversations between evil-doers and ne'er-do-wells.

It's brilliant. And because nobody knows who is wearing what, sometimes we don't even show up!

We're elsewhere, kicking butt and fighting crime. 

But anyway, that's not the point. I was supposed to talk about entries from previous Unbelievables costume contests. There were many clangers and howlers I can recall, but my favourite one is this - it's wrong and right on so many levels I have to give it a special mention.

The name's not quite right, and there are only two, but come on! Borderline genius, Elsie and Fay Rectangle from Attleboro, MA!

Oh, and a special Happy Halloween greeting to our spectacular friend Monica Lewis (yes, that Monica Lewis, who is seen here getting in on the act.)

P.S. The real reason we only have ONE costume contest per year? Halloween, natch.

Get those entries in! There may be a prize in it for you! Or not.

This year's Unbelievable Costume Contest

Boo!
Just kidding. I didn't mean to scare you.
But it is Halloween again and that means we're having our annual costume contest again, with all proceeds benefiting the Eleanor Greeble Foundation which helps young people who are saddled with the unfortunate circumstance of being given the name of an elderly person.

I'm here to give you some background.

First, of course, the idea is to dress up like us, The Unbelievables.
That said, please don't bother submitting anything where you're wearing an Unbelievables costume you bought at the store.

We appreciate it, of course, but it's difficult to judge a perfect, authorized likeness of us. Plus it lacks imagination.

Sepia-tinged photography is an interesting form of expression. Photos like this one express that there is a pit full of innocent people screaming nearby. We don't like that.

A twist on gender is very clever and of course, the contest is open to women! I don't know who is supposed to be whom in this photo but those are fine costumes.

We are not, however, fond of zombified versions of us. It's morbid. It's not against the rules, but you won't win.

If you'd like to submit an entry, feel free to do so in the comments. We'll announce a winner on Friday. In the meantime, Jeff and Michael will give you their thoughts on memorable moments from contests gone by.