Brutus and Frank

 I came across this vintage Halloween costume minus the mask, but I loved the artwork on it.  It screamed '50's Monster Movie to me. The red eyes, the fangs, the blood(?).

A closeup of that fabulous art.

I was at a loss as to the company that made it and the mask that would have come with it, so I posted it to a "Vintage Monster Toy" Facebook group I belonged to and it didn't take long for someone to reply back with this:

It's a different smock, but essentially the same artwork, although much less colorful than mine.

Someone else noted that it was unmistakably done by Ben Cooper artist Frank Romano.  That struck a memory with me and I realized I had watched a documentary on Ben Cooper several years ago and they had interviewed Frank Romano (he has since passed).  

After serving in the Navy during WWII, Frank answered an ad in the paper for a position as artist at Ben Cooper, Inc., and was interviewed by Ben Cooper himself.  Legend has it, Cooper challenged Romano to paint his best devil that night using only 4 colors and bring it back the next day.

He delivered this (or something very similar, this was a 2017 reproduction done by Frank) and was instantly hired.:

Image courtesy of tumblr

Romano would go on to work for Ben Cooper for the next 27 years producing some of Ben Cooper's most iconic images.

Image courtesy of 13th Dimension Blog

Image courtesy of 13th Dimension Blog

Image courtesy eBay

Image courtesy eBay

Image courtesy eBay

Image courtesy eBay

Image courtesy eBay

Image courtesy eBay

Image courtesy eBay

On particular design Frank made holds a special place in my heart.  I held a grudge against it for years, as told here, but as I've come to understand the evolution of the Ben Cooper Spider-man costume, I've given it some slack.

Image courtesy of 13th Dimension Blog

The original Ben Cooper Spider-man costume was created in 1954, 8 years before the appearance of Marvel's Spider-man in Amazing Fantasy #15.  I suspect there was another transition version between that one and the licensed Spider-man costume, one that closer resembled the licensed costume, but with a different mask and meant to look more like a man-spider. The Marvel licensed Spider-man costume was released by Ben Cooper in 1963 which in itself is surprising given Amazing Spider-man #1 had just debuted earlier that same year. Given Frank Romano began his career with Ben Cooper in 1962, it would have been one of his earliest designs.  He may have relied on an existing costume and stylized it slightly to more closely resemble the Marvel version, but that's only my theory.

Frank Romano passed away in 2021 at the age of 97 leaving behind beloved memories of Halloween for countless children.