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The Legendary Steve Todd's Pics

If your not familiar with Steve Todd's pics than you haven't been involved in this community for a long time. That is nothing to be ashamed of but it is important to know the history of how this great community got started. After talking with Jim (Steve Todd, we'll get to the name later

) I found out Jim got his start much like the rest of us way back when by joining the legendary Back Talk Message Board.

The Back Talk Message Board needs and deserves its own article alone but to get you up to speed Back Talk was THE place and really the only place to discuss HalloweeN and Myers. This was a time when the HMA and MM.net were non existent and there really wasn't a lot of tes to talk about the hobby. Back Talk was the place to be and housed TONS of great people. Back Talk hasn't changed much over the years and actually I created the logo for Mark that is still used to day on the forum





I got a chance to speak with Jim and here is a little Q and A. Enjoy!.....

First off thanks Jim for taking the time to do this. Your page was a huge influence in me getting started in this hobby and I am exited to get to know the history. First things first, how did you get started in collecting?

I got interested in masks by way of watching all the clasc monster movies that came on tv. I was a huge fan of Star Trek and Ultra man. So, it was a natural progreson that when I started seeing masks in the shops, I wanted them! My first real mask was a Don Post Wolfman, this would have been 1974 or 1975. None of the masks I had as a kid survived. I grew up in Southeast Texas, so between wearing and playing with them, the Texas humidity did them in. I was and still am an avid reader. I had tons of Famous Monsters Mags, Starlog, and all the other horror fanzine publications I could get my hands on. It was in those pages that I would t and study all the ads for masks and related items. I can’t tell you how many times I filled out the order sheets with all the masks I wanted only to never have them mailed off due to my parents not willing to buy me things of that nature.

What led to the famous Steve Todd's pic section?

Ahh, the formation of the now infamous “Steve Todd’s Pics” This one makes me laugh.....Steve Todd’s Pics started this way. I was a regular member of a message board called “Back Talk” This would have been late 1997 early 1998. There was already a member there named Jim Patton. He sold videos etc. So to avoid any confuon, I took the alias Steve Todd from the TV veron of HalloweeN. So now we have the name established, where did the page come from? The page originated out of a necesty for posting pics on the message boards. I needed image hosting, so I joined geocities. I also noticed, there were no images to be found of the Don Post Capt.Kirk mask anywhere on the net at that time. So I started searching out any and all pics I could find. This is really where the idea for the page comes from. Once I started finding owners of the Kirk mask and them graciously supplying me with pics of there collections, I (with permison of course) posted them on my page for all interested fans to check out. Then as my collection grew, and I found more Capt.Kirks, the page took on a life of it’s own.

How many masks have you owned at your collecting peak?

I never really went at collecting all out. It was and still is “just for fun”. I absolutely love looking at all the great masks out there, but I don’t obsess over them. Had I really been serious about it, I could have owned several Capt.Kirks and other masks that I have come across over the years. I have semi-regret about not jumping on those chances but that was my choice at the time. My collection was always modest. At the peak of my collecting, I only owned roughly 100-105 masks.

Where are you at these days with the collecting community?

I still keep my eyes peeled for any special pieces that come along every now and then. My interest in the Myers mask was satisfied 4 years ago. Having owned an original NightOwl Nightmare Man 78 and 2 Ken Hertlein/Dick Warlock Myers style masks, that ended my search. So now, it’s pretty much just the Capt.Kirk replicas that get my collecting dollars.

Did you know when you created it that it would be so popular?

Of course, I had no way of knowing it would be utilized in the manor it has. I just knew that if I had come across the page as a HalloweeN/mask collecting fan, I would have gotten a lot of enjoyment looking at the mask pictures that were assembled.

I would like to thank Justin(Booman) for taking an interest in STP’s. I had a lot of fun collecting pics and masks do be displayed there. I hope everyone enjoys looking at them as much as I do.

- Jim Harville (Steve Todd)

very cool page. i am a bit of a noob when it comes to things like this but i love hearing about the history. that is why this board is so cool, seems like there is always some interesting to read.

Thanks so much for the great Q&A Jim.

Justin use to show me your page several years ago and we'd dream of owning some of those masks.

Thanks so much for being a part of the forum, we're glad to have you!

Thanks for posting this. I was also a Back Talk member back in the day (I was a chronic lurker) but had completely forgotten about it. Those were the days when there were still quite a few how-to articles out there for converting your '75 Kirk.

Hey Jim, remember this.....

http://www.geocities.com/hwmovies/99mask.html

now if that doesn't bring back memories than nothing will

I DO REMEMBER SEEING THAT PAGE WAY BACK WHEN. VERY NICE READ AND IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THE HISTORY. CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG HERE BUT DID YOU SAY YOU WEREN'T REALLY INTO COLLECTING BUT OWNED 100 OR SO MASKS????

THAT SOUNDS LIKE COLLECTING TO ME, HEHEHE!

great read....thanks for sharing