The Coal Crew is a bunch of unique characters, so it’s no surprise that we bring it at Halloween. To celebrate all things costumes and Halloween we asked the team to share photos of them all dressed up. The resulting photo album captures some of us as cute kids, others as fully-embodied characters and more still as goofballs embracing the silly side of the holiday.

 

The Cute Coal Kids

Many of our photo submissions came from the childhood trick-or-treating era. These were the good old days when we embodied classic characters and toddled off into the autumn dusk to squirrel away as much candy as possible. 

Web Developer Travis Antoniello shared this adorable Superman look. Travis was around 4 years old when this gem was snapped.

 

Halloween — especially for a kid — is the best time to become your favorite thing. That’s exactly what 5-year-old Samantha Bucher, who grew up to become our Content Manager & Design Specialist, did in 2001 when she dressed as a white tiger.

 

Creative Director Sam O’Connell turned his obsession with Star Wars into an epic homemade Obi-Wan Kenobi costume in 1999. Sam shared this photo of himself battling Darth Maul in the children’s wing of the Osterhout Free Library.

 

“My lightsaber was made from a broom stick with duct tape and I was wearing a braided wash cloth as my Jedi Padawan braid,” Sam explained.

When Coal Creative CEO Holly K. Pilcavage heard about the call for Halloween pics, she asked her mom to rustle up some photos from her childhood. Her submission captures another joy of Halloween — dressing up with your siblings. Though, Holly’s sister — dressed as a witch — isn’t serving much joy in this photo.

 

“I’m honestly choosing it because my sister (the witch) is clearly not amused and I can’t stop laughing when I look at it,” Holly said. “I also feel like maybe I could have just been a cowgirl but for some reason it was taken to the next level and I’m some sort of cowgirl bandit, which I guess is pretty cool.”

From a cool bandit cowgirl, we move to another sibling pair. The Lokuta family brought the freight and delight of Halloween in 2000. Operations & Business Development Manager Camaryn Lokuta, the 3-year-old lion, is accompanied by her headless horseman of a brother.

 

With the final piece of evidence that big cats are the pinnacle of cute kid costumes is Will McHale, our Post Production Manager.

“Halloween ‘93 was a blast, and I ain’t lion!” Will proclaimed.

 

 

Coal’s Characters

 

The next subset of costumes include guys who committed to a character for Halloween. 

The star of this category is Jesse Macko, Social Media Specialist. Jesse sent photos of himself as Shaggy from Scooby Doo and as a Starbucks barista. He shows that a costume is more than just putting on the clothes. Look at this commitment!

 

Matt Simoncavage, Lead Web Developer and Lead Designer, teamed up with Holly for an old timey newsy costume in 2018. Holly was an intrepid reporter/photographer and Matt was a jubilant paper boy for the Karl Hall Halloween show. Matt’s satchel was complete with a Coal Creative-themed newspaper.

 

Production Manager Alex Manganella found costume inspiration inside the Coal Creative office in 2019. He transformed into Creative Director Sam O’Connell.

 

“It was a last minute decision, but people truly couldn’t tell us apart,” Alex told me. 

 

He went on to say he used the costume to open credit cards and travel internationally. I’m not sure if that’s true, but this is a blog about Halloween costumes, not identity theft. So, here’s a picture of me as a pimp.

 

Here I — Content Writer Adam Roberts — am in an incredibly comfortable, but poorly-aged costume that I wore to high school as a freshman. This look is a direct result of watching this guy wrestle and these guys rap. Just looking at this falling fake money I can hear the P.I.M.P. beat. 

 

Jon O’Connell, Director of Strategic Communications, embodied a pretty scary demon gangster. Jon’s brother David, who is now in college, is rocking his snazzy hat and chain.

 

The Coal Cosplayers

The last few costumes come from team members who know that costumes aren’t just for Halloween. 

In 2017, Video Specialist Jay Nguyen donned this awesome Mikaela Hyukuya look at a cosplay contest. The character is from the anime, “Seraph of the End.”

 

Project Manager Jeremy Brown also enjoys a good cosplay event. He shared these photos from 2018. The first is Equius from Homestuck and the second is Kung Fury.

 

Before we send you off into the howling winds of October, here is Wallace, Jeremy’s dog, dressed as Dr. Corgi Jones.

 

Have a wonderfully spooky Halloween and remember, stay Coal!