Success!!!

Take one dowel rod, stick it in a Styrofoam ball, cover that with aluminum foil and a sea-green leaf of tissue paper (taping as you go). Add lots of long strips in front. Take two balls of aluminum foil and wrap in gold tissue paper so that you form an eye stalk. Tape generously. Take a contrasting green bit of tissue paper to add eye ridges. Build up the back of the head with excess tissue paper and cover with the sea-green paper.

Take a wire coat hanger and cut the bottom part in the middle and bend the wire out on each side to create 'shoulders'. Attach this to the dowel rod at the proper height.

Take two squares of aluminum foil wide enough to fit around the wrist with some left over and attach more strips of the tissue to the foil. These create 'tentacle' hands.

Take two more hangers and unwrap them out to form wings and cover with tissue paper. Leave the hook for attaching to the costume.

Add a long green robe that has a see-through panel in the 'chest' area, and presto! Cthulhu Ftagn!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Cthulhu is a giant, alien creature that in the stories of Howard Phillips Lovecraft slept in a sunken city under the sea. He is best known from the story 'Callof Cthulhu', which also gives its name to a horror role-playing game based on the mythos of Lovecraft and his admirers. Lovecraft, although he met little success during his life, had a profound effect on generations of writers that followed. His stories of corrupt family lines, crooked manses, and the unearthly beings whose mere existence unhinged the human mind are haunting. Even if you don't normally care for horror, you should check them out. By today's standards, it's really almost more supernatural thriller, with the true horror usually coming as a sort of punch-line that you have to wrap your mind around.