The Story Behind Deadpan Jack, Our Skeleton Cowboy with a Carving Knife
A skeleton cowboy in a tan hat and red bandana, knife in hand, working on a pumpkin. Here is what is in the print, why it stays funny instead of frightening, and where it hangs best.
By the Frontier Prints team · Published
What the print actually shows
Deadpan Jack is a skeleton cowboy with a knife in his hand, carving a jack-o-lantern. Tan hat. Red bandana. Fringed vest. The drawing is all bold flash-sheet outlines sitting on a flat pumpkin orange ground, so there is no soft gradient to go muddy once it is on a wall and three feet away from you.
The important part, at least for us, is that it is playful rather than gory. No blood, no shock. It is a skull under a cowboy hat doing a very normal October chore. That is the whole joke, and it is why the print works in a house with kids in it.
He has been carving the same pumpkin since 1889
That is the line we put on the print, and it is the idea in one sentence. He is not in a hurry. He is not scaring anybody. He has been at this pumpkin for well over a century, and the look on his face says he will get it right eventually. Deadpan is the point.
It sits in the same family as the rest of our deadpan characters, including Deadpan Witch, who traded the broomstick for a lasso, mostly. If you want to read about that side of the series, we wrote about it in Deadpan West.
Where it hangs well
Flat orange is loud, so give it a wall with some room around it. Our honest advice: pick a spot people walk past rather than a spot people sit and stare at for an hour.
- An entryway for October, where it greets everyone at the door
- A kitchen or breakfast nook, especially on a white or cream wall
- A bar or game room, where the humor fits the rest of the room
- A kid's room, since it is funny instead of frightening
If you are not sure about height or spacing, how to hang your print covers the basics, and our gallery wall guide helps if he is going up with company.
Size and frame
A print alone starts at $40 for 8 x 10 and runs to $65 for 16 x 20, which is the size most people pick for an entry wall. Framed, that 16 x 20 is $185, and adding the slim white mat is $20 more. Frame color is free, so black, white, walnut and natural wood all cost the same. Black frames push the orange forward. Natural wood softens it. Walnut splits the difference.
Deadpan Jack, made to order in the USA.
Framed pieces have an acrylic or styrene front instead of glass, and they ship flat in a protective box, ready to hang. If you are weighing framed against print only, our size and frame guide walks through it.
What to hang next to him
Jack is good on his own, but he is better in a group. Deadpan Witch is the obvious partner, a skeleton cowgirl with a lasso overhead and a broom in hand on sage green. Pumpkin Fence cools the set down with three carved pumpkins on a split-rail fence and a horse grazing at sunset, and it carries from fall straight through Thanksgiving. Howdy, Boo adds orange bubble letters on solid black, which reads clean from across a room.
Haunted West
Deadpan Witch
From $40.00
Haunted West
Pumpkin Fence
From $40.00
Haunted West
Howdy, Boo
From $40.00
The three that hang best beside him.
More in the same mood lives in Haunted West.
Questions and answers
Is Deadpan Jack too scary for a kid's room?
We do not think so. He is a skeleton cowboy carving a pumpkin, drawn in bold outlines on flat orange. It is playful rather than gory, and a kid's room is one of the spots it suits best.
Which frame color works best with the orange?
All four cost the same, so it comes down to the wall. Black sharpens the contrast and pushes the orange forward, natural wood softens it, and walnut sits between the two. The slim white mat adds $20 if you want more breathing room.
How long does it take to get here?
Each piece is made when you order. A print usually ships within 3 to 5 business days, and an order with a framed piece ships within 5 to 7 business days. Delivery is a further 3 to 7 business days after it ships, and you get a tracking number at that point.
Do framed pieces come with glass?
No. Framed pieces have an acrylic or styrene front, never glass. They ship flat in a protective box and arrive ready to hang.