After spending most of our first night at the Fright Night/Fandomfest standing in lines we decided it was time to make our pilgrimage back to the main hotel and check out the dealer rooms they had there. There were two main areas for vendors; the Kentucky Convention Center where the big celebrities and photo ops were (which featured more comic book related items) and the hotel which centered more on horror.
Before leaving we stopped over to meet Joey Lauren Adams from Chasing Amy. She offered $20 for an autograph and an additional $10 to take a picture with her. I just wanted a picture but Russ went for the whole thirty bucks. He’d later state that this was probably due more to his blood alcohol levels at the time as opposed to his desire for an autograph.
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-I would actually get a couple shots with her, including one where I pretended to be chasing Amy. Brian O’Halloran who’s starred in many other Kevin Smith films as well as working behind the camera on Chasing Amy saw us and laughed saying, “That’s hilarious, he’s taking the title literally.”
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The first person I saw when we walked in was Ed from Midnight Syndicate. He and I had met before at Monsterbash 2012 and he’s a great guy. He sampled some of the music from their latest CD Monsters of Legend which the other Dave will be reviewing soon.
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Ed from The Midnight Syndicate-
Directly next to his booth was Eric Austin from the HMA (Halloween Mask Association) who was working the table for Trick or Treat Studios. I’d last seen Eric at Horrorhound Weekend in March and, this time around, he was carrying their new Dark Night of the Scarecrow mask. Needless to say, I bought one of the two he had with him (which was cheaper than a celebrity photo op) though the other would sell too by the end of the weekend.
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Eric Austin from the HMA…and some random zombie-
There were other familiar faces, including some seen recently at Days of the Dead, including Creature Seeker Studios. These guys made an impression with their killer sweet potatoes that I’d seen there…though the artist, Eric Brown, stated that wasn’t originally what he intended them to be. Oh well, you know what they say about art…everyone sees something different.
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-Also last seen at Days was Tattoo Bob and his wife, Rita. Tattoo Bob is known for making some incredible life-like portraits…and with lightnight speed. I particularly liked his Gene Simmons pictures.
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With Tattoo Bob!-
The Cosplay at this event wasn’t much for horror as most folks who dressed up chose anime’ or Dr. WHO. There were also a lot of people dressed in Steampunk costumes as this event had some special activities geared for them.
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There were also celebrities located in this building, including The Walking Dead folks. I saw Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker signing next to each other. They shared the room with other Dead cast members such as Iron Singleton and Lew Temple. Temple really seemed to enjoy interacting with the fans and, as a viewer of that show, I was disappointed that his character was killed off just as he was starting to develop but such is life (and death) in post zombie apocalypse world.
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Lew Temple
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They also had another person sitting in with the dealers that was simply labeled as a “A Walking Dead Barn Zombie.” What killed me is that the guy was charging $20 for an autograph, the same price as Zach Galligan who was seated right next to him. Really?
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Needless to say we walked right past that glorified “extra” and met Galligan instead. I gotta say, he has aged incredibly well.
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With Zach Galligan!-
He seemed friendly enough and I asked which enjoyed filming more, Gremlins or Waxwork? He said that Waxwork was a lot quicker but he had great experiences with both. Not much in the way of insights but, then again, we were so tired from all the standing and walking it wasn’t like I had the energy to channel Barbara Walters either.I give him HUGE props, however, for charging the standard $20 which INCLUDED a picture with him.
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-I did hear a lot of dealers complain at the end of the weekend that they’d done poorly. They blamed the celebrities bilking the fan cash as the reason (no kidding???). One that was particularly annoyed was professional female wrestler, Miss April Hunter. Hunter said she was looking to do different events as this one was a bust (no pun intended). I asked her if that was something she should say out loud and she responded, “Do I LOOK like I f*cking care!? This event didn’t do sh*t for us!”
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With April Hunter-
I told her that I had been to “Tara” Lisa Marie Varon’s new restaurant (covered HERE) and she said that she wanted to come up and see her friend. She asked what kind of food she was selling. I told her about the stuffed burgers and she said, “Good for Lisa! Everyone who wants to do a restaurant in Chicago feels like it needs to be an Italian place. Nice that she went in her own direction!”
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Having completed our first night we returned to our room at around 10pm and Russ immediately crashed. I stayed up a couple more hours to take notes and chat with some of the other fans in the lobby. Gene Simmons wasn’t slated to appear until Sunday which meant I had another long day to get through and, having met all my other goals, no agenda. How would get through the day?
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Coming Up…Russ meets Stan “The Man” Lee!
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Dave Fuentes
