20. Con Re-Cap: Monster Mania 42

http://monstermania.net/

Hey all! 

Thanks for being patient with this blog entry--I attended Monster-Mania Con's 42nd show in Cherry Hill, NJ this past Saturday, and I wanted to share my experience with all you horror hounds and readers! 

Before I start, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in my Haunt anniversary giveaway. I'm so grateful that so many of you entered! Just about all of the winners have been contacted and some have even received their copies of the book. I appreciate all the support, as always, and a huge thanks for making the first year of Haunt such a great one. 

I've attended Monster-Mania for a few years now; these shows (along with the always awesome Connecticut HorrorFest) allow horror fans (and, sometimes, wrestling fans?) to meet their favorite icons of the genre. I've met Kyra Schon, Ally Sheedy, Tony Todd, Sean Astin, John Carpenter, Robert Englund, and more. So many of these folks have inspired me to do what I do, and getting the chance to meet them puts the icing on the cake! So when I learned that Christina Ricci, one of my favorites growing up, was going to be attending this year, I HAD to go. And so I did, with my Casper blu-ray in tow. 

The people I met at Monster-Mania 42 were: Danielle Harris, Christina Ricci, James Jude Courtney, Dylan McDermott, and Will Sandin. More guests were in attendance that weekend, including Dolph Lundgren, Meatloaf, Jibrail Nantambu, Nick Castle, Sandy Johnson, Mickey Yablans, Tommy Flanagan, CJ Graham, Kane, Phil Fondacaro, and Jen and Sylvia Soska. The heavy-hitter? The 4 main leads of The Craft, Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk, Robin Tunney, and Rachel True, came to this convention for their first time together since 1996! I would definitely have loved to meet all of them, if I'd had more time. But it's great to see that the fanbase of the film is still stronger than ever, even with the amount of Scream fans that I'm sure made up a lot of the crowd for Campbell.

Starting from the beginning of the day, we'd checked out Ricci's line before anything else. She wasn't to arrive until 12, so her line wasn't crazy long yet. We decided to go to the main signing room and meet who we could until we headed back up to wait to meet her. Danielle Harris was first; I had her sign my blu-ray edition of Rob Zombie's Halloween, one of my favorites in the franchise. Harris was so sweet, and when she checked to see if she looked good in our picture together, I exclaimed, "Oh, we know you look good. We gotta make sure I do!" We shared a laugh. 

Next, we headed to Dylan McDermott's table, while the line was temporarily down to one person. Like Harris and Ricci, he seems to never age, and looks even better in person. Plus, he's a Connecticut native, so we chatted with him about that. I'd forgotten my American Horror Story: Murder House DVD, so I had him sign a headshot he had at his table. He was very nice, but I don't think I'd ever really expected him not to be. 

Christina Ricci's line had certainly increased by the time we went back up to her section. We waited about 2-3 hours for her, though, which was not nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. Robert Englund, who had been stationed in the same place at the convention a few years back, had a line that kept us waiting for nearly 6 hours. Call us crazy. Nope, that's it--no "but..." Just call us crazy, because that was crazy. Anyway, I noticed I was pretty much the only person to bring something Casper-related to have Ricci sign; even the woman at her table agreed. What can I say--I watched that movie a ton of times as a kid, along with the sequel, and maybe even Casper Meets Wendy a good amount of times. I told Ricci I loved her in Wes Craven's Cursed, by which she seemed taken aback. I don't blame her; it's not a great movie by any means. But I found it fun, and it was cool at the time to see her returning to campy horror. She was sweet and thanked me anyway. 

More after the jump--check out my gallery of photos from the event!

We continued on, heading to the Halloween/Dolph Lundgren/Meatloaf room. Yep, you heard that right. Meatloaf's was one of the longest lines at the con, and although I found it questionable, I still would have gotten him to sign something Rocky Horror-related if I had the opportunity. But we were there for our Halloween peeps. James Jude Courtney was having a blast, as it was his first appearance at an event like this on the east coast. He told us what it'd felt like to put the Myers mask on for the first time, which was a great to hear about. I also met Will Sandin, who played Michael Myers at age 6 in the Carpenter classic. He told me a bit about his short time on set and was pleasant to talk to. His signature was added to my Halloween DVD, which you can see in the gallery above. I also list the other signatures on the insert. 

Lastly, we hit the vendor tables to check out the cool merch. I bought a book by Brian Coscienski and Chris Pisano titled The Shattered Visage Lies, which looks like a great read. We shared information about our respective books, and they seemed excited about Haunt. I also geeked out at the Grey Matter Art table; I have two of their pieces in my room. Their art is always breathtaking.  Next to them was a table with art by Chris Gofalo of Quiltface Studios. The moment I saw his The Witch piece, I knew I had to have it. I look forward to framing and hanging it! 

Overall, the show was a success for me. The day ran smoothly, and I met everyone I really wanted to meet. I look forward to next time! Thanks again, Monster-Mania, for doing such a great job! 

Was anyone else at Monster-Mania? Who did you get to meet? Tell me in the comments! 

- Ryan

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