Monster-Mania Day 1 recap

"Denise Crosby has those things right on the table."

Back in March, I wound up having such a great time at Monster-Mania, that I decided to stay the weekend instead of just attending on Saturday only like in the past. My friend Dan and I checked in early Friday morning before the festivities took place and we were ready for the weekend to start.

First we ran into Kristy Jett (of Fright Rags, writer for many top notch sites and too much greatness to list here in one short statement), who I briefly met in person at the last event, but began a cyber-friendship with over the past several months. We both laughed because I showed her I was texting her just as she came up behind me. It was really great to speak with her again in person and she was nice enough to introduce me to a few people, like the dudes at Fright Rags as well as actresses Kelly Jo Minter and Tiffany Helm, who were passing through. The latter I didn't recognize at first until Kristy did the funky dance from F-13 A New Beginning. The coolest moment of our first encounter happened when I was distracted speaking with artist Joel Robinson and she passed me her phone. I thought she was kidding at first, but soon I realized that she called Brian Solomon, the talented writer from The Vault of Horror. I have only spoken to him through Twitter and blog comments, so it was nice to finally meet him albeit electronically. Hopefully I will get to officially meet him in person one day.

When the events opened up around 5, we met up with Johnny (from Freddy in Space) and his awesome girlfriend Jen, who we had a great time with at March's show. Dan and I had been really looking forward to seeing these two again since our previous encounter was cut short due to inclement weather, but things picked right back up where they left off last time.



We all checked out the halls and dealers' room, as I planned out how I was going to spend a lot of my money over the next few days. I did buy some raffle chances to win a Boondock Saints piece of artwork by the very talented Joel Robinson that was signed by the original film's three stars with proceeds going to a charity.

I eyed up some bootlegs, artwork from Joel and a replica of Dexter's blood slides with the case (way too heavily priced but still drooled over). Knowing that were going to be many guests I wanted to meet and hoping for some deals on Sunday, I hesitated getting anything on the first night.

The rest of the time was spent kicking back and gearing up for the next day's activities. We all also got to see what it would be like if Freddy Krueger ever got into text messaging...

Dan and I kept running into several of the celebs walking around that day, but the funniest was when Denise Crosby (Pet Semetary and Star Trek: TNG) got on the elevator with us. I recognized her right away, but Dan engaged her in a conversation about one of the attendees who brought several pizzas on the elevator with us, which gave off a potent yet delicious aroma. He had no idea who he was talking to and was just being friendly. After we got off the elevator, I told Dan who he just spoke with and his face plus reaction was priceless. Dan's not really an uber horror fan, so it is always good to see him have a good time when he comes to these things with me. We were both in shock about how amazing she looked in person, coming right from the gym no less, all these years later.

It was great hanging with Kristy, John and Jen during the first night, but things definitely picked up on Saturday. In the next installment, I tackle John Carpenter, disappointment concerning the Boondocks Saints autograph protocol, my moral struggle on buying bootlegs, Felissa Rose and scars from childhood, Zelda from Pet Semetary, Erin Gray's battle to get a cup of coffee and the mystery of why she was signing in John Carpenter's room, William Forsythe getting a chuckle out of my weird story, and the tale of the broken ATM machine. Stay Tuned...