So me and the crew headed this past weekend to Cherry Hill, NJ and descended upon Monster Mania #39. While I am not one to complain about something that brings horror to the masses, many others had things to say about the event. From what I found out the event was understaffed, so big props to those who did work the event and tried their hardest to keep as much order as they could. At one point I even gave one of the staff a Halls cough drop since she had been yelling all day so she can be heard. I also heard that the staff was on high alert due to some threats being made to Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman. And through the grape vine someone said that Kane Hodder, the man known for playing Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th franchise, accidently injured a fan what a real machete that he thought was a prop. Oh yeah, and if you drove in, parking was a good walk away with some parking at the mall a few blocks away and then having to cross a busy street.
With all that going on we still had a great time. Sure the place was crowded and hard to move around, but that just tells me the love of horror is alive and well. We bumped into a few familiar faces and got to catch up with some friend we didn’t expect to bump into. We got some cool art prints from Andrew Sheppard’s Chroma Coma table, who had some cool horror, video game and original character prints. I myself got me a Tarman from “Return of the Living Dead” and a Jason Mask print.
Also got some books to read, hopefully I’ll find time to. First book I got was “The Shattered Visage Lies” by Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano. If you remember we interviewed Koscienski a while back on the podcast (Episode 41) where we spoke about his writing and his publishing company Fortress Publishing. I had to get the first book so I can read it to get to the second one, I am a sucker for a good series.
The other book I got came from a table who grabbed my attention with its video game set up. The closer I got to the table I saw that the video game on the screen was named after the book laying on the table. I had to know more. We swooped in and met Clay Astroman (what a rock star name!) the author of the book “Spooky Basement: Welcome to Monsteropolis.” The game on the small TV is based on the book whose story line involves monsters, metal heads, a birthday party and more. A mix of horror and comedy, so its totally up my alley. I had to get me a copy, which comes with a link to where one can get a copy of the game. What’s not to like?! And we got hard cover copy of The Exorcist.
One of the coolest things I got to play with at the convention was glove, but not just any glove. Nightmares Unlimited had some cool horror movie props that we got to play with. They had a glowing Re-Animator needle, spheres from Phantasm, and a couple of different gloves from Nightmare on Elm Street. I was allowed to check out and even wear the glove that had needles. And it had real needles, so I had to be extra careful.
I didn’t see too many people in costume during my time there. The few that I did see where pretty cool, needless to say, a good amount of them were based around Stephen King’s “IT.” There was a Dead Pool Pennywise, a female Pennywise, and a really good Georgie in a yellow rain coat with a missing arm and red balloon. I was really happy to see a kid dressed as one of the children from “Children of the Corn”, who it seems was getting a lot of compliments.
Overall we had a good time, despite all the issues others complained about. The Next Monster Mania is number 40 and it takes place at the same hotel on August 17 – 19. Will we attend? I don’t know yet but the guest list is still being compiled. Maybe will depending on who will be there. Gonna join us?
