Believe it or not, as much as a geek as I am, I have not been to a ton of conventions, and only started to attend them some time within the last five years. I want to say Monster-Mania was no more than my 5th convention and was my first horror-themed one. The rest were traditional comic cons, which definitely have horror stuff at them, but Monster-Mania is all horror all the time and that was something new for this pop culture fan.
I have always been a bit of a nerd. When I was a little kid, I was all about properties like #StarWars, #HeMan, #GIJoe, #ThunderCats, #Transformers, and many more. As I got older, I started exploring #Marvel and #DC comics, #StarTrekTNG, old #StarkTrek movies with the original cast (much more than the show), and #QuantumLeap.
From what I can remember, some of my earliest memories of watching more adult-oriented scary stuff are Aliens - which I am almost positive I saw before Alien - and The Terminator. My fascination with the xenomorph continues to this day. Ellen Ripley is also one of the most kick-ass women on the big screen. And I watched my copy of The Terminator - which was nothing more than an edited for TV version I recorded with a VCR - more times than I can count, especially leading up to T2.
I was supposed to go to a comic con in April of 2020. Covid happened and virtually everything came to a halt in March of 2020. Conventions played it really safe and only really just started popping back up just now. When I saw this one, I jumped at the opportunity.
I wasn't totally sure what to expect from Monster Mania. I mean, I knew there would be vendors selling toys, apparel, and other merchandise, I knew there would be some celebrities doing photo ops, signing autographs, and partaking in panels. But I wasn't sure what to expect from the attendees.
I say this to you as a fan of horror, but some of the people who watch this stuff ain't right. They like it a little too much. I've been on the web discussing these movies and more for a while now. I've had conversations on IMDB, seen comments on YouTube, and Twitter. Some of the things people talk about and openly take enjoyment from are quick frankly, fucking disturbing. I've seen it with my own eyes. Grown men openly defending a graphic rape scene or complaining that children aren't killed in a movie; as if these things need to be seen. I am a fan of the genre, but I have limits. Because of people and comments like that, I was uncertain of what kind of crowds this event would draw.
Fortunately, I was very pleasantly surprised. I think there was maybe 2 people who gave me the impression they might have some bodies in their basements. Aside from that? This was an extremely friendly crowd. Random people would just strike up a conversation with you. The vendors were very outgoing and not pushy at all. Perhaps Covid played a role and people were simply happy to be out again, but I definitely noticed people being very friendly.
I probably would have stayed longer and considered going back a 2nd day by myself. I was interested in hearing the cast of The Monster Squad speak a little more, but I didn't want to monopolize all of my group's time (I don't think they weren't as interested in that panel as much as I was). I considered asking a question, but for as talkative as I can be, I don't like getting in front of a mic. When me and my friend got up to go back to the vendors section, one of the cast made a joke about us leaving. I thought that was pretty funny.
I was impressed with their celebrity lineup. Christina Ricci, Tony Todd (Candyman himself), James Remar, several dudes who played Michael Myers - including the original - a few of the kids from Cobra Kai, and more! The full lineup can be seen here.
One thing that really stood out to me was what the vendors were selling. The action figures and other toys usually get my attention, but some of the artwork being sold here blew me away. The creativity was off the charts. If you look at my pics above, you see the Jaws "article". I bought that from a vendor who sold these fake news articles. No, not that kinda fake news. They were printed out and made to look like news paper articles and then framed. The Jaws and Michael Myers ones were my favorites. Another one said something like "Masked Man Terrorizes Teens at Camp Crystal Lake", which was Jason. Hilarious!
Another table sold movie posters printed or glued onto foam core. The foam core was cut out in various shapes that drew attention to each piece.
This one vendor was selling scenes from movies and posters were shrunk down and printed on pages from a dictionary. That was incredibly cool looking. My description isn't doing it justice. I wanted to get one, but forgot to go back because I was having so much fun. The guy selling them was also dressed as a camp counselor from the Friday the 13th movies, which was a riot.
I am definitely planning on going back to this convention when it makes its way into my town again next year.
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