Mad Monster Party

Wifey and I attended the Mad Monster Party last weekend (or weekend before as of this writing), and while Screwbiter Studios wasn't present as a vendor, we did do some shopping, got a couple signatures and did some networking. Up at the top of the list for me was to get the Creature From The Black Lagoon mask that I produced signed by Ricou Browning. For those unaware (shame on you if you are!), Mr. Browning portrayed the Gill Man in all of the underwater scenes in the original film. I presented him with the mask and he spent a few moments looking it over which made me a tad nervous. But to my pleasure he told me he liked it and was accurate to what he wore. As my version was never intended to have the bobcat eyes so many other versions have, I wanted to know what he wore over his own eyes in the film. None of the stills I used to sculpt mine had eyes in them, so this was a burning question. According to him, he initially wore swimming goggles underneath the mask but had almost zero visibility. So he took them off and filmed all of the film's underwater sequences with NO eye protection whatsoever. I told him that was bad ass, and he chuckled. I've always wondered what one of the "Gill Men" would think of my creation and I got a great review, can't ask for much more!

Here's the signature:

and a photo of myself with Ricou and the Creature:


One of the other items high on my list was to meet James Hong, who played David Lo-Pan in one of my top ten of all time, "Big Trouble In Little China". His signature was needed on my theatrical one sheet poster, so I was anxious to get that key autograph for the collection. He did not disappoint, arriving to the signing table in Lo-Pan regalia! Here's the godfather of Little China signing the poster:

then I took the opportunity for a pic with him. I threw the Chang Sing hand sign from the film (cause I'm a geek you see) but that threw off the camera as some of it is a tad blurry :/ but here we are:

and lastly, the poster itself. An original theatrical one sheet signed by Nick Castle, Tommy Lee Wallace, John Carpenter and now James Hong:

We did a bit more shopping throughout the day, passed out a ton of cards and fliers, met up with our friends Gwen and Jason and toured the con with them. Upon returning to the main floor, we ran into my old friends Henry and his wife Jennifer, which was a nice surprise. I've been back in NC three years and not seen either of them once so I was happy about that. Around 5 or so we ducked off into the bar for some drinks with a fellow wrestler friend of mine, Zane Riley and then we ducked out to hit uptown Charlotte for more drunken debauchery. On the way out, wifey got her picture snapped in front of the legendary car "Christine" from the John Carpenter classic:

It was kinda funny listening to everyone we ran into talk about how they'd never seen anything like this before. Charlotte has never gotten a proper horror convention, but I've been travelling to them since the 90's and while it's always fun for me, I'm not starstruck at all or phased anymore. Reportedly it went over well, and the promoters have already booked for next year so it looks like Charlotte is finally on the horror con map!