Horror fest
As the snow hits. I’m beginning this letter before the storm that is supposed to hit NYC and bury it/us in up to 12 inches of snow… last I heard. My prep for this storm is I was contemplating going to a comedy show since I just finished Toxic Avenger issue 8 and don’t have a final script for #9 yet. I know Matt, the writer, is almost finished with it so I think I won’t have very many days until I’m back to perpetual being behind schedule. That’s always been my feeling when I have work on my desk, that isn’t being worked on and I’m a bit stressed. I came to terms with that feeling a long time ago but it doesn’t mean there are residuals. They don’t ruin my day anymore but every now and then they do cause a sudden poke to your lungs out of nowhere.
I made my appearance at the I Heart Horror festival. I had a blast! The host was really nice and my new agent, Suzy, really took care of everything. We didn’t make any money, but it felt great to be around such fun and cool people. It was held in a Veteran’s Hall, or club or whatever their buildings are called. We pulled in to the entrance of the parking lot and immediately saw the 20 foot blow up of Frankenstein’s Monster with a large old school hearse parked in front. We parked off to the side and as we walked in I saw what looked like another prop of tombstones in front of the building. There was a nicely manicured grass and landscaped area framing them that looked very professional. As I looked for the corny gag jokes, “I told you I was sick”, or “Shit happens”, or ”I’ll be back”… but no, it was a real tombstone to commemorate veteran soldiers which would have been on display no matter what event was going on. In this case it kind of fit right in.
I had a small table in the corner of the room. Everyone at a table was an actor who had been in a Troma film. I set up and looked out and right across from me was Bill Weeden. He is 84 years old and has a face made for horror films (in a perfect way). I finished putting my books and art out, sat down, looked up and there was Bill, the guy who plays all the creepy psycho killers in the movies, staring at me. I smiled with a nod that I hoped would convey that I respect you and please don’t murder me.In my head I was conjuring up some idea that this is foreshadowing for a murder movie and I was going to be one of the first to go.
He finally got up and came over to say hello and that he had been staring at me because he thought he had met me before and couldn’t remember my name. We had not met, but I had seen him in passing at other conventions. He had an intensity that I didn’t expect and the last movie I saw him in was called the “Greasy Strangler”… not sure if you want to go down the Greasy Strangler rabbit hole but do it with friends and bourbon. I thought it was awesome but he was pushing the Troma connection and his new film called “Our Man Funk” which I hope has the best funk soundtrack ever not to be too redundant. Our man Funk sounds like a bad ass bass player that would fit in to any P-Funk song. They showed the trailer for the film they raised money for in the only link I found on Youtube. They didn’t have anything shot before they made the pitch, but it’s right in the pocket of gore , humor, and darkness from what I saw.
Our Man Funk pitch.
There were so many moving parts at the con, people dressed up in costumes, selling food, various actors at tables or just wandering around. A 15 foot blow up doll of Frankenstein’s Monster. A big, old school white hearse was parked in front of the entrance. There was a raffle guy shaking people down to buy a ticket just inside the entrance. A guy with an evil clown puppet wrapped around him so his one hand worked the head which had a speaker that was blaring an evil laugh or making the Darth Vader breathing sound. There was so much more.
I’ll be appearing at LICH Long Island Convention of Horror next weekend (Feb 27-March 1st) Hopefully there won’t be any more snow storms. Sheesh! I’m a late entry so I don’t think I made any of the promos although my buddy Dean Haspiel moched this one up.
Art drop time, I have to go shovel the sidewalk again.
