Peter Criss: The Unlikely Elder Statesman of KISS!

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I can’t say how many people attended the New Jersey Horror Con last May, but judging by the number of KISS shirts I saw, it was obvious the majority were there for Peter Criss. As a proud member of the KISS Army, I came all the way out from the suburbs of Chicago to attend, though this would not be my first time meeting him. That moment took place back in ‘94, when my friend, Jason Lucas, the man who indoctrinated me into KISS, brought me with him to a Chicago convention. This was before the band’s big Reunion in ’96 and at a time when KISS’ estranged original drummer was, by my observation, NOT in a good headspace. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that, back then, he was something of a jerk. Even before the days of social media, stories swirled among fans about Criss’s cantankerous nature and his animosity towards his former band. Jason told me a story about how when one of his friends brought a KISS item for Criss to sign, he wrote on it, “F— You! Peter Criss.”

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I almost had to ‘Runaway’ from Lita Ford!

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The seeds for attending the 2026 New Jersey Horror Con were sown back in March and after I saw the original KISS drummer, Peter Criss, would be in attendance. My friend, Jason Schoolcraft, in Rhode Island, isn’t so much a KISS fan but has done Flashback Weekend and Days of the Dead (Chicago and Indianapolis) as well as Horrorhound Weekend with me. Since he lives closer to this event than I do, I thought it would be a nice opportunity for us to meet up. The last time I saw Jason was when he flew out to Chicago for Flashback Weekend 2024. He agreed, and I started making plans.

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The Lakeview Cemetery: Come for the Dead…Stay for the Living!

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I do love a good graveyard, but visiting the Lakeview Cemetery during my short visit to Cleveland was at the bottom of my “to-do” list. This would prove to be a terrible oversight, and, looking back on my trip, it would be one of the activities I think about most. Several notable Cemeteries have been featured on this blog, and living in Chicagoland, there’s still plenty more I could cover. In fact, I live about fifteen minutes from the infamous Bachelor’s Grove, one of the most reportedly “haunted” places in the world. The Lakeview Cemetery, however, isn’t the kind of place one creeps around during the Halloween season with flashlights and Ouija boards. In fact, despite its status as a burial ground, this place is very much alive, and I don’t mean in a Night of the Living Dead sort of way.

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Prelude to the New Jersey Horror Con: Cleveland Rocks! (and by Rocks, I mean Fossils)

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Back in March, I committed to attending the New Jersey Horror Con & Film Festival with my friend, Jason Schoolcraft. I really wanted to see Peter Criss, the original drummer from the rock band KISS, and with Jason in Rhode Island and me in Chicago, it seemed like a great opportunity to meet up. In the interim, I had to decide whether I was willing to make the full 14-hour trip in one day or stop somewhere and spend the night. I decided to turn this into a mini vacation and take my new car on its maiden road trip. I’m definitely a road-tripping, roadside America kind of guy, but my old Toyota just couldn’t cut it anymore. In March, I gave my son my old red RAV4 and bought myself a new Hybrid model. Satisfying my wanderlust was long overdue, and after some research, I settled on Cleveland, Ohio, as my midway destination. Although I’ve been to Cleveland before and have seen its zoo, the Christmas Story House, dined on its famous pierogies, and visited the childhood home of Joe Siegel, the co-creator of Superman, there were still plenty of other things I wanted to see, most notably the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. I made plans to leave on Wednesday, May 27th, and spend two nights in Cleveland before meeting up with Jason at the Con on Friday. It would prove to be one of the best decisions I’d ever made. 

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V.N. Thompson’s “Deadly Nature” …  Harmful Humans Making Mutant Mongrels!

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I finally got around to re-reading an ‘80s horror paperback I’ve had in my collection for years, V.N. Thompson’s “Deadly Nature.” As with most books from this era, it was the cover that initially drew me in, and I remember purchasing it at local Crown Books when I was in high school, spending $4 of my hard-earned money bagging groceries at a local store. Cut to nearly forty years later, I now own two copies of this book: a nice, crisp collector’s copy, along with my old, worn one that not only qualifies as a “Paperback from Hell” but effectively looks like Hell. In fact, it’s so beaten up, I used one of its fallen pages as a bookmark.

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