Before they opened the doors, I had to admire the handywork of one fan of The THING who created a model of one of the dogs in the process of being replicated from the movie. The creature creator’s name is Michael Jaynes from One-eyed Fatman Studios.

As soon as the doors opened for Ultimate Pass holders, I sped over to Scott Snyder’s table, and my expediency paid off, a nice red ticket securing my place in his signing line.

Snyder’s assistant reminded me his signing began at 1 pm and advised me to arrive at 12:30. I packed my car and sat in the Hyatt hotel’s foyer, listening to podcasts to kill the time. At 11 am something told me to disregard the assistant’s “12:30” arrival time and go now. My instincts should have kicked in a lot sooner, as there was already a long line.

Although there were a couple of older guys like me, most of the people in line were much younger. The ones my age were carting around wagons of comics, which made me wonder if they were resellers. Snyder would sign up to ten comics per person, and his autograph fetches great money on the secondary market. The age discrepancy gave me hope for the future of comic books and a new respect for Snyder and his impact on the industry. 

Snyder was doing a panel with artist Greg Capullo, and the two didn’t make it back to their signing tables until 1:20. I started to panic. My signing time with Kurt Russell was 2:30, upstairs. Worse, he participated in a YouTube channel interview before starting the signing. I faced the strong possibility that I would have to abandon this line despite already standing in it for over two hours. 

Snyder charged $20 per autograph ($30 if graded) and offered lots of books with variant covers for sale at his booth. I planned to pay in cash, but he did accept credit cards. To save time, one of his representatives walked up to everyone in line, took their payments in advance, and handed them a card that told Snyder’s assistant at the table what they’d paid for. I explained my situation to the man collecting money and asked, based on his experience working with Snyder the previous day, what chances he thought I had of making it to him on time. He said he thought I could do it, though it would be close. Just to be safe, he didn’t take any money from me and said I could pay them at the table if and when I got there. For the next hour, I was a nervous wreck, constantly checking how many people were ahead of me and watching the time. By 2:15 pm, it was finally my turn.

Snyder was very pleasant and appreciative. Rather than shy away from the obvious fact that I was older than most of his fans, I leaned into it instead. I told him I’d been collecting comics for over forty years, and I really appreciated the shot in the arm he’s given to the hobby. I told him how awesome it was to see so many people get excited about comic books again and, more importantly, younger readers. He told me he truly appreciated my kind words and that he never expected his Absolute Batman book to take off as it did. He signed my 1st print copies of Absolute Batman #1 and #2, and I shook his hand before leaving. It wasn’t until I was marching up the stairs to Kurt Russell’s signing that I realized I forgot to take a free selfie with Snyder. Oh well, at least I was able to meet him with enough time to get to Russell.

When I reached Russell’s signing area, I was shocked by how much more organized everything was since the day before. Everyone was lined up and ready to be called. What a relief! 

The experience went well. This time I asked Russell about the Phoenix Lights. He was the pilot who reported the mysterious lights over Arizona on the night of March 13, 1997. The occurrence, witnessed by between 5,000 and 10,000 people, remains unexplained. “I honestly don’t know what I saw that night, said Russell. “But I’d never seen anything like it before or since.”  Okay, not the most profound conversation, but what can you do in five seconds? My poster for The THING was signed, something I started back at THINGFEST 2012 at the Indianapolis Days of the Dead.

I took the poster back to the car, and it took everything in my power not to jump in and drive home. I was sweaty from the hot convention hall, my knees hurt, and I just wanted to shower and eat something. My day, however, wasn’t over yet. I had a Kurt Russell Gold Pass, which granted me first dibs on seats for his panel, scheduled at 4:45 p.m. This was officially the longest I ever stayed at a full weekend convention, and I was so glad I took Monday off.

Everyone with a Kurt Russell Gold pass lined up outside the panel room door in several lines marked out with colored masking tape. The Fan Expo staff were likely as hot and miserable as the rest of us, only with the power to take it out on people and get away with it. Case in point, those aforementioned lines. While I stood there, the top of my right foot crossed the tape. I wouldn’t have noticed if not for one of the crew members immediately stomping over to me, pointing down at my foot, and yelling, “Get inside the line!!!” If only I could have taken that foot and kicked them in the butt with it! Their strictness made no sense anyway, since we were all in a large, empty foyer.

The gold pass got me a decent seat, and it was nice to finally sit down.  Kurt Russell was introduced and took a seat onstage. He said some nice things about his first convention experience and how he had misjudged the fans. He assumed everyone was like the average autograph seeker who might accost him at an airport, but he was touched that these were genuine fans who loved his work. He didn’t expect this, and it genuinely moved him. 

I’m not going to recap the panel as it is available in its entirety on YouTube. It was a great moment when John Carpenter, and later Keith David, joined him onstage. They shared great stories, but I got the impression they hadn’t seen each other in a while, and both knew they might never have another opportunity to share their admiration for each other. Although attending this panel wasn’t high on my list of things I wanted to do, it became a highlight of an otherwise stressful weekend. I walked in expecting interesting stories and behind-the-scenes information. What I didn’t expect was leaving with a sense that I’d witnessed a historical moment between two film icons. The fact that they were both responsible for one of my favorite films was the icing on the cake.

The event finally ended, and it was a challenge not to exceed the speed limit so I could get home sooner. During the drive, I wondered whether the experience was worth it overall. It was definitely a mixed bag. I accomplished all my main goals which was awesome, but I spent WAY too much money and am still feeling the effects over a month later. What makes it worse was feeling frustrated most of the time but, admittedly, that was more due to my overly ambitious agenda. If I ever go back to Fan Expo, I should focus more on the comic creators, as I did thirty years ago when it was the Chicago Con. Horror personalities are honestly best seen at events like Flashback Weekend and Days of the Dead rather than big, mega-conventions like this one. My big takeaway from Chicago Fan Expo 2026 is that it was much more fun to write about than it was to actually be there.

Coming Up… The Halloween Season kicks off with Music to Die For!

~Dave