Coverage of the 2013 Flashback Weekend concludes…
Don and Bunny Urban and I found ourselves some seats in the room designated for Flashback Weekend’s annual costume contest. Per the custom at Flashback, it would be hosted by Svengoolie who always adds his own brand of humor to enhance the entire event. Soon we were rejoined by Bill and Joan Yingst and sat together in a row that could have been marked, “Reserved for Sven’s Goolies.”
Photo courtesy of Maze Studio
Flashback Weekend Continues. NOTE: This post written before the events of Friday September 20th, 2013…
Joined by my friends, Bill and Joan Yingst, we walked around the convention hall of Flashback Weekend commenting on the various dealers and their home-made horror products. In lieu of my recent (and numerous) summer convention visits, I thought I’d pretty much seen everything but Flashback did manage to surprise me none the less. Items such as customized Boba Fett/Evel Kinievel figures are things you definitely don’t see every day…but should at least once in your lifetime!
When people list their top favorite horror films, they no doubt mention John Carpenter’s Halloween almost immediately. Sure, I like the movie and absolutely consider myself a fan, but let me commit Horror Heresy over here by saying it’s NOT my favorite Carpenter classic. In fact, I’d put it solidly in 3rd Place with THE THING and THE FOG sharing a healthy lead. As I’ve recently delved into my love of the science fiction masterpiece, THE THING, while covering THING-FEST in July (seen HERE), let’s discuss the often overlooked horror film, THE FOG…
With little recovery time after The Fright Night Film Fest it was time to embark on yet another convention…well, technically TWO of them! Flashback Weekend is an annual Chicago horror tradition and by happenstance, Wizard Con (a giant comic convention and yet another yearly feature), was taking place the same weekend and directly across the street. This hurled the town of Rosemont, Illinois into geek gridlock with poor Flashback in danger of getting swallowed up by its much larger neighbor,
Ironically, before this site started, Flashback Weekend was the only horror convention I’d ever go to and yet the only one I didn’t attend after the fact. I’m not sure why that is but I’m thinking the numerous July season of events I started covering rendered me both too tired and broke by the time this August one rolled around. In that regard, the circumstances this year were no different if not more so.
Not long ago I posted a list of things I’d learned from attending so many Svengoolie public appearances; listing “making new friends” as Number Seven. Today I’ve been given a painful reminder that this should actually have been number one. I received a call from my friend, Bill Yingst, informing me that his beautiful wife, Joan (far right in the above photo) had died, suddenly, this morning. Joan was not only a contributor to this blog but had become a dear friend and I felt as if I’d been hit with a baseball bat.
Like most conventions, the 2013 Indianapolis Days of the Dead was spread across several large rooms at the hotel. Russ and I left the beautiful Jordan Ladd (a meeting covered in my last chapter) and embarked on what was to be the first of many walk throughs (which is why you’ll see us wearing different clothes in this post) of the dealer’s room. There were actually two main rooms designated for dealers, with some located out in the adjoining hallways. Although there were other guests we planned on meeting, they were located in one of these areas as opposed to the one exclusive to celebs
Terror from Beyond the Dave 