Dinosaurs Run Amok in Chicago!

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This past weekend I took my 7 year old son, Luke, to the “Discover the Dinosaurs” show at Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illnois. The venue was just across the street from The Crowne Paza Hotel where the quintessential Godzilla festival, G-FEST, takes place each July. Actually, the two have much in common as dinosaur fans and Godzilla enthusiasts are often one in the same. The Big G is, after all, a dinosaur that’s been mutated by atomic power (no, not an iguana, I’m not talking about the Tri-Star version).

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Destroy All Monsters on Blu-ray is SO worth the wait!

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I have been a giant rubber monster fan for as long as I can remember. I have so many fond memories of Saturday and Sunday afternoons watching the latest exploits of Godzilla or Gamera as they fought the newest monster foe bent on destroying the Earth. The one creature feature that always stood out though as the coolest of the Japanese giant monster movies was DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, from 1968. The funny thing is though, that as a kid, I never remembered the plot of the movie; I just remembered the last 15 minutes or so that featured the very best of what Toho had to offer in an over-the-top monster battle.

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20 Years of Scary Monsters Magazine

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While it was the National Horror Host, Svengoolie, who is indirectly responsible for bringing the Daves together as friends, it has always been our stance that TERROR FROM BEYOND THE DAVES was really the bastard child of the 2010 Vampira Tribute and SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE. In reality, the two are complimentary of each other. Within the pulpy pages of the world’s only “REAL Monsters Magazine,” classic monsters as well as Horror Hosts have always been featured side-by-side. And why shouldn’t they be? For many of us adult Monster kids, it was the classic commercial hosts who introduced us to all the greats be it Godzilla, The Universal Monsters, the films of Hammer Studios, the wonderful “B” movies of Roger Corman, as well as those from directors who were slightly…ahem…less gifted.

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Science Fiction Films of 1951: Giant Ants, Radioactive Rockets, & Flying Saucers!

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The 50’s must have been an amazing time to be a film fan, especially if you liked science fiction. Thanks to pilot Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine flying discs on June 24, 1947, the possibility of alien invaders became an all-too-real reality. America had just come out of World War II two years earlier and I am sure that people were still paranoid and tense. Nationwide reports of unidentified flying objects would only add to this paranoia and the film industry took full advantage by playing off of these fears.

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There is no crying at G-Fest!

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I woke up early on Saturday July 16th and tip-toed around, hoping not to wake the children. My fear was particularly centered around my youngest child, Luke, and that I’d not only wake him, but that he’d invariably ask where I was going. Although it’s not unusual for him to see me leaving early for work each day, the Godzilla shirt I was wearing would not only eliminate that as a possibility but probably give away my actual destination.

Since 2004 I have, without fail, taken my children to G-Fest (Godzilla Festival) in Chicago. My oldest son, Alex, was 6 years old at the time and was a devout fan of Godzilla (just like his old man) almost since he could talk. In fact, during his kindergarten parent/teacher conference, I recall his shocked teacher showing my wife and I a drawing of the “big G” my son had created along with a perfectly spelled, “I Love Godzilla” written beneath. When I discovered that there was not only an entire convention dedicated to The King of Monsters (as well as all his giant Japanese monster – kaiju -friends and foes) but that it also took place right here in Chicago, I knew that it was one event I could not afford to miss.

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