Christmas Arrives Early at 2026 Flashback Weekend!

Before Svengoolie and crew arrived on Saturday (see my last post), I had a small window of time to get some autographs. It wasn’t a race, as I already made plans to return that Sunday with my son, but I figured I’d do what I could. Most of the celebrity guests were charging extra for selfies, and I have a rule that I never pay for those (a rule I recently broke but held true for Flashback Weekend.  The items I was primarily interested in getting signed were vinyl, and a few were even tied in with who I was planning to meet at what was then the upcoming Chicago Fan Expo, just two weeks later. I’ve always liked vinyl for its vibe and bought a decent turntable setup a couple of years ago. It’s an eclectic collection, but I do have a lot of soundtracks, mainly from horror films and from boutique companies like Waxwork, Terror Vision, or Mondo. Like many of my fellow horror fans, I draft and budget a plan before any event: mapping out whom I want to see and what I specifically want signed from them, rarely deviating from it. This time I’d make an early exception.

2026 Flashback Weekend Svengoolie Talk Show!

Less than two weeks after G-FEST, Flashback Weekend, a.k.a. my favorite horror con, set up shop in the very same hotel. Despite the short time between these events, however, it felt like a lifetime. Just that previous Monday, strong tornado-producing storms plowed through the Midwest, and my humble town of Homewood, Illinois got slammed by an F-1. My entire neighborhood was strewn with busted trees and electric wires. Nobody was hurt, thank God, but despite ComEd’s best efforts, we had no power all week and still hadn’t when I arrived at Flashback Weekend on Friday. This made for one rotten week! The heat was so unbearable that at one point I attempted to sleep outside on my deck (until two raccoons got into a dispute below me). Fortunately, my friend Jason Lucas, whose power returned that Wednesday, invited me to stay with him for a couple of days. Regardless, I had very little sleep that week and admit to being a bit ill-tempered at the beginning of this event.