Flashback Weekend! Yaaaay!!!

[Klownzilla]

July 29-31 marks the 4th annual Flashback Weekend. I attended today only and managed to have a damn good time! I remember way back in 2002 when the first Flashback was billed as a Horror/Scifi/Fantasy convention, but it was evident that the horror factor prevailed, thus all following shows were official horror cons. I should really try going all 3 days to give a detailed account, but nonetheless one day alone brought much excitement.

As soon as I entered the dealers room I stood around with a feeling of serenity as I gazed upon the multitudes of merchandise before me. I must have circled the place at least three times before going to meet my first celebrity, Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, The Guyver). Michael was a great guy and a real joker. He chatted with me and my dad for a bit before we moved on. He even wanted to know what Chicago pizza he should get. I went to a dealer specializing in all sorts of rare DVDs and finally bought The Monster Squad (!) which I have playing now. I also picked up the 2-disc Misfits: Video History which has some rare footage from the Danzig era that I love so much.

I decided to take a breather by going to sit down and watch a Q&A session with Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi and the Ladies of Evil Dead which was great to listen to. After this ended I went back into the dealers room to meet Tom Atkins. I expected a gruff guy judging by the characters he usually plays, but Tom was very approachable and genuine. He introduced himself as "Tommy Atkins" and came off as a cool grandfather type.

I went back to the Q&A with Ted Raimi touching upon his acting career and the abuse he endured from his older brother Sam. This guy's fuckin hilarious! Never a dull moment with him.

Finally, I got in line to meet Bruce Campbell. This was the 4th time I've met him, but this time he seems uninterested altogether. The individual sessions went by pretty quickly and he wasn't his usual personable self. By no means was he a prick, but I guess he's just tired of these appearances or something. Maybe he was just having an "off" day.

I took pics with all 3 celebs which I'll put up later. I'm looking very forward to next year. The guest list is always different, save for a few regulars, and hopefully some celebs from this year come back. Maybe Jeff Combs will finally show up. I can only hope.

[countchocula]

It's cool that you met Tom "The Fucking Man" Atkins. Having just seen Night of the Creeps, I would have chatted his head off. And congrats on finding The Monster Squad. Breaking the law kicks ass.

[Klownzilla]

Hey Count, did you get Night of the Creeps from a punk dude named Travis? This guy had that, The Monster Squad, Godzilla Final Wars and those other rare movies you had mentioned in your convention thread.

[countchocula]

Was he fat? I didn't catch his name, but he wasn't in punk attire.

[Klownzilla]

Yeah, and he also had a goatee.