Insomnia mixed with a late night dose of MSNBC's "Lock Up" helped kick off the morning's journey to one of, if not, the best convention on the east coat - Monster-Mania.  This morning was unusual though.  Obviously I was excited but I had a pretty rough time of showing it since me and my girlfriend decided to meet at our buddies house at 4AM.  At this point, many must be wondering "geez, you have gotta live quite a distance from the show to get up that early".  In fact, no I don't.  Not even a little bit.  I live a mere 80 minutes from the location of the convention.  By this point, I'm sure many of you must be asking yourself "okay then why in the hell get up at the butt crack of dawn?".  The answer is simple... John fucking Carpenter.  The Prince of Darkness himself would be on hand signing autographs for adoring horror fan's from all over the tri-state area.  The man behind so many classics that many of us consider what made us the fans we are today.  This man is the reason our dedication or mere stupidity lead us to getting to a convention over 5 hours before it opened.  Upon arriving to the hotel lobby, it was dead as a doornail aside from a few miscellaneous horror fans who were still up probably from a hard night of partying.  Our mission was simple.  Get to the con early as fuck, scope out the grounds and the second the location for Carpenter's line is made clear, get in it and don't fucking budge.  After a few hours of passing time on hotel couches, we managed to get the info on Carpenter's line by 8:30AM.  3 hours down and 2 more to go before we came face to face with the creator of Michael Myers.  To my surprise, the 2 hours  actually went faster than expected and before you knew it we were being escorted upstairs to a holding room before actually heading to Carpenter's autograph space.  With the excitement level at an all time high, an extra 20 minutes was exactly what I needed to enjoy finally sitting down and getting all 7 of my original 1-sheets prepared for the man himself.  10:30AM rolls around and we are finally welcomed into John Carpenter's chambers for the weekend.  The man certainly looked aged with balding gray hair and a gray mustache but he certainly wasn't showing it when you met him.  With 7 items in tow, the grand total I handed over to his money taker was a whooping $210.  $30 a pop and believe me... it was money well spent.  If anyone has the right to charge that price, it's John Carpenter.  Carpenter was quite talkative with me as I was explaining that I travel to New York City (a 45 minute commute) to do most of my 1-sheet shopping.  I explained my dissatisfaction with NJ Transit's high prices these days ($17.50 a roundtrip) and he was shocked by this price.  Carpenter proceeded to tell me that I should "rebel and protest"... spoken proudly by the same guy who directed the "fuck the establishment" flick "They Live".  After all was said and done, I walked away truly feeling like I met a living legend.  He was kind and advised me to rebel against train conductors.  What more can you ask for?

Moving on, Monster-Mania 15 was incredibly special for me not only because of John Carpenter's appearance but also for the Pet Sematary reunion that was thrown.  The reason for my happiness was actually a very personal one.  Thanks to Monster-Mania's "guest suggestions" thread on there message boards, me and another board member set out on a mission for months to gain support for a Pet Sematary reunion to happen.  Months went by and our thread ended up being one of the most well received and supported suggestion on the site.  The dedication paid off as the staff at Monster-Mania made our dream come true and welcomed Dale Midkiff ("Louis Creed"), Denise Crosby ("Rachel Creed"), Miko Hughes ("Gage Creed"), Brad Greenquist ("Victor Pascow") and Andrew Hubatsek ("Zelda") to there show.  Midkiff and Hubatsek were both exceptionally nice guys, who seemed really flattered by the turnout for a little flick they made way back in 1989.  I asked Midkiff how he felt about the upcoming "Pet Sematary" remake and he began to tell me that he had only heard about it the other night and felt it's just another example of Hollywood laziness these days.  I couldn't have agreed more.  But, I still had to dig some more questions out of Midkiff related to the remake.  "So, Dale who do you see taking over your role in the remake?" after a slight pause Midkiff answer "I don't know... Pee-Wee Herman maybe?"  After some laughter, I proceeded to tell him that George Clooney had reportedly been circling the remake a few years ago which left Midkiff surprised.  I had to tell him though that by today's standards, I thought John Cusack would be a suitable replacement for him to which Midkiff kindly agreed.  The cast that were present at the show were a true joy to have there and I hope more conventions continue throwing a reunion for this well deserved film.  As far as autograph prices for the Pet Sematary cast, everyone was pretty basic across the board.  $20 a pop for an autograph except Denise Crosby charged $25 for an item off her table and $10 for a picture with her.  Luckily, I had them all sign my Pet Sematary 1-sheet but I have to stress to everyone that all there 8x10's were spectacular especially Dale Midkiff's.  He had some real wonderful cast 8x10's that I'd really like to grab from him at a future show.  I understand that the extra price tag for pictures with a celebrity is a tad overboard and we all should normally walk away, but Denise was so sweet that I had no issue handing over an extra $10 for a picture with her and a stuffed Church cat.  After all, how many opportunities will you ever have that you can feel like you helped get a cast reunion off the ground?

The rest of my autograph excursions for the day included miscellaneous solo guests that included the likes of Felissa Rose ("Angela" from Sleepaway Camp) who helped me complete my 1-sheet Sleepaway Camp poster.  Rose was incredibly personable and told me to hug her after I told her that I spent over $100 on my 1-sheet.  She was really appreciative of my dedication to the film and loved the fact that she was the last person I needed on my poster.  An awesome chick who charged an awesome price (a mere $10) in a day and age where it seems the common price is $20 or more.  In addition, I was lucky enough to meet some Friday the 13th alumni who were all making there convention debuts.  Marta Kober ("Sandra" from Part 2) and Bill Randolph ("Jeffrey" Part 2) helped me bring my autograph count to 8 on my original Friday the 13th Part 2 poster.  Tiffany Helm ("Violet" from Part 5) most remembered for her "robot dancing" sequence was called in as a last minute schedule change (she was originally scheduled to join her mother, Brooke Bundy, next month at Monster-Mania 16 in Maryland) for the Cherry Hill crowd.  She was also very kind and charged the standard $20 rate which brought my original Part 5 poster up to an awesome 12 autographs.  From Part 6, fans were joined by David Kagen ("Sheriff Michael Garris") and Tom Fridley ("Cort") who were very kind and going as far as specifically asking where they'd like me to have them sign my poster.  It truly is the little things like that when it comes to autographing that makes experiences with guests so much better.  Both Kagen and Fridley charged $20 per autograph and kindly posed for a photo afterwards.  The last guests on my radar for the day were two other first time guests, Shon Greenblatt ("John Doe" from Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) who charged $20 a signature and told me how cool working with Alice Cooper was and Ty Mitchell who played "Gary" aka the kid that comes to the hospital with razors in his mouth from Halloween II.  While Mitchell was actually a really cool guy, he charged $20 a pop and I not only had my Halloween II 1-sheet but my original Halloween II album.  $40 seemed a bit steep for a guest that didn't even have 5 minutes of screen time but I guess you take the good with the bad. 

Once autographs were done, it was time to hit up the vendors room before embarking back home after being up for already 10 hours.  I scooped up two DVD's from my good buddies at VHSPS.com who are always a must go to place in the vendors room, there products kick ass!  In addition, I picked up an original "Battletruck" poster for the low price of $10 (I can't get enough of original Corman posters), some more DVD's from Diabolik DVD and of course it's impossible to leave a Monster-Mania without seeing my good friends over at Fright-Rags who make the best and most original horror shirts out there.  Normally, I never walk out with less than 10 shirts from Fright-Rags but I managed to restrain myself.  Walking away with 4 kick ass designs including a Prince of Darkness shirt and a killer Street Trash design which, in my opinion, is one of the best designs they have ever made.  After autographs and other goodies were in tow, it was time to hit the ol' dusty trail back home and absorb all the fun we had meeting the legend John Carpenter as well as being treated to my dream reunion for Pet Sematary.  That's all for now folks, thanks for reading!