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May 31st - April 2nd, 2006
THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN OHIO!
 This show review might be a little different
than our usual reports. Can you believe that? None of the same old
"had a great time" stuff. Of course, we did have a great time, but that's
a given, right?.
This time, there weren't really any guests that we were gung-ho to see this time.
Sure, it was going to be cool to see the Rejects victims, especially Geoffrey
Lewis. But that really wasn't a draw for me, personally. Same with
the Jasons. And of course, what would a Wasteland show be without Mr. Tom
Sullivan. But since we were pretty busy the whole weekend, we didn't have
much time to sit and chat with Tom. But that didn't stop him for stopping
by our table long enough to strike a pose. Every time my son has a friend
over to our house, he still has to break out the photo of him and Tom from the Flashback
Drive-In show last year and tell his friends how he got to hold the head from
the movie.
So we were looking forward to just having a good time,
chatting with other fans and dealers, and most importantly, finding more stuff
for
our collection, which we hadn't done in quite some time. And we did just
that. So this report is going to be mainly about the dealers and the
people we met at the show. We still got some nice photos of the Q&A, which
are at the bottom of this page, as usual.
But first let me say that just because I wasn't that interested in
the guests they had lined up this time didn't mean everyone else felt the same.
There seemed to be a lot of people around the dealer's room most of the weekend.
And when the panel of "Jasons" were in doing their Q&A, I went to pop in to get my
usual quick photos. But I was amazed at how packed the Q&A room was.
I don't think I've ever seen it that crowded. So I guess those FRIDAY THE
13th movies still have a drawn after all. Never would have guess it.
But if that shows anything, it shows that the Wasteland draws true genre fans.
It was a real shame that Betsy Palmer had to cancel at the last minute due to
illness. We've met her a couple of times and she's a real sweetheart.
Ken says she will be at the October show, so that'll make up for her absence
this time out.
 Since this was the 9th show in the last seven
years, and a lot of the same customers and dealers are there, you make a lot of
friends that you see at every show. So there's a lot of chatting with
like-minded people and even networking. We met up with a couple of new
guys that were selling some great horror t-shirts. They might have been
pretty simple designs, but these were some of the best screen prints that I've
seen, pretty much looking like a photo. And they were only selling them
for $10. Of course, we had to add some to our ever growing t-shirt collection.
As you can see in this photo, the Bride artwork is just stunning. We were
trying to plant some ideas in their heads about some different shirt ideas, like
maybe some Hammer ones. Can't have too many Hammer shirts, can you? While
they don't have the t-shirts up on their
WEBSITE yet, you
can always email them HERE.
Tell them we sent you.
And of course, speaking of shirts, it's always
a blast to hang out with Jill and Andrew from
Lix. I picked up a ABBOTT & COSTELLO
MEET FRANKENSTEIN shirt for my son from them. Have to be careful there, since with
most of these types of shirts, they are not allowed to wear them to school.
And to think of some of the ones that I use to wear back then. And look
how well I turned out!
 We also picked up another one of those great
drive-in shirts from Andrew D. Gore, from
Satan's Sideshow.
We've got a couple from him at some past shows, and they are great. This
time, we got a long sleeve black one, with THE OMEN artwork on the back.
But apparently someone else needed the shirt more than we did and swiped it from
our table when we were packing up at the end of the show. I hope they
enjoy it as much as I briefly did....little bastard. But anyway, Andy has
plenty of other T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies, but also
has some other great merchandise, including some fantastic looking clocks, that
he makes himself. Our buddy Brett picked up an awesome TEXAS CHAINSAW
MASSACRE one, with the hands of the clock being a hook on a chain and (of
course) a chainsaw. Gore continually produces some great looking
merchandise.
We also want to give a shout out to our
buddy Buzz at BuzzWorks.
We met Buzz a few years ago at the Wasteland and are always hooking up with them
at the show....when they can find the right restaurant! But Buzz makes
some really great sculptures and other items to fill out your dungeon. He
also sells the music of
Nox Arcana,
which we have mentioned on here quite a few times. Artist Joseph Vargo
designs a lot of the items that Buzz sells, so you know you're going to have
some nice quality there. They were debuting a couple of tracks from the
latest CD from Nox Arcana, called Carnival of Lost Souls. Carnivals are
creepy and twisted to begin with, so I'm sure they are going to make even more
so with their music. Can't wait for that one, which should be out in a
month or so. Stay tuned for that one.
 Across from our table for the last couple of
shows was John Pinkerton, of
Pinkerton FX. He
sells a variety of toys, demented looking teddy bears, models, sculptures, and
other little cool tidbits. He had even made a pair of dice, modeled after
the pair that Oogie Boogie was using in NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. I have to say that in all my years
going to shows, he's got one of the coolest looking table setups that I've seen.
This photo doesn't really do it justice, but he's got the lightning strobe
things going, with other very cool looking designs. Very creative.
And that's just his display set up. He was selling a bust of Hellboy that
we were very tempted in picking up. The base was part of the Hand of Doom,
and it was hollowed out so when lit up, the light shown through the designs.
Great stuff. Plus, his work is as affordable as it is talented.
Check out his website and make sure you stop by his table if you see him at a
show.
 If
you've read our site for a while, and even our DVD reviews, anytime we've
mentioned an import DVD, we usually start it out by saying something like, "If
you needed another reason to get a region-free player..." Well, at the
show we ran into another friend, Aaron Crowell. Aaron is the co-author of
Tomart's Price Guide to Horror Movie Collectibles, which we picked up from
him a couple of years ago at one of the Wasteland shows. It's a great
book for not only those of us who collect that kind of stuff, but also just to see
all the cool things that are out there. But Aaron was at the show hawking
his new magazine, HorrorHound. The magazine covers movies, DVDs, toys,
collectibles and other related merchandise. But as I first was talking
about the region-player, when he handed me the magazine, I noticed the title of
one of articles on the cover. It said "10 Reasons To Own A Region-Free DVD
Player". That was great. So it's not just me that is trying to
spread the gospel of the freedom you have when you have one of those. The
article gives 10 examples of import releases that should make any fan run out
and buy a player. They also talked to Tony Simonelli from
Xploited Cinema
about the market. Tony made the very smart comment that some people just
don't seem to understand. He said, "Why spend $25 on a bootleg when you can buy
the real thing for sometimes less, if you have a region-free DVD player."
So I hope some people are paying attention out there! But getting back to HorrorHound, we found the magazine pretty enjoyable, and great to see all those
new items coming out. Plus, there are some pretty interesting articles on
the marketing aspects of such thing as well. Check out their
website and go ahead an
subscribe.
Okay, so we're done pimping some friends from
the show. But it's our website and we can do what we want, right? Now
back to the show's highlights. Of course, now that I just mentioned
lights, we didn't have them on Saturday night. Apparently a transformer
blew somewhere and the hotel lost most of it's power. This was about
midnight. There were a lot of people in the bar at that point, and there
were a few times where it looked like it could have gotten out of hand.
But those were quickly stopped, dragged out into the parking lot and beaten to
death, all for the amusement of the rest of the fans. But in all
seriousness, conventions can get out of hand very easily, especially when
alcohol is involved. But kudos to Ken and Pam for knowing how to handle
these types of situations, without being complete Nazis and jerks like some of
these other shows would have done.
The Rejects guests all seemed to have a great
time at the show. They all really seemed like they wanted to be there to
meet their fans. Geoffrey Lewis was a very quiet man, but he was still a
laugh riot none the less. When they went up to do the REJECTS Q&A, Lewis was
giving the sound man trouble by pretending his mike wasn't working. The
serious and confused look Lewis was giving the audience was classic. It's
always great to see when these guests really enjoy meeting their fans.
We've seen our share of celebs that make the show like 'work' and could really
give a crap about being there. But not these REJECTS.
For the last couple of Wasteland shows, we've
been spending more of the evening time in the bar after the show chatting with other fans,
instead of sitting in the film room trying to stay away, On Friday night,
we went in right before the last reel of KING KONG VS GODZILLA started.
But I think I was asleep 2 minutes into it. And it is a shame though about
the power, since we were looking forward to seeing THE GREEN SLIME again, or at
least until we fell asleep again.
So, as always, we had a great time. We
were able to meet a lot of old friends, and make some new ones as well. We
came home with a few more reference books for our collection, including that
beautiful one with Basil Gogos' artwork from Famous Monsters. We even
found a poster for BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD. Too bad I didn't have that when
we seen Andrew Prine last year! Ken & Pam have already announced some
guest for the future show, and it looks like it's going to be a fun time....once
again.
Hope to see you there.
MISC. JASONS
CHARLES BAND
DEVIL'S REJECTS - THE VICTIMS
GEOFFREY LEWIS, PRISCILLA BARNES, LEW TEMPLE, & KATE NORBY
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