Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our seventh calendar year! Number 335 (Vol. 7, No. 34). This edition is for the week of August 21--27, 2006. Terence and I took in a few short films, all out-of-state entries (we wondered why no locals were represented), all good stuff. Strangely, at least two movies were only shown partways as "filler" to balance out the schedule. This would be my only criticism of the fest and it's fairly minor, but it was annoying -- why pull the plug on a movie when it's still playing?
The Con itself boasted several comics celebs and one really big movie/TV one: Noel Neill, Lois Lane of the classic TV series The Adventures of Superman. She also had cameos in 1978's Superman The Movie and this year's Superman Returns. I first met Noel Neill at a custom car show in 1975 (got an autograph, wish I could find that picture), then again at the Famous Monsters Con of 1993. She was a sweetheart then and she's a sweetheart now. Her autograph line stayed pretty busy.
Nick Cardy, Alex Saviuk, Michael Insignares, Rob Granito, Mark & Stephanie Heike, Fran Matera, John Taddeo, and Larry Ward (author of "Truth, Justice and The American Way" Noel Neill biography), were some of the other noted celebs in the autograph section.
Although I was delighted to see Terry Cronin at his Students of the Unusual table (thanks for the comic Terry!), it seemed to Terence Nuzum and me that the number of dealers in general was down this time; we recalled the previous con as having at least four video/DVD dealers, this time we only found one. Greenshift Comics evidently decided to sit this one out as well. The ultra-regular Wet Ink Studios did have a table, but only one person behind it, someone I didn't know, instead of the usual three. And the people who represented Bubba The Redneck Werewolf from last time were nowhere to be found. I suppose Dick Kulpa (formerly of Cracked Magazine) has given up on traveling to Tampa, he hasn't been to one of these Cons in a while. Well, hey, these things happen in cycles, and I'm sure dealers out on "summer vacation" will return in November.
I was delighted to run into a gen-u-wine Robinson High classmate from the year I graduated (1973), Mr. Samuel Catalino. Sam and I see each other every so once in a while, and I was very happy when he recently registered on the message board and started actively posting! This makes only us three musketeers remaining (the third being William Moriaty) that still hang out to this day.
Closer to lunchtime, another shocking personal appearances was made by noted Tampa filmmaker/director Andy Lalino. Not used to seeing him show up to these things, but of course, the more the merrier I say! Andy's great to hang with, we just never have enough opportunities to do so (I told him he looks like he's lost some weight).
Creature Productions' special guest Bill Black was outside the hotel giving a sort of moving lecture as he decided to shoot some scenes for a video on-the-fly! I didn't join that group so can't report on just exactly the lecture/shoot was about.
Before I left, I got pictures taken of me with Creature Productions' mascot "Lon Madnight", then later with Darth Vader!
We took some group pictures, then Terence, Chris Woods and I departed the Doubletree and went to the Durango for lunch. All in all, a very positive experience.
All photos taken by Nolan Canova, Chris Woods, Terence Nuzum, and Ashley Lewis
All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2006 by Nolan B. Canova.
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