1st Annual ZomBCon Convention, Seattle Washington

The first annual ZomBCon convention was a zombie lovers dream come true. Three days worth of activities- so many that you were forced to decide between events. Some of the celebrities in attendance were George Romero, Bruce Campbell, Max Brooks, Malcolm McDowell, and Chuck Palahniuk. In addition, there were vendors selling everything from Zombie Jerky to weaponry to comic books. And speaking of the comics- many acclaimed zombie artists such as Billy Tackett were in attendance. And Bruce Campbell even acted as the actual minister in a real-life wedding, and followed that by performing a mass renewal of vows. Almost everyone there seemed to really be enjoying themselves, and it was a great turnout throughout the entire convention.

I was lucky enough to have press passes, as a result of my involvement with a zombie podcast called Undeadair.com. This is the official podcast of the Omaha chapter of the Zombie Research Society. Having these press passes provided me with many unique experiences throughout the con.

The first night, I wasn't feeling very well. Quite a few VIP guests gathered in the basement of the Maxwell Hotel for what was supposed to be a movie screening. But we never saw the movie. As I heard someone comment later, George Romero crashed the party. I walked into the hotel and started towards the lower level, where I knew they were holding the screening. As I started towards the staircase and eventually got in the drink line, Ted Raimi dashed in ahead of me. Ted Raimi is the brother of Sam Raimi, who directed films such as the Evil Dead franchise and Spiderman. It was an odd experience to be standing in line to get a glass of wine, listening to Ted Raimi talk about his brother's involvement in Spiderman with the guys from Fangoria. Fairly soon, other celebrities such as Malcolm McDowell and the ladies from Evil Dead wandered into the party. But all plans for the movie came to a screeching halt when George Romero walked in. He began giving an interview to Fangoria, and the crowd listened with rapt attention.

The next day, my travel companion and podcast interviewer decided to go to the con dressed up. I've known from past experiences that his costume tends to get a lot of attention, since he dresses as a zombie clown. Many people are not necessarily affected by zombies, but you would be surprised how many are terrified of clowns. We didn't make it more than a few feet into the exhibition hall before a professional photographer stopped us and took his photo. And throughout the course of the day, we were stopped many times so that people could interview him. This was a very odd thing to watch, since he was there to interview other people. But, I think that costume actually helped us secure some interviews and face time with celebrities that we would have not gotten otherwise. For example, Bruce Campbell did a segment onstage where he discussed various costumes. Naturally, the zombie clown made it onstage and had his own personal interaction with Bruce Campbell. Given that we are a new podcast and not one of the major sites, we would have never secured a way to talk to Bruce Campbell, but because my travel companion decided to dress up, we got some awesome footage for our show.

We were able to speak with UFC fighter Nate "Rock" Quarry about a zombie cagefighting project he's developing. We got to chat with Michael Jackson's nephew and the Brazilian triplets that star in his latest project, and heard about how this is something his uncle really enjoyed. We got to chat with artist Billy Tackett about his art, and had a great time hearing about all of the ideas he wants to develop. And after leaving the second day, we got to witness a couple being married by Bruce Campbell. It brought a tear to my eye, because even the bride's father dressed as a zombie, and these two people- who have probably been called freaks because of their love of zombies- found each other and seemed to be a perfect match.

I had a chance to talk about ZomBCon with its creator, and he promises that he's going to begin planning next year's event- right after taking a week off from zombies. He is talking to the attendees and fans, and trying to hear directly from them what works and does not work. So, in the event he's reading, I'd like to offer my advice. What did not work was that great events overlapped. A couple that traveled with us had to decide between a movie that they purchased tickets for, and getting remarried by Bruce Campbell. I missed some of my favorite authors, simply because they were located in a different hall and difficult to find. Apart from these two things, I believe everything went extremely smoothly, and I'm impressed with how well run it was. I was constantly having to remind myself that it was the first year doing this, because it was all handled so well. Even the things that did not go so well were really minor points, and can easily be ironed out next year. Which is the ultimate question... Would I go back? Absolutely. I believe that all four people in our group have already committed to going next year. Though we don't know who will be among the celebs, nor what goodies the organizers will have in store for us, I can say without hesitation that I want to be a part of it.