MegaCon - Day 2
- Doug Ennis
- Mar 24
- 8 min read
It's Day 2 for me, Day 4 for those lucky enough to attend all 4 days. I got up reasonably early and walked over at around 7:30am. I was probably about 30-40 people back in the re-entry line. Today was originally supposed to be a pretty chill day for me. But that was before I made a kind of last minute decision to get a couple of photo ops, as well as autographs from the entire The Mummy cast. Brendan Fraser autographs had been sold out, but while I was at dinner on Saturday night I checked and there was one available. So I snagged it!
We were let in at around 9:40ish today. I went straight to Brendan Fraser's table, but there were already tons of people in line. There was no way I was gonna be able to stand that long. I talked to the volunteer running the line, and they said they would probably be giving out return times, but couldn't do that until Fraser was actually at his table. They said he would probably arrive around 11-11:30, and to come back then.
So I decided to start my day by getting John Carpenter to sign my last two items. When I got up to him, he was in disbelief that I was back lol. If I remember right, he said "Jesus!" when he saw me.
After my third time meeting Carpenter, I jumped in line for Dean Cundey. He wasn't there yet, but showed up about 10-15 minutes later. I had 7 items for Mr. Cundey, so I broke them up into two batches. I started off with the items that I needed signed in white.
Tommy Lee Wallace arrived at the same time as Cundey, so I went ahead and had him sign my Halloween poster next.
After that I jumped in Nick Castle's short line. While I was waiting P.J. Soles saw me in line and said hi. She said she recognized me from our previous meetings!
I'm really stoked about how this Michael Myers 16x20 turned out. I'll definitely be getting that bad boy framed and up on the wall in my office!
Right around this time I heard the cheer for Brendan Fraser's arrival. So I went back over and talked to the volunteer about getting an ADA return time. She gave me a 12:15 return time. I was waiting to have this secured before getting any of the other cast, as I didn't want to have a The Mummy poster signed by all of the but Brendan lol.
So I jumped in Patricia Velasquez's line next. My wife and I met her previously at Fanboy Expo in 2024. My wife doesn't really care at all about meeting celebrities, but she loved Patricia. She has talked about meeting her multiple times, always talking about how sweet and calm she was, and how she just had a great aura. So when I met Patricia, I told her this. She seemed so grateful for the kind words. And then she asked me for my phone. She recorded a video for my wife! Patricia was always on my list (yes there's a list lol) of the nicest celebs I've met, but now she's up near the tippy top of the list. Fiona Dourif might have some competition!
I hadn't planned on getting a selfie with her, but after that interaction I absolutely had to. She was very surprised to see that I was having her sign a Malignant poster, as she is in the movie for like 30 seconds lol. She said that it was a Covid production, and James Wan called her up and asked if she could shoot a quick scene. She loved the Posca pen that I had her sign my The Mummy poster with, so I promised I'd give it to her when I was done getting the rest of the cast.
After that I added John Hannah and Oded Fehr to the Mummy poster.
At this point my foot/ankle were absolutely killing me, so I went and sat down for a few minutes. Then I went back to Dean Cundey's table to knock out the other four items I had for him. He has such a dry sense of humor, so I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking when he said "Somebody else came by earlier that does their posters the same way you do". He was also very interested in the Halloween II poster, saying he'd never seen it before.
I still had a bit of time before my Brendan Fraser return time, so I met James Marsters next. I'd met him before, but had a MUCH better meet this time. When I asked him how he was doing, he said something like "I'm doing great, I'm being paid to hear people say nice things about me". That was the most real answer I've ever gotten from a celeb to that question lol.
At this point I had about 10 minutes before my Fraser return time. Somehow there was literally nobody in Giancarlo Esposito's line. So that's where I went. He charges extra for quotes, which isn't too surprising. But he also charges extra for character name, which I'm not thrilled about. When I told him which quote I wanted, he kind of chuckled. Then I told him it was the funniest line in the whole movie. He sort of chuckled again. He proceeded to sign it, add character name, and add the quote. As he was handing it back to me, he chuckled one last time and said "You're right, it is". It was a very strange, but amusing, encounter.
It was time to meet Brendan Fraser. I found the same volunteer as before, and gave her the post-it note. She looked at her watch, and then walked me up near the front of the line.
I wanted to keep my meet short, as there were a LOT of people waiting. But I had to take this opportunity to (very quickly) tell him how much one of his movies meant to me when I was a teenager. I'm guessing I was the only man to talk to him about the movie Now & Then. I adored that movie when it first came out. He kind of lit up when I brought it up. He said "Oh, you mean the movie starring Christina Ricci when she was 13 going on 30?" And then he said "They were making all of the young girls smoke fake cigarettes, but Christina was like no way, I want the real thing!". Then he gave me a nice long handshake. Super nice guy!
I only had money left for one more autograph, and still had like 7-8 things I could get signed. I decided to get Nicholas Lea to sign my The Fall of the House of Usher poster. I'm glad I did. He didn't have a line at that moment, so we actually talked for a decent amount of time. We talked about his wife, his relationship with Mike Flanagan, the X-Files, etc. He's an awesome guy.
And with that, I was done with autographs! But I still had three stops to make in the autograph area. First, I went over to Patricia Velasquez's table to give her the Posca pen. She thanked me profusely and got up and gave me a hug. She's the best! And then I went over to say hi to Annabeth Gish. I've met her a couple of times before. The last time I met her was last year at Horror on Main. At that con we had a pretty long conversation, part of which was about coagulated cheese (seriously lol). She commented then how much she liked the white Molotow pen, and I promised I'd give it her to when I was done... and then I totally forgot to give it to her! So I stopped at her table to give her the pen at MegaCon, as I'm a man of my word lol.
I had two photo ops coming up, but I had about 90 minutes to kill. So I went to grab a seat and a quick bite to eat. Almost without exception, all of the food kiosks are awful. But I found the one that is actually pretty good. I grabbed a brisket sandwich from the 4 Rivers kiosk, and absolutely devoured it lol.
After that I did a quick lap to see if there was anybody I knew that I hadn't seen yet. I stopped by the Scaradise booth, but unfortunately Deej wasn't (or anybody else I knew) wasn't there. So I stopped at the 13X Studios booth to hang with Rick (Selfie Guy!) for a bit. And then I got to chat for a bit with Connie at Billy Boyd's table.
And then it was time for photo ops. There were SO many people I would have liked to get photos with. But some of the photo op times would have kind of screwed with my schedule. So I settled on the two below. One absolute icon from my childhood, and one from my teens/20s.
And with that, I was done with MegaCon 2026! And it's a good thing I was, because I don't think my foot could have taken much more. I've been in a walking boot ever since I got home from MegaCon. But other than that it was a very successful weekend! I just remembered, I got one more autograph this weekend, I just don't have it in my hands yet! My buddies Eric and Melissa at Category Five Autograph Consignments got Liv Tyler on my 18x24 for The Strangers. I don't have it in hand, but I do have a photo!
I'm glad I got to see so many of my convention friends this weekend, but I still missed a lot. MegaCon is just so huge it's impossible to see everybody.
And with that... the stats! Day 2 Stats:
CELEBS MET: 12
PRO PHOTOS: 2
ITEMS SIGNED: 13
TOTAL AUTOGRAPHS: 19 Final MegaCon Stats: CELEBS MET: 17 PRO PHOTOS: 2 ITEMS SIGNED: 20 TOTAL AUTOGRAPHS: 30
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