Spooky Empire - Day 2

After a pretty late night, it would have been nice to sleep in. Alas, no. After less than 2 hours of sleep, I got up and drove to the nearest Wells Fargo ATM. I wanted to go early so I could be sure of still getting a good parking spot when I came back.

Armed with the cash I should have had on Friday, I went to get in line. I was the first person in the VIP line. A couple of con buddies joined me shortly thereafter. Having good people to talk to in line makes all the difference in the world.

They let the VIPs in at 10. I went straight to Nicholas Hoult’s line, and was first to meet him. He arrived only a few minutes after they let VIPs, which is much appreciated. He is such a nice guy. He seems so normal, no big star energy. I felt bad for him though, as he has a pretty serious limp right now. He had a knee surgery about a month ago, which caused him to cancel New York Comic Con. I was so worried he was going to cancel Spooky, but he gutted it out. He even stood for every single photo. He's an awesome dude!

I had debated going for Method Man first, but ultimately decided on Hoult. That was a good decision, as Method Man wasn’t going to arrive until around noon. So after Hoult, I walked around looking for celebs that had already arrived. The first one I saw that I needed was Sean Chapman. I met Sean in Vegas earlier this year, but hadn't been able to find the Uncle Frank Neca figure in time for the show. So I got it signed today. It's a bummer that Oliver Smith canceled, as I wanted him to sign it too. I hope I get another chance!

David Naughton was right next to Sean Chapman, so I met him next. He commented on how hard to find the werewolf Funko Pop has gotten. If that's the case, I'm glad I got mine when they came out! Needless to say, he loved my t-shirt.

I went for Chris Fehn next. I had met Corey Taylor at a previous convention, so I was pretty stoked to be able to add a second signature to my Slipknot vinyl. Chris was cool as shit. One of the nicest celebs at the con by far.

Right as I finished putting my Slipknot record away, I saw Antonella Rose walking in. So I followed her to her table. She is super sweet and personable. I can't wait to see what happens with her character in Terrifier 4!

Bill Moseley had arrived while I was meeting Antonella, so I went there next. He was supposed to be here on Friday, but with the government shutdown his flight got canceled and he didn't get in until late Friday night. I thanked him for still doing the show, and told him how much I loved him in Repo. After he signed my stuff, he also gave me a little postcard for "The Devil's Carnival", which he signed.

I went for the Lost Boys cast members next, starting with Chance Michael Corbitt. I didn't realize until very recently that Chance played a young Lance Henriksen in "Pumpkinhead". So I was stoked to be able to add him to that poster in addition to my Lost Boys stuff. I could have gotten Chance (and Billy) a couple weeks ago at Scarefest, but I was running low on money and I knew I'd be seeing them at Spooky. Chance was super friendly.

I slid over to Billy Wirth's table next, and had him sign the same Lost Boys posters as Chance. I'm really loving how those posters are turning out. I wish I'd had the 24x36 poster when I met Kiefer. And I still need Alex Winter on both. But the 11x17 in particular has become one of my favorite items in my collection. I absolutely love Chelsea Lowe's art, and this might be my favorite poster of hers.

Next I added Nicholas Hamilton to my "It" posters. I was really happy when Spooky announced him, as I don't see him at that many conventions. Both posters are coming along very nicely!

I worked on my Heart Eyes poster next. At this point I was almost out of money, so I was only able to get a selfie with the director, Josh Ruben. All three were super nice guys, but Ruben was especially awesome. I also had Michael Kennedy sign a "Freaky" poster.

Just across from the "Heart Eyes" crew were Steven LaMorte and Amy Schumacher from "Screamboat" and "The Mean One". I was happy to meet these guys, and they were exceptional. They told me some stories about filming, and Steven was impressed that I already had Tyler Posey and Jarlath Conroy on my "Screamboat" poster. In fact, both Conroy and Posey said I was the first person to ever have them sign a "Screamboat" item.

I made a quick stop at Billy Bryan's table and got my Child's Play Franchise Poster signed.

After that I paid a visit to MUFX legend Greg Nicotero. I had made previous arrangements Greg and his agent to do a bit of a bulk signing, as I needed him on a whole bunch of stuff. 16 items later… I still need him on a bunch of stuff lol. But Greg was awesome as always.

That left me with one last autograph to get. Freaking Method Man! I am so glad they brought him in, even though he has nothing to do with horror. Usually I'm annoyed by non-horror guests, but this one is awesome. And at $75 an autograph, he was actually pretty reasonably priced. I waited in the VIP line for about 20-30 minutes. He is cool as shit. He was super excited when I told him that Garden State is my second favorite movie of all time. He literally yelled out something like "Hell yeah, that movie is awesome!". I love how he adds the Wu-Tang logo to his autograph. I went with the biggest solo MEF album and the biggest Wu-Tang album. If I ever get the chance to meet him again, I'll knock out a couple more. I didn't do a selfie, as I have his photo op coming up later.

That does it for autographs. I had a few hours to kill before my photo ops, so I ordered some Giordano’s for delivery and crashed in the room for a bit.

I had two photo ops. Method Man and Nicholas Hoult. Both are awesome guys, and I had more interaction with both than I’ve had in any other photo op. I don't usually spring for for photo ops when they do table photos, but I wasn't sure they'd be offering table photos. They both did, but I'm still glad I went with the pro photo ops.

Later in the evening, I hung out at the VIP party for a while. I completely forgot to take any pictures. It was fun seeing the Jason Takes Manhattan cast tearing up the dance floor. Of course, I didn't win anything at the raffle. One of these years I'll win something! After that I checked the bar, but I didn’t know anybody there so I bailed. Apparently I'm blind, as I'm told that some of my very favorite convention people (shout out Adrienne, Eric, & Melissa) were apparently sitting together at the bar when I poked my head in. Oh well!

And with that I called it an early night. I had another awesome Spooky day. I hadn’t initially planned on going on Sunday, but I’ve decided to do the Cassandra Peterson photo op, and get a few more things signed by various people. So I’ll be back bright and early! The stats: Celebs Met: 17

Photos With Celebs: 10

Items Signed: 41

Autographs Obtained: 47