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Goth Chick News: The 2013 Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo

Goth Chick News: The 2013 Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo

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image004Last week the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2 for you cool kids) rolled into town with its usual juggernaut of the innovative, the unusual and the spandex’d.

Though this is my fourth year covering the show for Black Gate, I must say it is by far the worst place to send someone like me who has a problem with staring; especially when doing so is likely to seriously annoy a very big person in a very small costume.

But never let it be said that I shirked my obligation to a long-suffering readership. Therefore I bribed Black Gate photographer Chris Z to once again wade into a precarious situation with me, this time with the promise he could meet all the crew of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean who were listed as special guests.

Plus, Chris would be a good deterrent if I did indeed seriously annoy someone; like Batman or Chewbacca.

Almost immediately I realized Chris Z was probably in as much trouble as I was.

The first indication was a sign instructing us to text a number if we saw anything “suspicious.” At which point Chris and I looked at each other and said in unison, “Define suspicious.”

When everywhere you look are adults dressed as super heroes, Star Wars characters and video game icons, determining exactly what constitutes “suspicious” is darn near impossible. Which makes you wonder what would cause someone to text the number as instructed.

Still, Chris and I did our very best to put on the mental blinders and run through a full-day lineup of interviews, meet-and-greets and 100 aisles of merchandise.

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Goth Chick News: The Best of the HHA

Goth Chick News: The Best of the HHA

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image010As promised last week, my road trip to the Halloween and Haunted Attractions Show with Black Gate photog Chris Z yielded up a virtual bloody burlap bag of gooey tidbits to share with you.  I mean what could be finer than driving 5 hours to see the latest developments in apparatus for scaring the snot out of you – in the middle of a winter storm?

But like tweeners to a Twilight convention, we donned our flannel shirts and would not be deterred.

However, as we traveled south towards St. Louis, we were only out of Chicago a mere two hours before we ceased to see snow on the ground — and another two before the sky turned blue and the temperature gauge on the Black Gate company car started reading a balmy 45 degrees.

Which proves two things.

Life exists outside of Chicago primarily due to favorable atmospheric conditions, and 1973 Dodge Darts do indeed have temperature gauges.

We arrived at the America’s Convention Center to find it packed wall-to-wall with over 500 exhibitors showing off the cutting edge technology and special effects techniques which will ultimately be showcased in movies, videos and professional haunted attractions in 2013.  Which made narrowing down the field for inclusion here an arduous task, but one which Chris Z and I happily tackled during the extra-long trip home.

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Goth Chick News: It’s Haunt Show Time Again and You Bet We’re Excited

Goth Chick News: It’s Haunt Show Time Again and You Bet We’re Excited

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image002Like two fresh, young debutantes launching their party season in petal-pink tulle ball gowns (only different), Black Gate photographer Chris Z and I prepare to kick off the horror show rounds with our annual road trip to St. Louis to cover TransWorld’s extravaganza: The Halloween and Haunted Attractions show.

The HHA was my own personal entre into haunting subculture when I first covered it for Black Gate in Chicago twelve years ago this month.

Since then I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, interviewing and writing about some of the best talent in the industry from special effects artists and set designers, to indy film makers and musicians, to authors, actors and cartoonists.  Thanks to Black Gate, it is my privilege to call many of these extremely interesting people my friends, and the sources for some of the most popular topics at Goth Chick News.

It is because of the plethora of material that comes from a visit to the HHA that Chris Z and I become giddy as school girls, loading up on Red Bull, granola bars and Nine Inch Nails MP3s to make the 5-hour road trip from Chicago.

And this year’s audio book selection is…?

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New Treasures: Dream Castles: The Early Jack Vance, Volume Two

New Treasures: Dream Castles: The Early Jack Vance, Volume Two

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Dream Castles-smallI spent this past weekend at Capricon 33, a local Chicago science fiction convention. The panels and readings were excellent, and perhaps the highlight was a Saturday night panel titled “Judging a Book by Page 119.” Steven Silver, Rich Horton, Kelly Strait, and Helen Montgomery read page 119 of some of their favorite novels, and the audience was left to guess the book. Someone in the back row correctly identified Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade, and I was pretty close with Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood trilogy (although I got the exact book wrong), but the panelists  managed to stump us on Iain M. Banks Consider Phlebas, Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, Saladin Ahmed’s The Throne of the Crescent Moon, Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear, The Little Country by Charles de Lint, and many others.

I can’t spend more than an hour or two at a good convention without realizing I’m not reading enough good books. I scurried to the Dealer’s room first chance I got and spent a few bucks in an attempt to rectify the situation. I found plenty of great treasures, but the real gem of the lot was the sole copy of the out-of-print Dream Castles: The Early Jack Vance, Volume Two, which I stumbled on at Larry Smith’s table.

I’ve been looking for a copy of Dream Castles for nearly a year — ever since I bought the first volume, Hard Luck Diggings. Both were published by Subterranean Press, and both gather early pulp fiction from one of the greatest 20th Century science fiction and fantasy writers.

Dream Castles collects short stories and novellas from Astounding Science Fiction (“I’ll Build Your Dream Castle,” Sept. 1947), Marvel Science Stories (“Golden Girl,” May 1951), and many other pulps — including Fantastic Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Science Fiction, and Orbit Science Fiction. The short novel, “Son of the Tree,” originally appeared in the June 1951 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories.

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Arisia 2013

Arisia 2013

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Our stalwart audience. The Puffin is named Edgar, apparently. "A very good listener," says his buddy, Justine Graykin.
Our stalwart audience. The Puffin is named Edgar, apparently. “A very good listener,” says his buddy, Justine Graykin.

SATURDAY: 11:48 AM

This morning in the Green Room, as I nibbled at my pastry or bagel or whatever, mourning my lack of PG Tips with the bleary lamentations of a woman who has experienced the Awfulness of Dawn to commute in for an 8:30 AM panel about Discworld, I overheard one fellow say to another over the cream cheese, “In my world, I run the Federation.”

Ah.

I must be at a Science Fiction convention.

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Goth Chick News: Jerry Dandridge, Vampire Santa and the Best of Days of the Dead

Goth Chick News: Jerry Dandridge, Vampire Santa and the Best of Days of the Dead

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days-of-the-deadBeing fully aware that my genre of choice tends to attract a rabid following that in some cases is actually rabid, I nonetheless underestimated what I would encounter when I was invited to a horror convention held in a very pedestrian suburb of Chicago.

I readily admit that Chicago isn’t Los Angeles or even New Orleans when it comes to sub-cultures, though the elements that do exist are certainly worth wading into — if you know where to look.

But the suburbs… seriously?

Two weeks ago, Schaumburg, IL was the launch city for the Days of the Dead convention tour. Schaumburg, whose primary claim to fame is being the home to the second largest quantity of retail square footage under one roof.

True, the walking dead can often be observed there dragging their ragged-flannel-wearing selves between Aeropostale and Abercrombie, but that hardly seemed reason enough to situate a horror convention a couple of blocks away – in a Marriot Hotel, no less.

Days of the Dead is in its second year; a self-termed “by the fans, for the fans,” convention which had its inaugural show in Indianapolis in July, 2011 and will be headed to Atlanta and LA, then ending in Indy in the coming months. The press kit explained:

Chock full of special events tailored just for the fans, an active after hours scene of horror themed parties, and a massive guest list of the hottest celebrity guests, artists, and up and coming independent film makers, Days of the Dead has already began rewriting the script and setting the bar for what a true horror convention weekend should look like.

And in this case, all located within walking distance of the USA’s second largest monument to consumerism. This could be fun.

And it certainly was…

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World Fantasy 2012: Neither Hurricane, SuperStorm, Sleet, nor Hail Can Daunt Our Heroine If She Wears Enough Chain Mail…

World Fantasy 2012: Neither Hurricane, SuperStorm, Sleet, nor Hail Can Daunt Our Heroine If She Wears Enough Chain Mail…

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bgruby-slippers
My ruby slippers by hurricane candlelight. Sigh.

Well, as Rabbie Burns would say, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”

I had all these wonderful, these glorious, these SUPREME plans to fly from Rhode Island to Chicago on Monday, October 29th, 2012 and spend a few days there among folks I hadn’t seen since I moved last November.

But a little storm named Sandy had other ideas. Oh, I won’t go into the details. They’re not gory enough; besides, it would sound like I’m complaining.

And really, I spent a very pleasant Monday in my attic apartment — which trembled — looking out the windows at sideways trees, contemplating putting on my ruby slippers in case the house fell on me, writing romantic letters by candlelight and reading Diana Wynne Jones’s Enchanted Glass. So that was all right.

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My desk. Where I wrote romantic hurricane letters.

But fly to Chicago? See family? Spend Halloween among friends, with soup and bonfire and creepy literature? Drive in caravan to Toronto(ish area) where the World Fantasy Convention was located?

CAPTAIN, IT’S A NO-GO. Halloween has been canceled, repeat, Halloween has been canceled.

However, my story does not end with the storm. No, it is just beginning.

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Meeting Your Heroes: David Kyle

Meeting Your Heroes: David Kyle

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a-pictorial-history-of-science-fictionThere are a handful of people whom I credit with introducing me to science fiction.

The first was my classmate John MacMaster, who brought me two science fiction novels when I was bedridden for a few days in the seventh grade. The second was Jacques Sadoul, whose 2000 A.D.: Illustrations From the Golden Age of Science Fiction Pulps turned my early curiosity into a full-fledged obsession with early SF and fantasy magazines. The third was Isaac Asimov, whose pulp anthology Before the Golden Age and Foundation Trilogy thoroughly captured my young imagination.

The man who cemented that early interest, and who brought all my young obsessions together — monster movies, pulps, magazines, comics, Star Wars, and even Isaac Asimov — and showed me that they were all aspects of the rich branch of art and literature known as Science Fiction, was David Kyle.

He did this through two magnificent books that I read over and over again as I lay in bed much too late on school nights: A Pictorial History of Science Fiction (Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1977) and The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas & Dreams (Hamlyn, 1977).

Both books were very popular in the 70s, especially following the release of Star Wars and the surge of interest in all things science fiction. Deluxe oversize hardcovers copiously illustrated with pictures of early SF writers, pulp art, and numerous books cover and movie stills, they were immaculately designed and gorgeous to look at. But it was Kyle’s text that really drew me in. Here was a man who had been a part of science fiction since its earliest days — a Futurian who attended the first Worldcon in 1939 and a founder of Gnome Press in 1948 with Martin Greenberg — and who still spoke of it with wonder and deep appreciation.

It’s through Gnome Press that David made perhaps his most significant contribution to science fiction, publishing nearly a hundred of the most important books in the genre — including first editions of Robert A. Heinlein’s Sixth Column and Methuselah’s Children, The Coming of Conan and Conan the Conqueror by Robert E. Howard, I, Robot and Foundation by Isaac Asimov, Clifford D. Simak’s City, C.L. Moore’s Judgment Night and Shambleau and Others, Two Sought Adventure by Fritz Leiber, plus Arthur C. Clarke, Edward E. Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, Leigh Brackett, Murray Leinster, A. E. van Vogt, and many others. He kept the most important writers in the field in print at a time when they appeared only in magazines, and is directly responsible for introducing them to a whole new generation.

I first met David Kyle at the World Fantasy convention in 1984, in my home town of Ottawa, where I was able to shake his hand and say a few words of appreciation. But it was at Worldcon three weeks ago that I had a chance to talk with him at length, and really get to know one of the most important early writers and publishers in the industry. It was one of the highlights of the con for me.

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New Treasures: Cult Magazines: A to Z

New Treasures: Cult Magazines: A to Z

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cult-magazine-atozYou get to meet a lot of great people at science fiction conventions. For some, the draw is the Featured Guests, and it’s certainly cool to meet Neil Gaimen, Pat Rothfuss, John Scalzi, Connie Willis, and other top-selling authors.

For me though, the true delights are in meeting exciting writers and artists I’m not always familiar with. A few years ago, as we were setting up our booth at Dragon*Con, author Rob Thurman, who had the booth next to us, wandered over and introduced herself. She turned out to be extremely cool and delightfully entertaining, and when I finally staggered home, bone weary from five days in Atlanta, I dropped into my big green chair with one of her Cal Leandros novels. If it hadn’t been for lucky booth placement, I might never have discovered what an entertaining writer she was.

The same thing happened at Worldcon in Chicago two weeks ago. During the rare slow moments in the Dealers’ Room, I was able to wander a bit and check out the nearby booths. I discovered to my surprise that we were next to Nonstop Press — publishers of Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller, and Cult Magazines: A to Z.

Nonstop’s Emshwiller: Infinity x Two: The Art & Life of Ed & Carol Emshwiller, by Luis Ortiz, is one of my favorite art books. The distinguished Mr. Ortiz was in the booth, and I was able to introduce myself. He had several intriguing new titles on display and — keeping a wary eye on the empty Black Gate booth — I was able to peek at them.

My eye was drawn immediately to Outermost: Life + Art of Jack Gaughan, a beautiful 176-page hardcover packed with over 500 images, many familiar from countless Ace and DAW paperback covers of the 60s and 70s. Over lunch, Rich Horton had talked about Robert Silverberg’s captivating memoir of writing SF in the 50s, Other Spaces, Other Times: A Life Spent in the Future, and there it was. I couldn’t resist Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo’s entertaining Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels – 1985-2010 either.

But the most fascinating book on the table, by a considerable margin, was Cult Magazines: A to Z, edited by Earl Kemp and Luis Ortiz, a gorgeous oversized softcover jam packed with articles and full-color pictures of hundreds of pulp, horror, science fiction, fantasy, comic, monster mags and men’s magazines published between 1925 and 1990.

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Goth Chick News: The Creature Had Good Taste and So Does Tim Burton

Goth Chick News: The Creature Had Good Taste and So Does Tim Burton

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image0021As it may have been with you, for me it all started with the original Universal Studios’ monster movies.

By “it,” I mean a lifelong fandom of the black and white, the subliminal scare, the camera angles and the long shadows; the classics created not because they were drenched in buckets of gore and nauseating realism, but because, as Bela Lugosi said in Ed Wood:

They were mythic. They had a poetry to them

Sigh.

Naturally, meeting someone associated with one of these films is the Goth Chick equivalent to winning the lottery; especially as those individuals who still are around to meet often do not venture far from the sunny and warm climates where they have retired.

Last weekend, Christmas came early when two of my all-time favorites from vintage Hollywood horror found their way to Chicago to attend The Hollywood Show.

Ms. Julie Adams, whose very presence and bearing makes you want to call her ma’am, is best known to many for her portrayal of bathing beauty Kay Lawrence in Universal’s 1954 classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Admittedly, my knowledge of Ms. Adams’ fifty-seven year career was extremely limited which she teasingly pointed out.

I wasn’t just the bit of cheesecake in the Creature movie you know. I actually worked with Elvis too!

Correct on both counts.

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