As excited as I was to type this up yesterday, I needed a little time to get back into reality mode and gather my thoughts after another killer artventure with my horror community fam at Flashback Weekend Chicago!

Frank and I started our Friday morning off by carefully loading 2 cart fulls of donated prizes and all our luggage into the truck and then ventured off to Rosemont.

For those of you that may not be aware, we have been attending Flashback Weekend since 2004 but I have been volunteering as the convention’s Prize Coordinator for the last few years. This means I am in charge of organizing and collaborating with various businesses, artists and vendors to collect merchandise prize sponsorship donations that are raffled off for the convention’s Ultimate VIP Cocktail Reception Party, held every year for Ultimate Ticket Holders and the celebrity guests. I collect, deliver, and set up the prize table at the event. I also market the sponsors by creating/maintaining the landing page, social media posts, and promotional flyers used to announce and market the prize sponsors online and at the event.

These are the 3 art pieces I chose to donate to the prizes this year. They included two oversized 16×20 canvas prints of Art and Victor (to be raffled off on their own) and one 8×12 canvas print of Freddy (to be raffled inside the Swag Bag of smaller prizes). All perfectly aligned with this years celebrity guests.

Despite there being a huge national sports collectors event taking place at the convention center next door, we were able to park in the hotel garage without any issues and were even able to check in early when we got there. A big difference from the stressfulness of last year which I think had a lot to do with the fact that there were no other big events taking place inside the hotel itself.

When we got there we unloaded and dragged all the carts and luggage to our room and then ventured off to get our badges at the registration booth, where we were greeted by the (always) amazing convention staff volunteers. We then hit up the dealer room to connect with some of the vendors who had prizes for me to pick up at their booths. Once we got those all back to our room safely, it was time to take everything in. Our first stop was to say hello to our very talented friend Chad Savage (Sinister Visions). I mean it just doesn’t feel like Flashback until we have this horror con family reunion.

After scoping out the amazing vendors and getting an idea on where everything was located, we went and got a bite to eat and had a few drinks at the hotel bar. Afterwards we got ready for a very exciting new event the convention was holding in the evening called Friday Night Frights Live. It was a fun on stage late night talk show hosted by local horror icon Svengoolie.

He interviewed horror legends, Robert Englund, Barbara Crampton, and Joe Dante and we got to hear so many great stories from all of them. They even had a musical guest who was the one and only Tuesday Knight! This new event definitely was a killer way to kick things off this year and we really hope the con continues to make this a fun new tradition.

The hotel at this point was jam packed with sports collectors from the convention center event letting out. It felt like hoards of zombies craving cards in every inch of the hotel. There was not a single place to sit in the bar or lounge areas and every table and floor area had cards spread out with groups of people standing and starring. Since I was a bit overstimulated with all the sporty chaos, we went up to the after party on the top floor to check out the panoramic views of Chicago skyline for a bit. The movement of the room itself was tripping me out, so we decided to end the evening by relaxing on our room’s quiet, private balcony.

We got up early Saturday and headed downstairs to get in before the con opened to the general public. It was time to get into full blown charity and art gifting mode.

First we stopped at Adam Green‘s table where I brought with me the 16×20 canvas print that we auctioned off for Yorkiethon 9. As soon as Adam saw it, he recognized it right away and came around the table and gave me a huge thank you hug.

He was beyond grateful for my contribution and talents and was so excited to also see the original piece in person. He got to signing the auction piece right away and then we walked over to Kane’s table to have him sign it as well.

Kane asked where the art piece came from and I was standing behind them holding the original ready to gift it to him. He was blown away when he saw it and intrigued that it was all hand drawn in pencil. I told him how the wood frame that I chose to put it in was ironically called “The Axeman” and he got a kick out that. He then told me “I really hope you’re doing something with all this talent.” while starring at all the details. My quick response was “I’m trying!” with an excited giggle.

He then told me we had to get a picture with the art piece and I was definitely not going to turn the man down..

I apologized to the folks standing in line that had to wait while all of this was happening and then Adam, as awesome as he is, had my back by saying “Sorry guys, this is for charity”.

When we were done with Kane we went back to Adam’s table where I gifted him a canvas print of the art piece as well as a Jason Voorhees squeaky toy for Arwen. We took photos with the signed auction piece and had a little one on one time with him for a bit where we told him how his work speaks to us as horror fans, and that thanks to Holliston, “piggly no wiggly” and “market basKET” now live in our vocabulary permanently, which he totally got a kick out of. He gave Frank a brotherly bond handshake when he told him how much mad respect he had for him including Dave Brockie aka Oderus Urungus into the show. He shared some fun and interesting facts with us about production and even the art used on the show. We even reminisced about our mutual dearly departed friend Sid Haig and his epic Scary Sleepover moment of kidnapping Axel the cat!

Once we safely put the the autographed art piece in our room it was time to mingle with our horror con fam and go exploring. We met up with our friends Ben and Jonathan of Dead Regime Media.

Ben surprised us with a very unique gift of horror history that he acquired from the set of The Amityville Horror movie from 2005. Apparently the crew hid trinkets on set in random places in hopes to ward off bad spirits after weird instances started to occur during filming. This included crew members would frequently wake up at 3:15 AM (the time of the real-life murders), a real body floating up on the water (where they filmed the boathouse scenes), and Kathy Lutz (who was involved in the remake’s production) whose family’s experiences in the house formed the basis of the story, passed away during the first week of filming. The piece itself is a Watkins Exposure Meter from the early 1900’s that was used to measure the power of light.

After having a late lunch and drinks with our friends, we were able to take a quick peak in as the annual costume contest winners were being announced, and then we immediately headed to our room to start gathering the prizes and loading them up for the Ultimate VIP Cocktail Reception Party!

This year, I did things a bit differently since the swag bags I created for the previous years were starting to get larger and larger each year. We offered prize sponsors the opportunity to donate a larger/higher value item to be raffled off on its own or donate smaller items to be put into one large swag bag that would be raffled off together. The thought process was to give more exposure to those who donate, sponsors not needing to donate multiples of one item, and to also give attendees more opportunity to win something. The outcome was incredible and we definitely ended up needing a much larger display table this year.

Due to so many generous donations and wanting to give props to each sponsor that donated, I assisted Chad when announcing each prize and pulled the winning raffle ticket numbers. Frank took photos of all of us live in action while Kat was getting photos of each individual with the prizes that they won.

Be sure to go to the Flashback Weekend Instagram page to see a video reel recap from the event.

It may have been a bit more work this year with the changes I made, but it was so rewarding to see the excitement from those hoping to win and the joy on the faces of those who did. During the event, four attendees came up to thank me and share that after all the years they’ve been coming to the party, this was the first time they actually won a prize. They were so genuinely happy to hear their raffle ticket numbers finally be called, and that made all the extra effort so well worth it.

I also got to enjoy a little time at the party with my horror con fam ghoulfriends Kat and Summer…

That evening, the hotel was once again filled with hoards of sports card collectors, but this time it didn’t phase us because we were excited to attend the live, late night performance of our friend and local master illusionist, Ron Fitzgerald. I snapped a few photos, then put my phone away to fully take it all in. The first time I saw Ron perform live was in the early 90s when my dad took me to be in the audience for a taping of his cable access TV show, Fitzgerald’s Realm. Watching him again as an adult at Flashback brought a wave of nostalgia rushing back. Even the music took me there. I vividly remembered sitting beside my dad, hearing music like Nine Inch Nails for the first time, and being completely in awe. It struck me how much Ron had influenced me. Goth culture wasn’t exactly common in our suburban bubble, but thanks to Ron’s dark, sticky, fun energy, I fell in love with it that very day. Since then, I’ve met Ron many times and become friends with him. He’s a true gem in the dark arts scene, and I’m forever grateful my dad took me to see him all those years ago.

When the show was over we didn’t get a chance to catch up with Ron because unfortunately he accidentally cut his thumb on a razor blade during the show and was getting it wrapped up. So we decided to have pizza and dessert delivered to our room and enjoyed another nice evening to ourselves.

On Sunday we were tired after a very eventful weekend. We checked out and loaded up the truck and then went back to the con to make a pit stop at Steven Luros Holliday‘s booth before heading out. On Saturday I had my “I need this to breath” moment in the vendor space when I discovered Steven’s 4 piece set of art called “Seasons”. Frank saw me attempting to pick my jaw up on the floor while the art was speaking to my soul and talked Steven into selling him the framed display for me. We agreed to wait to pick it up on Sunday so he could still display it at his booth. A killer way to end the weekend with a very happy wifey!

As I end this artventure con recap, I just want to reiterate what I’ve been saying for years…

Mike & Mia Kerz, and the entire crew at Flashback Weekend are the true beating heart of horror in the Windy City. They’ve created more than just a convention, they’ve built our midwest horror family and accepted all of us with open arms. There are plenty of horror cons out there, and we support them all, but the love, energy, and soul poured into this convention since the early 2000’s is why so many of us will always call it our forever horror home.

Thank you for keeping the spirit alive, and for giving us a place where horror isn’t just celebrated… it’s lived.

Until Next Year…

Stay Spooky & Magical,
LDG Nicole