Article by Kris Manfredini
Mad Monster! A Horror convention with a twist!
This year in Chicago, the Mad Monster convention is dubbed “Mad Mobster”. It has the cool horror vendors with great pictures, art, t-shirts, toys, etc. It also has the horror celebrities that we have come to know and love! Kane Hodder and Author Mike are here. Lar Park-Lincoln is here along with Brad Dourif. For a full list of celebrity guest and special events, visit madmobster.com.
The twist this year to the convention is the True Crime aspects. They have a gentleman who, alongside selling his purposely cheesy horror movies, served as a police officer for Milwaukee in the 1990’s. He had numerous interactions with Jeffery Dahmer at a mall where Dahmer would pick up some of his victims. There is also Barry Boschelli who was a childhood friend of John Wayne Gacy and wrote a book about it. Wednesday 13 is there and he brought along the piece of art known as “The Sex Skull”. This was drawn by John Wayne Gacy while he was in prison. Words cannot do this drawing justice and you need to stare at it to fully grasp what is going on. The more you look at it, the more things you pick up and notice. There are also some F.B.I agents who are retired, with a lot of cool stories.
This convention is located downtown at the Hilton Chicago Hotel on Michigan Ave. It runs today and tomorrow and you can even get a ticket on Groupon for $12. If you are in the area and not wanting to spend Valentine’s Day in a traditional way or don’t want to celebrate it at all, this is a great alternative!
The highlight for me of course was being able to see and take a picture with Kane Hodder in full Jason Pt. VII costume and make up. On Friday the 13th, nonetheless! Such an incredible experience and I can honestly say it is my best Friday the 13th yet!