Shuffling Along at Zombiefest
The first annual "Zombiefest" was held in Pittsburgh this weekend at the Monroeville Expo Mart. Holding such an event in Pittsburgh just seems fitting; after all, the city is the background for every George Romero zombie movie (even when he chooses to film in Toronto... I'm looking at you, Land of the Dead). The event is connected with the world's largest "zombie walk," which is becoming a yearly ritual in the 'Burgh. While I wasn't there to do the walk, Karissa and I did check out the exhibit hall, sit in on some panel discussions, and meet some of the actors from the Romero films.
I was expecting the convention to be similar to the comic book conventions I used to go to in grade school, but I guess you could say it was more akin to a Star Trek convention. The giant hall had a smattering of booths selling all sorts of zombie-wares, from old movie posters to crafts themed after the undead. The majority of folks in attendance were decked out in zombie make-up and costumes: there were zombie soldiers, clowns, sailors, pimps, and bikers. Making things more interesting was the fact that most people staying in "zombie character" while they shuffled about buying things and getting autographs. That's the kind of dedication I can get behind.
The coolest booth I saw was by Twilight Creations, Inc.. Twilight is a board game company that specializes in zombie games--their main product is simply called "Zombies!" The game looks awesome; it's one of those strategy games that takes like 5 hours to play and involves hundreds of little tiny figurines. That's the kind of game I love to play, assuming I can find the right number of people to get in on it.
Aside from wanting to bask in the glory of all this zombie stuff, we also wanted to come to the convention to see our Seton Hill prof. Dr. Michael Arnzen. Dr. Arnzen, as you may know, is a Bram Stoker-winning horror writer. He was there as part of the Raw Dog Screaming Press booth. There were plenty of other authors there, all of which participated on panels throughout the day. Each of the panels featuring writers reading excerpts from their published works, and then fielding questions from the audience. Most of the questions were actually pretty good and addressed serious topics like referencing popular culture and censorship in horror fiction. The panels were very interesting, when they weren't being interrupted by a gruff zombie voice making announcements over the P.A. system.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet the other author I had wanted to see: Max Brooks, author of World War Z. Brooks was only appearing Sunday--probably because that's the day of the zombie walk, so the crowd should be pretty large.
I did get to see a question and answer panel with various cast members from the first three Romero zombie films. I most enjoyed talking to David Emge, who played "Flyboy" in Dawn of the Dead. I made sure to let him know I thought Dawn was the best of the Romero films... just in case he was wondering.
It was strange that the convention seemed to have a focus solely on the first three Romero films (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead). Romero's fourth film, Land of the Dead was hardly ever mentioned. I'm not sure if it's because folks resent the film for not being filmed in Pittsburgh, or because it was made so long after the first three. It's a shame because I rather liked that movie. Other zombie movies seemed to be missing from the pack as well, like 28 Days Later and the remake of "Dawn." The convention was also missing any reference to the plethora of zombie video games and comic books out there--another aspect that would have made things feel more comprehensive. I would think that this convention might be able to broaden its appeal, and provide more content and vendors, if it would branch out to really include more than just three movies.
Zombiefest also included a handful of other vendors that seemed to just be there for the heck of it. Straub was there handing out some sort of new dark beer, some sort of Pittsburgh roller derby team was there, and a tattoo shop. A strange mix, but inside the cultural world of zombies, it all just sort of makes sense.
This first Zombiefest was a lot of fun to experience, and I'm certainly glad I went. This is the kind of convention that could only succeed in Pittsburgh, and I look forward to checking it out as it grows in the future.
Posted by MikeRubino at October 27, 2007 11:55 PM | TrackBack