Detroit Horror Con

Hey there.  Long time, no speak.  The long and the short of it is that while I'd love to be making custom card sets on a regular basis I simply no longer have the time in my daily life.  It makes me a little sad because I've got a lot of ideas I'd like to execute but, it is and always was a hobby.  That part I'm thankful for.  I get to make cards when and how I want and not because I intended it to be a business and have to make my cards out of obligation.

These days all I'm really making are autograph card, as opposed to the vintage inspired custom cards I was making.  These are cards made solely for the purpose of getting autographs.   These are my own designs and mostly one or two offs.  The bulk of them are my horror autograph series card.  I love the horror genre and autographs, so I never get tired of revisiting these cards.  

This set also also pays homage to another thing I love, that being VHS horror slip cover art.  I love thinking of ways to up-cycle the artwork around the card template.  

This past Saturday I went to the Detroit Horror Con, which is the only convention I've attended this year.  The best I can tell is that this horror con stepped up with the Motor City Nightmares con having fallen through this year.  I don't know if that's the case, but it's what I'm assuming seeing that their site boasts being Detroit's only horror convention.  To my knowledge this is the first year for this particular horror convention.  It was held at the Oakland Convention Center which is a lot more spacious than the hotel conference room usually used for the Motor City Nightmares convention.  The convention didn't seem to be all that well attended which I attributed to it being brand new and also pretty late in the convention season.  Other than that the venue was good and so were the guests.  

I came with 4 cards for 5 different signers.  I ended up getting 3 autos, the reason was a simple one... economics.  Convention autos are more pricey these days and I like to also get horror goodies from the vendors.  I reasoned that the two signers I didn't get, Tom Mathews and C.J Graham, are no strangers to conventions, so I could probably get them in the future and I'll already have the cards made up.  

The signers I did get were Judie Aronson, Christine Elise and Alex Vincent.  

I got Judie Aronson first.  I've gotten Judie's signature a few times before through private signing mail-ins, but this was the first time in person.  Even though I've got her autograph on my cards before I was not going to pass up this chance as she's a lock for my top-5 scream queens list.  I got her to sign a customer Friday the 13th IV custom autograph card.    I actually have her auto on my version 1.0 template for this movie, but she's a fav of mine so I made a special version 2.0 with a pic from the iconic raft kill scene.

While she was signing I notice she had pics on her table from Friday the 13th, American Ninja, and Weird Science but nothing from a personal favorite of mine, The Sleeping Car.  So, I asked "nothing from The Sleeping Car"?  She looked genuinely surprised and asked "how do you know about The Sleeping Car"?, almost as if the film had never been released.  I just replied it's a favorite of mine and I find it to be very fun and underrated.  Judie said it would be a good idea if she and David Naughton did cons together and introduce new audiences to that movie.  If that were to happen, I'll be one of the first in line.  The auto came out nicely in red as I requested.  Judie's got a very nice, clean autograph.  

After she signed she automatically got up to take a picture with me.  This is something I dread because I also always feel so awkward.  I can't decline because that would of came off as rude, and besides, it was Judie-freaking-Aronson!  To be respectful I did the hover hand thing but to my surprise she got right in there for the picture.  The best part was the unintended humor that came from my Jason Voorhees t-shirt's gaze. 

I know it's a matter of semantics, but I never say I "met" a celebrity signer when I'm a paying customer at a convention, the same way I wouldn't say I met the cashier at a store who said "how are you today?" while ringing me up.   It's a transaction, not a meeting.  But, I am happy to say I now have an in-person autograph from Judie Aronson!  

The next up was Christine Elise.  First though I had to wait about 15 minutes while she and Alex Vincent finished up fan panel.  The set-up on that was interesting because usually you go to a separate room for a panel but this was sort of just out in the open over to the side as the venue is just a large single-room convection center layout.  I thought they could have walled it off  with those curtain partitions like they did for the photo opp. area.

I'll give Christine Elise credit, she has a great deal of patience for her fans.  The guy before me was pretty, let's say particular.  She re-signed his photo because he didn't like the way she made one of her letters in the long movie quote she personalized the photo with for him.  Then I somehow got roped in to taking the pic for him with her because I was waiting behind him to get my autograph.  He was then directing me in taking the pic with him; instructing me on the proper distance and making sure I got both landscape and portrait.  Then, of course, more pics when he took his long Pantene commercial-esque hair down.  It found that both odd and uncomfortable.  

Finally it was my turn.  I presented my dual auto Child's Play 2 card and pointed out to Christine which area of the card was meant for her autograph. She asked if a black marker was alright.  In my head I said "actually, do you have red?" but that retort never made its way out of my mouth, so... black it was. 

Next was Alex Vincent.  I showed him the card and he remarked that it was cool.  I told him I made it and he said I did a good job on it.  That's always more than enough for me.  Anything more would embarrass me.  I'm not comfortable with attention being drawn to me.  

He signed in black to match Christine's autograph and also added his character's name as she did.  I've always said that the only thing better than an autographed card is a dual autographed card!

Since I was wearing my Detroit Tigers cap he must've mistaken me for something more than a casual fan and asked me if they won today.  I couldn't even have told you who they were playing, so I just causally answered ya know, I've been walking around here today so I didn't actually know.  Not a complete lie.  He grabbed his phone and hit up Google.  The Tigers beat the Dodgers 2-1.  

Ahh, American Ninja. Just the name alone let’s you know you’re in for some ‘80s. There were few things quite a hot as ninjas in the 1980s and then Cannon Films went and turned it up to eleven by adding the armed forces element in a period where it was still marketable to be patriotic.

American Ninja is a treasure trove of ‘80s B-movie guilty pleasures. There’s some pretty good action sequences. When I watch it I always seem to be caught off guard when guys are killed in the movie. I guess I expect it to be like a live action G.I. Joe where the good guys just sort of run off the bad guys but no one is actually  mortally wounded. I read that Michael Dudikoff had no prior martial arts training but I think he pulled off the karate action convincingly. The late Steve James himself makes for a pretty badass number two, but they probably could have written in some more ass kicking for him to make his character a bit more memorable.

Now that the heroes are in place we need some baddies with foreign accents to stick with the genre’s trope.  Treacherous arms smuggler “Victor Ortega” and the paid services of the deadly “Black Star Ninja” will do nicely. If this was a card set back-in-the-day the “Black Star Ninja’s” card would be the one I would have been busting packs open in search of. Kind of like how “Storm Shadow” wasn’t a Joe, but he was THE coolest and most must-have figure of the G.I. Joe toy line.

Of course you also need a beautiful love interest which was played by Judie Aronson as “Patricia Hickock”, the colonel’s daughter. Besides Steve James being underutilized the only other thing I would changed about American Ninja would have been a little skin from Judie as she’s among my top ‘80s crushes. I guess I could always just watch Friday the 13th part IV. Or The Sleeping Car. Or Cool Blue.

1985 Topps Rambo: First Blood Part II

Judie’s card was the first one I made. Judie signs through the mail, so I just needed something for her to sign, which she did! Then as I’ve begun to expand my singles to mini-sets it was American Ninja’s turn after coming across the awesome picture that was used for Dudikoff’s card. American Ninja was released in 1985 so I chose the Rambo: First Blood Part II set by Topps from the same year as the inspiration. I actually think the template works perfect. I wanted to use the yellow burst like in the lower left of the Rambo cards but the orientation of the Dudikoff picture I chose just would not lend to that as it’s wider than it is tall. I made it so American Ninja “Joe Armstrong” is stealthily popping in from below to deliver a blue-eyed death blow in his full ninja garb. I think it works great and gives the card its own feel even with the red and barbwire being recycled from the Rambo card.

I’ve been making mini-sets that are as large as 15, 20, and even 25 cards lately, but this one stopped at five.  There was maybe a couple other characters that could have got a card but they just weren’t, in my opinion, interesting enough and I thought would ultimately take away from the five characters that do make up the set.

Fun Facts:
American Ninja is a full blown franchise having spawned 4 sequels … Chuck Norris declined the American Ninja lead not wanting to cover his face … Kurt McKinney of No Retreat, No Surrender fame auditioned but ultimately didn’t land the role because he looked too young … In an interview Michael Dudikoff says he contracted malaria while filming in the Philippines which is what he attributes being excessively sweaty in fight scenes to