The Creacher Went Down to Georgia
In early 2023, I decided I’d finally fulfill a dream of mine: to attend as many kaiju conventions as I possibly can in one year. I had been aspiring to do this for a minute, the only problem was that there really weren’t that many kaiju related, or adjacent shows to participate in until recently.
Skip to October of this year, and I’m well into my 4th or 5th show, depending on if you count pop-up shops, and I’m preparing to drive 11 and a half hours down to Georgia to attend the popular retro show based in Atlanta, Monsterama. The drive was, for the first 8 or so hours, mostly uneventful, excluding a broke down school bus being towed and a minor pileup once I got around Nashville.
When I finally got through the hot wheels track that was Atlanta’s roads, I pulled into the Hilton there in Peachtree Corners and instantly fell in love with the atmosphere. Maybe it’s the fact I’m from the Great Lakes, or maybe it’s the fact that it was spooky season, or just the Southern hospitality I encountered, but I felt comfortable as soon as I got settled in.
Aside from seeing a small number of recognizable faces from other shows like All Monsters Attack, the show was populated with a myriad of people I had never met. To me, this is a godsend. I love meeting new people and talking kaiju crap for hours with new friends. The entire reason I go to a show like this is to buddy up with new people.
The show itself was small, but I don’t say small in a negative light. Quite the opposite. One of the core fundamentals of why I love the kaiju cons I’ve done over the years is that small, contained environment. It’s a quality over quantity sort of situation; of course some dealers might scoff at a smaller convention, but as an artist who sells his wares at these shows, I’ll always stand by the assertion that four quarters is as good as one hundred pennies.
From a vendor’s perspective, the show was decently profitable for me. At the end of the day, sometimes the best you can hope for at these shows is to network and break even. I did more than that. So in short, as a vendor, I highly recommend this show.
The size of the show also helped keep it calm and chill, which is always a godsend for me. The guest list was rather varied for the size of the show as well, covering tokusatsu, old dynamation classics, and classic horror alumni. They had viewing rooms where you could watch classic creature features and trivia games. Because of my proximity to my table as a vendor, I can’t say I got to see the entire show, but what I did get to see was great.
All and all the show had a great lax vibe, coupled with the pleasant weather, great location (plenty of places to walk to eat or even shop so you won’t feel confined to the hotel) and southern hospitality made me more than eager to return for the next outing.
So if you’re local, or close enough to make the show, stop in next year, come and say high, chill out and have a good time. This show was a blast.
The Creacher Went Down to Georgia: Monsterama!
