I’ve been blessed over the years with many good and talented friends. One of which is aging hipster, writer, and personality Mark Finn. In my time of need, Finn graciously volunteered to fill some of my pixels about the eight days of Fantastic Fest with his account of MondCon 1, the poster/art event that occurred during the festival.
MondoCon 1
The Little Show-Within-A-Show That Could
By Mark Finn
I got the first alert that there would be something called MondoCon the usual way: via Twitter. Mondo (the company) does a lot of their business that way these days. They started out as a T-shirt screen printer, in cahoots with the Alamo Draft House, making ironic tees for nascent hipsters. It was perfect niche marketing. Over the years, Mondo has greatly expanded their operations into silkscreening prints and movie posters for special events (and also, just because) and most recently, new vinyl pressings (with a full art workup, of course) of movie soundtracks that never got a vinyl release in the first place.
Genius idea? Clever marketing? Right on both counts. Now, they have enough clout and draw for their own gathering, the aforementioned MondoCon, and it was strategically located in the middle of the forced march that is Fantastic Fest. The organizers promised a more personal and intimate experience than the usual big name conventions like San Diego Comic-Con; they limited attendance on both days, booked a smaller event space, and promised a number of exclusives for people showing up.
As a collector of posters and movie memorabilia as well as a lover of comics, it was too good to pass up. Two-day tickets were affordable and the sheer volume of exclusives for the show was so vast, there was something special to be had for any and all price ranges.
The guests, as expected, were a number of cream of the crop artists and illustrators who have worked with Mondo before on posters and projects. Big name comic book greats and illustrators like Basil Gogos, Berni Wrightson, Val Mayerick, Mike Mignola, William Stout, Tim Sale, and Geoff Darrow were situated alongside the young turks and new designers like Jason Edmiston, Becky Cloonan, Francesco Francavilla, Jock, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Kevin Tong, and “Ghoulish” Garry Pullin. With a couple of exceptions, there were short lines or no lines at all, giving attendees plenty of time to chat with their favorites, ask questions about their work, and feel like they got to make a connection with the creators. It was an art lover’s dream, to be sure.
Art by Francesco Francavilla
In addition to the artists, there was a nice, even spread of other, related vendors selling new vinyl soundtracks, t-shirts, and other trappings of geekdom. Again, the prices ranged from five and ten dollars for sketchbooks and comics to prints under a hundred bucks, to original artwork in the thousands of dollars. None of the artists were charging for their signatures.
The venue, the Maresca Theater, is one of those cool event spaces in Austin that can do a lot in a small footprint. Mostly, this means an open bar. Also, Mondo enticed a few food trucks to park outside with event-themed items on their menu that were frankly awesome.
On top of everything else, there were panels and screenings, in keeping with the larger Fantastic Fest, allowing folks a chance to hear more from the artists and people behind the scenes at Mondo. The panels were very well attended, as were the screenings, and were unique in the way that people have come to expect from Alamo Draft House events. Case in point was the Texas Chain Saw Massacre screening, with a live performance of a brand-new soundtrack recorded specifically for the movie. This came with a vinyl album of said soundtrack for attendees to carry home with them. Sure, it was forty-five bucks, in addition to the convention costs, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and certainly worth the price of admission.
Speaking of which, that’s a very good question: was it worth it? The answer is a definite “It depends.” If the goal was to give something for the various Fantastic Fest attendees to check out, like a traveling exhibit, between shows, then I would say it was not very successful. I only saw a handful of Fantastic Fest badges in attendance on Saturday, which was by far the busiest day for a variety of reasons (more on this later). If, on the other hand, the goal was to throw up a little counter-programming during Fantastic Fest and showcase what a Going Concern the Mondo Enterprise has become, then it was a smash hit.
I never saw more befuddled and confused hipsters in my life on Saturday. Resplendent all, in skinny jeans, deeply ironic T-shirts, and confusing facial hair in a variety of configurations, they all wore shocked expressions that seemed to say, “I really thought I was the only guy who was into all this stuff.” I kid the hipsters. I kid. Mostly. Also in attendance were horror fans, movie buffs, several levels of serious art collectors, comic book geeks, and a clutch of people with very specific agendas, such as my friend Stephen who was there because he and his son are huge Hellboy fans and this was his chance to meet Mike Mignola in person without having to go to San Diego and spend a thousand bucks or more for the privilege.
And to be fair, many of the T-shirts I saw were pretty clever, and some were just cool; I saw someone rocking a vintage Bruce Lee shirt, a Creature from the Black Lagoon tee that was brand new, and one guy had on my favorite shirt of the day: done in the exact same style as that overused and beat-to-death “Keep Calm” poster from Doctor Who, his shirt said, “I’m Calmer Than You Are.” A perfect Lebowski-rejoinder to a pop culture expression. Ya gotta love it.
Once the masses got over the fact that they weren’t unique and special snowflakes (and in fact, Mondo sold out of Saturday passes), everyone seemed to relax and have a good time. There was genuine energy in the rooms and outside as people talked about meeting certain artists and creators. Even the folks in line (wait for it) were talking to one another and making friends.
Sunday was much less frantic, and here’s why: over the years, Mondo has built its reputation on exclusivity. Limited numbers of things. If you aren’t line, you aren’t getting one. First come, first served. You get the idea. Well, so did everyone else. Mondo very thoughtfully put all of their wares for sale outside, in a tent…in the 85 degree, ten thousand percent humidity heat…in Austin… and the line was bonkers. It stretched around a couple of times before snaking into the tent, where you had to navigate another maze of stanchions to get to the place where you could buy your exclusive loot. If you were buying a few posters, well, then, it was an investment in your time. If you were only buying, say, a comic book…like I was…and the heat was so intense that they had to actually cut open the tent on both sides to get a cross breeze going (and it still didn’t help), well, then you were kind of screwed. I waited in line for two hours and then gave up. Thankfully, my new best friend in line offered to pick up the comic for me and meet up with me later. He stayed for another two-and-a-half hours to get his commemorative poster at $49.
To be fair, the fault was in some problem with the credit card machines. No one told anyone that, however—no one from Mondo made any announcements, or thought to say to the crowd anything along the lines of “Hey, folks, we’ve got enough posters for everyone who bought tickets, so you don’t have to crowd in right now if you don’t want to,” or “We’re having trouble with our credit card software at the moment.” That was a rookie mistake, and there were a few of them along these lines. On Sunday, the credit card machines were working perfectly, and there was no line after the first hour. It would have been nice to know some of that on Saturday.
Berni Wrightson’s early Ghostbusters concept art
(Courtesy of Spook Central)
Another mistake they made was trying to do too much with too few panels. The “Designing for the Movies Panel” had six guests on it, ranging from Jock, who did the artwork for the movie Battleship, to Berni Wrightson, who has done a dozen films in his career (including Ghostbusters), to William Stout, who worked on visible projects like Conan the Barbarian. And Tim Sale, who did a ton of artwork for the TV show Heroes, was absent altogether. The moderator very thoughtfully included slides that were shown during each person’s segment, but the whole panel was nearly two hours long and left no time for audience questions. The thing was so long, Berni had to get up and go to the bathroom. And we got to hear from him last. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, I know, but this should obviously have been two panels with three our four creators each.
All was not doom and gloom, however. One of the highlights for me was the advance screening of the film Future Shock!, a documentary about the British comic series 2000 A.D. For those of you who are under the age of 40, I will tell you that the comic book was incredibly important to the development of American comics in the 1980s, as it introduced us to Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Dave Gibbons, Pat Mills, Simon Bisley, Kevin O’Neill, and literally a score of others who would go on to write and draw some of the most influential comics to date.
The documentary is wonderful, a mix of personal anecdotes and historical record, and it doesn’t shy away from the controversies, the hurt feelings, and the residual ire that came from making something out of literally blood, sweat, and tears. Growing up in the 1980s, the British creators were my heroes; exciting personalities who were shaking things up and doing things that we’d never seen before. Future Shock! brought it all back to me and made me gleefully nostalgic for my misspent youth.
By Sunday, the crowds had thinned, with a couple of notable exceptions, and it was easier to get into rooms that were not at capacity, walk around, talk to artists and creators, and so forth. Most of the Saturday people, it seemed were there to grab what they could grab before anyone ran out. Thankfully, no one did.
As shows go, I would say it was an unqualified success. Those rookie mistakes are easily corrected for next year, and to my way of thinking, Mondo has a choice to make. They can either stay attached to Fantastic Fest as a show-within-a-film festival, and if they do that, they really need to be next to the hub of events. Or, optionally, they can go it alone and set up another show away from Fantastic Fest, as their core base is more than enough to sustain a small, intimate gathering like that without having to sponge off of the film festival. Either way, I’m sure I’ll be back.
Check out Mark’s regular missives at Finn’s Wake.