From July 11-14, I attended one of my favorite conventions, G-Fest, in Rosemont, Illinois. Godzilla and kaiju fans from all over the world converge here for three (well, technically four) days of monster-sized fun. As usual, I was a panelist, including serving as a co-moderator for the Kaiju Writers Panel with Daniel DiManna of the Godzilla Novelization Project. While I discussed the convention on a livestream with Ryan “The Omni Viewer” Collins July 20 and will do so at least a bit on my podcasts, The Monster Island Film Vault and Henshin Power V3, in the coming weeks, here’s a rundown on what went down at that con.
Day “Minus One”
The lead up to the con was a bit stressful. I wasn’t able to save up as much money for it as I wanted, and my attempts to get a fourth roommate for me, my brother Jarod, and my friend/HPV3 co-host, Jake Hambrick, fell through—until my friend/MIFV patron Matt Walsh (no, not that Matt Walsh) called me a few days beforehand to say his friends had booked different rooms without him, and he needed a new place to stay. So, he joined us. That made the math easy: we’d each pay for a night at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, where the con was held.
After an early morning plasma donation for some extra cash and a quick trip to the bank, Jarod and I piled into my car and made the three-and-a-half hour drive from Fort Wayne to Rosemont. We had only one minor snag, which was that I put “Hyatt Rosemont” and not “Hyatt Regency” into my phone’s GPS, so we were slightly delayed arriving. After meeting up with a few friends like Elijah Thomas (Kaiju Conversation), Kaiju Kim, Daniel DiManna, and others, we rushed to the Pickwick Theater for the first of G-Fest’s trademark double features: Mothra vs. Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). Thankfully, unlike years past, there wasn’t an event happening at the local park, so finding parking was easy. Afterward, we went to Giordanno’s for some true Chicago-style pizza. It’s a little less special because there’s a Giordanno’s in Fort Wayne now, but it’s my G-Fest tradition. We had a charismatic waiter (whose name I wish I could remember, because he was my favorite in my years at G-Fest), which made it an even better experience. Then we rushed back to the Pickwick to see the second double feature, albeit late, which included The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. I won’t get into much here, but SpaceGodzilla is a lesser entry in the franchise, to say the least, but I did gain a little more appreciation seeing it on the big screen. I’d forgotten the blu-ray, which is what was used to screen it, had dreaded “dubtitles,” though. I and a couple friends kept correcting the subtitles as we watched.
Then we checked in at the hotel, unloaded my car, and turned in for the night.
Day 1
With maybe six hours of sleep and 200 milligrams of caffeine to fuel me, I got up bright and early, ate breakfast, and then Jake and I jumped into the kaiju-sized snake of a line for registration. Seriously, it went all the way down the hallway into the main lobby and around this huge dining room. Thankfully, it moved fast, and we got our badges and programs inside of 15 minutes. Sadly, it was while standing in line that we learned how terrible the Hyatt’s wifi was. I know, “first world problems,” but it hindered some communication. It’s the main reason, aside from sheer busyness, why I didn’t post much on social media about the event.
At 10AM, I helped kick off the convention with one of its first two panels: The 40th Anniversary of Return of Godzilla. This was organized by Autistic Lizard Pro and included several great friends. It, like most of my panels, was stacked. Here’s the video:
I attempted to enter the dealer hall afterward. Keyword: attempted. The dealer hall is one of the con’s biggest attractions since it always has exclusive merchandise. It was so crowded, it needed “bouncers” to monitor how many could enter. I just did a quick survey to locate my favorite vendors, which included Seismic Toys, Beast from the East, and Toku Toy Town, with the latter two being next to each other, which was great.
Speaking of Seismic, Alex Rushdy, who helps run the shop, gave a panel at noon about every Godzilla video game ever. I love his video game panels, because he knows more about kaiju video games than anyone else.
I then returned to the dealer hall to actually talk with some people, like Jay Key from Toku Toy Town, and do some networking. I say that because I met Jeff Gomez from Ultraman Connection. I’ve had him on MIFV a couple times, and he’s a big fan of my podcasts. I got some inside info from him about a “lost” American-made Ultraman movie from the 1980s that was being screen as part of the film festival at the con as well as learn that his website is looking for writers, so hopefully I’ll have a freelance gig with him.
I then hit up a couple panels that featured some friends: namely 50 Years of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Godzilla Minus One. I’d have loved to be a part of either, but it was great being there and seeing the love the fandom has for Minus One.
Next up, I and a few friends, including Ryan Collins, got an early dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Red Bar, so we could go downstairs and watch the premiere of crowdfunded indie film Kaiju Glam Metal Shark Attack. Yes, that’s a real movie made by SRS Cinema. It was…something. If and when it gets released on blu-ray, it may end up on MIFV.
Following this, we all gathered in three ballrooms for the customary opening ceremony, which introduced the special guests, among other things. What surprised me was I bumped into none other than Linda Jo Miller, one of the stars of King Kong Escapes! She was there “secretly” as an attendee and not a guest! We had a nice chat about the article I published in Kaiju United and Kaiju Ramen about her and the other leading ladies in Kong films, and I confirmed I could interview her for the show. (Score!) Anyway, the opening ceremonies were shorter than I expected. I chitchatted with one of the other guests, Dr. Jeffrey Angles, who translated the first two Godzilla novelizations by Shigeru Kayama into English. We’d been corresponding for a bit, but I was able to solidify an interview with him for MIFV. I could talk to him for hours about literature, teaching, and Godzilla.
The day concluded with an epic screening of Godzilla: Final Wars. I’ve never seen the Pickwick so full before. They had to usher people in to find seats. There were rumors that the screening would sell out. I don’t know if it did, but it was so crowded that it started 30 minutes late. (I got tired of seeing the same trailers for Twisters and Deadpool and Wolverine all weekend). If ever there was a Godzilla film where the crowd could get rowdy, it was this one. And they certainly did! I’ve always unabashedly loved that film, and seeing it on the big screen was one of the highlights of all my G-Fests. I hope someone sends a photo and/or video of that crowd to the film’s director, Ryuhei Kitamura, for some validation, since it was popular to hate Final Wars for a while.
Day 2
Saturday, like with any multi-day con, was the biggest and busiest day. I went downstairs to the Film Festival room to at least watch the first 30 minutes or so of Ultraman: The Adventure Begins with its “new dub.” All I’ll say for now is these actors do work hard to sound “of the era.” I wish I could’ve stayed longer, but I had a panel at 11AM, and I always work hard to keep my commitments.
The Kaiju Writers panel was great, as always. We had a bit of a snag because the previous panel went over, and one of our panelists was a bit late, which seems to be tradition. It was the first year where Daniel DiManna and I were the official co-moderators. The original moderator, Neil Riebe, was still on it, though. This year we included poet Donny Winter and Goryo author Dane Kroll. You can watch the video taken by my brother Jarod below.
Most of my afternoon was spent attending panels. First was the Rie Ota interview. She famously played Baragon in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. She’s a rare female kaiju suit actor. Sadly, the panel was a bit of a mess. Only one interviewer asked decent questions, and the interpreter struggled a bit. I’ll leave it at that. Next, I went to the Creating Original Kaiju panel. It was okay. I didn’t get as much out of it as I expected. But I wanted to support Dane. I missed out on Jeffrey Anglers’ interview and him reading a passage from his translation of Luminous Fairies and Motha (the source material for the 1961 film). Darn. After a stint in the dealer room, I went to Allan Henry’s interview panel. He’s a mocap actor who, among other things, played Kong in the last two MonsterVerse movies. This interview was much better than Ota’s. It helped he didn’t need an interpreter despite his Kiwi accent. 😛
After this, I started organizing a big get-together for dinner at Caddyshack, a restaurant at the Crowne Plaza hotel down the street, where G-Fest took place before outgrowing it in 2020. There was a bit of a misunderstanding, which hurt someone’s feelings, but thankfully it was resolved by the next day.
Following this was the traditional award ceremony and always-popular costume parade. The fabled Mangled Skyscraper Award went to Toshio Miike, a designer on many tokusatsu projects, who was a guest at the show. If you’d like to see the costume parade, which includes one of the best Mechagodzilla cosplays I’ve ever seen, watch this video:
Jarod and I then went to the final Pickwick screening of the weekend: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is the latest MonsterVerse flick. Jarod hadn’t seen it and told me he wanted to see it at G-Fest, so I made sure to go for him. I was a little hesitant because the last time I saw a MonsterVerse movie at the Pickwick, Godzilla vs. Kong, it was a bad experience thanks to an obnoxious crowd. I’m happy to say this was better. Yes, the crowd was largely teenage boys, so while it was slightly smaller than the Final Wars screening, it was louder. However, they didn’t just cheer for the monsters: they cheered for the human characters and their sentimental moments. This along with Allan Henry, who introduced the movie, being at the con and several cosplayers wearing costumes of the movie’s villain, Skar King, showed me how popular certain monsters were. It got my English major brain going. I’m mulling over a potential think piece for Kaiju United based on this experience.
Day 3
I was surprised to see that G-pardy, G-Fest’s trademark quiz show, was moved from Saturday night as the warm-up to the costume parade to its own event on Sunday morning. It was also under new management from Skip Peel, who wasn’t in attendance. The program said to come 30 minutes early for qualifying questions, so I and many other people did. Unfortunately, the host didn’t show up until the scheduled start time of 10AM. While I appreciated that his prelim questions were easier and more reasonable than Skip’s (i.e. they were softballs by comparison), I still missed one question and blanked on another. So, my dream of competing was dashed again. But the game itself was rushed, and I still don’t know who won because I had to leave early.
I made another trip into the dealer hall and, more importantly, downstairs to Film Festival room for the premiere of Elijah Thomas’s new short film, Edo Kami No Gyuakushu. Lucky for me, it was the first of the short films to be shown for the video contest, which gave me just enough time to rush back upstairs to the main ballroom for the Kenpachiro Satsuma Tribute panel. (Watch my interview of Elijah about his short film here). Anyway, I was joined by Nick Huber for it for the Satsuma panel. Satsuma was a suit actor who, among other things, played Godzilla in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I met him at G-Fest in 2018. Sadly, he died some months ago. We all shared some experiences we’d had with Satsuma and discussed his work. About halfway in, I opened it to the audience to share. It made the somber panel more meaningful. Sadly, this panel wasn’t recorded, as far as I know. If it was, I’ll update this blog.
I ran to autograph room after that to get a picture with Allan Henry, who chatted with me a little bit and agreed to be interviewed on MIFV. (Score!) He’s a great guy to talk to and a huge nerd, himself.
Finally, we got to the stacked panel that I expected to be one of the biggest of the weekend: Godzilla Turns 70. To discuss that iconic film, there was myself, Daniel DiManna, Elijah Thomas, Kevin Horn, and Dr. Jeffrey Angles. It was wonderful. Watch the video of the whole thing below:
I hung out with my friends for a bit after that, but I did take Jake to see the end of Kaiju Konfessions, a sing-along event hosted by Stan Hyde, because it was worth seeing once, and it’s always felt like the right way to end the con.
We all then walked to the Crown Plaza for one more dinner at Caddyshack, but it was closed for the “official” afterparty, so we returned to the Hyatt for dinner at the Red Bar. A surprising moment for me was a tall black man walked up behind me as I entered, grabbed my arm, and told me how much he appreciated my panels that weekend. (I say it was “surprising” because he grabbed me from behind). We then had our own “wholesome” afterparty by hiding in a room and playing board games like Horrified and Transformers Uno Flip.
Jarod and I left bright and early the next day to get him home for work.
Conclusion
While this wasn’t my overall favorite G-Fest, it still had plenty of highlights. The con is still having growing pains as the new generation of management continues to modernize the show. They’re also dealing with space issues. Rumor has it attendance doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 this year, which is insane. They’ll either have to move to the convention center next door to the Convention Center or take over more of the hotel going forward. I also think they should go back to three panels at a time. Regardless, the show remains the premiere con for kaiju and tokusatsu fans, especially now that more things Kamen Rider are finding their way into the con.
I look forward to next year. I already have at least six panel ideas. Haha!
See you then!