Walker Stalker Convention Denver - Scotty's Recap

Going to Walker Stalker this year, I had no idea what to expect since it is the first time Denver has hosted this event.  The one thing that I can say for sure is that this event is made up strictly for the fans, but not just for The Walking Dead, but for the people that love a little bit of horror in their lives.  With many cast members from The Walking Dead, you also had guest members from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Z Nation and then a couple outliers from Comic Book Men and Night of the Living Dead show up to greet their legions of fans.

Since I am an old school zombie fan, I was happy to see that a couple of the stars that had an integral part of bringing zombies mainstream were in attendance. Judith O’Dea and Russ Streiner helped to pioneer the zombie movement in George A. Romero’s original Night of the Living dead.  I must admit that I was blown away to see these two icons in attendance since there are not many people left from the movie that shocked the world.

There is no way to even guess which of these two actors I was more excited to meet since they both hold a special place in my heart. Russ is a very nice gentleman and happy to talk to you about anything that you want to hear, but one of his favorite stories to tell about making Night of the Living Dead is how he had to fight to keep his driving gloves on, for no other reason to give Johnny some sort of feature so that when he returned on the screen to eat his sister, everybody would know who he was. Then meeting Judith, well, what can I say, she is just a beautiful woman inside and out.  With more talk about the classic movie, we really hit it off in talking about the Music Box scene and how she was really surprised when the box opened up.  This scene holds more of a personal tie to me, not only because of the unknown around the house, but my grandmother had the exact same box that I would play with growing up for no other reason than it being something completely different than anything I have ever seen. Sometimes movies are able to connect with you on another level and this one, even though it is a classic zombie uprising tale, it just helps me remember my past on so many levels.

The biggest surprise I think at Walker Stalker was the appearance of Eugene Clark, ‘Big Daddy’ from George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead.  Being a vendor at the show and not a special guest, Eugene had one of the busiest booths on the floor, especially when people saw who he was.  I was happy enough to see him when the rest of the group was buying Pop figures, and I must admit for his size, he is not really a frightening man.  Running his own production company, Eugene does a ton of work for charities and will occasionally sing if requested.  I would have never guessed this from seeing him as one of the biggest and baddest zombies in the Romero Dead series, but I don’t think that there could have been a better actor to fill the role.  Being the first zombie to show consistent compassion, I can see how he was able to land the role after talking to him for a couple seconds about what he does in his free time.  He is also a stand-up comedian, which is why I think it is so easy to talk to him without feeling out of place.  If you ever get a chance, this is a person to meet that you need to add to your bucket list, he is one of a kind.

Since this is primarily a Walking Dead convention, I could not leave without talking to someone that is a little bit closer to the series, but not as an actor, but as a writer.  Jay Bonansinga was in attendance and if you don’t know the name, don’t worry, you will.  Jay is a writer that has helped bring The Walking Dead to novel form.  I never hold back on my love for writers and Jay did a great job in giving you the backstory on the man you love to hate with the Governor, and The Rise of the Governor and Fall of the Governor are two of my favorite zombie stories and he is even able to integrate some of your favorite characters from the show into the story.  But his work does not stop there as he has also completed his Ulysses Grove series and several stand-alone novels, one which I had to pick up called Self Storage.  No zombies in this one, just psychological thriller stuff that might or might not be supernatural related.  I cannot wait to jump into this one.
​
I had my list of people that I wanted to meet and talk to this year and Walker Stalker was able to make that dream come true for me.  I am sure if you have friends that attended this event, you will see their Facebook pages blowing up with pictures of themselves with their favorite actors from the series, I know that I am seeing a ton of them.  Like I said, this is truly an event for the fans of the genre, putting all of your favorite characters in a massive venue and allowing them to go buck wild with autographs and selfies, it really is a dream come true for so many fans.  I hope to see Walker Stalker come back to Denver again in the future, it is really fun for the entire family.  

---