Welcome to office hours on the Fangoria Podcast Network.

My name is Dr. Rebecca McKendry, and this is a bonus episode for my podcast Nightmare

University.

On these bonus episodes, I'll be exploring behind-the-scenes tales and genre-fueled adventures from my many years at Fangoria as the director of marketing.

Before we get into the episode, though, let's have a word from our sponsors.

Tonight's episode is brought to you by Fangoria Magazine.

Fangoria is now a deluxe 100-page quarterly edition.

Each issue includes set visits, deep dives, new discoveries, and minimal ads, all printed on collectible

grade paper stock that reimagines the classic magazine for a 2019 audience. You'll see familiar

names like Mike Gingold, Tony Timpone, and more. You'll see bylines that will make you scream

with delight, like Barbara Crampton and S. Craig Zaller. And the best part,

it's print only. Subscribe now at Fangoria.com. Welcome to office hours. This is a bonus episode for my normal podcast on the Fangoria Network Nightmare University.

And on this week's office hours, I want to discuss conventions, specifically the old Fangoria weekend of horror shows.

I must confess that I had never been to a convention of any type until I was well into my 20s. In college, I performed

with an amazing Rocky Horror Shadowcast, which led me to direct the live stage musical as well.

And somewhere in all this Rocky Horror Mayhem, I traveled to a Rocky Horror Convention in Pennsylvania,

which was the first ever convention I had attended. Though the convention was incredibly fun and I loved the community nature of it,

I didn't attend another convention until years later when I started working for Fangoria.

When I began working at Fangoria, I immediately got the lowdown on our bustling and busy convention circuit,

which included New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, as well as a rotating

slate of different locations, including Texas and Florida and a few others. I was just an intern,

and they usually did not bring interns to the traveling shows. But after a few months at the company,

...