Diary of an Ardent Fan

I started going to fan conventions/Comic Cons in 2017.  What initially started as me just wanting to meet one of my favorite celebrities turned into an almost annual, repeated treat for me, like concerts.

Like concerts, these conventions are booked months in advance, so I have some time to prepare, although it’s never enough.  My biggest problem is I never have enough money to meet everyone I want to meet or money to buy some cool things from various vendors, but I do what I can.

And this time was no different.

This convention, Fanboy Expo, which is at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tennessee has been held every year for several years and they always book a ton of celebrities, such as actors, directors, voice actors, wrestlers, you name it.

This year had Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Dark Fate, Beauty And The Beast, Children Of The Corn, Dante’s Peak, I Am Alien, Stranger Things, King Kong Lives, Black Moon Rising), Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Pet Semetary 2), Shia Lebeouf (The Transformers movies, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, Disney’s Holes, Even Stevens, Constantine, I Robot, Surf’s Up, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Disturbia, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Fury, Megalopolis, and so much more), Josh Duhamel (The Transformers movies, All My Children, Las Vegas, The Mighty Ducks, Ransom) Henry Winkler (Happy Days, The Waterboy, The Lords Of Flatbush Night Shift, Scream, Arrested Development, Cop And A Half, Little Nicky, Parks And Recreation, Better Late Than Never), Don Most (Happy Days), Anson Williams (Happy Days), Christopher Lambert (Highlander movies, Mortal Kombat), Linden Ashby (Mortal Kombat, Wyatt Earp, The Young And The Restless), Robin Shou (Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2), Paul W.S. Anderson (Director of Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Alien Vs. Predator), Tom Woodruff Jr. (Special Effects for Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, The Terminator, Aliens, Pumpkinhead, Alien Nation, Tremors movies, Alien 3, Death Becomes Her, Demolition Man, Wolf, Mortal Kombat, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers, Alien Vs. Predator, Elektra, The Santa Clause trilogy, Alien Vs. Predator Requiem, Ender’s Game, The Predator, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and so much more), Chris Casamassa (Mortal Kombat), Keith Cooke (Mortal Kombat), Alan Tudyk (Patch Adams, 28 Days, Wonder Boys, Ice Age movies, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, I Robot, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Superman, Zootopia 2 and so much more), Famke Janssen (Goldeneye, X-Men movies, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Taken trilogy, and many more), Laura Prepon (That 70’s Show, That 90’s Show), Ahmed Best (Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian), Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World movies, Spider-Man 3, Terminator: Salvation, The Mandalorian director), Shameik Moore (Spider-Verse, Samaritan, Wu-Tang: An American Saga), John Dimaggio (Futurama,, Astronaut Terry Virts, wrestlers Adam Copeland, Beth Phoenix, Honky Tonk Man, Bushwhacker Luke, Kane (Glenn Jacobs, Mayor Of Knox County), Ron Perlman (Beauty And The Beast, Hellboy 1 and 2, Sons Of Anarchy, Skin Trade, The Island Of Dr. Moreau, and sooooo much more), Jane Seymour (Live And Let Die, Somewhere In Time, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman), Joe Lando (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman), Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer of the show Hunter, Yellowstone stars Jefferson White (Jimmy Hurdstrom), Jen Landon (Teeter), Ian Bohen (Ryan), Denim Richards (Colby), Linda Larkin and Jonathan Freeman (Aladdin), Heather Locklear (TJ Hooker, Dynasty, Melrose Place, Spin City, Firestarter, Return Of Swamp Thing, Hot In Cleveland), Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs, Spaceballs 2, Melrose Place, Dynasty, The Fly II, Vision Quest), Grant Snow (Melrose Place, Ryan’s Hope, Dynasty reboot), musicians Stephen Pearcy (RATT), Lita Ford (solo artist and The Runaways), Eric Singer (KISS, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath), Tommy Thayer (KISS, Black And Blue), Nelson (Matthew and Gunar Nelson), Saving Abel, Debbie Gibson, Too Close For Comfort stars Lydia Cornell, Jim J. Bullock (who I loved on the 80s version of Hollywood Squares), and Deborah Van Valkenburgh (I know her from The Devil’s Rejects.), Kristy McNichol and Christopher Atkins from The Pirate Movie (Christopher was also in Dallas, Kate Jackson (Charlie’s Angels, Scarecrow And Mrs. King, Dark Shadows, The Rookies and more), Adam Baldwin (Full Metal Jacket, The Patriot, Independence Day, The X-Files), Joel David Moore (Hatchet, Avatar, Dodgeball, Bones), Mara Wilson (Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire, Thomas And The Magic Railroad, Miracle On 34th Street 90s version), Theo Rossi (Sons Of Anarchy, Luke Cage, The Penguin, Army Of The Dead), Lorenzo Lamas (Falcon Crest, Renegade, lots of action movies), Patrick Renna (The Sandlot), Tyler Labine (Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil), Todd Bridges (Different Strokes, The Waltons, The Love Boat, CHIPs, Police Story, Barney Miller), Cooper Barnes (Henry Danger and Henry Danger Force), Mackenzie Phillips (American Graffiti, One Day At A Time  original and new version, So Weird, Orange Is The New Black), Gabrielle Carteris (Beverly Hills 90210, David Vincent (Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, Fate/Zero Blue Exorcist, Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures, Seven Deadly Sins, Drgaon Ball Super, Hunter X Hunter), Daniel Baugh (One Piece, Attack On Titan, Fairy Tail), Chuck Huber (Dragon Ball Z, My Hero Academia, Soul Eater, Dragon Ball Super), Phil Parsons (Dragon Ball Z, My Hero Academia), Matthew David Rudd (Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Tower Of God), Brian Mathis (One Piece, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Fairy Tail, Fire Force, Attack On Titan).

Yeah that’s a lot of people.

I did not see all of them, but I saw most of them.

But like all of these conventions, you have to pay to meet them, although if you go to a panel they are at, you may be able to ask them a question for free.

I went to several panels, although some I only saw some of because I was at other panels or needed to go get my picture taken.

Anyway, as stellar as that list is, I mainly went there to meet Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman.  Although as excited as I was to meet Ron, if Linda had canceled, I would not have gone at all.  No offense to Ron of course!!

A few years ago, she was not attending these events anymore, but she started back up again, and I’m sooooo glad she did.

I’ve been a fan of hers since I was a kid, watching her in the first two Terminator movies, and really anything I saw her in.

I had her sign two Terminator pictures, one from The Terminator (1st movie) and Terminator: Dark Fate (from 2019). 

I wanted to make sure I told her that my girlfriend Mariah and I truly love her performance in Dark Fate and she truly appreciated that.  I told her that even though I know it did not make a lot of money, it is a very good movie and her performance is great in it. 

She told me it was quite the challenge making that movie, getting back in that kind of shape, doing a lot of action/stunts, and it sounded as if it was not as much fun as she had hoped. 

I told her if nothing else, it was worth it just for Mariah and I loving the movie.  Again, she appreciated me saying that.

When I later had my picture taken with her, she hugged me, gave me a kiss, and when I thanked her for everything and told her I love her, she said “I love you too baby”.  If nothing else had happened this day, it was all worth it just for that moment

Thank you Linda soooo much for everything.  And I truly do love you and always will.

Like I said, I also met Ron Perlman too.  I really enjoy his Hellboy movies and really like him in the Dolph Lundgren movie Skin Trade (look it up), John Carpenter’s Pro-Life (part of the Masters Of Horror series), The Island Of Dr. Moreau (90s version which is a better movie than it’s reputation is) and various voice work he has done too.  He is very cool and I thanked him for everything also and he told me “I’m not done yet”.  And I told him “Damn right”.  Again, super cool.

Like I said, I also went to some panels since I could not afford to meet anyone else, and those were a lot of fun.  

I saw the Mortal Kombat panel, Happy Days panel, Sons Of Anarchy, Famke Janssen (only some of it because I needed to go get my picture taken), Melrose Place (sat in on some of it due to being at another panel that overlapped it), and Transformers.

I got some video of some of these, so please check them out below.

Really cool seeing all of these people talk in person.  

The beauty of these panels is to maybe be able to ask some of these people you are a fan of questions.

In this case, I just listened, but they were great fun.

Like always with these events, I wish I could have met sooooooo many more of these people and sadly I did not see them all, but I saw most of them, and like I said, I went there specifically to meet Linda and Ron, and that was good enough for me.

Thank you Fanboy for this great experience.

I hope to attend again someday.

Thanks to all the awesome vendors and staff of the event.

Thanks to the fans I got to speak to while in various lines.  It’s always fun to talk to other fellow fans/geeks.

Such a great time and I cannot recommend it enough.