Another Memorable Philcon!

It’s been quite the week, my friends. Just getting home from an incredible time at Philcon 2025, another memorable milestone for me being on six panels and moderating Godzilla, which was a tremendous success, especially having some rock stars on my team. I brought a handful of free Godzilla comics as a giveaway to the panel, and they were claimed in seconds. Made my heart feel all SKREEEONKY inside!

I had such a blast with my fellow panelists all weekend and was pleased to see many of the same attendees hopscotching to our panels themed on horror and comic books. James, looking at you, sir. You were at half my panels and if I was in an elevator, so were you. Thanks for buying my books, literally based on an elevator speech, lol. A few other conventioneers I wish I’d gotten to know your names, but I loved seeing your faces over and over. Especially to the well-attended 10:00 p.m. panel for Horror Through the Ages last night, y’all are rockers!

Suffice it to say, getting to hang with the incomparable Mia Dalia and her spouse, Chelsea all weekend was extra special and with my wife joining us, we’ve become quite a set of musketeers. TJ feels Mia and I have long been pals in numerous past lives and this Philcon showed that, even with my ordering wings during our hangout in the hotel bar and just learning she’s a vegetarian. We simply roasted one another in good spirits and mugged it up for the camera before getting into some deep, meaningful commiserating.

An amazing horror author in her own right, Mia has become one of my dearest friends since we met at Philcon last year. We’ve been cheering each other on, and Mia has been doing ad work and graphic design for me. Mia is ON FIRE right now, landing one story or book after another over the past few months. She is that good and I am that proud of her.

I brought Mia some King Green merch I’d saved for months, and in turn, she one-upped me by gifting me this rad Godzilla print, inked and signed.

Friday night was a total, trash talking riot with David Simms and the ladies. Turns out David and my co-panelist Richard Dansky are total music heads, which made our conversations that much more fun. Richard is a deep dive kinda person I really valued working with on Horror Through the Ages and Horror Comics.

Happy to see so many friends and friendly faces on top of gaining new comrades from the panels and all over the convention. Terrific time paneling and reading with Glenn Hauman, and working with Avi Ezor, Zack Be, Orenthal Hawkins, Kim Kindya and Dan Persons. Always happy to see you, Melody Cryptid, Hildy Silverman, Aaron Rosenberg, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Keith DeCandido and Wrenn Simms. Anne Hande, nearly everywhere TJ and I landed, there you were and we just kept picking up one awesome convo after another. Carol Gyzander, we had brief engagements, but our paths crossed many times, and I must simply say, RESPECT.

I sold a few books during the autograph session and had fun yammering for the hour with Errick Nunnally. The only thing bought at the con this year was after placing a bid on a gorgeous print of Goddess Sekhmet, my incredible wife surprised me by snatching it for me when I won that auction.

Special props to my wife, who is the ultimate secret weapon. We treated Philcon as a kinda-sorta date weekend when I wasn’t on panels, even sneaking out to my favorite brewery in the country, Yards inside Philly. Even TJ raved on their wine and grub. TJ was my photographer, my Bringing in the Creeps street teamer, my customer wrangler. She took to my friends and vice versa and this is most definitely a con to remember. Thanks to Lynati and Melody for giving me such a big role at Philcon and of course, Hildy Silverman for pitching me last year when they opened up to horror people.