Of the many friends the convention has, Jerry Shirts has been one of the most vocal and most helpful. Jerry has been an advocate and an adviser and we're thrilled to have him joining us again this year for the convention.

 From his Bio

Being a self-taught artist from Detroit I am highly affected by the local

industry. Having always been creative I decided to dive in head first when I was

laid-off from an automobile parts supplier in the summer of 2007. Since then I

have participated in many shows in and around the Detroit area as well as

Cleveland and New York. My work has even reached homes as far as Japan.

 I am especially inspired by iconic culture, including music, movies and art.

 http://www.jerry-shirts.com/

We are honored to welcome back a company located right here in Michigan that is as renowned for the eclectic film catalog as they are for the sheer quality of their releases.

Synapse Films is a company started by Don May, Jr. in 1997. Partnering with his friend of fifteen years, Jerry Chandler and associate Charles Fiedler, the goal of Synapse Films is to release new, digitally remastered films in the Horror, Science Fiction, Cult and Independent genres on available Home Video formats.

“I love horror and science-fiction, ” says May. “They are my favorite kinds of movies and I think I am doing the fans a huge service by paying attention to them and treating them with the respect they deserve. I’ve been in the home video industry for a number of years and it used to be that only ‘important’ films received the ‘remastering’ and ‘Special Edition’ treatments, but no more. For the past few years, horror and science-fiction have been treated a lot differently on home video and I like to think I had a hand in setting this trend.”

Graduating from Illinois State University with a degree in Broadcasting in 1990, May always had an interest in television and film. “I caught the laserdisc bug while working at a local laserdisc store while I was in college. I was selling laserdisc players and buying product and I pretty much spent every extra dollar I had on laserdiscs. I loved movies and the disc format and knew this was a business I wanted to be in.”

After quitting his job at the laserdisc retailer, he became part owner of Elite Entertainment. “I have a lot of good and bad memories from that experience, ” says May. “I never dreamed I’d be working on restoring great horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Night of the Living Dead and Re-Animator. I had some of the best times in my life working on them. But, after a while, I became unhappy both personally and professionally. I’d just had enough and decided to leave. I will say I’m extremely happy with my decision to start my own company, Synapse Films.”

“Don and I have been friends for many, many years and we’ve always shared the same interests in horror films, ” says May’s new partner, Jerry Chandler. “I’ve loved horror even longer than Don because I’m ten years older (laughs). Horror films have been a favorite of mine since childhood and I’ve always wanted to work in this industry. I even had my own horror show in the basement of a punk rock bar in Detroit in the mid eighties. Knowing Don’s previous involvement with Elite Entertainment, which created many horror and science-fiction laserdisc products, choosing him as a partner was a natural decision. He knows more about horror films than anyone else I know…foreign and obscure classics…just about everything. He’s seen them all. He also knows a lot about film in general and has the knowledge and capability to continue remastering and producing excellent product. He produced supplements and did a lot of film transfers himself and I’ve seen his work. Don proved to me a long time ago that he was the one I wanted to get involved with and that’s why I didn’t partner with him until he left and got out on his own.”

Now, having worked in the Home Video industry for over seventeen years, May has brought his knowledge of film restoration and film mastering to Synapse Films.

 http://synapse-films.com/

STEVE JENCKS

We welcome David Gibson and piranakeeper.com / Claw Media as a vendor for the Fall convention. David will be bringing DVDs, action figures, t-shirts, and collectibles.

 Last year we showed David's film Mondo Schlocko and we're glad to have him joining us this year as a vendor.

From the site -

We are an online retail store featuring a wide variety of collectibles. We have recently started a focus on specializing in nostalgic metal signs and license plates. We currently have over 1,100 different styles of metal signs and license plates and plan to expand to 4000 varieties featuring university logos , automotive logos, humorous sayings , cartoon characters, John Deere, sports teams, movies, etc. etc.

We also have many other types of collectibles. We like to focus mainly on cartoon collectible items featuring such characters as the Looney Tunes, Betty Boop and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Other items we have are die-cast items, figurines, dvds and rock/heavy metal t-shirts. Our inventory is always changing and there is always something for everybody available here.

MONSTERKING PRODUCTIONS

The Monster King was right there when things began to come together and the Flint Horror Con was born and without his friendship the con may never have become what we are today. We are honored to have him back.

It's rare that you'll find something that is both horrifying and yet cute at the same time but the Monster King has somehow managed to concoct just that brand of terror. Working in mixed media and on everything from canvas to vinyl, the Monster King is an utterly unique artist that we are proud to be able to book.

 For more on the King himself, his equally dangerous Queen, and to get a taste of what they'll have at the convention, check out their website -

http://www.monsterkingproductions.com/

Chris is new to the convention and we're glad to have him joining us. He is an author of several books -

Unearthed

The Thing In The Cage

and

Death Dreams to name but a few.

 He is also a filmmaker and will have his film Disposal of a Corpse for sale at the convention as well as copies of his book Lisey's DEATH DREAMS

For more info on his books -

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AChris+Robertson&keywords=Chris+Robertson&ie=UTF8&qid=1336009398&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B006ZRCHBC