Sci-fi , cosplay fans turn up at Resorts
World for eighth annual Winter Con
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
Winter Con returned for
the eighth year to the Resorts
World NYC in South Ozone
Park on March 12 and 13.
The event featured two
days of sci-fi stars of today
and yesterday; panels
with Q&A sessions; cosplay;
celebrities; and vendors.
The fiction fans — many
of them dressed up as their
favorite characters — had the
chance to chat with some of
the artists, illustrators and
writers who had prominently
displayed their work in the
Wintercon Artist Alley or
to meet their favorite sci-fi
actors.
Paul Varrachi, who hails
from New York City, had a
replica revolver from the
movie “Tombstone” signed
by Michael Biehn, who portrayed
Johnny Ringo in the
1993 Western.
He thought it “pretty awesome”
to talk to an actor who
stared in what many believe
is the greatest Western ever
made.
“He Michael Biehn plays
one of the greatest bad guys
ever in this movie,” Varrachi
said. “So it’s a pretty iconic
role, pretty iconic movie, and
then to have a replica pistol
that was from his collection to
have him sign it, and then for
him to immediately recognize
the pistol was also very cool.”
Mykal McCulloch and his
brother Eric came all the way
from Pennsylvania. Despite
treacherous weather conditions,
they had left early in
the morning to meet their
childhood hero.
“We grew up with these
characters and these actors.
And I had to be here,” Mykal
McCulloch said. “I’ve never
met them before, and childhood
wouldn’t be complete if I
didn’t actually meet him first.”
Legendary Nick Castle,
who played everyone’s favorite
slasher Michael Myers in
John Carpenter’s 1978 horror
film “Halloween,” said it was
great to be back and say hi to
the fans — something that he
had missed during the COVID
19 pandemic.
Castle shared that no one
had expected the movie to become
a blockbuster. Originally
“Halloween” was supposed
to be called the “Baby Sitter
Spider-Man and Venom cosplayers have some fun at Winter Con on March 12, 2022. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Murders.”
“And that’s really as deep
as it really started out,”
Castle chuckled. “John hit
lightning in a bottle, and him
and Deborah came up with a
script that resonated. Tommy
Wallace, the production
designer, found the mask, a
William Shatner mask, and
converted it turned into this
crazy iconic character. So you
got to get lucky sometimes.”
When asked why he thinks
the horror classic is still
drawing such a large fan base
over 40 years later, he said it
was mind-boggling that the
film was still getting so much
adulation.
“For some people, it’s
the first time they ever got
scared, really scared,” he explained.
“It becomes a primal
link to your mortality somehow.
And then some people
just have fun with these
kinds of things, you know, so
it’s mind-boggling, really.”
Michael Monsanto from
Bayshore, Long Island, said
he tried to go to every local
TIMESLEDGER | Q 16 NS.COM | MARCH 18 - MARCH 24, 2022
show and meet the “heroes of
the past.” He had a bunch of
photos signed by the legend.
“They’re always so nice to
speak to and it’s nice to see
the people that you see on the
screen,” Monsanto said.
Friends Steven Barbato
and Felix Bones III were
dressed from head to toe in
“Halloween” swag. Barbato
was about 4 or 5 when he saw
“Halloween” for the first time
and said Michael Meyers had
been his “favorite” slasher
ever since.
“The original from ’97 is
my favorite one of all times,”
Barbato said. “I must have
seen over 1,000 times. Every
time I see it, it’s like I’m
watching it for the first time.”
Bones said he was 13 when
he saw “Halloween” for the
first time.
“It just gets better the
more I watch it,” Bones said.
“Because every time I watch
it, there’s little things I don’t
notice before, and then I do.”
Shinnequa Clemente of
Sheek Visual Arts was one
of the artists displaying her
work in the event’s Artists
Alley.
The high school art teacher
and Hofstra graduate
shared that her stories tend
to deal with children and
she’s currently working on a
children’s comic book about a
young boy.
“I’m inspired by them,”
the cartoon illustrator said.
“The cuteness of them, like
this little boy’s story. I got a
whole story.”
Besides producing the past
few years, “Alien’s” Ricco
Ross also stars in the movie
“Do Something,” about three
generations of Black female
activists. The film has already
won multiple awards
and was shot during the
pandemic.
“Half of it was done with
cell phones, but that’s in the
story. So it works,” Ross explained.
” And during the
time when they were doing all
the marches and everything,
we were capitalizing on that,
so we got great production for
that. So it’s good stuff.”
Denise Crosby, who,
among others, played Lieutenant
Tasha in “Star Trek:
The Next Generation” and
Mary in “The Walking Dead,”
said it was great to see people
coming back together. The actress
had just returned from a
seven-day “Star Trek” cruise
in the Caribbean.
“It was so much fun, and
people were so joyful and
happy to be out with each
other and it was it was great,”
Crosby said.
She thought it was wonderful
that the sci-fi classic
was still popular among all
ages.
“It’s such a profound message
that people get from this
show: That there will be a future,
the future will be better,
not dystopian, like so many
are, and that we actually improve
as a species,” Crosby
said. “That’s an inherently
positive message.”
Visit QNS.com to see
more photos from
Winter Con.
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