Mad Monster Debrief
Over the weekend (July 11th - 13th) I attended Mad Monster Party Phoenix 2025 with AngstChild. Looking back, we couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out! Convention attendees gave us some wonderful feedback and the exhibitors were incredibly gracious as well. And since this was a horror expo, it felt like the right place to begin exhibiting my work again.
Conventiongoers seemed to like the pet with monster prints especially. Our top seller over the weekend was Unspoken Bond (which was a bit surprising). Most of the newer acrylics were a big hit (everybody was shocked they weren’t oils). As for other mediums… some people liked the watercolors, others liked the black & white prints. I was surprised that we sold quite a few of my signed framed prints as well.
Here’s a sampling of some of the weekend’s interactions:
One man spoke to us for a bit, said my artwork was “sick”, and as he was walking away added “Also… get help, dude. I mean that in a positive way!”
A group of friends had a long discussion with us and was very encouraging about my artwork. Towards the end, one of the women said “You need to be doing this full-time. We believe in you!” (which we thought was very sweet).
One woman strolling by just pointed our way and said “You made that?! Wow!!!”
An attendee (who was very knowledgeable about dark art) raved about my artwork and called our setup “the best booth at the show”. He came back the next day and continuously brought people over to our booth throughout the three day event.
AngstChild saw a kid (about 4 years old) turn the corner and (upon seeing our booth) immediately ran to hide behind his mother’s leg. But the child couldn’t resist having a second curious look from across the aisle. His mother eventually glanced our way and gave us a disapproving look (at the artwork, we think?). AngstChild thought the mom’s reaction was strange considering we were at a horror convention after all.
We had a Norwegian film festival representative ask if I’d be interested in commissioning a poster for their event.
An art collector dropped by (the photos he showed of his surreal art collection was amazing - he even had an original Frazetta). He was very interested in purchasing my original art and I exchanged contact information with him.
Three separate individuals recognized my painting The Technique as Pickman’s Model during the show. AngstChild gave each of those folks a high five.
A local comic store owner (since retired) and his friend wearing Hawaiian shirts talked to us for about an hour in total over the weekend. It was great to hear stories about his interactions with various comic artists over the years and we had a lot of interests in common.
One woman FaceTimed her daughter (who lives on the East Coast) and panned around our booth, showing her various artworks. She loved The Technique and exclaimed “This will look great right next to my demon!!!”
One woman kept checking back in over 3 days, determined to make a purchase. When she finally returned on the last day, she purchased Unspoken Bond and told me “I followed you on Instagram, I followed all of your socials”. Unfortunately I had to nearly sprint to the bathroom and AngstChild quipped “Well, you don’t want to follow him right now!”
One man said he would gladly replace his TV with a large painting of Pickman’s Model. Then he said “yep, my friends would come over and say ‘hey, where’d your TV go, man? Also WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!!!’” (while pointing to the painting).
A husband and wife bought a few prints for their “Lovecraft themed bathroom” and promised to send photos via Instagram.
Overall the weekend was very encouraging and it was good to see my buddy AngstChild again. The excitement was contagious and empowering. I’ll be reviewing more local shows to see if I can exhibit there and then (who knows?) maybe I can look at a couple out of state shows. It was fun to meet new fans and I look forward to the next convention!