G-FEST XXIX was the vacation I was looking forward to and which I needed even more badly than I realized. This event is said to be “the largest regular gathering of Godzilla and Japanese monster fans in the world.” It was held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois from July 12 through the 14th.
Getting a late start, my son Eddie and left the relatively peaceful city of Medina, Ohio, for the always raucous Chicago. Our six-hour drive was uneventful save for our GPS directing us to an alternate route that kept us off the Dan Ryan Expressway, shaved ten minutes off the drive and saved us a few bucks in tolls, of which Illinois has an abundant amount. Even if we hadn’t saved time and money, it was a blessing to not be on the Dan Ryan. If there’s a road, I can truly say I hate, that road is the Dan Ryan.
Another blessing was that some dear friends of ours were able and willing to pick up our convention badges. Pick-up ended at 5:30 pm Thursday - too early in my opinion - and we didn’t reach the hotel until close to 7 pm. I connected with those and other friends later that evening, enjoying some great conversation.
Digression. The Hyatt Regency O’Hare is my least favorite aspect of G-Fest. It disappoints on virtually every metric, save that, from what I was told, the hotel staff works well with the event. I’ll spare you my grievances here. I’ll be writing a letter to Hyatt in the next day or so and will likely share that missive with you in a near-future bloggy thing. I’m waiting on the arrival of my e-mail bill which - I shake my head - hasn’t arrived yet. I’ll be calling the hotel to inquire about that. End of digression.
Thursday’s dinner was at the hotel’s Red Bar & Lounge. The drinks and food were fine, but pricy. For the same amount of money, if you are willing to leave the hotel, you can find much better and more varied options.
Friday’s breakfast was a buffet at the hotel’s O’H American Grill. This was by giving a poor restaurant one final chance and it failed miserably. So-so food. Scant variety. High price. Just a mile away, you will find a Denny’s with excellent food, reasonable prices and Carolina, one of the nicest waitresses I’ve met. She is a treasure who truly loves seeing the G-Fest attendees year in and year out.She even recognized us from a previous visit. We ate there Saturday and Sunday.
I wanted to attend several panels and presentations during G-Fest, so that was my priority. First up on Friday morning was “Jaws vs. Japan: Kaiju Sharksploitation,” presented by the very knowledgeable
Kevin Derendorf. He opened my eyes to the immense influence Steven Spielberg’s Jaws has on Japanese kaiju and shark films, as well as introducing the audience to a variety of shark films. I thought it was one of the best panels I’d seen at G-Fest.
Eddie loves Chicago’s Italian beef sandwiches. The hotel food being what it was, we drove to a nearby Portillo’s. I don’t eat a lot of red meat these days, but I had a craving for Fettuccine Alfredo and ordered that with garlic bread. Though I ordered a small portion, what I got was enough to feed two or three people. If our room at the Hyatt had a microwave and a decent refrigerator, I could have eaten the leftovers for at least two more meals.
The next panel I wanted to see was Female Leads of Toho Films with Jessica Tseang. She and the other two panelists covered quite a bit of ground, offering some keen insights into the characters and the actresses who played them. Of course, I have to go outside Toho for my favorite female lead and female kaiju. The former would be Mara Corday, who played a rancher (The Black Scorpion), an assistant to a scientist (Tarantula) and a top scientist in her own right (The Giant Claw). My favorite female kaiju? No contest. It’s Gorgo’s mom all the way.
Kaiju World (aka the dealers room) was next. Every G-Fest, it takes my breath away to see the tens of thousands of Godzilla and other figures being sold. It took all my will power not to buy the large Gorgo figure ($200) there. If I see it again somewhere, I might not be so strong.
From the same vendor, I did purchase Soul War, a graphic novel with a giant monster, 1940s Nazis and a menace from deep space. The book is written by Mac McClintok and Patrick McEvoy with art by the latter. I hope to read it soon.
Outside the main G-Fest area, the hotel had set up a food service offering burgers, pizza, tacos and such. Needing a snack, I bought a small pizza. It was good, but, like everything else at the Hyatt, too expensive. If the hotel thought it could get away with it, it would charge you for wear and tear on the floors you walk to go to the convention and your room.
The last presentation I attended on Friday as the kids edition of G-Pardy. It’s a Kaiju version of Jeopardy and usually entertaining. This time out, it took a long time to cull the prospective players, all twelve or under, to the three actual players. The match itself dragged because the traditional Jeopardy rules weren’t followed and because the kids didn’t seem to understand how Jeopardy is played. It was still enjoyable, but it could have been more enjoyable with better preparation of the players and a much stricter adherence to the actual rules of the game.
Friday night saw me hanging in my hotel room, reading things like Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong, The Punisher: The Bullet That Follows, a volume of the manga A Man and His Cat and short articles in Paperback Fanatic. Thursday and Friday were catching up with me and I needed an evening of quiet time.
I also watched Kaiju TV, which was running on two different hotel channels. This is a fun feature of G-Fest with a mix of dubbed and subtitled and virgin Japanese movies and episodes of TV shows. We saw Gamera, different Ultraman series and more.
I found the spacewomen of Gamera: Super Monster fascinating. This 1980 film is comprised mostly of clips from previous Gamera movies, but there’s considerable new footage of three lovely women fighting an evil counterpart to protect Earth from monsters unleashed by the woman’s alien masters. If I ever write a Gamera comic book series, you can bet the ladies will appear in it.
That’s all for now, but I’ll be back soon with more coverage of my G-Fest XXIX experience. See you then.
© 2024 Tony Isabella
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