Empire Fanfest with Guest of Honor Mark Hamill

Dates: April 17th & 18th, 2004
Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel
Two Harmon Plaza
SECAUCUS, NJ 07094

Check Out the Empire Fanfest Website.

Mark Hamill
Guest of Honor
In a rare convention appearance!

SUNDAY ONLY!

Sorry, but he will NOT be signing any autographs

Whether it's as The Joker in "Batman The Animated Series," Solomon Grundy in "Justice League", The Hobgoblin in " Spider-Man", or his voice roles in "The Incredible Hulk", "The Simpsons", "Freakazoid", "Striperella", "Gen 13", Family Guy", "The Tick", "Fantastic Four", "Time Squad", "Swat Kats", "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast", and so many more it would take pages to list them.
It's almost impossible to watch television or go to the movies without hearing the talented voice or seeing him perform in "The Flash, "Sea Quest", "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", or any of the huge amount of films and television series he's appeared in. In fact I believe he was in a rather successful series of Sci-Fi films in the late 70's and 80's.

In an extremely rare convention appearance Empire Fan Fest is proud and privileged to present our Guest of Honor, MR. MARK HAMILL.
Mark will be introducing all of us to his directorial debut, "Comic Book The Movie" and then holding a Question and Answer session for a limited number of lucky fans.

This is not an event that happens every day, so please check the Registration Section on the website to find out how you can purchase your advance tickets. Trust us, you'll kick yourself if you miss this one.


Star Wars Guest so far are:

Jeremy Bulloch
Ken Colley
Mike Quinn
Michael Sheard

For more information visit:
The Empire Fan Fest Website and the Empire Fan Fest Forums.

 

Major Update.

Also some great Thundercats guests.

 

Mark Hamill never signs autographs. He thinks that he is too good for the fans. Big head.

 

Actually Mark Hamill is very level headed, down to Earth and pleasant to deal with. He has his reasons for not wishing to sign. Scalpers and forgers being among them. At his play he readily signed the playbill for any of my friends who asked him to. He is also doing a number of private signings through a limited group or REPUTABLE autograh dealers. Before you say their prices are too high. $70.00 and up is what forgers and scalpers were getting for them on Ebay back when he would sign for free or for $20.00 By charging the higher fess now he is essentially killing the scalpers and forgers any ability to make money off of his autographs now.

 

Dermott Crowley had to cancel due to working on a play.

 

Jeremy Bulloch and Ken Colley have been added to the Guest List.

 

Star Wars en Direct is still in need of a correspondant for that particular convention.

All you need is a way to record your report in an MP3 format.

if you're interested, send an e-mail to studio@swendirect.com with "Empire FanFest Correspondant" as the subject.

Thank you

 

Hey, wow, I certainly wish I could attend! You all are lucky people!

Mark Hamill and Mike Quinn appear courtesy of Derek Maki and Cool Waters Productions Derek's a great guy and represents 18 Star Wars actors. Including Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams.

I've only heard terrific things about Mark Hamill, he's a funny guy and a great guest. Hey, what fun would it be if all autographs were easy to get??


Hey, MysterySith would you happen to know the name of the play Dermott Crowley is/will be acting in? You can let me know through PM. Would love to add to the [link://www.nerf-herders-anonymous.net/swad.html]SWAD[/link]

EDIT:
«I got it, Dermot Crowley is in a play called Calico, he plays James Joyce. It starts on March 3 at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in London.»

LOVE Star Wars En Direct!!

 

Awww too bad you can't come out and see us We'd love to have you there! Maybe you can come and be in our "artists row" sometime

 

Hey for those attending .. are some people meeting up for after the close of the con on Saturday night?
Just wondering?

 

Comic artist Jan Duursema will also appear at the "Empire Fan Fest" convention.

Jan Duursema is an outstanding comic artist who currently pencils many of the Star Wars comics published by Dark Horse.
She co-created the characters Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura and penciled comics like the "Darth Maul" comic, "Twilight", "Darkness", "Jedi - Aayla Secura", "Jedi - Dooku", ...

 

This looks to be an awesome convention.
I mean what a guest to have..Mark Hamill.

I just got my receipt for my pass in the mail today.

Hope to see everyone there.

 

Shannon Baksa McRandle aka Mara Jade will also attending Empire Fan Fest.

 

Is anyone here staying at the hotel?

I have heard a few rumors of FF people meeting up and going out possibly at night or having a shindig at the hotel.

I will be there with the Boston Rebels and Rhode Squadron. What other FF groups are going to attend?

 

The NYC crew will be there of course.

 

I will hopefully have my name badge made up by time to leave hopefully or I will just get one of those " HELLO my name is... stickers.

 

We're a week away

MEPA, NJO, and several other FanForces will be there, and the NorthEast will even be holding an awards ceremony.

Mark Hamill will be doing a talk, and even has agreed to a limited signing. There may still be spots open, so hurry if you didn't know!

There will be a lot more going on here, get more details at EmpireFanFest.com

¤Night

 

See everyone there!!!!
This is going to kick @#%

I will have my badge hope to meet a few of you guys from the boards there too.

 

What an awesome time it was!!!
Mark Hamill was great and it was a dream come true for alot of fans.

It was run very well for a first time event congrats and applause to everyone involved.

Great location also in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Everyone should look to attend this one next year.

Long live the Empire Fan Fest.

All the guests were great too.

Thanks for a great time everyone.

 

With all due respect, while I certainly had a great time overall, I believe this was easily one of the worst-run conventions I have attended.

1) There was no schedule or calendar of events distributed to the fans. Everything that was going on had to either be announced or passed along by word of mouth. Considering the amount charged, this was not acceptable.

2) A lot of the promised events simply never transpired. There was no puppetry presentation by Mike Quinn or charity auction, to mention only two things that Empire FanFest offered. More importantly, there was no advance screening of "Comic Book: The Movie" and the so-called 90-minute tribute to Mark's career before the Q & A session was hastily shown and cut to about 20 minutes prior to Mark's coming on-stage.

3) The event was horribly overcharged. Anyone who bought more than a $50 Silver Pass totally overpaid. One of the big incentives to the $75 Gold Pass and the even pricier $500 VIP Pass was front-row seating at MH's Q & A session. It was so scarcely attended that, as a silver pass holder, I was sitting second-row center. Only seeing, meeting, and getting to question and potentially talk to Mark Hamill made the $50 seem well spent. There was a total lack of involvement and entertainment for anyone who didn't spend a ridiculous amount of money. I have paid as little as $20 and even $8 to get into a convention and got way more for my buck. Those who paid the regular $18 general admission got little more than entry to the dealer's room at this event, and that's sad. Oh yeah, they could also attend the costume party. Big whoop.

4) The opportunity for good deals was practically nil. I saw almost no items priced below what I could find them at my local comic store. And more than a few dealers complained to me that they weren't making enough money. This leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth, though perhaps this has nothing to do whatsoever with those running the convention. But it does run in direct opposition to what they promised us, "us" being the guests and dealers alike.

There are some other complaints I have, and I only even mention all of this because the convention was ok but had the potential to be GREAT. Now I will add that the guests they had were FANTASTIC. And I had fun. So perhaps I am wrong to have expected more than that.

Oh, and for those who attended and wonder who I am, I am guy who, during the Q & A session, asked Mark Hamill for a hug. Now that was indeed truly memorable. *sighs*

 

"With all due respect, while I certainly had a great time overall, I believe this was easily one of the worst-run conventions I have attended."

Sorry i know we made mistakes the biggest one being hiring who we thought was a professional A/V guy who ended up not bringing the equipment he was contracted to. that severly cut down on what we were able to do in our screening rooms and the ability to even have schedules ready as that was part of his job. He did come highly recommended.

1) There was no schedule or calendar of events distributed to the fans. Everything that was going on had to either be announced or passed along by word of mouth. Considering the amount charged, this was not acceptable.

2) A lot of the promised events simply never transpired. There was no puppetry presentation by Mike Quinn or charity auction, to mention only two things that Empire FanFest offered. More importantly, there was no advance screening of "Comic Book: The Movie" and the so-called 90-minute tribute to Mark's career before the Q & A session was hastily shown and cut to about 20 minutes prior to Mark's coming on-stage.

Again, we can thank the AV guy for that.

3) The event was horribly overcharged. Anyone who bought more than a $50 Silver Pass totally overpaid. One of the big incentives to the $75 Gold Pass and the even pricier $500 VIP Pass was front-row seating at MH's Q & A session. It was so scarcely attended that, as a silver pass holder, I was sitting second-row center. Only seeing, meeting, and getting to question and potentially talk to Mark Hamill made the $50 seem well spent. There was a total lack of involvement and entertainment for anyone who didn't spend a ridiculous amount of money. I have paid as little as $20 and even $8 to get into a convention and got way more for my buck. Those who paid the regular $18 general admission got little more than entry to the dealer's room at this event, and that's sad. Oh yeah, they could also attend the costume party. Big whoop.

BECAUSE we saw the problems going on we wanted to try to make it up to the attendees by moving Mark to the largest room, leeting everyone in with a good seat. It was our way of trying to make up for the problems caused by the guy we hired to set up all the technical aspects of programming.

4) The opportunity for good deals was practically nil. I saw almost no items priced below what I could find them at my local comic store. And more than a few dealers complained to me that they weren't making enough money. This leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth, though perhaps this has nothing to do whatsoever with those running the convention. But it does run in direct opposition to what they promised us, "us" being the guests and dealers alike.

The dealer's who had quality merchandise like the sword guy, T short guy and some toys did well. The dealer's who had overpriced merchandise did poorly. that's the way it goes.

There are some other complaints I have, and I only even mention all of this because the convention was ok but had the potential to be GREAT. Now I will add that the guests they had were FANTASTIC. And I had fun. So perhaps I am wrong to have expected more than that.

No you were not worng to have expected more than that. We tired our best and for a first time show, i am overall pleased with the outcome although I will fix the mistakes we made for the second one.

Oh, and for those who attended and wonder who I am, I am guy who, during the Q & A session, asked Mark Hamill for a hug. Now that was indeed truly memorable. *sighs*

 

Hey....the Mark Hamill hug guy!!!!