Undead swarm Villains Beastro

By Chris Mailloux

The walking dead gathered at Villains Beastro Oct 5 for the second Annual Zom-B-Con.

The event raised money for the Windsor Youth Centre with all donations being collected in a treasure chest. Micheal Reeve, CEO of Z-Day Productions created the zombie convention. Reeve decided to take a different approach to the convention this year trying to make the event more accessible for the entire family.

“It’s something I really wanted to incorporate, make sure kids have fun because the Zombie Walk starts at nine and it’s hard to get kids to come out that late,” said Reeve.

The event featured three different costume contests. A contest was held for children, teenagers and adults. The prizes for each contest were provided by Hugin & Munin, Rogues Gallery Comics and by Reeve himself.

“We try to make sure that most people have a chance at winning something,” said Reeve.

Reeve hosted the event dressed as a character he created himself named Captain Hindgrinder. He said that it usually takes him 45 minutes to put the whole costume together including the make-up.

“It was actually a character that was created without a costume. It’s just something we would make fun of when I was doing roofing,” said Reeve.

Reeve also has plans to expand next year for the third Annual Zom-B-Con. He said he wants to talk to the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association about using a vacant lot on Ouellette Avenue as the location for next year’s event.

“The whole aspiration for the zombie con is to eventually turn it into a more convention deal so people can have stands and booths set up,” said Reeve. “It will help out local businesses as well as a fun activity for the public.

Reeve also said that he wants to try and work with the planner of the Zombie Walk, Jake Witalec, to help both events run as smoothly as possible. The threat of a possible cancellation for the Zombie Walk didn’t worry Reeve.

Days before the Zombie Walk Witalec revealed that he was contacted by the police about billing him for the extra amount of officers that were needed to patrol during the event. The problem being that the Zombie Walk itself is a non-profit event so Witalec had no funds to help pay the bill.

“It’s going to happen either way you’re not going to stop people from congregating,” said Reeve. “They’re not a hostile group, they’re not protesting anything. They’re just getting together, costuming it up and walking around having fun for the most part.”

The event also featured an area for people attending to get their faces painted. Reeve has experience doing make-up for horror and thriller themed projects.

Stefan Caplat was one of the attendees at the convention and had his face painted by Reeve.

“I’ve been painted a few times so it’s nothing weird to me,” said Caplat.

The previous year Caplat did his own make up so he found that part of the experience different this year. Caplat also said he understands the concerns the police had about providing extra officers for the Zombie Walk.

“A handful of bad apples could possibly spoil the night so it’s good to have the officers on duty to protect us,” said Caplat.

Despite concerns that police had about the Zombie Walk, both the walk and the convention ran smoothly without problems.