A Dream 31 Years In the Making

It was shortly after Part 6 came out on VHS in 1987 that I caught my first glimpse of Jason Voorhees preying on camp counselors. From the moment I first saw that mask I was intrigued... and a few months later when I learned his name was the same as mine, I was a fan. 31 years, dozens of hockey masks, some latex pieces, a pilgrimage to Germany and a long-running blog later I finally got my life-long fandom memorialized in a photo with almost every living actor to don a Jason mask. What an epic moment.

The two that are missing from this photo are of course the late Richard Brooker, who I met in 2009 and 2011:

And Derek Mears, who I met in 2009:

There are of course, scores of stunt and FX personnel who played Jason: Tommy Lee Wallace, Ellen Lutter, and Carl Fullerton in part 2, Mike De Luna in part 3, Tom Savini in part 4, John Hock in part 5, Chris Swift's eye in part 6, Glenn Ennis and Doug Tate in VS... and of course Ari Lehman. Lots of people to meet, many of whom don't do conventions, but it was nice to get the major ones out of the way all at once!