ALIENS TO ZOMBIES CONVENTION

Emmy Award-winning special effects artist Todd Masters, founder of MASTERSFX, and Bruce Haring, founder of JM Northern Media, have teamed up for the first “Aliens to Zombies” Convention, a two day-long look at monsters and the post-apocalyptic world.

The event, open to the public, takes place on October 21-22 at Hollywood’s most famous haunted hostel, the Roosevelt Hotel.

Highlighting the event will be the revival of Masters’ famous “Monster-Makers Bash” costume party, which annually attracts the industry’s top special effects artists, and the first Halloween Book Festival awards, honoring the best in science fiction, horror and other seasonal genres.

Confirmed participants in the A to Z Convention include Bryce Zabel (producer of NBC’s “Dark Skies” and author of “A.D. After Disclosure: The People’s Guide to Life After Contact”); actor Michael Rooker of “The Walking Dead” series; Oscar-winning monster makers/partners Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. of ADI, Inc. (the “Alien” films, “Pumpkinhead,” “X-Files: The Movie,” and FX for the new version of “The Thing” to be released 10/18); Alex Ben Block, Senior Editor, The Hollywood Reporter; Scott Kenemore (author, "Zombie, Ohio"); Joe McKinney (author, "Dead City"); David Moody (author, the "Autumn" series); Matt Mogt, creator of the Zombie Research Society; and Martin Olson (author, "Encyclopedia of Hell.”)

“After so many years of my colleagues and I appearing at genre conventions and on panels around the world talking about ‘monster-making’ and our FX work, we thought, ‘Why not have a ‘Monstrous’ event right here, in our own Hollywood backyard, and present it just in time for Halloween 2011,’ said Masters. “We truly hope the success of this first ever ‘Aliens to Zombies’ Convention will result in it becoming an annual Hollywood tradition.”