#MidAmeriCon

[gepetordi1]

Mark Hamill at MidAmeriCon in 1976, where he and producer Gary Kurtz answered questions and showed props from a movie they were making that hadn’t come out yet, Star Wars.

At this point, nobody knew who he was. 

[dedalvs]

Have you ever gone to a fan convention? Or would you consider going to one? I'm sure Dragon Con in Atlanta would love to have you as a guest!

I've been to many, many conventions, but DragonCon isn't one of them, and I'm fairly certain they don't want me as a guest there. I've put in to be a guest a few times and they've never shown interest (I received a polite apology once). I doubt I'll ever be at DragonCon.

These are some of the conventions I've been to as a guest:

AMA-CON

AnaCon

BayCon

ChiCon

ClexaCon

San Diego Comic-Con

ConBust

ConDor

Con of Thrones

GeekyCon

Ice and Fire Con

IwaCon

Life Is Beautiful

Life, The Universe, and Everything

MalCon

MidAmeriCon

NorWesCon

New York Comic-Con

Renovation

SalukiCon

San Diego Comic Fest

Sasquan

Space City Con

WhimsyCon

WonderCon

WorldCon 75

WyrdCon

Y'allWest

[theamazingstories]

NAMETAGS REVISITED (Column 24 redux)

NAMETAGS REVISITED (Column 24 redux)

Figure 1  – MidAmeriCon 1976 nametag by George Barr I was away all last weekend and, for various reasons, I don’t have a brand-new column this week, but since I was at Spocon 2022 in Spokane WA, I figure it’s a good excuse. At the “tag end” of this column, I’ll speak a little bit about Spocon 2022. Otherwise, you’ll be treated (?) to a repetition of a column from my first year with Amazing…

[mckitterick]

Hammin' it up in the SF Center's display area, WorldCon 2016 in Kansas City.

[gameraboy2]

Mark Hamill discussing stormtrooper aim at MidAmeriCon, 1976

[rptv-starwars]

Charles Lippincott - Star Wars‘ unsung hero

- Back in 1976, George Lucas was hard at work on a masterpiece. But without a brilliant publicist like Charles Lippincott, few people would have gone to see it.

That sounds like an overstatement; I don't think it is.

Mark Hamill once said in an interview (on VH1 "When Star Wars Ruled the World") that when they showed the trailer in theaters, an obnoxious man in the audience yelled that it would end up on late night televsion 2 months later.

Star Wars Episode IV (later named "A New Hope") is considered the first blockbuster that was strategically planned (i.e. not organic), and it was due primarily the hard work of one man: Charles Lippincott.

[And not just Star Wars: he practically revolutionized the way movies were promototed, and all others have followed suit ever since.]

Why did countless people line up to see Star Wars in 1977 the day it came out? There was no internet and TV advertising was expensive. George Lucas was not yet a multi-billionaire and he didn't have the clout he has now (Fox almost pulled the plug on his movie as they were wrapping up the final scenes; 20th Century Fox executive Alan Ladd Jr. [who star wars fans owe a debt of gratitude], was able to temporarily keep the pressure off Lucas from the other Fox executives until the film wrapped up).

Lippincott is the reason why Star Wars found its audience, who in turn made it a massive hit.

Lippincott hit the road and promoted the movie where it mattered: conventions. Lippincott got the hardcore science fiction and fantasy (SFF) fanbase totally invested in seeing Star Wars. This was probably his most important contribution; had he not done this, Star Wars might not have succeeded.

There were three conventions essential in Lippincott’s plan on getting the word out to existing SFF fans: Westercon in July 1976 in Los Angeles, San Diego Comic-Con that same month, and most boldly, Worldcon (better known as MidAmeriCon, held in Kansas City, MO), in September of 1976.

San Diego Comic-Con was a relativley young convention (still in its first decade).  Famous Guests that year included Sergio Aragonés (from MAD Magazine), Mel Blanc (the famous voice actor), and Joe Shuster (of Superman fame) – but they also got a panel with Marvel writer Roy Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin, showing a preview of an upcoming release known as "Star Wars".  Nearly a year before the film’s release, Lippincott made the then-unconventional decision to present a 35mm slide show of stills from the film, and also provided slick black and white posters that said, “Star Wars: Coming to Your Galaxy This Summer.”

He also provided another poster at the panel, with artwork by Chaykin (which is now a highly sought after collectors item worth thousands of dollars), and can be found below on my tumblr blog:

https://rptv-starwars.tumblr.com/post/616355444997455872/star-wars-episode-iv-first-promotional-poster-by

-

It's not an exaggeration to say that every subsequent blockbuster film that has found success promoting itself to thousands of fans in "Hall H" (the 65,000 square foot room at Comic-Con [now considered "the Convention of all Conventions,”] and called "the most important room in Hollywood" by the Los Angeles Times) owes a debt to Lippincott.

WorldCon in Kansas city received a larger panel which also featured Producer Gary Kurtz and a little-known actor named Mark Hamill. The panel not only presented an expanded slide show, but discussed the entire plot of the film and featured an audience Q-and-A. Lippincott also manned the film’s display space that weekend (featuring costumes, posters, and buttons) which became so popular after the panel that he ran out of the promotional material by the second day.

In addition, Lippincott ran promotions for the movie on college radio stations

He also secured merchandise tie-ins with Marvel Comics, Kenner Toys, and others, establishing Star Wars as a cross-platform media giant. His creative promoting kept the intellectual property in the public eye and helped satisfy ravenous public demand, catapulting Lucasfilm toward the type of success necessary to create and finance its sequels (before the success of Star Wars [A New Hope], George Lucas apparently didn't think he would be making another Star Wars movie).

For those of us who played with Star Wars toys or read the early comics, we have Lippincott to thank.  And Star Wars is still a franchise merchandising powerhouse to this day.

Like most "behind the scenes" types (who do all the work but get no glory), many people have not heard of Charles Lippincott. Shamefully, I myself had never even heard of him until a few days ago (despite being a Star Wars fan since 1977). So that is why I'm writing this; to make up for this unsung hero of Star Wars.

Lippincott passed away in Vermont on May 19, 2020 at the age of 80 following a brief hospital stay after a heart attack.

Thank you sir for all of your hard work. Not only did you make Star Wars profitable; you helped make many children happy (especially Gen X kids like myself). Rest in Peace.

_____________________________ Some of the information above was taken from various sources including Good Morning America, Krypton Radio, and Den of Geek.

_____________________________ Fun fact: When Lippincott first approached Stan Lee at Marvel Comics to produce a 6-issue Star Wars adaptation, Lee initially refused. He later agreed to the deal, and the comic run quickly sold out.

One more fun fact: Lippincott, Like George Lucas, attended USC.  [And they didn't have to buy their way in, either.]

Lippincott helping Darth Vader make is cement footprint at Grauman’s (later Man’s) Chinese Theater in Hollywood, August 03, 1977.

-

Charles Lippincott and Mark Hamill at a Star Wars press tour in Japan.

[whateveradjunct]

Mike Resnick, RIP

Photo of Mike Resnick and me at ChiCon 7 the 2012 Worldcon, taken from the MidAmeriCon photo archive. Click on the photo to be taken to the original.

Laura Resnick has posted that her father Mike Resnick has died,which means that it’s a very sad day for his friends and fans in the science fiction community. Give the length of his remarkable career, and the honors that were given to him (including…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#3yrsago Making Conversation: 59 lively and delightful essays from Teresa Nielsen Hayden

It's been more than 20 years since the publication of Making Book, Teresa Nielsen Hayden's collection of essays, mostly drawn from the pre-online days of fanzines and letters columns; this year, in honor of Teresa's stint as Fan Guest of Honor at Midamericon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, NESFA Press has published a second volume: Making Conversation, a collection of essays drawn from the online world on subjects as varied as moderation and trolling, cooking, hamster-rearing, fanfic, narcolepsy, the engineering marvels of the IBM Selectric, and more.

In all, Making Conversation contains 59 essays, ranging in length from a few paragraphs to several pages. Some started out as posts on Making Light, the rollicking and essential blog that she founded and co-edits with several others (including her husband, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who was her co-guest of honor at the Worldcon); some were comments on others' posts; some are even old forum posts carefully saved from Genie, the national dial-up BBS where the science fiction industry found one of its most intense conversational homes.

As the title implies, much of Making Conversation is about discourse itself: how people talk and what happens when they do. Some of the sharpest observations concern online moderation (Teresa was a long-serving Boing Boing moderator), but others are more general, about how it comes to pass that some people get on so very poorly in online forums, and what can be done to nurture those who are shouted down in those situations.

But the "conversation" part of the book is at most a third of it -- the rest is a rather glorious miscellanea that highlights Teresa's eclectic interests, lively prose style, and keen observations about social phenomena. Whether she's examining how a convention volunteer's running gag about being "Punch Bowl Czar" can, in the wrong hands, turn into a destructive whirlwind that shatters a close-knit community; or explaining, with hilarious economy, what it's like to trick a hamster that likes to fling itself at the door of its cage by quietly undoing the latch, so that it ends up literally hanging by its teeth as its escape attempt succeeds beyond its wildest, furriest dreams, Teresa is keen-eyed, sharp-witted and thoughtful.

Making Conversation picks up exactly where Making Book left off, like running into a friend you haven't seen in years and finding that you can seamlessly continue the jokes, debates, and weighty conversations that made their friendship such a joy.

Making Conversation [Teresa Nielsen Hayden/NESFA Press]

https://boingboing.net/2016/09/21/making-conversation-59-lively.html

[mindduckbookspodcast]

Paul and I got progressively more drunk on this episode to yell at youth, give life lessons to adolescents and attempt to “get cancelled”. Join us on this episode where we debate many questions in the book Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Notes: 00:00 Intro, general impressions, Heinlein 33:49 SPOILERS LINKS: Heinlein’s speech at MidAmeriCon (1976): https://youtu.be/LoSnjYLw2A0 by Mind Duck Books Podcast

[radicalposture]

Mark Hamill, Gary Kurtz, and Charles Lippincott promoting Star Wars at MidAmeriCon in 1976

[wot-tidbits]

Midamericon 2001,  Collinsville, Illinois

Two Legends

Second photo, Standing: Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, Sitting: Vic Millan, David Cherry, Jack Stauffer 

[vintagegeekculture]

Mark Hamill at MidAmeriCon in 1976, where he and producer Gary Kurtz answered questions and showed props from a movie they were making that hadn’t come out yet, Star Wars.

At this point, nobody knew who he was. 

[microsff]

2016 summary

So, 2016, eh? That certainly was a year, wasn't it? Sure was. Well. Right. Well, then. More tea, vicar?

I haven't counted all the stories, but there are 50 pages with 15 entries each for 2016 here on tumblr, which makes 750 posts, give or take a few. Discount the short stories, the #AdvenTale entries, the #SummerReRuns, and administrative posts about Patreon, translations, and other things, and the final tally is probably around 600 pieces of microfiction written over the year. On par with 2015 in that regard, in other words.

Short stories

I had to go check through the archives here to see if I actually had written any, as they were all, apart from the AdvenTale, posted in the first half of the year.

Library - This one was special, and remains a favourite. It started out as a single-tweet story (most of my serial tweet stories do), but someone posted with the obvious reply, so I continued. Each new part was written in response to someone asking "Then what?". It was exhilarating to write.

Shooting troops - Hard SF space opera, or summat. Written for AdHocFiction.

Alone - Another serial tweet-story. People objected to the first (and only intended) part on the grounds it wasn't fiction, or at least no science fiction, so I had to embellish it a bit.

Ripples - A... I don't know. Reflection, maybe? Written for AdHocFiction.

The Princess Dragons - A longer serial tweet story, starting from a pest infestation problem, and stomping over a lot of fairy-tale ground. Fun to write, but suffers from the format, I'm afraid. Had I written the same story in one go, without consideration for Twitter, it would probably have been better. It's still vaguely amusing, I hope.

Unn and the cold fire - The 2016 AdvenTale.

Found on New Year’s Eve - The last serial tweet story of the year. (Even if the collated post was posted on New Year's Day, this year, the tweets were posted on New Year's Eve).

Poems

Call me a weirdo, but I enjoy writing poetry. I like playing with form and formatting, and the restrictions imposed by things like sonnets. (I'm not much of a poetry reader, alas. No doubt I'd be a better poet if I read more.)

Every time - This is the only single-tweet poem I'll list (I wrote a few more). I'm quite happy with this one.

To my love - a sonnet, written for World Poetry Day 2-16 (March 21).

Power - a free verse poem about a world where some people have super powers.

When aliens landed - Posted as ten tweets, this is a first-contact story.

My cat torments mice - Another serial tweet poem. I'm proud of putting the word "mousicide" in it.

The Raven - A sort of sequel to E. A. Poe's classic poem. Not quite as intricately structured, but that would have been a very ambitious undertaking.

Sex and blood - Written offline, but posted as a series of tweets, I'm happy with the cadence of this (though you have to pronounce "every" and "ritual" with only two syllables each, like I do). I sat down intending to write a Christmas poem, but this came out instead.

That's... two 150-word AdHocFiction stories, four serial tweet stories, the advent tale, and six poems. It doesn't feel like much. And on that note...

Nominatability

The annual award nomination season is coming up. In particular, the Hugo awards will soon open for nominations. If you were/are a member of WorldCon in this, the next, or the previous year (e.g. MidAmeriCon II in 2016, WorldCon 75 in 2017, or Worldcon 76), you can nominate any of my short stories (conveniently collected above) in the Short Story category.

If you would like to nominate my whole body of work - the microstories, the short stories, and the AdvenTale - for an award, you could nominate me (e.g. O. Westin, writing at twitter.com/microsff) in the Fan Writer category.

I honestly don't know if having a Patreon rules me out of the "Fan" category, though. From how I read the rules, I don't think it does, but if the Hugo committee rules against it, I won't grumble.

So, yeah, that was 2016

To be frank, the last third of 2016 was in many ways a write-off, for me. Work (for I do have a day job) was very stressful, as were some aspects of my personal life, and while I managed to keep on top of that, and write my little stories, I had no energy or peace-of-mind left to do anything in my limited spare time.

I had plans, and cool ideas, and stuff, and... And while I got started on some of those in the summer, it all ground to a halt after I got back from my holidays in August. I hope I'll get my head back on my feet again soon, and that 2017 will be kinder to us all.

With that said, I would like to thank all my kind patrons on Patreon, the amazing people who offer their time and talent writing microsff.tumblr.com/translations, and all of you, dear readers.

Thank you all for reading. Thank you all for sharing my stories with your own followers, on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Google+, and for suporting me on Patreon. I hope you will stick around and keep spreading the word for as long as I'm entertaining, and tell me when I'm not.

[artist-in-pain]

Finally watching the video of the Masquerade competition Sarabi placed in at MidAmericon! I'm excited!