#starfest 2019

[kaylee-cosplays]

StarFest Denver 2019

[ritstarfest]

Happy Pride Month, everyone!  #IDIC

(🎨: @zmyaro)

[everyotherworm]

Ok then?

XGJXGJDTIYF WHY IS IT STARLIGHT FEST RN?????

ITS FEBRUARY WHAT

[scip-scipio-a]

Didn't even realize it was April 1st. I'm too busy watching the world and realizing buying stuff isn't helping. Did a real kooky look for Starfest last year and got a weird picture of my contacts but didn't properly document my rainbow eyelids. FUN! Contacts (Cosplay White Out) - @pinkyparadisedotcom Eye Makeup (Rainbow Palette) - @shopvioletvoss #Makeup #Original #Wig #Purple #FaceJewels #Opalescence #Iridescent #Weird #2019 (at Denver Marriott Tech Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-dLn2cDyst/?igshid=5fhn6twjpf3d

[benbrowder]

Ben Browder Talks About Future Farscape Series At Starfest Denver 2019 S...

As usual Ben is cautious but said several things that inspire glimmers of hope. His love of the character, the show, and all things associated with it continues to make his love of it ring true. I also continue to be baffled by fans of his that oppose more Farscape. Some want him to reprise the role of Mitchell on SG1 instead, a very 2D role that gave him little opportunity to do much.As a fan I want to see Ben on screen regularly getting new opportunities to do what he does. On Farscape he worked 70 hours a week and loved it because it challenged him regularly. A rare thing for a series actor. I don’t presume to know what is best for his career but I agree with him that the time is right for more Farscape and I hope that would open a door to a new galaxy of opportunities for him and therefore us as his fans!

[doctorfriend79]

Peter Capaldi To Donate 100% Of Money From Autograph Sales At Capital Sci Fi Con 2019 To Charity https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-to-headline-edinburgh-sci-fi-starfest-1-4860614

[laurendzim]

Hex Publishers, Denver’s horror and sci-fi house, brings an end to its grand, national experiment

Joshua Viola has good reason to be excited for Denver Pop Culture Con this weekend.

“I sold more books there than I ever thought I would,” the 36-year-old said of the convention formerly known as Denver Comic Con. “We sold out of everything we brought last year and left the show early.”

Viola, the founder of Denver-based Hex Publishers, and author Warren Hammond have a new sci-fi book to push — “Denver Moon: The Saint of Mars,” a noir-ish, co-authored sequel to 2017’s “Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars” — and plenty of anthologies, graphic novels, young-adult books, soundtracks, T-shirts and other Hex product to sell.

Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

Warren Hammond, left, and Joshua Viola stand before a wall of movie props and memorabilia Viola has collected over the years at his house in Westminster on Monday, May 20, 2019.

But despite his success over the last five years, Viola is using the May 31-June 2 convention to bring an end to Hex. Mostly, anyway.

“It’s been very hard trying to balance my time and my personal life over the last couple years, so that’s why I’m slowing down,” said Viola, whose day job revolves around Frontière Natural Meats, a growing north Denver business he runs with father, James, and brother Cody. “Hex developed a following of people who know our stuff, and it’s rewarding when we have them come back for more. But I’ve never been doing it for money. It certainly didn’t pay for what we’re sitting in here.”

Viola is referring to his $2.1 million, custom-built house in a luxury development just west of Interstate 25 in Westminster. The upper levels are contemporary chic, with wood and metal sculptures, minimalist furnishings and work/sleep spaces. The basement is where Viola plays, with a home movie theater, vintage video-game arcade, artist studio, wine room and bar — all decorated with an enviable array of movie, video game and comic-book memorabilia.

“I love it, but I’ll sell it in five years or so,” he said as he poured beers for himself and author Hammond from one of the basement taps. “This is a ridiculous amount of space.”

With a converted vintage-Camaro pool table in the garage and a literal, two-story bridge connecting the main house to the guest quarters, Viola has his playboy affectations. But Hammond, the author of the “KOP” sci-fi series (which won a Colorado Book Award in 2013) and the novel “Tides of Maritinia,” wouldn’t be working with a playboy.

Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

Josh Viola’s arcade room is pictured at his house in Westminster on Wednesday, May 22, 2019. Viola had the space custom built to fit a wide range of retro arcade machines, including driving games and pinball.

“I tend to blow off most of the people who approach me in the local scene because I don’t really know them,” Hammond, 50, said. “But there are a few things that set Josh apart, and the first one is that he pays.”

Viola has invested more than $100,000 of his own money into Hex over the years, from clever marketing such as PlayStation 4 dynamic themes (yielding 30,000 paid downloads) to just-plain-fun events, such as a screening of “Total Recall” and a bespoke, themed beer release at the Alamo Drafthouse (to promote the first Denver Moon novel). He’s sold about 30,000 total copies of Hex’s 20 releases — not including two locally sourced, nationally marketed kids books under his Jam Publishers imprint, or Hex’s online zine, WORDS, which has published short stories, interviews and movie reviews.

Hex has never held an open submission process for any of its works. That means sourcing short stories, novels, art, music and design from a smaller pool of established — and definitely more expensive — creative types. But that’s OK, Hex’s contributors have learned over the last five years, because Viola pays everyone on time. Lately, he’s been paying about twice the genre-fiction industry’s standard rate of 6 cents per word. Viola shells out 10 cents per word.

“I had no idea our first big anthology (‘Nightmares Unhinged’) would be mostly local writers,” Viola said. “Most of what you read is garbage, and I was planning on national contributors for that. But it ended up being only two nonlocal writers, and I have to give Dean Wyant credit for that.”

Wyant, the acquisitions editor and co-founder of Hex, connected Viola to a deep network of local authors and booksellers. That led Viola to working with Hammond, Jason Heller, Mario Acevedo, Angie Hodapp, Stephen Graham Jones and other national-quality talents hidden among the stacks of Denver’s bookshops and literary groups.

Through Hex’s anthologies such as “Nightmares Unhinged” and “Cyber World,” graphic novels and even the odd cyberpunk soundtrack, Viola has made a strong argument that Hex is more just than a vanity project — despite the fact that everything on the imprint reflects his personal tastes.

“People talk about genre tropes like they’re bad things,” he said, shaking his head. “And we just embrace the hell out of them.”

Photos by Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

From left: A dragon replica, A model of The Joker from Batman, a replica of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo and a replica of Abe Sapien from the movie Hell Boy are all on display at Josh Viola’s Westminster home on May 22, 2019.

People have taken notice. “Nightmares Unhinged” was licensed by AMC for promotional use in “Fear The Walking Dead” Season 2. “Cyber World,” “Blood Business” and “Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars” were all nominated for Colorado Book Awards while topping local best-seller charts. “Metamorphosis,” a gorgeous comic drawn by Hex’s shy-yet-vital visual force, Aaron Lovett, made the 2018 Bram Stoker Award preliminaries for superior achievement in a graphic novel. And there’s the aforementioned custom beer — Red Fever, by Black Shirt Brewing — which was produced for the first Denver Moon novel.

“Having done four books with major publishers, I can say Josh has done more to promote ‘Denver Moon’ than all four of those together, by a larger margin,” Hammon said. “I’m not going to quit my day job (as a network engineering instructor), and I don’t want to dog my other publishers, but Josh brings a certain passion to everything he does. It’s allowed me to do some things publishers aren’t really doing anymore these days.”

Related Articles

Your guide to Denver Pop Culture Con 2019: What to do, see, wear and avoid

First look at Breckenridge’s 2019 Denver Pop Culture Con beer glassware

DiNK 2019: Denver’s indie comics expo puts trailblazers in perspective

That includes the latest Denver Moon book’s July 20 signing at the Tattered Cover, and appearances at Denver Pop Culture Con or Denver Indie Comics & Art Expo (DiNK), among other fan and industry events. Viola suspects he’ll keep the Hex flame burning for years to come, even if his new, co-authored novel with Hammond is Hex’s last major promotional push.

“We’ve still got Jeanne Stein’s 10th novel in the Anna Strong series coming out later this year. We were also hired by the Colorado Festival of Horror to do an anthology for their con coming out in the fall of 2020,” he said of the new event, which was hatched by the minds behind StarFest, HorrorFest and DiNK. “That’ll be exclusive to that con, and the theme is ’80s horror drive-ins, which is right up my alley.”

As colorful, surprising and winding as that alley has been for Viola, it’s always been his space. The perfectionist artifacts he’s left along the way were always for him, even if other people enjoyed them, too.

“When you don’t have something you want out in the world, you start to create it to fill that void,” he said. “That’s what Hex is for me. When your nutrition’s not good, you start eating it because your body demands it. I want people to enjoy and respect what I’m doing with it, but ultimately, I’m creating something that I crave.”

from News And Updates https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/29/hex-publishers-josh-viola-denver-moon/

[fcsuper]

Starfest 2019 in Denver - April 2019

via Blogger http://fcsuper.blogspot.com/2020/01/starfest-2019-in-denver-april-2019.html

[irockng]

Wizkid concert vs 13th headies award- is wizkid disrespectful?

Wizkid concert vs 13th headies award- is wizkid disrespectful?

[ad_1]

Wizkid Wizkid is currently trending on Nigeria’s social sphere for what many see as a disrespect to the Nigeria Music Industry. Wizkid’s Starfest is currently going on in Manchester as it clashes with the Headies Award 2019 and the biggest Nigerian artistes are missing at the Headies award because they are performing at Wizkid’s concert. The Headies is one of Nigeria’s Biggest…

[ritstarfest]

We're getting a vision of the future: STARfest 2019 will be on Saturday, March 2nd!  Follow the Facebook event for updates as it takes shape, and remember to send in your 2018 feedback so we can make 2019 even better!

[scip-scipio-a]

Met the cutest cosplay pet at Starfest this year. So of course the weird girl with the eyes and stuff on her face had to take an awkward picture. 😬 Taken at Starfest 2019 #Starfest #CosplayDog #makeup #wig #contacts (at Starfest Convention) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzJrZK1DmEv/?igshid=1wb9vma2ozl2j

[scip-scipio-a]

We may have lost the dance contest 20min after this picture was taken, but we're also terrible people. 📷 by @chiseledlight.cos Taken at Starfest 2019 #Dance #Starfest2019 #FaceJewels #Makeup #Wig (at Denver Tech Center (DTC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw-zblxjjMF/?igshid=vjdxqnz7oc4x

[ritstarfest]

Volunteers who are signed up for at least 2 hours get badges for the convention free! Be like Zoidberg and sign up to volunteer for STARfest 2019 on this form: https://goo.gl/forms/r8hcYnn3vk4JZMTf2

[ritstarfest]

Happy New Year!

The original Blade Runner film takes place in the year 2019. Although your old memories may be artificial STARfest hope you all make new ones in 2019.

[ritstarfest]

The new vendors form is now open for STARfest 2019 is now open!

https://starfest.ritstar.com/vendor2019

[ritstarfest]

The new panels form is now open for STARfest 2019 is now open!

https://starfest.ritstar.com/panel2019