SMOF News, volume 2, issue 47

Notes from Comic-Con and NASFiC.

Comic-Con International Went Fine

After weeks of dire preditions about the effect of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes on Comic-Con International, with it losing much of its Hollywood presence due to strikers not being available to promote struck work, the event arrived last weekend.

Variety reports that people still seem to be coming to Comic-Con for the comics:

Ted Abenheim, president of the LGBTQ comics advocacy organization Prism, said that SDCC moved the group’s panels into larger rooms for 2023 — and they were “standing room only.”

“I was very pleased to see the turnout,” he said.

Several independent publishers told Variety that they’d also seen a noticeable increase in the number of people coming to the sprawling showroom floor.

Likewise, TheWrap notes that dealers felt like it was a return to the past:

Once upon a time, Artists Alley — the rows of booths where creators of all stripes but especially indie cartoonists chat with fans and (hopefully) sell some stuff — sat close to the middle of the main floor, making it an impossible-to-ignore symbol of why Comic-Con even exists.

Comic-Con International eventually relocated Artists Alley to the far eastern side of the main floor. Right on the other side of a wall from Hall H. Fans still visited but as one vendor told TheWrap on Saturday, it felt like being relegated to a “bargain bin.” With major brands hogging the prime real estate in the middle, it got harder and harder to make a profit, let alone break even for Artist Alley creators.

As for 2023? Rachel Reed, who operates Reed’s Custom Crafts, smiled like a Cheshire cat when asked how things have been this week.

“Nothing has been better for Artists Alley than the strike,” she told TheWrap. Reid acknowledges that this might just be because SDCC passes are too expensive for most fans to discard if the celebrity lineup isn’t good. Nevertheless, they showed up, and Reid joked, “I can pay my mortgage this month” as a result.

And from the LA Times:

Vendor Tony Sacarello, of Triangle Cards and T-Shirts, surmised that fans without a full schedule of panels had plenty of occasion to shop this year.

“I think people are finding out that maybe they do want to spend a lot more time on the floor, finding things,” he said. “Thursday was gangbusters. It was nuts.”

The Times and TheWrap both note that crowds outside the con, of people without Comic-Con tickets going to the coattail events that have sprung up all around Comic-Con in recent years, were noticeably reduced.

TheWrap concludes:

Despite the pullout of nearly every major studio, from Marvel to Warner Bros., fans still flocked to San Diego Comic-Con and by TheWrap’s account, were unbothered by the lack of major stars.

“If there is one single summation,” the producer continued, “it would be that Comic-Con is now too big to fail, and that Hollywood needs Comic-Con more than Comic-Con needs Hollywood.”

In fact, with better sales for the artists and less work to do managing the line for Hall H, traditionalists may argue that Comic-Con needs Hollywood to be absent more often.

Comic-Con News Tidbits

• Dexerto reported that Comic-Con has announced an official cruise, to take place sometime in 2025.

• People covered the launch of the Congressional Arts Caucus at Comic-Con.

• The San Diego Union-Tribune noted that building wraps are still illegal in most of San Diego and also included a guide on where to find all of them.

NASFiC and Worldcon at Pemmi-Con

Pemmi-Con, the 15th North American Science Fiction Convention, was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba last weekend. The Buffalo, New York bid to hold next year’s NASFiC, the sole official bid, won with 129 votes out of 139 cast. There were 4 votes for No Preference, 1 for None of the Above, and 5 write-ins.

The 16th NASFiC is called Buffalo NASFiC 2024, and will be held July 18-21. Initial Guests of Honor are Alan Dean Foster, Nilah Magruder, Phil & Kaja Folio, and Tony & Suford Lewis.

The complete NASFiC Business meeting, including the vote announcement and a brief Q&A, is available on YouTube.

Among the Worldcon bid tables was LA in 2026, which has now moved past the exploratory stage and is bidding in earnest. Exact dates and location are currently being negotiated. LA joins an existing bid for Cairo in 2026.

In Brief

• Retro World Expo (Hartford, Connecticut, August 26-27) has added Retro Rick, Bob Neal, and Diamond Feit as guests.

• FanX Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah, September 21-23) has added Alison Doody as a guest.

Event Calendar

Weekend of July 28-30

• NärCon 2023, Linköping, Sweden

• Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien (symposium), Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

• OzCon International (Oz series), Pomona, California, USA

• Costume College 2023: Cosplay: Fairytales, Fiction, and Fantasy, Los Angeles, California, USA

• Ropecon: Menneisyys ja Tulevaisuus (gaming), Helsinki, Finland

• World Boardgaming Championships, Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, USA

• Continuum (gaming), Oadby, UK

• PretzCon 2023 (gaming), Omaha, Nebraska, USA

• Southern-Fried Gaming Expo (video games), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• Epic.LAN (LAN gaming), Wolverhampton, UK

• Maple Gel Con (Tales video game series), Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• Dream Convention (anime), Austin, Texas, USA

• Otakon (anime), Washington, DC, USA

• AnimeFest, Dallas, Texas, USA

• Tokyo in Tulsa: Worlds Collide (anime), Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

• Anime Com Fest, Kingston, Jamaica

• Wasabicon PDX (anime), Portland, Oregon, USA

• Dream Con (anime), Arlington, Texas, USA

• Dokidokon (anime), Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

• AnimeIowa, Coralville, Iowa, USA

• Anime Impulse Bay Area, San Mateo, California, USA

• New World Comic Con 8, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

• Alias Entertainment Expo: Rise of the Dragon (media), Tunapuna, Trinidad & Tobago

• Corpus Christi Comic Con, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

• GalaxyCon Raleigh (media), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

• TERRIFICON (media), Uncasville, Connecticut, USA

• Tampa Bay Comic Convention, Tampa, Florida, USA

• UK Comic Con, Manchester, UK

• MegaCon Live Manchester (media), Manchester, UK

• GalaCon 2023 (My Little Pony), Waiblingen, Germany

Weekend of August 4-6

• Sci-con2023 (60th Japanese national sf convention), Urawa, Japan

• AMA-CON, Amarillo, Texas, USA

• ArmadilloCon 2023, Austin, Texas, USA

• PulpFest 2023, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

• LeakyCon (Harry Potter), Chicago, Illinois, USA

• Cosplay World, Richmond, Virginia, USA

• Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK

• Reffurence (anthropomorphic), Antwerp, Belgium

• Furry Siesta 2023 (anthropomorphic), Dallas, Texas, USA

• CanFURence 2023 (anthropomorphic), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

• Gen Con 2023 (gaming), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

• StarCon 2023 (gaming), Star Island, New Hampshire, USA

• Pixel Expo: Level 2 (video games), Perth, Australia

• Fragapalooza 2023 (LAN gaming), Leduc, Alberta

• Advík (anime), Prague, Czechia

• AnimagiC (anime), Mannheim, Germany

• Kentokyocon (anime), Lexington, Kentucky, USA

• JoMoCon (anime), Joplin, Missouri, USA

• KO+Con 2023 Isekai (anime), Grand Prairie, Texas, USA

• Mid City Micro-Con (comics), Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

• Really Cool Comic Con, Flint, Michigan, USA

• Bell County Comic Con, Belton, Texas, USA

• Fan Expo Boston (media), Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• Comic Con Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

• MonkeyCon (media), Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

• Enid Comic Con, Enid, Oklahoma, USA

• Monster-Mania 55 (horror media), Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA

• STLV: 57-Year Mission (Star Trek), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Weekend of August 11-13

• Geek Out at Staten Island, Staten Island, New York, USA

• Wild Prairie Fur Con: Adventures in Furry Land (anthropomorphic), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

• Key City Steampunk Convention, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

• Wild Game Roundup, Austin, Texas, USA

• Game On Expo, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

• GameX 5.0 (video games), Mississauga, Ontario, USA

• Long Island Retro Gaming Expo (video games), Garden City, New York, USA

• Grand Tribunal (Ars Magica RPG), Cheltenham, UK

• AniNite 23 (anime), Vienna, Austria

• Otakukon (anime), Harare, Zimbabwe

• Otakuthon (anime), Montréal, Québec

• AniBash (anime), Rochester, New York, USA

• Abunai!: Summer Magic Academia (anime), Veldhoven, Netherlands

• Tokonatsu (anime), Henlow, UK

• RakuCon Manchester (anime), Manchester, UK

• Queen City Anime Convention, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

• Anime-zing!, Davenport, Iowa, USA

• MatsuriCon 2023 (anime), Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Fan Expo Chicago (media), Rosemont, Illinois, USA

• Dublin Comic Con, Dublin, Ireland

• Station Unity 2023 (media), National Harbor, Maryland, USA

• Flame Con (LGBT+ media), New York City, New York, USA

• Starfleet International Conference 2023 (Star Trek), online

• TFNation (Transformers), Birmingham, UK

• Everfree NW (My Little Pony), Bellevue, Washington, USA

Mid-week event: SFRA 2023: Disruptive Imaginations (symposium), Dresden, Germany

Weekend of August 18-20

• Epic Nerd Camp, Darlington, Maryland, USA

• DenFur (anthropomorphic), Denver, Colorado, USA

• Dragonflight Gamecon 43, Bellevue, Washington, USA

• Game & Party Con, Jacksonville, Florida, USA

• Coulee Con 2023 (gaming), La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

• Lone Star Game Expo, Grapevine, Texas, USA

• Field of Games, Silverstone, UK

• Draconicon (gaming), Tel Aviv, Israel

• HistoriKC Fest (miniatures gaming), Overland Park, Kansas, USA

• Nashcon 2023 (miniatures gaming), Nashville, Tennessee, USA

• SDHist Con East (historical games), Newport, Rhode Island, USA

• Superstar Anime, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA

• Conjutsu (anime), Fairfax, Virginia, USA

• Anime Revolution, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

• Colossalcon Texas (anime), Round Rock, Texas, USA

• Shikkaricon (anime), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

• Anime Town Louisiana 2023, Gonzales, Louisiana, USA

• Soda City Comic Con, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

• Kelowna ComiCon, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

• Hub City Comic Con, Lubbock, Texas, USA

• Creation Charlotte (media), Concord, North Carolina, USA

• Stars of Time (media), Weston-super-Mare, UK

Weekend of August 25-27

• Bubonicon 54: Across the Multiverse, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

• Dni Fantastyki, Wrocław, Poland

• Camp Feral!: Business Casual (anthropomorphic), Algonquin Park, Ontario

• Furrydelphia (anthropomorphic), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

• IndyFurCon 2023: Mission: Impawssible (anthropomorphic), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

• Weekend at the Asylum (steampunk), Lincoln, UK

• Northeast Ohio Steampunk Festival, Burton, Ohio, USA

• FallCon 36: Dice, People & Meeples (gaming), Calgary, Alberta, Canada

• LincCon the 13th (gaming), Merrill, Wisconsin, USA

• MaricopaCon X (gaming), Tempe, Arizona, USA

• Tacticon (gaming), Aurora, Colorado, USA

• Tabletop Scotland (gaming), Perth, UK

• Brussels Games Festival, Brussels, Belgium

• Norwich Games Con, Norwich, UK

• Retro World Expo (gaming), Hartford, Connecticut, USA

• Great Escape on the Lake (gaming), Bradford, New York, USA

• 2D Con 2023: Another World (video games), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

• Windblume (Genshin Impact), Frisco, Texas, USA

• TennoCon (Warframe), London, Ontario, Canada

• Kokorokon (anime), Collinsville, Illinois, USA

• Hikari (anime), Poznań, Poland

• Kin-Yoobi Con (anime), Union City, California, USA

• PopCult Anime Con, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

• My Hero Convention: Florida (anime), Fort Walton Beach, Florida, USA

• Ganbatte 2023 (anime), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

• Fan Expo Canada (media), Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• Jemcon 2023: Rockin’ Romance in Rhode Island (Jem and the Holograms), Warwick, Rhode Island, USA

• Fandom Fest 2023 (media), Schenectady, New York, USA

• Fairfax Comic Con, Chantilly, Virginia, USA

• My-Con (media), Orlando, Florida, USA

• Fandom Fest 2023 (media), Schenectady, New York, USA

Coda

• Solar sail swarms (The Register)

Thank you for reading! Send tips, corrections, press releases, and letters of comment to: smofnews@gmx.com.