Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
Cover artist is unknown. The program is 16 pages. How cool would that have been if Cylons came out of the mother ship at the end of Close Encounters?
You can see a few photos of the event here. Guests included Linda Blair (Huh? To promote Roller Boogie?), Michael York, and the cast of the 1950 TV series Space Patrol.
Chock full of history about monsters and monstercons, Forry Ackerman (check out his office in the fourth photo down), Phil Seuling (early con organizer who developed the direct market distribution model), and James Warren, not to mention some glorious art and ads, you can read the whole program at From Zombos’ Closet, a terrific monsterkid blog. Also check out the equally interesting 1975 Famous Monsters Convention Program.
The first shot is another winner from lfics’ Flickr. The event is Galacticon II, 1979. Second photo is from Supercon 10, same year, via The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. The costume is based on the character as seen in Marvel Premiere #45, with cover (below) and interior art by the great George Perez. The cosplayer—obviously not a term anyone used at the time—is unknown.
That’s Paula Crist on the left. Crist toured as Zira in a Planet of the Apes show in the early ’70s and later became a stuntwoman, appearing in Battle of the Planet of the Apes and Logan’s Run, among others. She’s also closely associated with early Star Trek and sci-fi fandom, impressing Gene Roddenberry so much that he gave her a spot as a crew member in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The event above is a convention called the American Quincentennial Celebration held at Grossmont College in San Diego County. See more at Flickr.
UPDATE (9/22/15): The young man on the right is William “Bill” Blake, who played Cornelius in “Meet Zira & Cornelius,” the “promotional roadshow,” as he calls it, mentioned above. Blake is a makeup artist (mentored by John Chambers, who won an Oscar for his makeup work on the original Planet of the Apes film), actor, and special effects technician. More background on Blake and his career can be found here.
Crist and Blake are actually doing professional promotion for Logan’s Run and thus “cosplay” is not exactly an accurate description. The title of this post has been revised accordingly.
Just a kid among kids. The venue is the 1977 Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Con, which ran from April 8 to April 10 at the LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) Marriott. The Star Wars premiere was less than two months away. More shots from the con are at lfics’ Flickr.
Apparently TSR had a booth at something called “College Expo” during Spring Break of 1983. Apparently TSR gave away lots of swag, including Blizzard Pass, the first solo adventure module. Apparently the TSR booth was sponsored by Casey Kasem’s American Top 40. Apparently 6000 t-shirts featuring both the D&D logo (front) and the American Top 40 banner (back) were made for the event.
Conclusion: somewhere out there, probably covered in 32-year-old beer and puke and unused condoms, is a t-shirt featuring both the D&D logo and the American Top 40 banner.
Random Events was an internal TSR newsletter that ran from 1981 to 1983. I don’t have the second page of this issue, unfortunately, but you can read more at The Acaeum.
(Image via eBay)
I can’t find any info on the fanzine the Chairman (far right) is holding. The first San Diego Comic-Con was held in 1970. Photos from the 1973 SDCC are here.
(Image via SDSU’s Comic-Con History Project)
Frank Brunner and Larry Todd splash the front and back covers with their signature characters, Dr. Strange and Dr. Atomic, respectively. Cotati is about 45 miles north of San Francisco.
(Images via eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 