Fen Con has one of the best hotels for holding a convention, Crowne Plaza in Addison, TX. I really liked the way the meeting space was laid out. There were a lot of room parties. I think it would have been nice to consolidate the room parties in one or two of the hotel wings rather than spreading them all out over the floor. It’s the second year at the hotel and it’ll be there next year.

Tulsa fandom was well represented. Saw Curtis & Marylin; Richard & Lynn; Fran, Randy and his wife. There might have been others but didn’t know they were from Tulsa. Mel & I plan on returning for Fen Con VI. Lois McMaster Bujold will be Guest of Honor. It was Mel’s first time to Fen Con. She had a great time too. In fact we liked it so much we are going to adopt it as our home con.

I’m debating whether or not to do a long writeup of our trip to Colorado. I did take tons of pictures with our awesome new camera. Apparently I was told that I was hogging it. Uhm…well. I wasn’t trying to. So, here’s a brief rundown:

We drove from Tulsa to Limon, CO then got up early the next day and drove to Boulder, CO. Mel was attending a conference at CU Boulder and met lots of her colleagues at house receptions on Thursday and Friday evenings. Saw the Mork & Mindy house. I had lunch with a step aunt and then we went to dinner at my step uncle and step aunt’s house in Longmont. It was out in the middle of nowhere but had a great view of the Front Range. Then we went to Denver to a house concert with Worldcon Music Guest of Honor Kathy Mar. Monday we drove up to Fort Collins for a brewery tour and a Lois McMaster Bujold Q&A and signing.

Tuesday Mel and I took Tim & Mary Miller down to Manitou Springs, CO and rode the cog railway up to the top of Pike’s Peak. Wednesday WorldCon started and didn’t finish until Sunday. I may do a write up of it later. We had a good time though the hotel had some issues. Mel had to go teach in Reno so on Monday I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens and a Tattered Cover. Tuesday we headed home and stopped in McPherson, KS. Today (Wed) we went to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS and then headed home this evening. Cosmosphere was amazing. It really is worth going out of the way to visit it.

More later. Or maybe not.

I’ll save my comments about religion for another blog entry, so back to comics. I lived to read the Sunday comics in the newspaper. I’d read them everyday in the newspaper. I’d get newspapers from my grandmother and aunt who had comics that weren’t in our local newspaper. I watched Saturday morning cartoons when they were only on Saturday. I still watch animated cartoons. My current favorites are SpongeBob and Angry Beavers.

So why don’t I still read comic books then? I outgrew them. I think that response is what annoys the adult comic book fans. I have an exception rule. There are certain genres and kinds of foods I don’t like, but I’ll make an exception if they are really good. I have read a few X-Men compilations. I’ll watch a horror film if it’s really good. I’ll eat chocolate cake or ham if it’s really good as well as Tex Mex. Yeah, I’m a snob when it comes to certain things. I’ll watch mysteries and westerns but not read them. I’ll read the ocasional mystery. I’ll even watch comic books that were turned into movies.

There are just some things I won’t invest too much effort or time in. I don’t expect comic book fans to like other genres or medias. So it bothers me when they say I haven’t read the right comic. That may be true, but I’m not interested. So what prompted me to write this blog entry?

I read an article on the Christian Science Monitor website about graphic novels. Graphic novels are book length comic books. And how it was getting tweens to read more. Tweens are pre-teen children 8-12. And you know what, that is the perfect demographic for comic books. That’s when I read them. It was about the sixth grade when I discovered book science fiction and started my transition to the books.

It’s not about what to read or what format to read. It’s about reading. It’s getting kids to read. So there.
Tweens curl up with graphic novels.

I’d say the highlight of the con was Violet Crown Radio Players‘ presentation of King Kong. They had a very nice set up. an industrial sized mixer, and lots of $300 microphones. The best part were the period costumes the voice actors wore. I closed my eyes a number of times to imagine I was listening to it on the radio. It worked. I’m a big fan of radio theatre. I fell in love with it when I heard my first episode (Fit the Third) of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when it first aired on Public Radio in Tulsa way back in 1980, I think.

The two panels I enjoyed the most were on fantastic fiction of the 19th century and Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan. I was a little disappointed in the panel on online publishing. The got sidetracked onto epaper and other realsoonnow technologies. But basically, there is still no viable model yet for science fiction at least to make money in online publishing. The dealer’s room was pretty good. It had fewer dealers than Conestoga and was more spread out. It is way too crowded. They either need to give them more room or have fewer dealers. Their art show was smaller than ours, but good. I liked the way Conestoga’s is laid out better.

I’ll have more to say later. I think.