80s-style sf media cons — whither?

[FredH]

I’m not sure where to put this, since there doesn’t seem to be a forum about conventions, so I guess here:

I’ve always been sorry I never got to MosEastly Con or MediaWest; I suspect I’d have very much enjoyed them, having liked the pre-Dragoncon general era of non-Creation, non-professional media-sf cons with panels, print fanzines, comfortably small membership head counts, etc. Does anything like that even still exist anymore? (I enjoyed small literary-sf cons like Lunacon and such too, for much the same reasons, and a lot of them have also gone away. But for purposes of this thread I’m asking specifically about Trek/Wars/Who et al media fandom.)

 

[Commander Troi]

Yes. Here in Phoenix, our local SF/F group puts on 2 small cons each year. There's also a nice small con in Tucson.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

When I started attending shows in 2004, most of them were fairly small. You could get in the door for $20, and sometimes even free depending on who was running the event. Comic artists signed pictures for free as well, though they did charge for custom sketches. As for the celebs, their autograph prices were mostly reasonable, between $20 to $35 on average. As for fan photos, they were usually included with an autograph purchase, and sometimes the celeb would let you take one even if you couldn't afford anything; they were just glad that people respected and valued their work. The first actress I ever met was Julie Benz; her autograph was $20, and all she wanted for a photo was a $1 donation to her animal charity. These were the results.

 

[Mudd]

There are two sf media cons based in the Baltimore area each year, Shore Leave and Farpoint.

Balticon is still focused on sf literature, but it's expanded over the years to take in more mass media stuff. Disclave in DC died in 1997.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I've never been to one, mainly because up until about a decade ago, there was nothing in my area. We've since gotten a few small ones, but nothing big enough to attract the big talent. Only time I can remember was a couple of years ago when one had two of the stars from the 80's Degrassi.