This Saturday and Sunday, April 20 and 21, a new comics and pop culture convention will debut in Washington, DC: Awesome Con! I’m super-excited about this, given that there hasn’t been a comic con in DC proper in lo, these many years since I have lived here. Okay, okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit. As it happens, there was a comic con here as recently as 2005. But it’s still been quite awhile. There are comic cons in the general area, yes, like the excellent Baltimore Comic Con, as well as cons in Richmond, and Annapolis; but for those of us who are Metro-dependent, those cons are not so easy to get to.

Now, finally, we’re getting a con right in the city, at the Washington Convention Center, a three minute walk from the Mt. Vernon Square metro station (or 11 minutes from McPherson Square or Metro Center stations, for orange/blue line folks). Yay! The con will run from 10 AM to 7 PM Saturday, and 10 AM to 5 PM Sunday, and tickets are very reasonably priced at $15 for one day, or $25 for both (unless you opt for the $75 VIP package, which includes exclusive items).

Not only is the con convenient and affordable, but it looks set to be every bit as good a draw as other, already established area cons might be. Created by the guys behind Annapolis Comic Con, the guest list to date includes celebrity guests like Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Nicholas Brendon, Futurama’s Billy West and Phil LaMarr, Ghostbusters’ Ernie Hudson, and The Walking Dead’s Theodus Crane, along with over eighty artists and comic creators, including Larry Hama, Herb Trimpe, Justin Jordan, Ben Templesmith, Noelle Stevenson, Nick Galifianakis, and many more. The con is advertising “a wide assortment of comic books, collectibles, toys, games, original art, cosplay, and more,” and special events to include “discussion panels, costume contests, trivia contests, gaming tournaments, and a whole lot of activities for kids.” There’s even going to be a Mind of the Geek comedy show starring comedian Arnie Ellis. Sounds…awesome!

Given that this is a newly minted con, and that I’m a convention co-founder myself and am always interested in that aspect of things, I thought I’d check in with comics dealer Ben Penrod, co-founder of Awesome Con, and ask him a question or two. Here’s what he said:

What spurred the creation of this new Washington, DC comics convention?

As long as I’ve been doing cons, there hasn’t been one in DC. Awesome Con is something we (Steve Anderson, owner of Third Eye Comics, and I) had been kicking around for a while; we knew a lot of people wanted a con in the District.

What’s your previous involvement with comics and convention-running, and how did you get involved in organizing this con?

I’ve been selling comics on eBay since 1999. In 2008 I started selling comics full-time, and Steve and I ran the first Annapolis Comic-Con in 2011. The Annapolis Comic-Con was something we had discussed since 2009 or 2010, probably.

What’s the planning experience been like? Any roadblocks, or smooth sailing?

I don’t know that I’d call it smooth sailing, but things are good. It’s definitely a lot of work. I have met a lot of great people, and I’m so excited about Awesome Con; it’s a really fun job. But it’s a lot of work.

What are some highlights of the upcoming con, and what are you most looking forward to?

If I didn’t have responsibilities and could just attend the con as a fan, I’d probably try to get to as many of the guest Q&As as I could, and probably early Saturday before it gets too busy I’d find some artist I’d never seen before and commission some artwork.

What have you got on the schedule for kids?

We have a lot of stuff for kids. The Kids Are Awesome room will be fantastic. Any time during the show, kids can find art supplies in the room and get to work drawing or coloring. We’ll also have a kids’ costume contest and an art show both days. On Saturday there will be a children’s book reading and an art workshop. On Sunday we’ll have a game show with kids and pro artists paired up!

Is this planned to be a yearly event? What are your goals for the show?

This will be an annual event. The goal is for this show to be a fun event that the people of the DC area can look forward to every year. For too long, DC was the only major city without a con, and now we have one.

And I hope it’s here to stay!

As the website says, “Awesome Con DC is a comic-con that embraces all aspects of geekdom and pop culture.” Sounds good to me! So if you’re in the area April 20 and 21 and looking for something fun to do, come to Awesome Con! I’ll be there both days, so if you see me, feel free to say hi.

And until then, Servo Lectio!

TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis

WEDNESDAY MORNING: Mike Gold

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the nominees for the 2013 Scribe Awards for excellence in media tie-in writing.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers is pleased to announce the Scribe Award nominees for 2013.

Acknowledging excellence in this very specific skill, IAMTW’s Scribe Awards deal exclusively with licensed works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books. They include original works set in established universes, and adaptations of stories that have appeared in other formats and cross all genres. Tie-in works run the gamut from westerns to mysteries to procedurals, from science fiction to fantasy to horror, from action and adventure to superheroes. Gunsmoke, Murder She Wrote, CSI, Star Trek, Star Wars, Shadowrun, Resident Evil, James Bond, Iron Man, these represent just a few.

The Scribe Awards are presented at ComicCon San Diego.

IAMTW congratulates the following nominees:

ORIGINAL NOVEL
Darksiders The Abomination Vault – Ari Marmell
Pathfinder City of the Fallen – Sky Tim Pratt
Mike Hammer Lady, Go Die! – Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
Star Trek The Persistence of Memory – David Mack
Star Trek Rings of Time – Greg Cox
Tannhäuser Rising Sun, Falling Shadows – Robert Jeschonek
Dungeons and Dragons Online Skein of Shadows – Marsheila Rockwell

ADAPTED NOVEL
Poptropica Astroknights Island – Tracey West

Clockwork Angels – Kevin Anderson
Batman: The Dark Knight Legend – Stacia Deutsch
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises – Greg Cox

AUDIO
Dark Shadows Dress Me in Dark Dreams – Marty Ross
Dark Shadows The Eternal Actress – Nev Fountain
Doctor Who Companion Chronicles Project Nirvana – Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

The winners in each category will be announced during a ceremony at the 2013 Comic-Con International, held July 18-21 in San Diego, California.

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA – Celebrate 30 years of dancing your cares away with the Fraggle Rock gang when Jim Henson’s imaginative series commemorates three decades of music, magic and mayhem with the Fraggle Rock: 30^th Anniversary Collection, singing its way to DVD May 14 from The Jim Henson Company and Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment.  Headlined by the iconic characters, Gobo, Red, Boober, Wembly, Mokey and the adventurous Travelling Matt, the groundbreaking series from the legendary Jim Henson originally aired from 1983 to 1987, and continues to capture the imaginations of adults and children of all ages today through recurring airings on The Hub. Teaching valuable lessons on tolerance, spirituality, personal identity, environment and social conflict, the 30^th anniversary collection will give parents who grew up watching the innovative television classic the chance to share the wonderful world of Fraggle Rock with their children.

The colorful and exciting world of Fraggle Rock is an underground universe behind the baseboard of Inventor Doc’s workshop, populated by upbeat Fraggles, the industrious Doozers and the giant Gorgs.  Through the different communities, the pioneering children’s series encourages tolerance, diversity, empathy and peace by modeling how these characters learn toto live in peace by working together to achieve common goals.

The Fraggle Rock: 30^th Anniversary Collection DVD, including all four seasons of the celebrated series, along with behind the scenes interviews recently discovered in the archives of The Jim Henson Company, a collectible Red plush keychain, and an all new exclusive Fraggle Rock graphic novel featuring a parent-friendly activity guide, will be available for the suggested retail price of $129.99.   Additionally, the new collection Fraggle Rock: Meet The Fraggles, featuring the pilot, as well as five acclaimed episodes highlighting each of the beloved main characters, available for the suggested retail price of $14.93 will be available to introduce Jim Henson’s world-renowned series to a new generation of fans.

Synopsis: Dance your cares away as you return to the magic of Fraggle Rock in this 30^th Anniversary Collectors Set!  Inventor Doc and his dog Sprocket spend their days in a workshop..and a hole in the baseboard of that workshop leads to the underground universe populated by the upbeat Fraggles, the industrious Doozers and the giant Gorgs.  Get ready for music, magic and mayhem from the iconic Jim Henson in this beloved series that continues to capture the imaginations of adults and children alike.

Meteor House Press announced an upcoming release by New Pulp Author Win Scott Eckert, The Scarlet Jaguar.

PRESS RELEASE:

The Scarlet Jaguar by Win Scott Eckert
Now available for preorder!  Coming in July 2013!

US $15.00
5×8 tpb, XXX pages
LIMITED EDITION
of ??? signed copies

When we last saw Patricia Wildman, daughter of Doc Wildman, the bronze champion of justice, six months had passed since the main events of The Evil in Pemberley House. She and her associate Parker, an ex-Scotland Yard Inspector, had set up Empire State Investigations at her Pemberley House estate—and she just received a mysterious phone call from her supposedly late father . . .

Several months later, Pat receives a visitor, a young girl named Emma Ponsonby, whose father, a British diplomat to a small Central American country, has been kidnapped by the Scarlet Jaguar. Pat, following in her father’s footsteps of righting wrongs and assisting those in need, agrees to help, but before they can set off on their quest the Scarlet Jaguar sends a gruesome warning.

Undeterred, the investigation takes Pat, Parker, and their young charge from Pemberley House in the

Derbyshire countryside . . . To New York, where they battle agents of the Scarlet Jaguar and meet Pat’s old friend, the icy, pale-skinned beauty Helen Benson, who agrees to join them on their quest . . . To the small nation of Xibum, where the Scarlet Jaguar’s reign of uncanny assassinations threatens to expand to the rest of Central America—and beyond!

Now, it’s a race against time deep in the wilds of the Central American jungle, as Pat Wildman and her crew search for Emma’s father, and confront the Scarlet Jaguar’s weird power to eliminate his enemies from afar, marked only by a wisp of crimson smoke—smoke resembling nothing so much as the head of a blood-red screaming jaguar. But who—or what—is the Scarlet Jaguar? A power-mad dictator determined to reclaim power? A revolutionary movement bent on taking over the country, and the rest of Central America?

Or a front for something even more sinister . . .?

The Scarlet Jaguar is the second in our series of signed limited edition novellas. Just like (the now sold out) Exiles of Kho, the print run will be determined by the number of copies preordered. Also, if you preorder before June 30th, your name will appear in the book on the acknowledgements page. You know you want to see your name near the top of that list, so don’t delay, preorder your copy now!

Learn more at http://meteorhousepress.com/the-scarlet-jaguar.

Friday was a miserable day in the New York City metropolitan area. Slashing rain, blustery winds, and c-c-c-cold. It was a day made for staying in your pajamas and just vegging out in front of the TV, watching The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy on TVLand, popping in DVDs of the original Dallas (nobody has ever played the villain we hate to love – but do – better than the late, marvelous, wonderful Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing), and eating too much of stuff that is bad for you, potato chips being my particular poison.

So what was I doing, getting up at 6 AM so that by 8:30 I could be walking with Alixandra and Jeff to the PATH station to take the train into the city? Why was I fretting that Alix wasn’t dressed warmly enough and that her hair was wet? After all, the woman is 33, old enough to deal with inclement weather on her own. Why was I feeling sorry for Jeff, who was struggling with an umbrella that threatened to either lift him into the sky like Mary Poppins or poke his eyes out? After all, Jeff is a Ph.D and a college professor and certainly wise enough to know that an umbrella turning inside out is the last thing you need on a windy, rainy early April day.

We were on our way to Alixandra’s third sonogram appointment.

No, nothing is wrong with my daughter.

The complete opposite.

I’m going to be a grandma!!!!!

So nice to be able to tell you all some good news this week.

I’ve actually known since the beginning of February, when I sat on the first sonogram, which Alix and Jeff* had placed on the backseat of the car for me to find. (We were on the way down to see my parents.) I said, “Oh, I’m sitting on something,” and fished it out from underneath my ass, realized it was some kind of photo, and tried to hand to Alix in the front seat, saying “I don’t think I creased it,” while my daughter and her husband cracked up.

“You’re such a dodo,” said Alix. “Look at it.”

I did. And what was my reaction?

Frankly, it didn’t register for a moment.

Then I said…

“Holy cow! Is this what I think it is? Is it real?”

Which only made them laugh harder.

Me, too.

A little while ago, Jeff came by so that we could exchange sunglasses – I was at their house last night, and inadvertently went home with Alix’s pair of shades. We chatted, and then Jeff asked me about the column, and I said, “don’t talk to me about it, I don’t have a fucking clue what to write about.” Yeah, yeah, I know, nice way for a soon-to-be grandma to talk, but hey, the kid’s gonna have to get used to me. (Only kidding, I will be toning down my use of colorful language around the child, at least until he or she is three months.)

He said, “Write about the baby’s first footprints,” which is what I said at the hospital when Alix and Jeff were given a picture of the baby’s…well, first footprints. (So tiny, and, yes, all ten toes are there.)

“But it has to be comics-related.”

“Oh, well…”

“Unless you think of sonograms like a graphic novel.”

“There you go.”

And you ask where writers get their ideas.

John Ostrander has written in his column here at ComicMix several columns (and wonderful columns they are!) about the art of writing, of plot building and character development. Well, if you think about it, a sonogram is a story arc – complete with pictures! – that begins with a something that looks like a walnut – Alix’s words, not mine – and over a nine month period, follows the walnut’s journey, or metamorphosis, into full-fledged “babyhood.” You can even imagine the little walnut – I think I have stumbled upon a nickname for my grandchild, in the same way Pa Ingalls called Laura “half-pint” – quoting from Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces as he or she tries to put into words that will make sense to us who have forgotten what’s it’s like grow from a clump of cells into a sentient being…

“I had to climb a mountain. There were all kinds of obstacles in the way. I had now to jump over a ditch, now to get over a hedge…”

Or, to misquote Shakespeare…“All the world’s a page, And all the men and women merely characters…”

Alix and Jeff, you didn’t know you were authors, did you?

Just don’t call me Bubby.

*Alixandra Gould and Jeffrey Gonzalez are expecting their first child at the end of September. A Libra! He or she will need some balance with a bubby like me!

TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten

TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis

For the fourth consecutive year, the Pulp Factory Awards were presented at this year’s Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention.

These awards are given to the best in new pulp fiction and art published during the previous year as voted on by the 111 members of the Pulp Factory; an internet group made up of pulp writers, artists, editors, publishers and dedicated fans.

Writer William Patrick Maynard and artist Rob Davis once again co-hosted the award presentations, handing out the sculptured trophies done in the shape of a quill pen set against factory-like gears.

The pen represents both writers and artists, the gears paying homage to the assembly-line production of the old pulps of the 1930s.

This year’s winners for the best in fiction and art for 2012 were:

For Best Pulp Novel –
THE LONE RANGER – VENDETTA by the late Howard Hopkins, published by Moonstone Books.

For Best Pulp Short Story –
“The Ghoul” by Ron Fortier from the anthology, “Monster Aces,” published by Pro Se Productions.

For Best Pulp Cover –
Joe Devito for THE INFERNAL BUDDHA published Altus Press.

For Best Interior Illustrations –
Rob Moran for THE RUBY FILES published by Airship 27 Productions.

This year’s preliminary nominations and final ballot represented a total of twelve New Pulp Fiction publishers.

The Pulp Factory membership congratulates all the winners for their exceptional work.

Congratulations to the winners!