By Stephanie Rector and Tree Schoefer
(Sacramento Geeks/Fantastic Frontiers Content Providers/Hostesses)
Ah, conventions: A chance to meet and hang out with the fellow geeks and fans. Party like only a geek could. Meet your favorite stars. Learn more about favorite and new shows. And ogle or buy those hard-to-find collectibles. A veritable geek Mecca.
Based on posts on local geek-club bulletin board (Fantastic Frontiers, Sac Browncoats, Sac_Scapers) and discussions with those groups’ leaders and members, we present a run-down of the most popular & recommended conventions for Sacramento Geeks:
Local (Sacramento):
1) Sac-Con: Sacramento’s Comic, Toy and Anime Show, at the Scottish Rite Center (6151 H Street - Across from Sac State University) on Sundays every few months (from every other month to every 3 months). Go to www.sacramentocomics.com for the exact schedule. It’s cheap (six bucks!), nearby, and fun. Great shopping opportunities especially for those seeking deals on comic books, plus attractive people-watching (in costumes! For you more pervy geeks: underage cosplay!), sci-fi B-movie stars signing autographs, and a good selection of anime to watch all day. Multi-genre but mostly anime and comics, plus some trading card tournaments. (Anyway, what else you gonna do on a Sunday, go to church?)
2) Sac-Anime: By the same crew that brings you Sac-Con (above), but this ones focus is solely anime, and is just once a year -- 3 days in the summer (July or August) at vary locations (in the past, the Sunrise Mall, Red Lion Hotel or the Scottish Rite, I believe the next location is the Radission). Check www.sacanime.com for the latest/current year’s details. This con/party weekend is very popular with the high school/college set, since it includes a night-time dance club with live music, as well as lots of anime viewings plus special guests, a Cosplay fashion show and a vendor room. Another great deal, since the 3-day pass is just $25 and the one-days passes are even cheaper.
3) ConQuest Sac: at the Sacramento Marriott off Sunrise in Rancho Cordova, every March or April. Time to get your game on! Check www.conquestsac.com a few months before March for the next exact date. For you hard-core (or wannabe) table-top gamers, there’s tons of D&D, RPG, RPGA, trading cards (CCGs), miniatures and board gaming. Boardgaming, card games, D&D, minatures, RPG, RPGA, & CCGs, in the style of open gaming, demos, tournaments, and seminars. There’s also a small vendor room and a midnight flea market to snag some deals! And if you want to make your gaming a bit more out of town, there’s also ConQuest SF, www.conquestsf.com: in late August/early Sept. at the Santa Clara Marriott. Look for room/admission package deals at both cons.
4) From the Land Beyond: The newest one on this list is the "From the Land Beyond" Sacramento Horror and Sci-Fi Show that had it's small start in 2007 at Toy Fusion, then grew to a bigger and better one day mini-con at the Scottish Rite in 2008, featuring guests such as Wil Wheaton, Aaron Douglas and Warp 11. In Sept. 2009, they are continuing at the Scottish Rite, but growing from one day to three-days. It's billed as "The perfect marriage between Sci-Fi and Horror". From their website: "From the Land Beyond is a gathering of like minded individuals and groups that all share the love for Horror and Science Fiction from film and novel to magazines or comic books and more. Fans will be able to meet some of their favorite guests in all of these mediums. You will be able to shop around and find some of the newest to vintage and rare: DVDS, Photos, Costumes, Props, Books, Memorabilia, Toys, Posters, Art, Comics, Games, Jewelery, T-Shirts & Clothing, Patches & Stickers, Autographs & More!" I enjoyed this one last September and am looking forward to checking out this one in 2009, and hope it's successful; Sac needs a big sci-fi con! To see this year's dates, guests and plans, go to www.fromthelandbeyond.com
Sorta-local (Bay Area):
1) WonderCon: at Moscone Center, San Francisco, every late February or early March; Check www.wondercon.com for the exact date. What’s cool about this big pop-culture convention is that while it's focus is mostly on comic books (and comic-book-inspired movie and TV shows), it really is multi-genre: comics, graphic art, fiction books, action movies, sci-fi & fantasy TV, anime, a little gaming and more, and a huge-ass dealer room where you could find *anything* you’re looking for. From their Wikipedia entry: “While the main attraction of Wonder-Con has always been various retailers selling back issues of comic books and action figures, the exhibitorship has grown to include retailers of specialty DVDs. There is also an "Artists Alley" featuring mainly comic book artists selling artwork, signing books, and doing sketches; and mainstream celebrities signing autographed pictures. Sometime after 2000, the convention's founders made WonderCon part of the Comic-Con International family of conventions. This has given the San Francisco show a wider audience and has made it a venue for previews and early screenings of major motion pictures, in particular ones based on comic books.” At $30 for 3 days (if purchased in advance), or just $12 for Saturday and $10 for Sunday, it’s a great deal too. Ten bucks is nothing, but it’s the gas & outrageous parking costs that’ll get you, so I recommend carpooling – pack as many as you can in the car to split costs and save a bundle. Oh, and don’t miss the big Saturday night costume show!
2) Bay-Con: every Memorial Day weekend. Previously held in San Jose, their new home is the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. See http://baycon.org/2008 to see what the last one was like, and http://baycon.org/2009 to find out more about next year’s. While I haven’t been able to make it to this one yet, I hear that this one is a big party con, and I mean that in the most positive sense. Another multi-genre with tons of programming in every category. Some of their regular fixtures include “Writers' Workshop, Anime Room, Gaming, Boffers Wars, Birds of a Feather Gatherings, Fanzine Lounge, Readings, Autographs, Family Friendly Programming, BCTV [their own closed-circuit TV show], Music Concerts, Filk Lounge, Meet the Guests Reception, Masquerade & Post-Masquerade Dance, Rock Dance, Regency Dancing, Swing Dance, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Con Suite, Charity Casino & Charity Auction.” In other words, I promise you’ll find something for you here. This one is fan-run & not for profit, so it’s *not* about packing as many fans in and charging them up the rear. It’s by-fans, for-fans; i.e. fans doing what fans want to do. There’s a huge volunteer staff that makes sure there really is something for every geek to enjoy.
3) Silicon: at the San Jose DoubleTree the first weekend of every October. SiliCon is the once-a-year event held by the non-profit Siliconventions, Ltd. as a fundraiser event for diabetes research, via seminars covering hard science, science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Some of the topics covered include writing, painting, costuming, singing, model making, computer graphics, film studies, astronomy, robotics, other scientific areas, along with diabetes education and outreach. This is accomplished by special guests, panelists willing to provide their time and knowledge, and volunteers to run the convention. http://www.siliconventions.com/silicon/ for more information or to get involved.
Out of town but really worth the trip:
1) Comic-Con: San Diego Convention Center (they take up the entire huge center!), every July, including this year’s July 24-27. www.comic-con.com Did I say that the vendor room at WonderCon was huge and the shopping opportunities at Sac Con were great? Well, sure they are, but it’s all relative. You really ain’t seen huge and great until you’ve been in the exhibit hall at Comic-Con. It’s the whole length of bottom floor of the San Diego Convention Center. It’s gigantic. It’s humongous. It’s, dare I say it, GINORMOUS! You name it, they’ve got it. (Tentacle porn DVDs & figurines? Of course!) Plus awesome show exclusives freebie swag (stuff you can auction off on E-bay afterwards to finance your trip) if you get there early enough! There’s big-time exhibitors: major movie studios and bigtime companies like Warner Brothers and Disney for example. Just like at WonderCon, there’s Artist Alley, but many more of them. You could easily spend the whole day plus some browsing just the Exhibit Hall. But, there’s also more programming than you can shake a stick at, and some of it is really major. Just like WonderCon, this is a pop culture/multi-genre con, but even more so. Multitudes of programming: Panels featuring stars from fave shows like Lost and Heroes. Superhero movie and TV pilot premieres & previews. Art shows. Fan discussions. Authors and other special guest speakers. Don’t miss seeing Ray Bradbury while you still can! Expect some lines, so plan carefully which panels/presentations you really want to catch the most. (You won’t be able to do everything, unless you’ve got clones or a time machine.) And be sure to book your hotel the first hour of the first day that hotel reservations open! Seriously! All the local hotels really do book up before the day is over, it’s amazing. Keep checking their website for which day that is. Buy your tix online in advance too, because the last couple years, the four-days and even some of the one-days completely sell out up to a couple months before! Tens of thousands of folks attend this one every year, for good reason. Comic-Con is really something you need to experience to believe. Did I mention the cool, free, collectible swag? (Though my uninformed prediction is, give WonderCon a few years and an improvement in the economy, and someday it will be just as big.)
2) Dragon*Con: held Labor Day weekend (August 29 - September 1, 2008) in Atlanta, Georgia. This one is the furthest away one on this list, but I’m told by Sacramenteans who have somehow been able to afford the trip that it’s definitely worth the expense and time, and that it needs to be experienced at least once in your life! Save your dollars and pennies up for the flight, hotel and admission for this major trip, and you’ll be glad you did! Dragon*Con is reportedly the largest U.S. multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on sci-fi and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, TV and film, but also featuring horror, computer games (including MMOs), anime, science, skeptics and even romance writers. It’s so big, it’s held at four neighboring hotels: Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta Hilton & Towers and Sheraton Atlanta. And like any good hotel con founded by a sci-fi club, it’s a major party con. Some history that helped this con grow: In 1995, Dragon*Con hosted both the North American Science Fiction Convention and the International Starfleet Conference as part of its 1995 convention. The combined event had 14,312 fans participating. In 2007, Dragon*Con turned 21 years old, and was attended by over 30,000 members and over 400 guests! Dragon*Con now hosts over 600 hours of panels, workshops, demonstrations and discussions with authors, editors, artists, game designers and media personalities. Some individual programming tracks concentrate on specific interests like Star Trek, Star Wars, British and American television, Anne McCaffrey's Pern, NASA Space Science, JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Electronic Frontiers, and more. Dragon*Con also presents theatrical and radio performances, concerts and dances, gaming tournaments, costume contests, Robot Battles, a parade, Professional Championship Wrestling, an independent short film festival, auctions and charity events, art shows & print shops, one of the largest dealers rooms & exhibit halls in the world, and 24 hour video and film Rooms. At $85 for a four-day membership, this one is not cheap, even if somehow you beamed there thus saving the travel expenses. (But you still got your stimulus package check money right? Sure…. Well, maybe you’ll win the lottery….) Check out www.dragoncon.org for more information and to plan your future trip.