The Artdog Image(s) of Interest

A Worldcon 76 montage: Clockwise from upper L: My badge, with ribbons; on the walk between the Convention Center and the Fairmont (where I’m staying); (center) Chesley Award winners Neil Clarke and Gregory Manchess; William F. Wu with his new book; the lineup of Chesley Award trophies; the hour-long line to get our badges.

I’m at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention, AKA “Worldcon 76” or 

#Worldcon76. There’s one committee, the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), that guides and works with local groups that sponsor each individual event, but the Worldcon is always on the move.

This year, it’s in San Jose, CA, USA. Last year it was in Helsinki, Finland. Next year, Dublin, Ireland.  There’s a New Zealand bid for 2020, which we’ll vote on this year. It’s truly a world event. This year, of course, there are a lot of Americans and Canadians, and folks from all over the Pacific area.

This year’s Artist Guest of Honor, John Picacio, looked back through the archives and realized he was the very first Mexican (Latin, Hispanic, or however you prefer to designate him) GoH honoree in Worldcon history. His Mexicanx Initiative (now an anthology project on Kickstarter) has helped fund the attendance of 42 Mexican authors, artists, and other creatives (they invited 50 but some had conflicts). BTW, none had trouble at the border.

Last night, I helped present the Chesley Awards (annual honors bestowed by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists or ASFA, a group I’ve long supported and occasionally helped run). We had the Retro Hugo Awards on Thursday. This year’s Hugo Awards event is Sunday.

What am I getting at, you may ask? I’m getting at the fact that a Worldcon is a lot of things, and a single image just can’t sum it up. Even a montage, such as this one only covers a fraction of the event, because no single human can cover ALL of it. It’s been taking me for freeking EVER to put the thing together, too (this post is late, because I keep falling asleep from exhaustion with my computer in my lap). If you’re reading this, I eventually did finish! 🙂

IMAGES: All photos in this montage were taken by Jan S. Gephardt at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, CA, USA, on 8/15-16/2018. You may re-post or re-blog this image with my permission, as long as you (1) don’t materially alter it; (2) include an attribution; and (3) provide a link back to this page. Thanks!