For Battalion reviewer, AggieCon 20 proves wildly diverse, entertaining
By Keith Spera
REVIEWER
Depending on whom you talked
to, the impressions and opinions ex
pressed about AggieCon 20, Texas
A&M’s big science fiction/fantasy
convention that ended Sunday,
could be wildly divergent.
Eight-year old Leslie Becker,
emerging from the dealer’s room,
had one word for it: “Weird.” Her
12-year-old brother, on the other
hand, raved about how the room
“was full of cool stuff.”
I knew something mystical was
afoot when the complete lyrics to
Led Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven”
appeared in big chalk letters on the
sidewalks stretching from Hart Hall
to the east end of the library on the
morning the convention started.
Over the course of four days, Ag
gieCon was sometimes strange,
sometimes confusing, usually fun
and always interesting.
Except for a semi-serious threat
from an AggieCon worker aimed at
a fellow Battalion staffer (“tell us
who discontinued Bloom County, so
that we fnight hang them,” which be
came moot when I pointed out
Bloom County was back in The Bat
talion), Thursday proceeded un
eventfully. Conference attendees
were still studying the schedule of
events and had yet to get into cos
tume. Dealers were still setting up
their wares. Fantasies had yet to be-
gin.
Sitting on a bench on the second
floor of the MSC, smoking a ciga
rette and checking out the conven
tion’s schedule, Judith Ward, 54,
waxed nostalgic about her eleven
years of attending AggieCons, and
other sci-fi/fantasy conventions.
“The first two years I came to Ag
gieCon, I didn’t say a word,” she
said. “I was awestruck to see and
meet the people whose books I’ve
read. I found out these people
wouldn’t bite me, and got to know
them. Now every year is sort of like a
big reunion.”
The reunion really got rolling on
Friday.
The center of the convention (or
“con,” if you’re hip and cool) was the
Dealer’s Room. It was here that you
could buy anything from the latest
sci-fi paperback and collector’s edi
tion comic book to handcrafted jew
elry, Star Wars action figures, post
ers of unicorns and demons, and just
about anything else having to do
with medieval characters or space
men.
This was also the place where a
fun little cross-section of people pa
raded through to find that right gift
for themselves or a loved one.
A pale, thin, 12-year-old boy with
glasses debated whether he should
purchase “Black Wizards” (“an army
of ogres and zombies guided by
Bhaal, the super-deity of death and
destruction, threatens the gentle
Ffolk while the puppet king acquies
ces,” according to the synopsis on
the book) or “Streams of Silver”
(“Bruenor the dwarf, Wulgar the
barbarian, Regis the Halfling, and
the dark elf fight monsters and
magic on their way to Mithril Hall,
centuries-old birthplace of Bruenor
and his Dwarven ancestors”).
A father shelled out $100 for a
hand-painted set of “Blood Bowl”
characters, which he planned to give
to his 10-year-old son.
The dealer who sold the game
it
Fhe first two years I
came to AggieCon, I didn’t
say a word. I was
awestruck to see and meet
the people whose books
I’ve read. I found out these
people wouldn’t bite me,
and got to know them. Now
every year is sort of like a
big reunion.”
— Judith Ward,
11 year Con attendee
said Blood Bowl is a game “sorta like
football, except it features humans
vs. orks, which are similar to gob
lins.”
1 ammy Davis, 25, decked out in a
long black dress with a huge pewter
unicorn hanging from her neck, said
she spent more than $400 by the sec
ond day of the convention, spending
most of it on cassette tapes of medi
eval music and “filk” tunes. Filk mu
sic involves taking known music and
putting unusual lyrics to it, Davis
said.
“An example would be a song that
uses the Oscar Meyer weiner jingle
and has lyrics about Star Trek,” she
said.
Fantasies don’t come cheap these
days, a fact allowing those who deal
in sci-fi and fantasy knickknacks to
make a tidy living.
“I quit collecting and started deal
ing about 10 years ago,” dealer Rick
Colon, 30, said. “This is a real profit
able business. I used to own a record
store, but this is a better business.
When times are hard, people won’t
buy for themselves, but they will buy
stuff for their kids.”
Colon’s display offered several
hundred comic books, ranging in
price from $5 to $150 (with the first
edition Green Lantern being one of
the more expensive items), some
wargame sets and several action fig
ures, including a 10-inch Boba Fett
(the bounty hunter from the “Star
Wars” series) fetching a $75 bounty
of its own.
Who is the hottest guy in comics
right now?
“It’d be between the Wolverine,
the Punisher, and Batman,” Colon
said. “I think that the Batman movie
that is coming out will push him over
the top.”
Strolling about the dealer’s room
on Friday were a whole host of char
acters in costumes. At least one cos
tume was for practical, besides plea
surable, purposes.
Barry Austin, 19, an AggieCon
worker, was decked out in a black
cape and tights, and said he was por
traying a warrior wizard character
featured in one of his favorite books.
One of his reasons for the get-up
was “to blend in to the crowd”
(which says a whole lot about the
general appearance of the AggieCon
Ken Smith, 34, of Austin, checks out the merchandise for sale in
the dealer’s room in the MSC at AggieCon 20 Saturday. Smith
said he frequently attends conventions like AggieCon.
offer, and won the keys to co-host
Becky Matthews’ car, which some
how were given away at several other
points in the evening, much to her
dismay.
The first two contestants to square
off against one another were a big
bearded guy with the nickname
“Wookie” on the back of his shirt
and someone else in overalls and a
baseball cap complete with anten
nae. They each won 20 sci-fi fan
magazines.
After this excitement, a trip to
Duddley’s Draw in search of Aggie-
Con-ers on the town seemed appro
priate. None were found at North-
gate, but sometime after 2 a.m., I
Most of us here are social reverts. You talk to most
of these people, they’ll say that they should have
been born 300 years ago, or 300 years in the future —
this isn’t really their time. Everyone picks their own
fantasy. Instead of going off the deep end, they go to
conventions.”
— Barry Austin,
AggieCon 20 worker
the
attendees), so he could be on
lookout for shoplifters.
“We haven’t had much trouble
here, but at a con I worked in Dallas,
we were catching people left and
right,” he said.
“Of course, I’m also wearing this
for fun,” he continued. “Most of us
here are social reverts. You talk to
most of these people, they’ll say that
they should have been born 300
years ago, or 300 years in the future
— this isn’t really their time. Every
one picks their own fantasy. Instead
of going off the deep end, they go to
conventions.”
After cruising the dealer’s room, I
checked out the AggieCon version
of “Let’s Make A Deal,” one of seve
ral game shows imitated throughout
the convention (I mean, con).
No sooner had I taken a seat when
the leering game show announcer
asked, “Who’ll give me a quarter for
what’s in my right-hand pocket?”
Not me, buddy.
Some madman took him up on his
ran into a group of them at the pop
ular 24-hour eatery, Whataburger.
They were just coming off of a
six-hour game of Quest, a role-play
ing fantasy game that had 12 teams
of four running around outside
Rudder fl ower, trying to figure out
which characters the other group
members were portraying, and then
acting accordingly.
“We had to save our village,” said
one hungry Questor. “It was in
vaded by what we thought were we
rewolves, but they turned out to be
vampires.”
Hey, it’s a mistake anybody could
make.
AggieCon on Saturday started for
me at 1 p.m. with Nancie’s Winds of
Magic Belly Dancers. How did they
fit into the AggieCon theme?
“We’re more on the fantasy side
of things,” said one of the dancers.
“We get you in the mood for fanta
sy.”
Among the several well-known
writers and artists in the sci-fi/fan-
Photo by Kathy Haveman
The Punisher, one of Marvel Comics most popular characters,
was for sale Saturday at Rick Colon’s exhibit in the dealer’s
room at AggieCon 20.
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tasy fields who attended AggieCon
was George R.R. Martin, who has
written and produced several epi
sodes of CBS’s “Beauty and the
Beast” series.
His presentation on Saturday af
ternoon started off a little shakily be
cause of technical problems. A cou
ple of TVs had been set up to screen
an episode of “Beauty and the
Beast” for the audience, but no cable
was available to hook them up.
An AggieCon worker asked the
audience, “Does anyone have a 25-
foot coaxial cable?”
Surprisingly, no one did. George
was cool about it, however, and be
gan his talk while work was still be
ing done on the TVs.
He chatted about how nervous
CBS was about such an unusual
show as “Beauty and the Beast.” fl he
network’s fears apparently were un
founded, because the first episode
did extremely well in audience
screenings.
“Even though we were weird, they
had to put us on the air,” he said.
Cheers and applause greeted his re
mark.
He offered some insight into the
clash of art and money in TV. He
didn’t want the series to be the same
every week, with the heroine Kath
erine getting into a dangerous situa
tion and Jason the mild-mannered
beast turning into a meanie and sav
ing her.
“That would be the same as the
Incredilbe Hulk series, with two
beast-outs per week,” joked Martin.
The network executives, however,
wanted some degree of “jeopardy”
(i.e., gratuitous violence that they
think gets ratings) in each episode,
he said. Several of the early shows
had to be changed a bit to accomo
date the executives, but Martin said
once the show began to win its time
slot, he had more clout and could do
the shows more like he wanted. In
the end, art triumphed.
Across the road from the MSC, on
the second floor of G. Rollie White
Coliseum, was a room where fantasy
became a bit more real, a bit more
physical — the Lazer Tag room.
Contestants armed with light-
beam-emitting pistols and wearing
light sensors on their chests stalked
See AggieCon/Page 12
Photo by Kathy Havem
Are you interested in the
performing arts?
Want to have fun too?
Maybe you should consider
MSC OPAS
(The Opera and Performing Arts ^
Society of Texas A &M University) ^
Information sessions will be held
April 6th in 510 Rudder and April
11th in 410 Rudder at 7:00 p.m-
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For more information call 845-1515.
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