io9: dragoncon

Bioshock Fan Brings Big Daddy to Fearsome Life

Lauren Davis — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:20:00 PDT

One of the most impressive costumes at this year's Dragon*Con was this elaborate and detailed Big Daddy. Artist Harrison Krix explains how he brought the Bioshock foe to life, with plenty of blood stains and a working drill arm.

Krix, a graphic designer and propmaker, took Best Journeyman and Best Professional Costume Design at the con for his Big Daddy suit (as well as the accompanying Splicer and Little Sister). The suit took roughly seven weeks to complete (and, he says, was not quite perfected by Dragon*Con) and weighed between 50 and 60 pounds. You can see the spinning drill as well as some shots from his process below, but he has the entire step-by-step posted on his blog.

Big Daddy (Bioshock) [Volpin Props via Cherie Priest]

The Mighty Chew-Box-A Will Paper-Cut You Down

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:40:00 PDT

Dragon*Con came and went with a flurry of cosplay, Joker makeup and spandex. Check out a gallery of some of the best superhero cameo moments... and a kick ass Terminator, complete with unimpressed junior John Connor.

We know there was a lot of breaking news at the Dragon*Con this year. But we also really want to hear what you guys witnessed. Feel free to add your own photos to our gallery in the comments, and share your experiences.

All of our thanks to Matt Buchanan for taking a few snaps while in the presence of cosplay greatness.

Nimoy: I Am Not Spock (Any More)

Graeme McMillan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:00:06 PDT

The sequel to Star Trek may still be at the writing stage, but there's one character we now know for sure won't be appearing in it: Leonard Nimoy has announced that he's hanging up his pointy ears for good again.

During an appearance with William Shatner at this weekend's Dragon*Con, Nimoy to the crowd,

There are no plans for me to return for the second movie. I think the Spock character is very well established as portrayed by Zachary Quinto. And I think if you saw the movie Bill, you'd say the same of Chris Pine.

Shatner, channeling his Boston Legal character Denny Crane, responded with a quick "Bullshit," although he apparently spent a large part of their shared panel mock-pouting about not being in the JJ Abrams remake. Some of the panel has already ended up online:

No Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek Sequel [Reelz Channel]

A History Of The Science Fiction Convention

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:30:20 PST

History is fuzzy about when the first science fiction convention actually happened, but we do know that in 1936 some fans including David Kyle and Frederik Pohl took a train from Philadelphia to New York City to talk about all things scifi with another group of fans at the home of Milton A. Rothman, who rivals Forrest J Ackerman for the biggest fanboy in the world award (Rothman had formed The Boys' Scientifiction Club in 1930). However, a group of British fans also got together in the same year to make plans for an actual convention in 1937, and later claimed that a group of fans meeting at a home does not a convention make. So even before the internet, there was squabbling over details and probably even convention spoilers. Some things will never change. In honor of our coverage of WonderCon, we present to you the history of Connage.

The first official (American, anyhow) "World Science Fiction Convention" (now known as Worldcon) was held in 1939, and followed by conventions in Chicago and Denver in the following years. check out the photo above of some fans posing at Coney Island during that first convention, on the top row on the far left is Ray Bradbury.
The first British convention in 1937 attracted 20 fans, including Eric Frank Russell and Arthur C. Clarke.
The WorldCon conventions were suspended after 1941 due to World War II, but resumed in 1946.
WonderCon was started by John Barrett in the San Francisco Bay area in 1987, but has since been adopted and is now part of the Comic-Con International family of Cons. Sort of like the Shazam family.
Comic-Con itself began in San Diego as the Golden State Comic Book Convention in 1970, and attracted around 500 fans. Last year the Con (now the San Diego Comic-Con or just Comic-Con) had over 125,000 visitors.
There are now regional cons including everything from Eurocon to DeepSouthCon to Westercon.
There are even specific cons that cover one range of subjects, like BotCon (Transformers), Costume-Con (costumes, duh), and FilkOntario (filk music, folks music with a scifi/fantasy twist).
That's not even mentioning all of the cons for specific shows and movies that have sprung up, like Star Trek, Farscape, Star Wars, and plenty of others. In fact, the movie GalaxyQuest is completely con-centric.
Our favorite title? The Wrath of Con in North Florida. Either that or the Comic Book Guy's Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con. It's a toss up.