DeepSouthCon 52 Awards

Three traditional Southern fan awards were presented at Contrails, DeepSouthCon 52, in Bristol, VA on May 17.

Rebel Award: Judy Bemis

Phoenix Award: Steve Jackson

Rubble Award: Gary Robe, for screwing up the SFPA ego boo poll

Congratulations to all — and a hat tip to Guy Lillian III for pointing out that this is the third time that Robe, founder of the satirical Rubble Award, has won his own creation….

[Via Warren Buff. Thanks to Judy Bemis for the story.]

Update 05/18/2014: Fixed the headline — from 51 to 52. How bizarre. I spent 10 minutes vetting the convention number on Google to end up with the right number in the text and by then forgot I had the wrong one in the headline. My proofing skills are never good at any time, but seem to disappear altogether as midnight approaches. Bet there is a fantasy novel in this. (One containing many typos.)

2013 DeepSouthCon Awards

The Phoenix and Rebel, two traditonal Southern fandom awards, were presented at DeepSouthCon 51 in Atlanta, GA on April 20. The Phoenix is for pros and the Rebel is for fans.

Harriet McDougal accepted the Phoenix Award on behalf of her late husband, James Oliver Rigney, Jr. after all of his aliases were read off — the one everyone knows being Robert Jordan. The winner of the award was selected by the current year’s DSC committee. When you know DSC 51 was also JordanCon 5 the preference is easy to explain.

The Rebel Award was won by Regina Kirby and M. Lee Rogers.

Also presented was the facetious Rubble Award, which went to Pat Gibbs who often runs the DSC’s traditional Hearts competition. The Rubble is decided by previous winners who give it to someone who has done much to Southern fandom.

[Via Guy H. Lillian III and SF Site News.]

Update 04/23/2013: Corrected location of con to Atlanta.

2012 Rebel, Phoenix Given

Traditonal Southern fandom awards were presented at DeepSouthCon 50 in Huntsville, AL on June 17.

Phoenix Award: John Ringo

Rebel Award: Shelby Vick; and The Zielke Clan: Robert & Becky Zielke and Bill & Linda Zielke

Also this satirical award:

Rubble “Award”: SFPA OE Bob Jennings

The Rebel and Phoenix Awards are given by the con committee of each DSC, (in 2012, a supercommittee of Toni Weisskopf and Julie Wall) for the fan and pro who have contibuted a great deal to Southern fandom. The Rubble is decided by a survey of previous Rubble winners administered by its founder, Gary Robe, and is for a person or entity (corporatiions have won) who has done much to Southern fandom.

[Thanks to Guy H. Lillian III for the story.]

Don Markstein (1947-2012)

Don Markstein, always a colorful and entertaining figure, and early in his fannish career sometimes a controversial one, died March 11 due to respiratory failure following a prolonged illness. Don spent his last years in Arizona but remained deeply linked to New Orleans and Southern fanhistory.

Don was a charter member of the New Orleans Science Fiction Association (NOSFA) founded June 25, 1967. Other charter members were John Guidry, Doug Wirth, Don Walsh, Justin Winston, and Rick Norwood.

He co-chaired DeepSouthCon in 1968 and 1973. Don became official editor of the Southern Fandom Press Alliance in 1970 and was credited by Guy H. Lillian III for a boom in the apa’s popularity. For this Don was honored with the Rebel Award in 1978.

Don’s consuming passion was comics. He collected tens of thousands of newspaper comic strips. In 1981 Don and his wife Gigi founded Apatoons, an apa for research in the field of cartoons. In 1999 he created a comics history resource, The Toonopedia, and wrote for it daily until health prevented him.

Don edited Comics Revue and books on comic history, including The Prince Valiant Companion. He also wrote Walt Disney comic book stories for such characters as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck — and the rather less famous Bucky Bug.

Irv Koch introduced me to Don at the 1972 Worldcon in Los Angeles. The three of us had become acquainted before the con through fanzines. (Mark Evanier also remembers meeting him at L.A.con.)

Don sporadically published issues of Rally, his fannish newzine, during the Seventies. What was surely Rally’s most controversial story ever criticized Harlan Ellison prior to his GoHship at the 1978 Worldcon in Phoenix. Ellison planned to dedicate his appearance to raising consciousness about the Equal Rights Amendment because ERA supporters had declared a boycott of businesses in non-ratifying states after Ellison accepted the invitation, Arizona among them. Louisiana was another, and when Ellison went to New Orleans sometime before the Worldcon Don lambasted the appearance as a violation of Ellison’s pro-ERA stance. Ellison was outraged, for his activities there had included lecturing in support of the ERA.

Don was educated at LSU in Baton Rouge. For a time he worked on the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, writing for the Sunday magazine. Over the years he did restaurant reviews for the Phoenix Business Journal and editing and production work for Arizona Living, Arizona Women’s Voice, Comics Interview, Comics Revue, Phoenix, Phoenix Resource, and Louisiana Weekly Employer.

Don suffered a stroke in February 2011 and had been in long-term care.

Silver: 2011 Rebel and Phoenix Winners

By Steven H Silver: The Rebel and Phoenix Awards were presented Saturday night at Fencon VIII and DeepSouthCon.  I presented the Rebel Award to Brad W. Foster for his work as a fan artist.  Toni Weiskopf presented the Phoenix Award to Selina Rosen for her work on Yard Dog Press and with up and coming authors. Gary Robe presented the Rubble Award to Bill Parker for bringing the Worldcon (and two years of work) to Southern fandom.

Khen Moore Has Passed Away

Ken Moore, long time Nashville fan and founder and chairman of Kubla Khan, passed away June 30 after a long illness. He was 66.

Khen — as his name was fannishly spelled — always seemed bigger than life to me, a Dionysian figure. He was the soul of a good time and known for his friendliness to new fans.

Nashville fandom owes its origins to Khen Moore, John Hollis, and Dan Caldwell, who collected other Nashvillians they met at Worldcons and DeepSouthCons. Their Kubla Khan was reputed to have the best movie event of any convention in the South, with Khen at the projector. Such efforts as these helped Khen win DSC’s Rebel Award in 1974.

The locals became a big, teasing family, remembers Kathleen David:

When Jeanna Tidwell was three or four, John Hollis taught her the names of various Nashville fans – “Who’s that, Jeanna?” “Unca Dan [Caldwell]!”, “Who’s that?” “Aunty Fran [Bray]!”, etc., until it came time to point to Khen Moore and say “Who’s that, Jeanna?” “Unca Nickelnose!”

Khen was a dynamic extrovert among fandom’s many introverts. Usually literally — at one Midwestcon he and Cliff Amos appeared in bikini bathing suits complete with dress cummerbunds in the middle of the Holidome. But pretty much every other time Ken went around in short shorts, no matter the weather, the reason he also won DSC’S Rubble Award (1991) “for having the ugliest knees in fandom.”

He and Lou, then his wife, ran the art shows for the 1978 Worldcon and 1979 NASFiC.

Janice Gelb says her first convention volunteer work came as the result of bringing a slinky dress to Phoenix to help beat the heat: “Art Show head Khen Moore saw it and immediately requested that I wear it the next day to run art for the art show auction. Jobs based more on intellectual qualifications soon followed.”

In the late Seventies Khen and Nashville fandom reached their fanpolitical zenith. Ken Keller published a “Nashville is Neat in 100 Degree Heat” ad in a 1975 MidAmeriCon progress report, a practical joke on Khen. But in fandom, jokes can easily turn into serious bids. Khen became ambitious to run a Nashville Worldcon and investigated potential facilities. However, this was before the Opryland Hotel was a factor and the city wasn’t a viable site. Soon this energy was channeled into a successful Louisville bid for the 1979 NASFiC (a con chaired by Cliff Amos.)

In addition to fandom, Khen loved aviation and was a pilot. He was retired from AVCO Aircraft where he worked as an Aircraft Engineer and Quality Control Inspector.

If you’d like to toast Khen’s memory with a concoction of his own devising, here’s his recipe for Swill, which he served at many a room party:

“Take a clean wastebasket, add a gallon of real orange juice. Real Krogers orange juice that’s got the pulp in it that you have to shake up. A quart of ReaLemon juice. A quart of Welch’s Grape Juice. A half a gallon of cheap vodka. Stir it all up. Take a blender, fill it half full with the mixture, go all the way to the top with ice. Two tablespoons of sugar in the top of the blender. Put the lid on the blender and let it run for about 45 seconds, then enjoy. “

Khen’s obituary appeared in The Tennessean on July 4. A photo of him is in the Fan Gallery.

[Thanks to Joel Zakem and Andrew Porter for the links.]

2009 Phoenix and Rebel Award Winners

The 2009 Phoenix and Rebel Awards were presented at Hypericon 5/DeepSouthCon 47, in Nashville, Tennessee , on May 6.

The Phoenix Award was won by horror writer Robert “Rick” McCammon of Birmingham AL.

The Rebel Award was presented to Randy B. Cleary of Huntsville, AL. Cleary’s accomplishments over the years include being president of the Southern Fandom Confederation and editing the SFC Bulletin, creating fan art, running convention art shows, and serving as Director-at-Large for ASFA.

Also presented was the Rubble Award, a faux award created by Gary Robe. This year its humor was a darker shade than usual, as it was given to the Chattacon Registration Department for consecutive years of hours-long registration lines. 

[Via Mike Kennedy.]

2008 Phoenix and Rebel Award Winners

The 2008 Phoenix and Rebel Awards were presented at StellarCon 32/DeepSouthCon 46, in High Point, North Carolina.

The Phoenix Award went posthumously to Jim Baen, founder and publisher of Baen Books.

The Rebel Award was presented to Kelly Lockhart, editor of the Southern Fandom Resource Guide website.

The Rubble Award, a faux award created by Gary Robe, was given to Bob Embler, chairman of Outside Con and the 2007 DeepSouthCon, for picking the one rainy weekend in a Tennessee summer to almost drown the DSC.

Southern Fandom Awards to Chalker, Fisher

Jack L. Chalker posthumously won the 2005 Phoenix Award, presented at Xanadu 8 / DeepSouthCon 43 in Nashville on April 9. The Phoenix Award, accepted by Jack’s wife, Eva Whitley, is given to the Science Fiction professional from the Southern part of the United States with the most respected work of the year.

The Rebel Award was also presented at the 2005 DeepSouthCon. Naomi Fisher received it in recognition of her special contributions to Southern Fandom.

Had he lived, Chalker would have had the pleasure of serving as toastmaster at this year’s DeepSouthCon. Eva Whitley wrote online, “I am grateful he won but you have no idea how much it would have meant to him to have gotten this award when he was alive (say, in 1996, which was the last time we came to a DeepSouthCon). But I appreciate the love that was behind this.”

Potential winners of the Phoenix Award are those science fiction or fantasy professionals who have, at some point, resided in the South; whose professional work reflects on the South in a positive way; or who have demonstrated friendship with Southern fandom through support of regional fan activities. It may be given posthumously.

By winning the Rebel Award, Naomi Fisher balances the family mantelpiece which already holds the 1993 Rebel Award won by husband G. Patrick Molloy. They have a tradition of matching fannish achievements, having also jointly won DUFF in 2001.

The first Rebel Award was given at the 1964 DeepSouthCon. Its history is retold by Guy Lillian III in a fine article available – here.

DeepSouthCon also hosted the presentation of the semi-satirical, semi-affectionate Rubble Award to its 2005 Target Judy Bemis, “For resigning as Southern Fandom Confederation treasurer.”