Niven, Pournelle at San Diego Comic Fest

Some of the people who put together the San Diego Comic Fest, being held this weekend, October 4-6, are Comic-Con co-founders or past committee members who wanted to create an event more limited in scale. Their con is not affiliated with Comic-Con International.

Their GoH, Larry Niven, also isn’t an obvious choice to launch a comics-themed weekend although he’s done work in the medium, including a Green Lantern story.

But they sure know how to show him off to good effect. Here’s one example –

The Draco Tavern Enjoy Comic Fest’s creation of The Draco Tavern, based on a series of short stories about Earth’s only multispecies bar that were written by our 2013 Guest of Honor, Larry Niven. Fresh from her great success in recreating the look of Café Frankenstein for the first Fest, Wendy All will be directing the design of The Draco Tavern, which will feature an array of reasonably-priced and delicious food, coffee, and other beverages.

And they’ve also convinced Jerry Pournelle to participate on the program. As he explained on Chaos Manor

Precisely why I am involved is a long story: I don’t usually go to comic related conventions, and I don’t recall doing anything for comics that ever got published.

Periodically I try to work on an episode for Chrissie Claus, a not very widely circulated comic I happen to like a lot, but even with the help of Marv Wolfman on fundamentals of writing for comics I find it’s not easy for me. I sort of wish I had started a few years ago when I could work really intensely for a couple of days on something. In any event nothing has ever come of this other than that I continue to like Chrissie when she infrequently appears in a new edition.

However, a long time ago in the earlier days of my science fiction career, my son Alex, then at UC San Diego, fell in with a group of science fiction fans who were involved in starting ComicCon, and I was invited as one of the guests in an early rendition of ComicCon before it became so large.I had a great time, but about the only other guest I met who had read anything of mine was Adam West. I didn’t know Marv Wolfman then. Anyway, as a Result I got a “Gold Card” which entitled me to attend any future ComicCon, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. Recently some of the fans involved in putting on the first ComicCon decided they wanted a comic convention limited in size. They got Larry Niven as GOH, and remembered that I’d been part of the early ComicCon, and somehow I ended up agreeing to come although I can’t remember doing it. I’m sure I’ll have a great time. I may even meet a fellow Chrissie Claus fan.

The con also features Comics Fan Guest of Honor Richard Kyle, once owner of a well-known bookstore, and Science Fiction Fan Guests of Honor John and Bjo Trimble. More guests and program participants listed here.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

One thought on “Niven, Pournelle at San Diego Comic Fest

  1. Adam West is a Jerry Pournelle fan!

    The world grows stranger by the minute!

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