Tag Archives: ConFrancisco

Peggy Ranson (1948-2016)

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Peggy Ranson. Photo by Vincent Mariano.

Peggy Ranson. Photo by Vincent Mariano.

Peggy Ranson, a very popular fanartist in the 1990s, passed away March 16 from cancer. The family’s obituary is here.

She grew up in Memphis, and attended Memphis State University. While living in New Orleans she worked as a commercial artist for D.H. Holmes and the Times Picayune.

Ranson was employed as an ad illustrator when she volunteered to help with the 1988 New Orleans Worldcon. Guy H. Lillian III remembers, “She co-edited the Nolacon II program book with me, did scads of inimitable and exquisite fan art, and graced every moment we spent with her.” Lillian writes that this piece was her first fan art.

23ranson

She was an L. Ron Hubbard Illustrator of the Future contest finalist in 1990, and attended the awards ceremonies (see photo).

Illustrator of the Future 1990. Peggy Ranson is fourth from right. (Kelly Freas is fourth from left.)

Illustrator of the Future 1990. Peggy Ranson is fourth from right. (Kelly Freas is fourth from left.)

Ranson was a Best Fan Artist Hugo nominee every year from 1991-1998, winning in 1993. Lillian liked to say she was only the second fan from Louisiana (adopted) to win a Hugo (the first was Camille Cazedessus, publisher of ERB-dom.)

Peggy Ranson with HugoShe did countless pieces of art for conventions, bids, and fanzines, and for charitable publications like the Charlie Card Fund’s 1991 Fantasy Art Calendar. Her work won Best in Show at the 1991 Worldcon art show (Chicon V).

There’s a small gallery of her black-and-white art at Fanac.org.

Ranson cover for Challenger

Ranson was a guest of honor at DeepSouthCon 34 in 1996, and Armadillocon 20 in 1998, and other small cons across the South.

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005 she fled to Memphis. Afterwards she wrote a long account of her escape and what it was like to return to the heavily damaged city in Challenger 23.

maureen_origAlthough she did some cover art for professional publications, she does not seem to have pursued that as a vocation, for many of her assignments were for books by writers or small press publisers she knew well. This includes her covers for The NESFA Index to Short Science Fiction for 1989 (1992), Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordperson: The Complete Stories (1993) a paperback of George Alec Effinger stories from Swan Press, Girls for the Slime God (1997) a collection of stories edited by Mike Resnick, and Birthright: The Book of Man (1997) by Mike Resnick. She also did interiors for magazines, including Algis Budrys’ Tomorrow Speculative Fiction.

Ranson is survived by a sister and two brothers (one of them her twin), and several nieces and nephews.

Jeff Canfield (1958-2014)

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Jeff Canfield

Jeff Canfield

Long-time fan Jeff Canfield died April 9 at the age of 55.

Canfield became a well-known Northern California con runner in the 1990s. He chaired Sacramento’s unsuccessful bid for the 1991 Westercon, in the process drawing Kevin Standlee into convention running — surely a fanhistorical contribution in its own right.

Canfield, Standlee and other members of the Sacramento Westercon bid were soon recruited onto the San Francisco in 1993 Worldcon bid committee. This time they were victorious and Canfield served as one of ConFrancisco’s deputy vice chairs.

It is also believed he produced the ConFrancisco Souvenir Book, based on this bit of detective work by the editors of the Internet Science Fiction Data Base:

There is not a title page per se. The title is taken from the copyright statement. The editor is listed as “Dr. Evil” in convention staff list. Jeff Canfield is listed as the “Speaker to Doctor Evil” and thus is assumed to be the name behind the pseudonym.

Besides sf, his other activities included Formula Vee racing and photography. He drove a Formula Vee Viper race car and was an integral member of the San Francisco region of the Sports Car Club of America. He founded Jeff Canfield Photography.

Professionally, Canfield worked as a System Software Specialist at State Compensation Insurance Fund for 25 years.

A memorial is being planned in June. People are invited to make donations in his name to the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA.

The obituary that originally ran in the Sacramento Bee can be read here.

Emperor Norton — The Musical!

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Poster for Emperor Norton The Musical

Poster for Emperor Norton The Musical

The Emperor Norton, who graced the 1993 Worldcon with his regal presence as a time-traveling guest of honor, now has inspired Emperor Norton The Musical. It’s coming to Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater in North Hollywood on November 7 after three successful runs in San Francisco.

 The full press release follows the jump.

 [Thanks to Laurraine Tutihasi for the story.]

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Footnote to Fanhistory

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Before Mapquest, fans depended on Kevin Standlee’s feet.

In 1993, people going to the Worldcon wanted to know how far their hotels were from the Moscone Center. The ConFrancisco committee told them how many blocks, told them how many linear feet, and still had to admit “neither measurements have satisfied many people.”

Having made the admission, Kevin Standlee realized the only other thing he could do was personally pace off routes from the hotels to the Moscone entrance. He counted his steps and published the results under the title “ConFrancisco – Step by Step.” Fandom learned, for example, that the Parc 55 was 968 Standlees from the convention center, a Standlee being the length of a stride by a man 6’3″ tall, or about a meter. The Standlee became part of the fannish lexicon, and Leah Zeldes Smith wrote that the term deserved to be in the next Fancyclopedia.

Not very many fans have been immortalized by having their names attached to a unit of measurement. Two others I can name off the top of my head are both NESFAns.

According to the NESFA Bureau of Standards, a “Drew” is “the unit of displacement needed to move Drew Whyte from Boston to Cambridge.” Volunteers from the club, er, I mean the NESFA Displacement Authority, required five trucks about 20 feet long, packed absurdly tightly, to shift all or Drew’s stuff to his new home.

Another time, Mark Olson told a NESFA business meeting that new bookshelf extensions had been installed and in the process people had coined a new measurement — “the Paula.” The new shelves were three Paulas high.

You would expect such ideas to appeal to NESFAns, having the example before them of MIT’s Oliver Smoot, a fraternity member who was laid end to end (wasn’t that every frat boy’s dream in 1963?) to measure the length of the Mass. Ave. bridge. Today, Google Earth allows users the option of measuring distances in Smoots. And, of course, the image of Smoot on the Mass. Ave. bridge was celebrated at the Noreascon 4 Opening Ceremonies.