Re: [LoGH] 2001 Con Updates
Walter Amos (amos@sedl.org)
Sun, 4 Feb 2001 15:40:43 -0600 (EST)
On Sat, 3 Feb 2001, Isaac Alexander wrote:
> With already one North American convention under
> wraps, anime conventions are going again for 2001.
>
> What is the game plan for promoting logh at these
> conventions?
>
> I've heard that there will be panels at the following
> conventions but they're not confirmed:
> Katsucon
> Sakura Con(confirmed)
> Anime Expo
Well, with things underway I can probably safely announce what I hope
will be the single most important LoGH convention appearance this year,
and it ain't at an anime con. For some months now I have been working
on putting together a significant promotional push for LoGH at the
MILLENNIUM PHILCON, aka the 2001 World Science Fiction Convention!
For those not in the know, the annual World Science Fiction Convention
(or WorldCon) is held in a different city every year. Last year was
Chicago, and before that Baltimore. This is the convention where
attendees vote on the presentation of the "Hugo" awards, which are
given in a number of categories for published SF as well as dramatic
presentations (Joe Straczynski managed to display his Hugo for the
Babylon 5 episode "Coming of Shadows" in Ivanova's office in the last
episode of the Babylon 5 series). Also at each WorldCon, a vote takes
place for where the next open con will take place (the one 2 years
away). Groups from different cities interested in hosting it have "bid
parties" to convince attendees to vote to have the future WorldCon in
their city. Philly was selected at "Bucconneer" the WorldCon in
Baltimore.
As an interesting sidelight, Mr. Kikukawa (the LoGH anime producer who
has attended Anime Expo the last several years) is also a part of the
Japan in 2007 bid committee. As such he will probably be attending
Philcon as well, so if I can pull together all the needed stuff we
should have a very interesting panel.
Once I learned the WorldCon would be in Philly I wanted to do this
because that is my home town, and several friends and former roommate
are closely involved with the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society
staff (the group organizing this year). So I figured this would be my
best chance to get a panel like this at a WorldCon.
I have wanted to do a push at a WorldCon and other older, more literary
oriented SF cons instead of at anime cons for a long time, because I
believe that that is where the biggest likely audience for LoGH is to
be found, NOT at anime cons. Not to dis anime fans, but LoGH is more
sophisticated than many anime fans, especially the large influxes of
younger fans, care for. Since LoGH started life as a successful series
of prose SF novels, it should appeal more to people who are interested
in that type of story, and those are the people who dominate WorldCon
attendance. I hope that if we can begin to engender a fan following
for LoGH in those circles, it may spread more and we can get the kind
of numbers we need to attempt a DVD release and probably more. These
are the same kind of people who, when hooked on Babylon 5 (since it was
envisioned as a kind of "novel series for television") wrote letters
and kept that show on the air when it seemed networks were trying to
kill it constantly early on. I hope to ultimately achieve the same
kind of fan support for LoGH eventually.
So, I hope everyone (especially those in the US Northeast) will
consider attending Philcon this year. If you've never experienced
anything except anime-only cons, it will be an eye opening experience.
WorldCons have traditions that go back many decades. For more info on
Philcon, you can look at their web page:
http://www.netaxs.com/~phil2001/
==============================================================================
"Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos
der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos(at)sedl.org
