Thursday 29th August to Monday 2nd September will see Dragon Con return to Atlanta, Georgia and this years show brings more than a dash of GFFA flavour to the proceedings. Joining previously announced guests Kevin J. Anderson, Joe Corroney, Delilah Dawson, Jodi Houser, Georges Jeanty, E.K. Johnston, John Jackson Miller, Brent Spiner and Mike Stackpole come (deep breath) Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Aaron, Danny Trejo, Greg Grunberg, Alan Tudyk, Ming Na Wen, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Seth Green, Dominic Monaghan and Manny Jacinto.
There was a time, before Dragon Con, when every convention focused on its one genre. Gaming conventions were for gamers, literature shows were for readers, and comic book shows were retail events. The established conventions were successful, and the organizers stuck to their formulas.
But most fans had multiple interests. It was certainly true for Dragon Con’s founders. They were all science fiction fans, but some of them also enjoyed gaming while others liked comic books. They could go to any convention and have a good time, but only for so long before boredom set in.
And that gave them an idea: Combine fandoms and genres into a single convention for fans who, like them, were interested in different things. In the early going, that meant bringing a science fiction convention and gaming convention together in the same hotel. While it doesn’t seem so radical today, it was audacious for its time and, eventually, it upended the staid convention scene.
Chipping in $300 each, Pat Henry, David Cody, John Bunnell and Robert Dennis rounded out with a few of their friends planned the first Dragon Con for the fall of 1987. With no track record to lean on, they nevertheless managed to attract top name guests. Some 1,200 fans turned out to meet science fiction luminaries Michael Moorcock and Robert Asprin and gaming royalty Richard Garriott and Gary Gygax. Moorcock and his longtime friend Eric Bloom, lead singer for Blue Oyster Cult, jammed on stage. The Atlanta Radio Theater broadcast a live performance of H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu from the con. In almost every respect, the show was a smash.
