This square design is made on a turquoise, green, mustard-yellow, and black gradient background. The “Archon 47 2024”logo, which depicts Godzilla rampaging through the St. Louis, MO skyline, after passing by the Gateway Arch, dominates the left side and overlaps a drone photo of the Gateway Center where the convention is headquartered. Logo courtesy of Archon 47; drone photo courtesy of Wedding Wire.
Archon Persists

Archon Persists

One thing I can say at the end of my very sparse “sf convention season” of 2024: Archon persists. We’ve seen a lot of fan-run science fiction conventions bucking strong headwinds since the Pandemic. My “home convention,” ConQuesT, has gone on hiatus. The club isn’t ready to say it’s dead yet, but we didn’t have one this year.

Another longtime mainstay, SoonerCon, also went through a bumpy transition this year, as I noted in an earlier blog post. We and other fans liked some of the changes and seriously disliked others. How much longer we’ll go to that one depends on which of this year’s innovations they keep, and which they jettison. SoonerCon looks as if it will definitely be around for a while longer. Will we still recognize it and feel at home there? That remains to be seen.

But Archon persists. Still fan-run, still at the Gateway Convention Center, still on its normal weekend (none of those are as much of a “given” as they used to be, for all too many long-running cons in our region). How much longer will it persist? Well, to quote Yoda, “Always in motion is the future.” But so far, it’s hanging in there.

This square photo from the movie The Empire Strikes Back, the character of Yoda is three-quarters turned to the left and leans on his staff with a long-suffering look on his wrinkled green face. He has long pointy ears, large bulbous eyes, and whispy white hair that does not come close to covering his bald head. He is dressed in the rough, gray garment of a Jedi. There is a blurred impression of woods or jungle with a fallen log behind him. Across the bottom of the square is a strip of what looks like paper from a creased and wrinkled brown bag. On it, in red letters, it says, “’Always in motion is the future.’ YODA.”
See Credits below.

First Impressions of Archon 47

Before I go further with this convention review, I need to set some context. My son and I had barely been home from our second trip to Texas before we needed to leave for Archon. We were in Texas to address the ongoing needs of my sister’s estate. See my blog post Unfinished Stories for more about that situation. But to say that I was depressed and exhausted going into Archon 47 would be understating the situation.

My mental and physical depletion is a big part of the reason I felt less energy and engagement at Archon this year. I have a sense that the membership was down somewhat, this year. I noticed that there were more empty display panels in the back and far side of the Art Show than I had noticed. And some of the dealers reported less vigorous sales, although I can’t say I did a wide survey.

A couple of my panels were not well-attended, but others enjoyed large, engaged audiences. I thought it was a pretty awesome year for hall costumes. Many of the “regulars” on panels returned, and there were opportunities for good conversations, both in panels and in more casual settings. Archon persisted in creating openings for the kind of creative exchange and networking that is a hallmark of face-to-face, in-person gatherings among creative people.

This square design is a photo montage of artwork from some of the artists whose work was displayed in the show. Traditional fantasy, including a faery woman, a winged woman, and a blue-violet and yellow dragon; science fiction represented by an astronaut confronting an alien and one of Lucy A. Synk’s astronomicals; “spiritual wolves” painted on feathers, and even a media piece depicting the T.A.R.D.I.S. of Dr. Who are represented. The words say “Archon 47 Virtuoso’s (sic) of Art.” Courtesy of Archon 47.
See Credits below.

Artists At Archon

I went into the summer season with a boatload of art direction projects and several pieces of paper sculpture I wanted to make. One original in particular wasn’t quite done to my satisfaction before Soonercon, but I made a promise to myself that I really wanted to unveil it at Archon. Didn’t happen, of course. A great many of my creative projects slammed abruptly to “all stop” when Gigi died.

I showed up at Archon with a ragtag collection of leftovers for my own display. Thank goodness I was the exception. Two of my perennial favorites, Lucy A. Synk and Kansas City’s resident “dragon maven” Rachael Mayo both brought multi-panel displays that included gorgeous new art. Longtime St. Louis-area favorites John E. Kauffman, and Brent Chumley brought strong displays, and I noticed new and old-favorite pieces by Sarah Clemens and Theresa Mather.

A couple of new standouts also caught my eye – and I wasn’t alone, to judge from the Art Show winners. Jerry Cox’s wooden sculptures, many depicting sleek spaceships, took top honors, and they richly deserved them. Another eye-popping display came from Keri Ruediger. Thanks to Art Show Director Anna Mulch, Co-director Liz Hollendonner, and their faithful crew, Archon persists in offering a welcoming forum for some wonderful artwork!

This collage brings together about 15 examples of book covers and logos that represent authors and small presses that had Creator’s Alley tables in 2023, including Latchkey Press, Brain Sounds, The Literary Underworld, The St. Louis Writers Guild, and Burn the Map Publishing. Then they topped it with the highly literate title “Anticipated Bookseller’s,” written with an apostrophe-s.
See Credits below.

Archon Persists in Welcoming Authors, too

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Elizabeth Donald of The Literary Underworld for a couple of my events, and I had a great talk with Ray Tabler while we waited (in vain, unfortunately) for an audience to come to our readings. Adam J. Whitlatch was there with a with a display for his Latchkey Press in the Creators Alley (I had a fun conversation with his wife Jessica). And I always enjoy a chance to be on a panel with Rachel Neumeier. In this case it was a panel called “The Intersection of Faith and Science,” moderated by Lucy A. Synk, that included the inimitable Jack Glassman.

My best-attended panels tended to have science, or science-adjacent, themes this year. One of the best was “AI and Writing” on Friday of the con. Guy Anthony De Marco and Tom Briggs joined Elizabeth Donald and me for that one, which I moderated. Probably the best-attended of all was “Space Colonizers” on Saturday. Bryce Meyer moderated. Gary Hanak, David VonAllmen, and Bob Perry joined me to fill out that panel.

This square design is made on a turquoise, green, mustard-yellow, and black gradient background. The “Archon 47 2024”logo, which depicts Godzilla rampaging through the St. Louis, MO skyline, after passing by the Gateway Arch, dominates the left side and overlaps a drone photo of the Gateway Center where the convention is headquartered. Logo courtesy of Archon 47; drone photo courtesy of Wedding Wire.
See Credits below.

Archon Persists

I may have been slightly depressed, and it’s possible the crowd size may have been, as well, but Archon persists. We still had plenty of good panels, plenty of wonderful new art, and plenty of interesting writers to meet. We had wonderful hall costumes, a wide range of offerings in the Creators’ Alley, and what looked to me like a fairly full and busy Dealers Room.

We’re in a season of uncertainties facing more and more fan-run conventions. They face new economic changes, and often new pressures with hotels. The challenges of building and maintaining such a massive volunteer-run effort certainly have not become easier as our culture’s pace speeds up and virtual events compete for those in realtime. But through it all so far – thank goodness – Archon persists.

About the Author

Author Jan S. Gephardt has closed out her “2024 convention season” (such as it was) with Archon 47. Despite the untimely loss of her sister, G.S. Norwood, she did manage to publish Bone of Contention, third book in the XK9 “Bones” Trilogy, in September, and bring physical copies of the book to debut at Archon.

IMAGE CREDITS

Many thanks to Clark’s Bait Shop and Brewery on Facebook for the Yoda quote-image. It’s probably posted all over the place, but that’s where I found it. The drone photography of the Gateway Convention Center is courtesy of “Wedding Wire,” which showcased it as a wedding venue. The “Archon 47 Virtuoso’s (sic) of Art” image comes from the Archon 47 web page. So does the equally apostrophe-challenged “Anticipated Bookseller’s” (sic) montage. And also the Archon 47 logo featuring Godzilla and the iconic Gateway Arch. Why am I using so many illustrations made by others (even the semi-literate ones)? Full disclosure: because Ty and I took a small, eclectic collection of photos at Archon 47, I’m working on this late at night, and I needed quick, easy imagery to post. Sleep well . . .

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