(8.20) NecronomiCon — the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia — kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday, August 20th. This event is held every other year around the date of H.P. Lovecraft’s birth and this is one of those years.
This year’s guests of honor include renowned editor Ellen Datlow, filmmaker Richard Stanley, artist John Jude Palencar, poet Donald Sidney-Fryer, Lovecraft scholar Steve Mariconda, and authors Kij Johnson, Stephen Graham Jones, Nnedi Okorafor, and Peter Straub.
And of course the Lovecraft Statue Project will be front and center. (Last June we wrote up the statue’s progress.) The work is being sculpted in wax by artist Gage Prentiss and this will then be sent to a foundry for casting in bronze. Prentiss is nearly finished with the sculpting, but there is more fundraising to be done, and he will have a presence at the convention.
Here is a resin cast from a partial mold I made from the lifesize statue. [Facebook page.] I’m 90% done with the wax sculpture with the 3 cats and base on the board to work out. The warm weather had made it impossible for me to bring the lifesize wax to the convention this year, so I cast this to bring as a taste of things to come. We will need your help to spread the word and fund this to completion after the Necronomicon in August, so keep an eye out for the kickstarter!
The Thursday night Kick-Off Party is free and open to the public. It starts at 7pm at the Facade on Weybosset Street next to the Arcade. Viennagram goes on at 7:30pm! (Facebook event.)
Pick up the latest Motif Magazine for the centerfold. It is a fabulous illustrated map of the venues — the work of artist Erminio Pinque — and will be of particular use to out-of-towners.
NecronomiCon, Thursday, August 17 through Sunday, August 20, multiple venues