TusCon History Index Page | TusCon List of Cons | TusCon Program Books| TusCon Pics | TusCon Pics 2

Newly updated July 30, 2012.

TusCon's Illustrated History Pages:

Index to The History of TusCon

    For several years I had been ~~threatening~~ promising to put together a page on the history of TusCon. And here it is, with many thanks and gratitude to Brian Gross, Sue Thing, Jim Corrick, Wolf Forrest, Trini Ruiz, Gloria McMillan, Deb Dedon, Yvonne Navarro, and David J. Schow, to name but a few.
    So as a result, since 2002, TusCon's Illustrated (or Illustrious, depending on your - ahem! - point of view) History has had a listing on the Internet as part of my larger site Honest Intellectual Inquiry. However, in 2007, due to a server problem (the most recent of at least four), I finally broke down and purchased two domain names, so NOW TusCon's Illustrated History has its very own space, so that, one hopes, in the future I won't have to go through the messy, time-and-energy-consuming effort of notifying everyone that, once again, things have changed, whenever that inevitability might happen. [As an aside, when it came time to renew the domains last month, I was very dismayed to find out that the cost has escalated by a factor of three. I decided to pay for three years so I wouldn't get hit by another cost escalation for one year longer, but it really hurts to shell out almost $200 for something for which I receive nothing but an occasional pat on the back (unless it's a complaint).]

    It all started one night in the summer of 1974 when Jim Corrick and I were sitting on the front steps of the house of our friend, and now renowned poet, Nancy Mairs after a science fiction meeting (I remember the sky looking something like the background on this page). We decided that Tucson should have a "real" Science Fiction convention, aside from the one being held at that time on the campus of the University of Arizona, and we simultaneously came up with the name "TusCon," for obvious reasons. After that, it was 'merely' a matter of getting it all arranged, pooling our paltry resources to finance it, and voila, TusCon was born.
    Of course, there's more to it than that. It was, I confess, a difficult birth. The fact that TusCon was not the first con in Tucson was one. The University-backed DesertCon, already in its second year, had loads of money to spend on famous writers, directors, and other famous persons, plus films which cost far more than the paltry sums we could afford to spend, was competiton with which we could not even begin to compete. Being geared primarily towards the media, the audience it drew was much larger than that we could hope to get. Their budget meant they could even show those movies in a real theatre on campus at that time, run by volunteers, and draw artists who did artwork for NASA, among other well-known venues and publications, etc. It is probably of little surprise to many who read this to discover that most of the paltry few people on the TusCon committee had already worked for a time for DesertCon - however, there were two or three of those same people who had previously worked on other science fiction conventions which had been geared more towards an audience interested in getting together, talking and sharing interests not just including those of the media-drawn DesertCon. These few people (or fans, as they referred to themselves) missed one of the big draws of those other cons, something DesertCon could not allow to be shared on-campus, to college students in the main, that being bheer (in fan-speak) and other alcoholic intoxicants. Besides, we thought Tucson needed a con that was geared more towards fans than to students on a dry college campus. Boy, was it dry!
    But by being on the DesertCon committee, we had the opportunity to surreptitiously invite several of DesertCon's guests to parties we threw off-campus, which were in no way affiliated with DesertCon, and showed them some of Tucson's fannish charm. One party we threw was for writer Poul Anderson and his wife Karen, where the party's host challenged Poul to a beer drinking contest, and I don't think I need say who won... several hours after a very tired Karen fell asleep in a spare bedroom. To be fair to Karen, it was kind of late in the evening by then.
    [But I have to get back to this when I have a bit more time.]

The TusConFan website is as follows:
   Page 1. This index page, where you are now.
   Page 2. The former "index" page, wherein are the listings of TusCon's past conventions, plus the one to come this November, is now called TusCon's Illustrated History: List of Cons.
   Page 3. Images of the Program Books and Badges for ALL TusCons for which they were supplied may be seen here: TusCon's Program Book Covers and Badges.
   Page 4. Photographs of those people and events in TusCons past which can be located are here:TusCon's Pictures. When we learn how to photograph future TusCons before they actually occur, they will be included as well, as a special feature. Photos are missing for many of the cons, and if anyone out there has any they would like to share, or if they might be torn out of their possessions by some smooth talking, or even if it takes me to get down on my knees and beg, please notify me at e-mail me .(I guess you can leave out the "-nospam" part before the @ sign if you really feel up to it ) I'll make sure you're given proper blame - er - credit. BTW, the pictures on Page 4 end with those from TusCon 36, as the ones from TusCon 37 were far too large and too many to include with the ones from previous years. Call it my excuse for not getting the information from TusCon 37 added until September-October, 2011.
   Page 5. A continuation of the photographs on Page 4, starting with TusCon 37, located here: TusCon's Pictures, Page 2.

[Nota Bene: Without the kind, indefatigable patience of TusCon's official website guru Fred Kurtzweg, II, this page and its contents would never have seen the light of day. I have personally never had to set up a page that had so many obstacles and errors (all mine) - and, with the help of Ghu and the rest of fandom, may I never come across such difficulties during the remaining lifetime of the pages of the Illustrated History of TusCon, however long that may be.]

For further information on the current TusCon, please go to the TusCon Home Page, or e-mail the TusCon Committee at basfa@earthlink.net.
If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments concerning this web page, please e-mail me (without the “nospam”). And feel free to check out my other website at Honest Intellectual Inquiry.

This webpage launched September 07, 2007
Most recently updated July 30, 2012
© 2007-2012

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Many thanks to Deb Dedon for permission to use her drawing as my logo at the top of this page; © 1997 Deb Dedon.

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