The sleepers wake: attendees start the fourth day of Necronomicon

In the usual life cycle of a con, Sundays range from DOA — they expired sometime in the dark of night and when the sun rises all one finds is an empty, sun-baked dusty street with flies buzzing desultorily on piles of yesterday’s horse dung — to a lively old age that becomes more fragile as the day goes on. Checkouts at the hotel desk are consistent, though a good number leave luggage for later retrieval. But as the 8AM session on Thursday was well-attended, so too the 9:30 session Sunday morning about the correspondence between our man Lovecraft and Robert E. “Conan the Barbarian” Howard filled most of the seats. From this one must conclude Necronomicon’s Sunday will be on the lively side, and no dusty, abandoned street.

Letters constituted a major venue for communication between notables during this time period, and some — alas, not all — made it a practice to retain these letters. As a side-note: a loss to present-day scholarship on Lovecraft occurred when Lovecraft’s spouse burned the letters she’d received from him over the years of their acquaintance, courting, and marriage. And when we’re talking about H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, the letters aren’t short little hello-how ya doin’-what’s up affairs, but lengthy epistolary conversations on weighty matters relating to writing style, what constitutes a good and required text for reading, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of publication in the fraught world of the pulps of that era.

No matter what happens after this well-attended morning panel, Necronomicon (technically “Necronomi’Con” but who’s counting?) clearly expects continued activity, with no slackening in the schedule through the day until perhaps the late afternoon. The latest scheduled item, at 7PM, The Dunwich Horror PICTURE SHOW, advertised as film plus “weird merriment,” looks like a suitable closing activity. Alas, by that time I will be far away, but as this ‘con appears to draw a solid local attendance, I would not be surprised to hear it goes well.

To pop back in time to Saturday, a quick word about one of the most weird and wonderful activities, the madman Christian Matzke^* and his years-long project to create the Necronomicon in its English translation by John Dee, completed at the behest of Queen Elizabeth^** and intended to be only for her hands but copies of which escaped when Dee’s library was looted while he was away in Europe with a guy named Kelly who apparently talked the esteemed astronomer and philosopher into swapping wives… but that is clearly another story.

As you, gentle readers, can see on Patreon, this man is writing and crafting the mad Arab’s text in translation using a combination of old and new technologies. The con featured Matzke’s first public presentation of his project to a group of people, and we all looked like we just bought Maxell tapes for our music.

Too obscure? Practically everyone in the room stood up and said “Shut up and take my money!” (thanks, Crackajack, for this enduring meme).

To which Matzke replied, “Twelve dollars a month… on Patreon….” This project is now his full time job, he’s put five years in already, and here’s what two pages look like:

I’ve gone to a lot of cons in my time, starting with the last GenCon in Kenosha approximately one million years ago. I nearly always have something to do at these events, whether working them full time, serving as a guest, or like this time out, working as a volunteer (and sneaking a reading in Sunday afternoon, proving that being a friend to Cats pays off).

So it is with this august authority (during August — wait, I used that joke already!) I can say Necronomi’Con has been great. No event with a thousand + attendees, dozens (at least) of organizers and volunteers, sites spread around a substantial little city that takes four days to unfold proceeds without problems. But what problems came up, were handled, and from my experience, not that many problems came up.

It’s been a great con, with a great Vendor Hall, competent people doing the sundry jobs that have to be done, thoughtfully designed panels, and an overall comfy, unstressed atmosphere. Top marks from me! Look for Necronomi’Con to return in two years. While some might moan they wish it appeared yearly, one of the reasons this con works so well is the organizers get to draw breath, relax, recharge. I salute the choice for it to run every two years.

I sense this con is about as big as it can be in this combination of venues, and I hope it doesn’t grow any larger. While this means various activities were sold out, while this means “Gold” memberships sold out quickly, I hope this event grow no larger, or not much larger.

Long post, but there’s a lot to say about this medium sized, detail-packed con. Five stars, highly recommend, will attend again.

*He’s not crazy. It just seems the acme of madness to do what he is doing….
**It’s all true. IT’S ALL TRUE.