Dragon*Con 2002: Fantastic Flights

Nobody laughed when the Klingon got up to sing. However, at the end of his rendition of “Baby, I Love You,” everyone in the Champions Bar attached to Atlanta’s Marriott Marquis Hotel hollered, stamped their feet and applauded wildly. The gleaming bat’leth (the scimitar-shaped honor sword of Star Trek Klingons) he left at the side of the stage had nothing to do with it. The gentleman really could sing, dominating a Friday night set characterized by an unusually high level of talent. Champion’s karaoke regulars considered the Aug. 30 evening set that included the romantic Klingon one of the best of the summer. Dragon*Con guests called it the perfect way to open the con. (Photos by Jean Marie Ward).

Dozens of DragonCon attendees donned their Saturday best to march in the first annual DragonCon parade Aug. 31. Fans costumed as Klingons, Jedi Knights, Spiderman, musketeers, Gomez Addams and Tuesday, and a number of creatures defying description mustered at the gates of Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park for the 10 a.m. event. No traditional floats applied, but the denizens of the Netherworld Haunted House brought their white hearse (seen here behind a selection of daylight nightmares).

Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhuru on the original Star Trek, served as the parade’s mistress of ceremonies. She would later delight guests at the Dragon*Con Awards banquet with her tales of old Hollywood and her interpretation of pop standards “Almost Like Being in Love” and “Summertime.”

Author and artist Janny Wurts set the pace for the parade, followed by the Queen of France and her Musketeers carrying the Dragon*Con banner. Wurts’ melodies found their complement in the tunes of the piper who led the second half of the parade. The music proved an unexpected treat for bystanders who braved the threat of rain and confusion caused by contradictory media reports of the parade route.

Large banners punctuated the long line of participants. Members of Renderosity , the world’s largest digital artists’ community and sponsor of the digital component of the 2002 Dragon*Con Art Show, carried a print-on-demand banner from the same printer serving the digital art show. Other banner carrying groups included associates of the Brain Injury Association of Georgia (BIAG), this year’s Dragon*Con charity — and the source of endless jokes.

Under the blank gaze of the Cyborg in Red, fans pore over the game pieces offered by Games Workshop in the Dragon*Con Exhibitors Hall located on the Convention Level of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.

Dragonlance author Margaret Weis and her husband Don Perrin autograph books, cards and other items at the Sovereign Press booth in the Dragon*Con Exhibitors Hall. This year’s visit to Dragon*Con was Weis’s first in four years.

Marc Gunn (l) and Andrew McKee of the Brobdingnagian Bards serenade visitors to the Dragon*Con Art show.

This year’s Dragon*Con Art Show in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis featured musical performances by Emerald Rose and Kimberly S. Finney of Persephone’s Dream, shown here at the keyboard of her synthesizer.

How do you make a Stormtrooper really, really happy? Ask him to take Farscape beauty and Dragon*Con 2002 Masquerade judge Virginia Hey on for a ride. Members of the 501st Online Startroopers Legion also provided an onstage lift to Chris Demetral of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and worked hard to intimidate masters of ceremonies Mike Nelson and Ken Murphy of Mystery Science Theater 3000. They might not have succeeded at intimidation, but the competition marched through its paces in record time.

Say Cheese — While Masquerade judges prepped for their big entrance, the future Best in Show Winners, This Is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas, posed for official and unofficial photographers in the backstage area of the Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel’s Centennial Ballroom. For the record, no cameras were harmed in making of this picture.

Sparkler — Tracy Carter took home the 2002 Masquerade Award for Best Movie Costume for her interpretation of Satine in Moulin Rouge.

Comfy Shoes — Voyaging through the Uncharted Territories can be murder on a living plant’s feet. Fortunately for the winners of the Dragon*Con 2002 Award for Best Farscape Costumes, Delvian theology does not require its priestesses to sell their rubber soles.

Left Bank Meets Left Coast — Rock legends Jefferson Starship came to Dragon*Con 2002 to party. When they took to the Centennial Ballroom stage a little over an hour after the Masquerade, they invited folks still in costume — including a can-can line composed of longtime Dragon*Con volunteers — to join them. Bare feet and beads proved optional.

Moving Heaven and Earth — (L. to r.) Diana Mangano, Marty Balin and Slick Aguilar evoke times past and the sense of fantasy that earned the Jefferson Starship the unique honor of being the only band nominated for science fiction’s prestigious Hugo Award.

To end the set, Aguilar arranged for the two real Atlanta cops to “bust” him and lead him off-stage. It felt like old times but without the old consequences. Afterwards, police officers, band members and the con’s celebrity guests relaxed backstage. In general, the police seemed to find Dragon*Con and its attendees much more congenial than in years past. At Dragon*Con 2002, officers directed foot traffic moving between the Hyatt Regency and the Marriott Marquis, instead of forcing pedestrians to take long detours. Officers on motorcycles also provided an official escort for the parade and Mistress of Ceremonies Nichelle Nichols.