From archive (archive)
Subject: Re: CRUISCON
From: whh@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, Oakland, CA
Date: 26 Apr 89 23:26:10 GMT




In article <8904261653.AA08971@rutgers.edu>, 3C257F7@CMUVM.BITNET (Kim Dyer) writes:
> 
>      Danny Low mentions CruisCon. Anyone else out there old enough
> to remember the comic put out by (Hugo award winner) Phil Foglio
> on just this topic? (Title has leaked out of my ears -- sorry Phil)

It was called "The Capture."  Foglio did the pictures, Robert Aspirin
did the text.  It was orginally done as a slide show with tape after
they found it would cost too much to make an animated film.  The slide
show was done at various cons.  It was hilarious.  They later put out
a "coloring book" version.  It involved a group of aliens putting the
snatch on a cruise ship full of fen, authors and editors.  (Pournelle
character in background, alien speaking to alien [I'm paraphrasing]:
    "One of the captives says they're out of liquor."

    "Tell him to get another bottle out of the case."
  
    "He says the case is empty."

   "Tell him to open the other case."

    "He says that's empty too--and besides, our security is lousy.")

The "Campbell" character criticizes the plans and not being good fiction.

The aliens keep appealing to higher and higher authorities.

The running gag is the "Gremlin"--who all insist doesn't exist--wants
a tube of Cobalt Blue paint.  The Gremlin is Kelly Freas--which leads
to a whole host of *problems*.   This in turn spawned a host of "Gremlins
Do Not Exist" buttons--which Kelly would hand modify (and sign) to say
"Gremlins Do To Exist."  Which--in turn--is where the "gremlin" jokes
come from in the "Myth . . ." series.

Somewhere around the house I have a copy of the coloring book . . . 

      --Hal

=========================================================================
  Hal Heydt               
  Analyst, Pacific*Bell   
  415-645-7708            
  whh@pbhya.PacBell.COM   

From archive (archive)
Subject: Re: CRUISCON
Keywords: The Capture/"Life Imitates Art"/Gremlins do NOT exist!
From: lmann@jjmhome.UUCP (Laurie Mann)
Date: 28 Apr 89 23:44:23 GMT




In article <8904261653.AA08971@rutgers.edu>, 3C257F7@CMUVM.BITNET (Kim Dyer) writes:
>      Danny Low mentions CruisCon. Anyone else out there old enough
> to remember the comic put out by (Hugo award winner) Phil Foglio
> on just this topic? (Title has leaked out of my ears -- sorry Phil)
> He postulated a cruise ship as a world con, sailing through the
> Bermuda Triangle.  Well, guess what ship the "space aliens" that have
> been lifting ships all these years choose to take THIS time.  The
> con goers drive the crew NUTS!  The Dorsai take over security ...
> Kelly Freas (probably spelled that wrong too) creates "plot signifigant"
> art all around the ship  -- you get the idea.  (I won't tell you more
>  - you should be able to buy/borrow a copy somewhere.

Actually, it was BETTER than being merely "a comic."

"The Capture" was a slide show that toured a number of cons in
the mid-'70s.  I think Robert Lynn Asprin (then a Dorsai known
as Yang the Nauseating) wrote it and Phil did full-color slides.
Phil, Bob, and a number of other fans did the slide/"radio" show
show for about two years.  It was HYSTERICALLY funny.  

As I recall (and I last saw this about 13 years ago), the cruise
consisted of science fiction writers/artists.  The aliens kept
trying to scare them, and, of course, failed miserably.  The
tag line throughout was "Gremlins do NOT exist!!"  But, of
course, they DID.

The slide show was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation
for 1975.  

I didn't realize that it had become a comic book, but I'm not surprised.

Laurie Mann  **  harvard!m2c!jjmhome!lmann ** encore!cloud9!jjmhome!lmann
Work address: harvard!anvil!es!Laurie_Mann    Northboro, Massachusetts */