1979: Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair

1979 was the year the AC&FF, or the ACFF, or what we'd later just call the AFF, well, they moved locations up I-85 to the popular Century Center location on Clairmont Rd, just north of the site of their first 1975 show.  

I don't personally have any materials from the 1979 show - I would have been nine years old at the time and while I would have loved to have been there, at the time I didn't even know it existed. So I've had to dig these images up from the depths of the Internet, and once again I'll ask anyone out there with some old convention flyers or program books or photos of Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fairs past to take an afternoon and do a little scanning and send them .jpgs my way. 

The program schedule for the 1979 Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair was a folded newsprint poster that boiled the essentials of the convention down to a few pages worth of text and some illustrations by the guests. 

From the vantage point of 2019 we can enjoy the charming five-point list of rules, and we can nod approvingly at the lady con chair, which is becoming more common but in 1979 must have been a novelty.  Judging from the welcome message's references to "circumstances beyond our control," there must have been some pre-convention drama happening behind the scenes, and let me say that this is an aspect of fandom conventions that has not changed at all. 

The full spectrum of fandom entertainment circa 1979 is on display as the ACFF gives you, the attendee, a main events room filled with classic movies, SF TV favorites, vintage serials, and Star Trek, Star Trek, Star Trek. What's that? You note they're only showing the Star Trek Bloopers ONCE? Well, let's check out another, perhaps more accurate version of the 1979 schedule. 

Looks like the Friday night crowd demanded their Bloopers!  Apart from the enigmatic inscription "Century Center Hotel - No Money", this schedule also tells us when the dealer's room is open. I for one am appalled at how late this convention lasts on Sunday. By 5pm I am ready to shut these things down, but the 1979 breed of fan had a lot more energy, for some reason.

Here's the guest list - John Byrne was still a rising star drawing the X-Men, Howard Chaykin had yet to set the comics world on fire with his American Flagg, Gil Kane and Jim Steranko were legendary titans of the field, and Dave Sim was (a) still married to Deni Sim, and (b) just getting into the groove his 300-issue run of Cerebus The Aardvark. Dr. Kenneth Smith, the only guest to attend the first five Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fairs, was years away from being insulted by gamers and leaving AFF in a huff, never to return, and Richard Meyers was right on the cusp of becoming completely infatuated with Asian martial arts cinema and becoming one of North America's experts in the field. 

The Cerebus piece on the back of the program guide is a wonderful example of exactly how the rest of the world saw Atlanta in the 1970s - Atlanta was the place where Gone With The Wind happened, and that's it. That's all. Nothing else. 

The Kenneth Smith program guide artwork also was featured on that year's T-shirt. 1979's show would set new attendance records for the Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair, and if they got anywhere near the 1800 attendees the program book was claiming, then by golly that was one crowded show because the Century Center just isn't that big.  1980 would see the convention move back to the Dunfey's Royal Coach which, for all its faults, at least had plenty of meeting space. 

Thanks to the Cerebus Fangirl Site for the program guide images!