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Original MarsCon
@originalmarscon.bsky.social
9 followers 12 following 30 posts
Tidewater Virginia’s longest-running science fiction convention.
January 16-18, 2026
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originalmarscon.bsky.social
Another classic by @lartist.bsky.social
A cartoon titled The Rocky Mountain Horror Picture Show. At right are a very nervous looking white bread Americana couple- Brad Majors and his fiancée, Janet Weiss. At left is a balding and barefoot man named Riff Raff, wearing tattered overalls without a shirt. He is crouched over his banjo. Behind him stands his sister Magenta. She is grimacing around the corncob pipe clenched in her teeth, and clutching a stoneware jug to her visibly pregnant belly. She wears a sleeveless blue gingham dress with matching sun bonnet. Her bushy hair is deep red, and her face is dead white. In the center is a figure with inexplicable sex appeal. They are wearing a longsleeved red checked shirt with the tails tied under their bosom, leaving their taut midriff exposed, a pair of Daisy Duke cutoffs short enough for the pocket bags to be poking out from underneath. Cowboy boots, a string of pearls, and a red and white trucker style cap atop the unruly halo of coal-black curls framing a sensuous face covered in dead white makeup with smoky eyes on point and lascivious red lips. This creature of the night sings “Yew git caught with a flat? Well doggie, how ‘bout that?”
October 14, 2025 at 1:04 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
We’re excited to introduce our new 2026 Artist Guest of Honor, Stephen Burks!
Stephen is an illustrator living in Virginia who creates fantasy and pulp illustrations. His work has appeared in indie comics, webcomics, and pulp magazines where he won awards for his interior pen and ink illustrations.
A photo of a white man with grey hair pulled back and a neatly trimmed grey beard. He is wearing black-framed glasses, a black shirt, and a black sport coat. We’re excited to introduce our Artist Guest of Honor, Stephen Burks! Stephen is an illustrator living in Virginia who creates fantasy and pulp illustrations. His work has appeared in indie comics, webcomics, and pulp magazines where he won awards for his interior pen and ink illustrations. He is passionate about storytelling and tabletop gaming and has a Master’s in Creative Writing and has been mentored by multiple fantasy illustrators. Stephen draws inspiration from the art of realism, commercial posters, and the golden age of illustration. He works almost exclusively in traditional mediums such oil and watercolors. Stephen’s art appears in multiple volumes of the award-winning Pulp Reality anthology including the cover of volume 3. His interior art in Pulp Reality Volume 2 won the Pulp Factory Best Interior Art in 2022. He created trading cards for Marvel, Upper Deck, Stormgate Press, Bad Axe Studios, and others. His published comic covers include work for Radical Visions Comics, Pocket Jack Comics, and others. With Iconograph Studios he created the Our Last Gasp webcomic, multiple comics, and wrote and directed episodes of the comedy web series Phenomena: Probing the Paranormal as well as several short films. We hope you’re as excited for him to joinus as we are! Check out his work on his website: http://www.stephenburks.com.
September 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Science Facts- weirder than science fiction can ever be, because editors insist that science fiction make sense…
Screenshot. A skeet from August 6, 2024 where a man named Glen wrote “If I learned anything from the song Black Hole Sun it’s that Chris Cornell didn’t know shit about astrophysics. Glen has reskeeted it with a link to an article that says “The James Webb telescope may have discovered a brand new class of cosmic object: the black hole star.” Glen’s only comment? “Well don’t I feel stupid?”
September 27, 2025 at 12:46 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
One heck of a 5 year mission! What’s your favourite Original Series moment?
A cake decorated with blue icing, a Starfleet Starship Duty insignia, and the words Happy Star Trek Day.
September 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Captain Jean-Luc Picard telling the Dread Pirate Roberts “Shut up, Wesley.”
August 30, 2025 at 8:37 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Looks like the work of the brilliant @davekellett.bsky.social
A cartoon of He-Man laying on his therapist’s couch. The therapist asks him “Look, if you want to enact positive, lasting change in your life, WHO IS THE ONE PERSON WITH THE POWER TO MAKE THAT CHANGE?” He-Man sighs and whispers “... i have the power.”
August 12, 2025 at 8:24 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Exciting news- introducing our MarsCon Artist Guest of Honour- Laura Lee Gulledge!
A photo of a White woman with short, red hair and a big smile, wearing a yellow blouse and earrings. Her name is Laura Lee Gulledge. She’s going to be the Artist Guest of Honour at MarsCon this coming January, and this is the bio from her website: LAURA LEE GULLEDGE (she/ they) is an author, cartoonist, teaching artist, collaborative muralist, community organizer, and Neurodiversity advocate based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Their books include YA graphic novels The Dark Matter of Mona Starr and Page by Paige, as well as the interactive Sketchbook Dares: 24 Ways to Draw Out Your Inner Artist. (Abrams Books) Plus their graphic novel Will & Whit has been adapted into a musical available for licensing. They were the inaugural graduate from the JMU Masters Program in Art Education and the first woman to be nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award for Best Lettering in comics. Laura Lee's unique style of visual storytelling explores the intersection of Graphic Medicine, Citizen Artistry, Autism, and Artner love. Recent collaborators include The Kennedy Center, Charles Schultz Museum, and Discover Black Cville. Laura Lee lives in an old schoolhouse in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her cat Rory where she loves doing conscious dance, hiking, and making puns. ​
July 25, 2025 at 1:09 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
We’re pleased to announce that Keegan Eichelman will be our YA/LitRPG Guest of Honor January 16-18 2026! Author of over 50 books including the bestselling Wisteria Rebel series you can find her at our website www.marscon.net/wp/ and at hers: keeganauthor.wixsite.com/keeganeichel...
Keegan Eichelman is a lover of all things books and the author of over 50 of them, including her bestselling, young adult paranormal Wisteria Rebel Series. As a kid, she read the library dry of young adult and dragon books. Her passion for fantasy and enjoyment of classic survival horror video games catapulted her into the LitRPG genre, and she hasn’t looked back since—besides to keep the zombies at bay. She fills her free time with writing, designing graphic art for other authors, video creation, outdoor adventures with her fiancé, Greg, including hiking, biking, off-roading and boating, snuggling her calico feline and encouraging budding authors. In her opinion, life’s too short to do anything but have some proper fun doing what you love; therefore, you can expect she’ll be doing what she loves, churning out some more fun novels for you to read! Link Book An Event | Keeganeichelman (https://keeganauthor.wixsite.com/keeganeichelman/about-2)
June 10, 2025 at 9:40 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month!
A painting of Gowron, a Klingon, waving a pair of rainbow striped flags and shouting “Glory to you and to your identity!”
June 6, 2025 at 4:12 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Devil’s Tower
May 1, 2025 at 3:37 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Happy Easter to all who celebrate!
A chocolate bunny with an alien face hugger on it.
April 20, 2025 at 7:47 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
A good song, but I prefer their later songs like “Across the Universe at Warp 9.” What’s your favourite Star Beatles song?
Black and white image of the Beatles from the early 1960s and Yoda. Each is captioned with a line from the song “All You Need (Is Love).” John: All You Need Is Love Paul: All You Need Is Love George: All You Need Is Love Yoda: Love Is All You Need
April 20, 2025 at 12:52 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from science fiction?
A composite photo: Captain Kirk captioned “Give me the chance to make things better,” Spock, holding a cat, captioned “Give me a best friend.” Scotty captioned “Give me a miracle worker,” Dr. McCoy captioned “Give me humanity,” Captain Picard captioned “Give me dignity.” Data in a cowboy hat captioned “Give me a better person than I’ll ever be.” Worf captioned “Give me courage.” Troi captioned “Give me compassion.” Captain Sisko captioned “Give me conviction.” Kira Nerys captioned “Give me selflessness.” Garak captioned “Give me the strength to do what must be done.” A woman I can’t recognize from the image captioned “Give me Joy.” Captain Janeway captioned “Give me intelligence.” The Doctor from Voyager captioned “Give me someone who learns and grows.” Captain Archer captioned “Give me hope.” A Cardassian captioned “Give me warmth.” An Andorian captioned “Give me loyalty.” Across the bottom is the caption “GIVE ME STAR TREK.”
April 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Continuing with our Secrets and Scales theme, we’re excited to announce our Gaming Guest of Honor for MarsCon 2026, Connie Vogelmann- designer of
Apiary and Wyrmspan, the dragon-themed sequel to the highly acclaimed Wingspan from Stonemaier Games!
Photo of a woman with long, brown hair and blue-rimmed glasses, smiling mysteriously at the viewer. Connie Vogelmann is a board game designer from Washington DC. She is the designer of Apiary and Wyrmspan, both by Stonemaier Games. Wyrmspan is the dragon-themed sequel to the highly acclaimed Wingspan, designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and published by Stonemaier Games. Connie is a lifelong science fiction and fantasy fan. When she's not designing games or cheering her fantasy hockey team, she's likely watching the newest dystopian science fiction show or curled up with a good book.
February 28, 2025 at 1:42 PM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Art for MarsCon 2026 featuring a table with a crystal ball on it. The ball contains the name MarsCon in suspiciously reptilian letters. There appears to be a draconic figure within, and a lockplate on the ball, which rests on a sleek, dark base with 2026 on it in glowing numerals. To either side stand tiny, robed figures, each holding what appears to be half of a glowing key.
February 26, 2025 at 4:23 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
Announcing our 2026 Author Guest of Honour!

Lisa Shearin is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the SPI Files, best described as Men in Black meets The X-Files; the Aurora Donati paranormal political thrillers; and the Raine Benares novels, a comedic fantasy adventure series.
A portrait of Lisa Shearin; a white lady with blond hair and glasses. She sits at a table writing in a journal or notebook.
February 14, 2025 at 5:58 AM
originalmarscon.bsky.social
MarsCon 2026 will be January 16-18 in Virginia Beach! Watch our feed in the coming months for news about guests, programs, and more!
This is Marzo, the MarsCon Mascot! A cute cartoon alien in the “little green men” tradition, he has 2 legs, 4 arms, and one big, round head with pointy ears and antennae.
February 3, 2025 at 3:08 AM