Two easels, two brushes, two artists, but only one can claim the title Iron Artist. The art world trembled and quaked on Sunday as two giants—Bill Stout and Ted Naifeh—met in the Regency Ballroom at 10:00AM for head-to-head art combat.

The rules were simple: The painting had to contain badgers, the required style was that of Salvador Dali, the secret ingredient was duality! The winner would be determined by a charity auction held at the end …

• Pocket Program
• Walk of Fame
• Parties, Announcements, Lost & Found

Dr. Kevin R. Grazier pumped the audience with an overload of yummy-geek-goodness at the “Updates from Saturn and Titan” panel on Friday night.

The twenty-one foot tall, six ton Cassini spacecraft’s four-year-plan is to make seventy-four orbits with fifty-two flybys of seven of Saturn’s moons: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe (MET DR. THIP). The craft is proving so robust that the mission is being extended, and the NASA teams are brainstorming …

BEST IN SHOW: “Elemental Moon” by Rick Sardinha
ARTIST CHOICE AWARD: “Golden Moon” by Tom Fleming

SPECIAL AWARDS (voted by attendees):

• First Place: “D&D Classic” by DPI Studios
• Second Place: “Ferret Rider” by Tomak Baksik
• Third Place: “Through the Looking Glass” by Victoria Moore Abbott
• Best Alien: “Tzir Repairs” by Lora Laverne Moore
• Best Amazon: “Minerva of Etonia” by Tomak Baksik
• Best Dragon: “Free Flying” by Georgia Horesh
• Best Horror: “Ghost Tongues” by Alex McVey
• Best …
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Master of ceremonies Kelly Lockhart returned this year as host, this time clad in an Elvis costume. To make the stage environment more interesting, he brought along rubber snakes as a stage hazard to trip up the robots. Yes, it was Snakes…on a Stage…

The double-elimination Robot Battles competition was divided into the 12 lb weight category and 30 lb weight category. Robots battled one-on-one, with the winner the best out of three matches. An enthusiastic …

The Regency ballroom was filled to capacity with spectators as six women vied for the Miss Klingon Empire title: Cmdr Keela sutai-Septaric (Leila McMichael), Rok’ela DevnoH (Sharon Carter), VarkNa B’traughh (Valerie Rice), Kandak sutai-B’traughh (Aiven O’Leary), Lt. Cmdr. K’vara (Joanna Jo Lombardi), and SajQa’ sutai-Fenix (Andrea Benton).

• 1st: Dany Slone & Darieum Pagani, “Dawn and Death: From the Ashes”
• 2nd: Scarlett Gardner, “Masked Dawn”
• 3rd: Amanda Leigh Young, “Horned Goddess”
• Most Outrageous: Spider, “Dawna Reed—Domestic Goddess”
• Best Armor: Jones, “Black Ball Gown”
• Most Original: Faith, “Fall”
• Best Adapted: Li Li, “Darrian . . . Come here!”
• Best Theatrical: Aleta Karpan & Robert Gerhart as “Celtic Labyrinth Dawn”

…

The Masquerade, the last in a slew of costume contests at Dragon*Con, fulfilled its role as a must-see event.

Peter David and George Perez hosted with style, humor, and discretion.  They arrived covered in snakes and shared their rubber entourage with the child participants.

During the opening section of the evening, a variety of children brought a chorus of “awwws” from the audience.  The winner, Thomas Wagamon, made a black, paper maché and cloth Alien costume and drew a great reaction from his boogie-dance, the pastime of xenomorphs everywhere.

Dragon*Con’s Art Auction on Monday interposed sales of fantasy and SF art with a rollicking comic routine by volunteer auctioneers Phil Lacefield and Marc Lee. The dynamic sales duo used horrendous French accents, pleas of kid fans to doting parents, and challenges to competing bidders to sell dozens of objects de art which had received at least five silent bids in the art show. Charity pieces were also auctioned including potion bottles—results of an …