It took a long time before I came to understand how to categorize the stuff we have acquired over time. Yes, some of it is collectible, like the Batman Crazy Foam can and the Tom Lehrer autographs. And a good chunk of it is just Things I Like Having Available, like extremely minor fanzines. The in-between category of objects we currently store, I assign the label of Artifact. They are objects that are not exactly unique in themselves, but are physical souvenirs of a time in personal history, a process that needed a touchstone of some kind. Like convention badges and passes. Like shirt pins promoting a movie marathon. This page is devoted to turning these objects into pictures and scans that will serve as my off-site memory of the places and events these artifacts represent.

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1987 San Diego Comic Con Newsletter 4 1987 San Diego Comic Con -- This is a copy of the daily newsletter (such as it was) that was put out at the con to keep people notified of last-minute program updates and such. This is how they had to do this kind of thing before e-mail alerts. On the other hand, it would still be pretty effective. I mean, I haven't gone to a con in ages, but I don't have a wi-fi PDA or anything like that, so pushing a daily alert at my contact address would be pretty useless, but I would walk by the tables outside registration or the dealer's room pretty often, and I'd pick up a paper newsletter. Meh. Paper still has uses.
1979 Comic Art Convention 1979 - Comic Art Convention -- Also known as July Con or Seuling Con, this was one of the famous gatherings put on by the legendary Phil Seuling. Look at how simple the schedule is, and yet it was more than enough to keep the attendees entertained.
1985 Armadillo Times Star Picayune August 31, 1985 - Armadillo Times Star Picayune -- This is one of the daily newsletters for the 1985 Lone Star Con, the NASFIC of that year (Worldcon was in Australia).
1988 Lunacon 1988 - Lunacon Progress Report
1988 Noreason Three Progress Report 1988 - Noreascon Three Progress Report
July, 1948 Newsdealer Magazine July, 1948 issue of Newsdealer Magazine -- We happen to have this because of a job from about 1980. Jay was putting together a catalog for a comic book store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, The cover photo for the catalog was of a little kid looking at a huge array of comics which, in 1980 and even more today, would be worth quite a tidy fortune. (You can see it on page 12.) I don't remember whether Jay had to make a stat for the catalog cover from the photocopy you see in this pdf, or whether he was given the original magazine to work with and decided to make a copy because the magazine was an interesting artifact relating to the comics industry, an artifact the average reader would not normally get the opportunity to see. In any case, I googled Newsdealer Magazine, and get nothing but a mention about an article on Medical Comics. So here; have a look. Learn that, in one man's opinion, comics are "the marijuana of the nursery."
1986 Chicago Comicon Program Book 1986 Chicago Comicon Program Book -- Cover art by John Romita, Sr. Guest of Honor: Stan Lee. Special Guest: George Perez. I think this was the convention where a bunch of Interlackers threw a Cabbage Patch doll out a window for some reason? When I get around to checking the mailings of the time I'll be able to get more background on what happened at this one.
1983 - United States program book 1983 - United States Program Book -- One of our copies of the program book for the epic performance of United States by Laurie Anderson, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February of 1983. It was spectacular.

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