Sci-fi, fantasy fans gather for Mobicon XIV this weekend

Robert Picardo (standing, shown in his role as the Doctor on "Star Trek: Voyager") is the most prominent special guest at this year's Mobicon. (UPN)

MOBILE, Alabama -- Indirectly, the comment says a lot about what sets Mobicon apart.
“One of our staff members said in the past, ‘We’re the only convention that can’t get new guests because we can’t get the old ones to go away,’” said Wayne Hergenroder. “Every guest we’ve ever had always wants to come back.”
Hergenroder is president of the board of Mobicon, a gathering for fans of science fiction, fantasy, horror, anime, gaming, comics and paranormal exploration. Mobicon XIV takes place this weekend, and its laid-back formula has translated into an event nearing the maximum capacity for its venue, the Ashbury Hotel & Suites. It’s not just the celebrities who keep coming back, it’s the patrons.
“Last year our numbers were 692 officially, and we are anticipating between 750 and 800 this year, with the way everything is looking,” Hergenroder said. “The merchant room and art show are both sold out, we’re on a waiting list. Our fan tables are booked up, the hotel is almost booked out, as of a couple of days ago.”
The convention offers a wide range of activities. Highlights include an extensive art show, auctions, vendors selling specialized merchandise, costume contests, anime screenings, gaming sessions, panel discussions and special guests including actors, authors and artists.
“We don’t have a specific theme for this year,” Hergenroder said, “but we have probably a bigger-name guest than what we’ve had before, in Robert Picardo. We just lost Ethan Phillips, who was our primary guest, due to a family emergency, and Robert Picardo is a friend of his and offered to come in his place.”
Phillips was a big loss: An actor with an extensive career in stage, TV and film, he was well known to “Star Trek” fans for a seven-year run as the character Neelix on the series “Star Trek: Voyager.” But Picardo is a hardly a letdown: He too played a core character on “Voyager,” that of the holographic medical advisor known as the Doctor. As such, he was one of a number of memorable “Star Trek” characters of alien or artificial origin gradually learning what it means to be human.

Mobicon XIV takes place Friday-Sunday, may 20-22 at the Ashbury Hotel & Suites, 600 W. I-65 Service Road S. in Mobile. Adult registration prices at the door are $15 for Friday and Sunday, $25 or Saturday, or $40 for the weekend. For children ages 4-11 and seniors older than 65, registration is $8 on Friday and Sunday, $13 on Saturday, $20 for the weekend.
Mobicon is collecting non-perishable food items for the Bay Area Food Bank. This year, clothing and other household items also will be collected for donation to tornado relief efforts.
For full information on special guests and event programming, visit www.mobicon.org.

Picardo’s credits include numerous other film and television roles, and he has had a recurring role in the “Stargate” science-fiction franchise.
He is not the convention’s only celebrity guest, by a long shot, although he’s almost certainly the one best-known to the general public. Hergenroder said that Sonny Strait and Todd Haberkorn, two guests with extensive experience voice acting in animated films and movies, will be of particular interest to fans of anime; and visiting artists include Larry Elmore, an influential fantasy artist who was closely associated with the Dungeons & Dragons game during its rapid growth in popularity in the 1980s.
Elmore, in fact, is a prime example of a guest drawn back to Mobicon by good experiences in the past. Hergenroder said Elmore told organizers “he was scheduling us because he wanted a vacation.”
“We encourage guests to partake of the convention like one of our members do,” Hergenroder said. “We want them to have a good time like the membership does, instead of just being our entertainment.
“We want them out and interacting,” he said. “And we have a lot of them participate in events that we don’t have them scheduled for, and really enjoy it.”
“We do have a standard meet-and-greet on Friday evening, where we introduce all of our guests all in one spot so everybody can see who they are. But during the weekend, the guests will have discussion panels or different activities that our membership can participate in, and through that get to know the guests a little more.”
For serious fans of the areas it covers, Mobicon obviously offers a chance to gather with like-minded people. But the festival also offers a lot of novel, entertaining and informative experiences for newcomers, Hergenroder said.
His advice: Come on Friday, spend some time looking over the program guide, and “follow the crowds from there.”