Texarkana Sci-Fi Convention On ‘Young Sheldon’ Tonight – An Event That Actually Happened

Tonight's “Young Sheldon” episode includes references to a comic book convention in Texarkana that actually happened, whether they know it on the show or not. The "Young Sheldon" TV series called it Texarkana-Con, which is close. It was actually a science fiction convention called Texar-Kon, and it happened five years in a row starting in 1981.

The first Texar-Kon was held at the Holiday Inn on State Line (just like the flyer in the episode says, see video below). Subsequent conventions were held at King's Row Inn, Master Host Inn, and Howard Johnson's, in no particular order.

Don't take my word for it, below is a screen capture of a Convention Schedule on page 64 of Dragon Magazine #72 from 1983:

Yes, I did some digging to find that.

The Texar-Kon core committee consisted of Steve Smith, Steve and Teresa Fleming, Patricia and John Snodgrass, Donna (King) Standridge, Kathy Griffith, and Jim Beatty.

Texar-Kon was the very first science-fiction convention ever in Texarkana. The first guests were artist Frank Kelly Freas who did artwork for Amazing Stories and Queen's "News of the World" robot (pictured above), author Robert Lynn Asprin, writer of the "Myth" and “Thieves’ World” series.

Other guests through the years include Theodore (Ted) Sturgeon author of several episodes of Star Trek, Twilight Zone, and many novels, Richard Pini of Elfquest fame (pictured above), prolific author Andrew Offutt, sci-fi artists Dell Harris, David Lee Anderson, and David Cherry.

These cons are where my lovely bride Donna got her start doing cosplay. She was on the Texar-Kon core committee. You remember her from last Halloween, right?

We would love to see some pictures from Texar-Kon right here in Texarkana from back in the day, do you have some?

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