The Eye of Argon | Michael A. Ventrella

The Eye of Argon (50th Anniversary)

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Michael A. Ventrella

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first publication of The Eye of Argon in a small, mimeographed fanzine, ConTinual asked me to moderate a panel to discuss what many consider the worst fantasy story ever written.

Well, come on, it was written by a kid, so give him some slack.

Writers Keith R.A. DeCandido, Gail Z. Martin, Hildy Silverman, Ian Randal Strock, and I discussed The Eye of Argon — But we came to praise, not bury.

We shared hilarious stories about its performance at various science fiction conventions and talked about the history of the story and its creator.

At the end, each panelist reads a section and the viewer can read along as well to enjoy it and see all the mistakes and typos. (If you want to try to read the whole thing, here’s a link.)

Watch and enjoy! (And if you want to see a performance done at a convention years ago with guest author Peter David, click here.)

Filed under: writing | Tagged: Gail Z. Martin, Hildy Silverman, Ian Randal Strock, Keith R.A. Candido, Michael A. Ventrella, The Eye of Argon | Leave a comment »

The Eye of Argon!

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Michael A. Ventrella

Back in 1970, a teenager named Jim Theis wrote his own “Conan the Barbarian” style story for his friends: The Eye of Argon. It was mimeographed with little illustrations and it was terrible. But hey, come on, he was a kid.

Over the years, that story was circulated around the science fiction community and became a fun thing to do at conventions, where the panel (and participants from the audience) try to read the story exactly as written, misspellings and all, without cracking up laughing.

Over the past few years, at various east coast conventions, I started organizing the reading but added something new: Once a participant made a mistake, they were required to get up and act out the story for the audience as the other panel members read. I have a group of great writers who have regularly joined with me that make it fun, including Gail Z. Martin, Keith DeCandido, Peter Prellwitz, KT Pinto, and others. Sometimes I am able to con the Guest of Honor to join in, such as in the clips below where noted author Peter David experienced the craziness. (Apparently this has not gone unnoticed, as I just realized that the wikipedia entry has been updated to add this.)

If you want to try to read the Eye of Argon, here’s a link. But I think you’ll have a lot more fun watching the clips below: