Artist Guest at Room Con, K.C., MO. 2010

Woo-Hoo! Bentley is the AGoH at the one and only Room Con 6, the "con-in-a-room" con (a con within a con), at ConQuesT (PRIME!), in Kansas City, MO. What a way to bring an artist back home to the Mid-West, eh?

Other guests include the most amazing Bland Lemon Denton as Music Guest of Honor, the "sometimes obscure or elliptical" Howard Waldrop as Writer Guest of Honor, the loveable and infamous actress Sue Sinor as Fan Guest of Honor and the outrageously unflappable Jim "Dr. Paisley" Murray as Toastmaster... maybe that should be "Reverend Doctor Paisley?"

Room Con will be held at ConQuesT 41 "Steam Punk and Evil Geniuses", May 28-30, 2010, Memorial Day Weekend, at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center, Kansas City MO. The actual room for Room Con will be announced at opening ceremonies.

Join the fun on Facebook and don't forget to come on out for the show!

AGoH in Omaha, N.E. 2010

Bentley is Artist Guest of Honor at OSFest 3 (Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival),"Under Construction: Fans at Work," July 23-25, 2010. Aside from Bentley's work in the art show, AFS will have a dealers table with loads of stuff from prints to magnets and books with covers done by Mitch from Yard Dog and Sam's Dot.

Other guests will be Author Guest of Honor Robert J. Sawyer, Anime Guest of Honor Jan Scott-Frazier, Toastmaster Rusty Havelin and Masquerade MC Denny Lynch. We also have it on good authority that "B1B will again be preparing a special brew for the convention. They have even promised that the root beer will actually be ready for the con suite in 2010." I hope so, I am looking forward to sampling that root beer!

Hotel Information: Comfort Inn & Suites 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE 68106 Phone: (402) 934-4900 Fax: (402) 933-1204

More about OSFest as things develop... and some cover art soon!

Special Guest at Gamers Of Winter in HBG., PA

Once again, Bentley is a Special Guest and friend of the local gaming convention, Gamers of Winter Con, 2010. AFS will be there with books from Sam's Dot Publishing and of course a variety of Bently art as limited edition prints, magnets, bookmarks and small framable pieces sure to fit in those small places that need something eye catching...

This year GoW has two Special Guests - Mitch Bentley (yours truly of AFS) and Ken Burnside of Ad Astra Games. Ad Astra is known for their game systems and miniatures such as Honor Harrington and Birds of Prey to name just a few.

Additionally, author C.J. Henderson will be there with lots of great stuff! He has written for dozens of magazines, writes both fiction and non-fiction works and has published several serials such as Jack Hagee P.I. series, Teddy London occult detective series and his newest Piers Knight supernatural investigator series.

Artist Guest of Honor in Rochester, N.Y. 2009

Bentley was Astronomicon's Artist Guest of Honor in Rochester, N.Y., November 6th - 8th, 2009. This was be the 11th annual Astronomicon, hosted by the Rochester Fantasy Fans. Other GoHs were Mike Resnick as Writer Guest and Paul (Crazy Igor) Meyer as Fan Guest. The program book is pictured at right. Astronomicon is classified as a "relaxicon."

This was a great honor for Bentley, who has sold well via mail-in art to Astronomicon throughout the 1990s. Astronomicon has long lived up to its name by being an excellent place to find some of the top astronomical and science fiction art from artists around the country. Moreover, to be paired as GoH with an iconic name such as Mike Resnick is truly an honor.

Atomic Fly Studios ran a table in the dealers room this year, with lots of goodies from books Mitch has illustrated the covers for, to prints and DVDs. Despite the economy sales were pretty good.

Artist and Media Guest in Harrisburg, PA. 2009

Bentley was not only Artist Guest of honor, but also the Media Guest of Honor at Gamers of Winter Con in Harrisburg, PA on February 14th - 16th, 2009 over the extended Valentines and President's Day weekend. There was no program book for this first time convention, which was a local event for Bentley.

Bentley's media connection is both the film Dark Operations and the film Some Kind of Justice; locally made independent films. Bentley provided the artwork for the films as well as this con and though small, a good time was had by those who attended. Many door prizes were given away (including Bentley mini-prints) and lots of gaming demos were played.

Unfortunately, this small event had to be delayed from its originally scheduled date in January during MLK weekend, due to a conflict in the church's schedule, where the event was held. Perhaps next year will see a better turnout.

Artist Guest of Honor in Des Moines, IA. 2008

Bentley was the Artist Guest of Honor at DemiCon 19, in Des Moines, IA the weekend of May 2-4, 2008. The cover art Bentley made for the convention is pictured here at right. Other GoHs were Steven Barnes, Writer Guest; Joe & Inger Meyers, as Fan Guests (yes, the famous "Inger Cookies" Inger Meyers); Rusty Havelin as Toastmaster Emeritus and Tadao Tomomatsu as Toastmaster... what a line-up!

It had been several years since Bentley was at DemiCon. Both Cathie and Mitch had a fabulous time celebrating Mitch's 50th birthday. 300 plus loyal fans, no make that friends, sang the birthday song and made Mitch cry. That was just mean... not really! You guys, shucks. Where's my tissues...?

The Des Moines crowd of fans has always been a wonderful group and always puts on an exciting and humorous play by the Trans Iowa Canal Company. Bentley was quite honored by their interpretive performance of "Man of La Mancha," which featured (among others) one bozo-flake artist formerly of the Oklahoma contingent... well this year they out-did themselves! In a marvelous production of "Harry Potted and the Deadly Stenches" they made Mitch a last-minute hero (after he got his coffee, of course, he is just mean and nasty without his coffee...) and a parcel brush (well duh... creates his own reality... an artist... a legend in his own mind... my aren't the violets lovely... get it?)! Wow, a hero. Y'all are too much... no, really. Great fun was had by all. I just want to know when it will be released on DVD?

AGoH for Kansas City, MO. in May, 2006

Mitch was Artist Guest of Honor at Conquest 37 in Kansas City, MO, over Memorial Day weekend, May 26-28th, 2006.

We had a great time and much fun was had by all! Their co-chairs this year were Ben Thomas & Sherri Dean, and the theme was "In Space, no one can hear you scream... for Ice Cream!" and for this crowd, that was all it took! Talk about "Take it and run with it..." WOW! Ice Cream socials, Ice Cream Wars... well, just look at the cover we did for them and you will get the idea...

We have attended Conquest as a regular for many years and it remains one of our all-time favorites. Thanks to everyone in Kansas City, you all really know how to throw a convention! Mitch gave a presentation from his Masters Thesis on a historical overview of Astronomical Art through the ages and a discussion on Photoshop techniques. He also served as auctioneer for both the Art Auction and the Charity Auction.

A special thanks to Cheryl Russell, who ran a great art show and of course, her entire crew of volunteers... and especially my friend and client, Dr. Jean Stuntz, who always lends a hand. Your painting is in progress and will be on its way for Conquest 2007! See you there...

AGoH for Springfield, MO. in Feb 2006

Mitch was Artist Guest of Honor at VisionCon 2006 in Springfield, MO, on the weekend of Feb. 17-19. We had a great time and want to thank Joyce Reedy and David as well a slew of other great folks for a wonderful convention.

VisionCon is a family oriented, SF/F&Gaming convention that has been running for just over two decades and we highly recommend this one for everyone. The con-com and staff are wonderful and efficient. Mitch gave a presentation on Photoshop and his art, served as auctioneer and even won the Best Science Fiction award in the art show. Our thanks to Aaron Woody, who ran the art show, and all of the volunteers who helped.

We would also like to thank Christopher Allen who saw to it that there was a significant amount of newspaper coverage... Mitch's piece Ethereal Beach II was featured on the cover of the Springfield News-Leader as both a teaser at the top, and as the front page cover for their Weekend Magazine section.