Bubonicon is New Mexico’s best and longest-running Sci-Fi & Fantasy literary and arts convention. Join us in Albuquerque for a great weekend of fun! We have panels and presentations (featuring top authors, artists, and scientists), a costume contest, art show, dealer’s room, Green Slime Awards, charity auctions, fan programming, and much more! (Click guest photos to enlarge – fun surprise for Jon Sanchez.)

2026 Con Theme is: 📣 Androids & Robots and Droids, Oh A.I. 📢

Robots, androids & droids are all over science fiction – from Philip K. Dick’s replicants to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, from Star Trek’s Data to The Terminator’s Skynet, from Martha Wells’ Murderbot to Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000, from Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones to Jack Williamson’s Humanoids…    And it turns out that 2026 is supposed to be the year of the “AI Agent” (“AI agents possess several key attributes, including complex goal structures, natural language interfaces, the capacity to act independently of user supervision, and the integration of software tools or planning systems”). The future forms one gigantic question mark!

Here are examples:

📚 BOOKS:  The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, Into the Slave Nebula by John Brunner, R.U.R. by Karel Čapek, Frank Baum’s Tik-Tok of Oz, Fritz Leiber’s The Silver Eggheads, Ray Bradbury’s The Electric Grandmother, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, Clifford D. Simak’s City (Jenkins), 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, Roger Zelazny’s For a Breath I Tarry, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones, Jack Williamson’s The Humanoids, All About Emily by Connie Willis, Walter Jon Williams’ Implied Spaces, The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, The Lost Machine by John Wyndham, The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross, Demon Seed by Dean Koontz, Not Quite Human by Seth McEvoy, “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God,” A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov, H. Beam Piper’s The Cosmic Computer, When HARLIE Was One by David Gerrold, The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan, and more…

🎬 MOVIES/TV SHOWS:  WarGames, Ex Machina, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Wall-E, Big Hero 6, Star Wars, Metropolis, Pinocchio, Star Trek: The Original Series’ Landru and Shore Leave planet, Bishop in Aliens, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data, Forbidden Planet’s Robby the Robot, Lost in Space’s Robot B-9, Galaxina, The Terminator, Short Circuit, The Matrix, RoboCop’s ED-209, Austin Powers’ Fembots,  Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, The Wild Robot, The Jetsons’ Rosie the Maid, Doctor Who’s K9, Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons, Conky 2000 of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Red Dwarf’s Kryten, MST3K’s Tom Servo & Crow T. Robot, Futurama’s Bender, Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Astro Boy, Silent Running, Hitchhiker’s Guide‘s Marvin the Paranoid Android, The Phantom Empire, Robot Monster, Tobor the Great, The Creation of the Humanoids, THX 1138, Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Black Hole, Runaway, Cherry 2000, The Iron Giant, Knight Rider, Ghost in the Shell, and several more…

💬 COMIC BOOKS:  Vision, Brainiac, Amazo, Doombots, H.E.R.B.I.E., Hourman, L-Ron, Living Brain, Machine Man, Manhunters, Metal Men, Red Tornado, Scud: The Disposable Assassin, Sentinels, Tomorrow Woman, Ultron, Giant Robo, and many, more…

🎼 MUSIC:  Robot Man by Connie Francis, Rock ‘n’ Roll Robot by Alberto Camerini, Automatic Man by Michael Sembello, Mr. Roboto by Styx, Electric Barbarella by Duran Duran, Iron Man by Black Sabbath, Automatic Lover by Dee D. Jackson, Robot Rock by Daft Punk, The Robots by Kraftwerk, Paranoid Android by Radiohead, and even more…

Announcements

BUBONICON 57 PASSES are $43.00 through the end of April 24. (Daily passes are $20 Friday, $35 Saturday, and $16 Sunday.)  Weekend passes will be $55 at the Door…

BUBONICON 58 NOMINATIONS for Special Guests (2027) takes place 7:30 pm Friday, March 20, in the Adult Education Room of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church (near Erna Ferguson Library, just off San Mateo between Comanche & Montgomery).  Mark your calendar if you’re interested. This meeting is open to everyone!  (A little research can be helpful in talking about why your nominee would be a great Bubonicon guest – titles of published work, where he/she lives, experiences at other cons.)  We cannot accept nominations for guests who charge appearance fees; or who live in England, Europe, Australia, Japan, etc. Sorry, our finances can’t cover those particular people.  Nominations accepted at our Gmail address, but you must be present to vote!

FUTURE B’CON DATES:  Bubonicon 58 will be August 27-29, 2027, as Montreal, Canada, is hosting the Worldcon September 2-6 that year…  Bubonicon 59 should be August 25-27, 2028, as Nuremberg, Germany, is bidding for mid-July and Brisbane, Australia, is bidding for July 27-31, 2028.

AT THE GUILD CINEMA:  We encourage everyone to support our local independent cinema by attending (masks welcome)!     — Coming Up:  The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T and Fantasia March 5, Dementia 13 (1963) March 6-7, Sinners March 8, The Craft March 13, Hoffmaniada and Kin-Dza-Dza March 17-19, The Beast Within March 20, Cronos March 21, The Containment March 27, Ghostbusters (1984) March 28, and When We Went Mad: The Unauthorized Story of Mad Magazine March 31-April 2…

CONGRATS TO MORGUE & KRYPT’s 3rd HORROR FEST this past September 26-28 at Isleta Resort & Casino.  It was very successful, fun, and well run!  They had guests from The Terrifer, Night of the Creeps, The Fog, Halloween, Carrie, The Last Starfighter, Hellraiser, Shivers, Beyond the Darkness, and more…
— Morgue & Krypt has announced that they are taking a break, and will not do the convention in 2026.  But fear not, they will be doing several small events in the next year – and should be back in 2027.
—- Bubonicon supports the M&K Horror Fest, and hopes everyone had fun all three years.  www.MorgueandKryptABQ.com.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED THE CAN’T STOP THE SERENITY event Saturday, December 6, at Flix Brewhouse, Indian School Rd & Tramway Blvd NE.  You all are “Big Damn Heroes” for your charity efforts and being part of the NM sci-fi community!  Stay shiny!

STAY STRONG, NEW MEXICO!  These are challenging times, and lots of people need assistance with food, public television, healthcare, and such.

ALBUQUERQUE SF SOCIETY was featured in a May 5, 2021, UNM Daily Lobo article.  You can read it here: www.dailylobo.com/article/2021/05/abq.

AWARDS NEWS:  CONGRATS!
+ Congratulations to 2025 Hugo Award Winners with ties to New Mexico and/or Bubonicon:  Best Series: Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse, and Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book [Not a Hugo Award]: Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger.  The Hugo Awards were presented at the Seattle Worldcon on August 16, 2025.
+ Congratulations to 2025 Locus Award Winners with ties to New Mexico and/or Bubonicon:  Fantasy Novel: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher; Novella: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher; and Artist: Charles Vess.  Winners were announced June 21, 2025, in Oakland, CA.

OUR CONDOLENCES to the friends & family of Colorado author Dan Simmons (Song of Kali, The Terror, Carrion Comfort, Hyperion, Summer of Night, Drood, Hard As Nails, Ilium, Phases of Gravity, The Hollow Man, Prayers to Broken Stones, Black Hills), who died February 21, 2026, at the age of 77 years old;  of actress Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice, Frankenweenie, Schitt’s Creek, The Last of Us, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Wild Robot, SCTV, Tales from the Crypt, Best In Show, Monster House, Where the Wild Things Are), who died January 30, 2026, at the age of 71 years old;  of actor Gil Gerard (1979-1981’s Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Airport ’77, Fish Police, Star Trek: Phase II, Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Little House on the Prairie, Nuclear Hurricane), who died December 16, 2025, at the age of 82 years old;  of actor/director Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men, This is Spinal Tap, All in the Family), who died December 14 at the age of 78 years old;  of famed archivist Bob Burns (historian of props, author, actor including as Tracy the Gorilla in The Ghost Busters, 1975, Halloween horror house host, producer and long-time Fan), who died December 12 at the age of 90 years old;  of author John Varley (Millennium, Titan, Wizard, Rolling Thunder, Demon, Slow Apocalypse), who died December 10 at the age of 78 years old;  of actress June Lockhart (Lost in Space, Lassie, She-Wolf of London, General Hospital, Babylon 5, Troll, Bewitched, Strange Invaders, Whiz Kids, Amazing Stories, The Greatest American Hero), who died October 23 at the age of 100 years old.  They all will be missed.