Author: John Coxon

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 163: Board Games 💋

A goldfish with the head of Alison wearing goggles and swim headphones. The words “Moist Ear Tunes*” appear at the top and the words “SF Fandom’s Premier Swim Headphone Podcast”, “Fun Fact: Moist Ear Tunes is a nonogram of Octothorpe 163” and “Sue Mason art appears courtesy of Plokta (thanks guys)” appear at the bottom. I know that Alison has forgotten to include the asterisk on the footnote, but since she also has the memory of a goldfish maybe it’s a delightful and multilayered joke.
Art by Sue Mason.

John couldn’t check, Alison was wrong, and Liz is accurate.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 162: Do You Have Stirrups on Your Bicycle?

A photograph of Portmeirion made to look like a stamp or a postcard, with words overlaid saying “Holiday greetings from Portmeirion, be seeing you…”. Above reads “Octothorpe 162” and below reads “Alison has gone on holiday again”.
Art by Alison Scott.

John wasn’t overcrowded, Alison likes it small, and Liz has never been.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 161: You Pay Your Money, You Send Your Books

John, wearing a Judge Dredd-style helmet with the Clarke Award logo on it and holding a lightsaber, dispenses judgement from behind a wall of books. The words “Octothorpe 161” appear above him, whilst words below say “Arthur C. Clarke Award 2026: Judge Coxon’s Last Stand”.
Art by Alison Scott.

John, Alison and Liz read the Clarke Award shortlist.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 160: Global Nando’s Correspondents

A drawing of a CD-Rom with the words “Octothorpe 160” and “New!! Exclusive Octothorpe cover-mounted CD-Rom”.
Art by Alison Scott.

John is not firing on all cylinders, Alison has a code, and Liz downloaded the packet.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 159: Taking a Stand

A stack of grey blocks being held up by two small stacks underneath. The stack is labelled “all current Eastercon digital infrastructure”, while the two small stacks are labelled “bits being thanklessly maintained by Andrew January” and “bits being thanklessly maintained by James Shields”. The words “Octothorpe 159” appear at the top.
Art by Alison Scott, comic by Randall Munroe used under a CC BY-NC 2.5 licence, typeface by Phil Elson used under a CC BY-NC 3.0 Unported licence

John ran the Games Room, Alison ran the Newsletter, and Liz was on holiday.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 158: I Am the Worldcon Chair in Avignon

A cartoon. John, Alison and Liz are wearing Octothorpe T-shirts and matching purple baseball caps while standing behind a market stall clad in a very slightly different purple and with various delicacies upon it. The sign above the stall reads “Octothorpe 158 Hugo HOT takes”, with “HOT” in a little tiny fire. The sign below the stall reads “Always half-baked! Fresh off the griddle! Three-pack special!”
Art by Alison Scott.

John, Alison and Liz dissect this year’s Hugo Awards finalists!

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 157: Moist or Shiny?

A picture of John, Alison and Claudia sitting behind the panel tables during the live recording. A thread from the convention Discord is being projected onto the screen behind them, with messages reading “Malcolm H: Song for Alison… Da Da Da”, “Roseanna: We’ve passed the discord comment count for the highest other item!! Best panel confirmed [rocket emoji]”, “Meg MacDonald: Teach us your wisdom”, “Frances Dowd: Drink drink drink your Heineken, oodles and oodles for everyone!”. Words have been added to the top reading “Octothorpe 157” and to the bottom reading ‘Live from Iridescence: “Best panel confirmed”’.
Photo by Simon Bubb.

John is gaming, Alison is a pirate, and Claudia is dancing.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 156: Surprisingly Well-Adjusted Young Gentlemen

A black-and-white cartoon. John is behind a stack of games, saying “Games Room”; Alison is behind a stack of printers and paper, saying “Newsletter”; Liz is on a beach reading with sunglasses and a cocktail. In purple, the words “Octothorpe 156 Eastercon Planning:” appear at the top and “questioning our life choices” at the bottom.
Art by Alison Scott.

John has a headache, Alison has a cold, and Liz is fine, thanks for asking.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 155: Ed! Ed! ED!

Three homunculi in jars with cork toppers who look reminiscent of John, Alison and Liz. Alison’s has a little stick with a moose head on it and a cup of coffee. The jars are on a shelf. The words “Octothorpe 155” appear at the top and “Small Podcasters” at the bottom.
Art by Alison Scott.

John is a bit rum, Alison is taking a drink, and Liz is buying beer.

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Fanac Octothorpe

Octothorpe 154: At Least I’m Not Just Internet Shopping

Text reading “OCTOTHORPE 154* *See, it’s like this. This is the first day of 2026 that hasn’t been cold, or wet, or both, so instead of doing the Octothorpe cover I went for a nice walk. And bought no board games, but a jigsaw. And did the jigsaw. Sorry.” The text is on top of a photograph of a bridge and some trees underneath a blue sky.
Art by Alison Scott.

John is nominating board games, Alison should read more, and Liz bought two memberships.