COMMA-CON  

Join us on September 24th -- National Punctuation Day -- for the annual COMMA-CON! 
Dress up as your favorite punctuation mark!

2018:  CELEBRATING THE LIFE & WORK OF ARIAL FONT

Pictured above:  Arial Font
Comma-Con 2018 will honor the life and work of Arial Font. Ms. Font was a professional calligrapher, letter designer, and typographer.

Arial grew up in Ashtabula, ND, where her father, Rockwell Font, worked as sign painter and her mother, Helvetica Tahoma Font, worked as a type-setter for a local printer.

“My parents’ love of lettering was certainly passed on to me,” reported Ms. Font in her autobiography These Are My Letters To The World. After finishing high school she moved to New York City where she majored in Alphabet Design and Contemporary Typography at NYU.

Ms. Font is credited with designing over 300 different alpha-numeric lettering styles, many of which are still used today, including Comic Sans, Goudy Stout, Lucida Bright (named for her sister Lucida), and Tahoma. She also developed several versions of a lettering series called “Wingdings,” named for her beloved pug, Wingding.

Ms. Font is also credited with being the first to use the double exclamation point. In her autobiography, Ms. Font reported that she used the double exclamation point in a letter to her father when she was overcome with excitement about a lettering design she had developed.

“Dearest Father,” she wrote, “I have recently devised a most jovial lettering system. I call it ‘Champange Charlie.’ It is both whimsical and brash. I am drunk with delight!!”

To honor Ms. Font’s work in lettering design and typography – and for her unprecedented use of the double exclamation point – Comma-Con will pay tribute to her at the 2018 celebration.

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Pictured at the left: Young Arial Font at home in Ashtabula, ND, with her beloved pug, Wingding.


​Pictured at the right: "Champagne Charlie," a lettering system designed by Arial Font in 1882. "I am drunk with delight!!" she wrote her father after designing the lettering system.
Scroll down to see information from past Comma-Con celebrations!
2017's theme came from a very famous quote by Emmett Lee Dickinson's
​(Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):
"Dash it all!"



​KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Sean Spicer

Sean Spicer will opened Comma-Con, and he promised to attract the largest crowds in the history of the event.  Period.

(He didn't.)

2016:  COMMAS MATTER

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Judge Hendrickson of the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals

In 2016 Judge Robert Hendrickson of the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals will opened Comma-Con with a keynote address about the importance of commas.  In July 2015 he agreed with an Ohio woman who said her parking citation should be tossed because the village law was missing a comma. Read about it HERE.
Below:  Slides from Judge Hendrickson's presentation, "Commas Matter":

IN 2015, COMMA-CON ATTENDEES ATTENDED
​THE PREMIERE OF THE LONG-AWAITED DOCUMENTARY
"OXFORD vs. SERIES: DAWN OF JUSTICE"
One of the hot tickets at Comma-Con in 2014 was the panel discussion on the appropriate use of multiple exclamation points.  The panel included....

* Kathy Griffin
* Becky Kwigny (President of the One Direction Ultimate Fan Club)
* Bobcat Goldthwait
* Molly Shannon
How many exclamation points should you use?  (Click to enlarge)