Scientists, speakers remain the stars at Silicon Valley Comic Con.
Comic Con blends pop culture with academic focus for San Jose fest
Asked if he’s ever been invited to a comic convention, Sir Roger Penrose, one of the greatest living mathematical physicists, pauses for a few seconds before politely responding. “I’m not quite sure I know what a comic con is,” he confesses. The moment sums up the uniqueness of Silicon Valley Comic Con — now in its third year — which has stubbornly stuck to founder Steve Wozniak’s original wish — that science and pop culture would be celebrated in the halls of the San Jose Convention Center with equal fervor. If anything, the science has taken the lead this year, as Comic Con returns for three days beginning Friday, April 6. The convention has physically scaled down in size, and there are fewer powerhouse celebrity panels — such as last year’s “Star Trek” celebration with William Shatner and most of the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” cast. (Comic book legend Stan Lee will return this year, joining guests including “Jessica Jones” star Krysten Ritter and “Doctor Who” actor David Tennant.) But the caliber of science guest has been a little more stunning each year. Penrose, who will speak during a panel about black holes, is a vanguard thinker on the subject, winning the Wolf Prize in 1988 with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose-Hawking
singularity theorems.
Astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to travel in space, and renowned scientist Michio Kaku will address audiences as well. Once again NASA will have a prime spot on the convention floor, with passersby on the way to a costume contest or an autograph session with Sean Astin able to casually engage with real-life space scientists.
“Leave it to Beaver” stars Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers will have a panel too. But they, like everyone else who attends, will be appearing at a convention with a science-heavy official theme on the home page, “What does it mean to be human?”
Event chairman Trip Hunter says Wozniak has been unwavering about the science and technology focus.
“It is the key differentiator to our show, and it’s why Woz wanted to do this in the first place,” Hunter says. “It really is our charter. To be completely honest, whether it can be a successful charter, I don’t know. … We’re never going to compete with (San Diego ComicCon), and we don’t necessarily want to. We’re in San Jose for a reason, and that’s because we don’t want to go down the road of strictly being a pop culture convention.”
Signs say it can work. Hunter recalls last year heading to a panel with Jessica Coon, a scientist and linguist who was a consultant on the film “Arrival.”
“I thought ‘This is esoteric and interesting, and nobody will be there, so I should probably go and support her,’ ” Hunter remembers. “And it was standing room only. I was so excited to see that, because that kind of embodies this union of science and pop culture.”
Many of the panels in 2018 have that science/ pop culture union built in.
Former “MythBusters” co-star Adam Savage returns, along with “The Martian” author Andy Weir, who are comfortable in comic book convention and science spheres. (Expect Savage to engage in another “Adam Incognito,” where he dons a new pop culture-themed costume and asks conventiongoers to guess his identity.)
Hunter mentions a panel including TED Talk founder Richard Wurman, who will share the stage with jazzman and former “The Tonight Show” bandleader Kevin Eubanks, who has a strong interest in science. Even San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo is participating, in a panel on the future of cities.
And then there’s Penrose, whose accomplishments would be intimidating if he wasn’t so engaging and affable. He doesn’t seem fazed by speaking with a crowd that might include quite a few people dressed up in Wolverine and Wonder Woman costumes, and gamely answers questions about popular culture.
“Oh, I read science fiction. Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, (authors) with an eye to getting the science right,” Penrose says during a phone interview from his home in England. “I liked that a lot. I would go to science fiction movies, sure. A really great movie for me was ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Stanley Kubrick.”
Apple co-founder Wozniak created Silicon Valley Comic Con with the notion that the barriers between pop culture and science barely exist. Astronaut Jemison began her early 1990s shifts in space by saying “Hailing frequencies open,” a line popularized by her childhood hero Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek.” (Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols is also expected at the convention.)
Three years into the experiment, the convention is still changing. This year, convention organizers abandoned the use of nearby Cesar Chavez Plaza, and the celebrity panels probably won’t pack the City National Civic auditorium like they did in 2017, when “The Flash” star Grant Gustin appeared.
But the science and technology are here to stay.
“My expectations (the first year) were that I had no expectations,” Hunter says. “I really didn’t know how the science and technology communities would react, and it has been phenomenal. In a lot of ways, there aren’t enough platforms for scientists to be able to stand there and talk about what they’re doing. We can be that place.”