The Commercial Appeal - Go Memphis
It’s a fact: Science-fiction fans will flock to 34th Midsouthcon
In February, scientists confirmed a century-old Einstein theory — and made front-page headlines — when they recorded the first direct evidence of gravitational waves.
The waves were generated by the collision of two black holes a billion light years away.
“This merger turned three suns’ worth of matter into pure energy,” said Portland physicist and Forbes science columnist Ethan Siegel. “And it did it in a span of 20 milliseconds. This is so much power that for that amount of time it outshone all the stars in the universe combined.”
And by “universe,” Siegel clarified, he means “visible universe,” which includes “only” about 46 billion light years of space.
Compared to such mind-blowing real-life concepts, the escapism of fiction — the “warp drive” of “Star Trek,” the intergalactic derring-do of “Star Wars,” the wizard wars of “Harry Potter,” the hungry revenants of “The Walking Dead” — seems like child’s play. (Siegel, in fact, is an aficionado of the children’s show “My Little Pony,” a universe with its own peculiar rainbow-magic rules.) And yet fans of science fiction are often wellversed in science fact.
There’s a place for all of this — from Einstein theories to rainbow ponies — at Midsouthcon, “Dark Disciple” is among the “Star Wars” novels of Christie Golden, an author who will be a guest at this weekend’s Midsouthcon.
the city’s oldest celebration of science fiction, fantasy and horror in all its forms, from literature to movies to comic books to television to gaming and costume-play and beyond.
The 34th annual MidSouthcon takes place today through Sunday at the Hilton Memphis on Ridge Lake Boulevard. Siegel, 37, a veteran of the “con” and the author of “Beyond the Galaxy: How Humanity Looked Beyond Our Galaxy and Discovered an Entire Universe,” will be present as a guest of honor and “toastmaster.” He will be joined by numerous other celebrity guests — authors, comic-book artists, gamers and others — plus close to 2,000 conventiongoers, many of whom will be garbed as their favorite fictional mutant, alien, monster or hero.
Festival chairman Carlin Stuart said last year’s Midsouthcon attracted 2,146 guests — “a record crowd.”
“We’re i n a period where geek is chic,” Stuart said. “All the superhero movies, the return of ‘Star Wars,’ ‘The Big Bang Theory’ — there are people who don’t know jack about science fiction, but they love ‘The Big Bang Theory’ because it’s funny. It makes the convention an easier sell.”
Some of this year’s celebrity participants remember the pre-“chic” era. Tampa-born “Comics Guest of Honor” Bob Mcleod, co-creator i n 1982 of “The New Mutants,” a Marvel Comics “X-men” spin-off, has been drawing comic books since 1974.
“It’s radically changed over the course of my career,” said Mcleod, 64. “When I started, it was such a smaller, friendlier business. Marvel was actually a small company owned by Cadence Publishing. Now they’re owned by Disney.
“Back at the beginning, nobody got i nto the business to be rich and famous; they did it because they wanted to draw comic books. Since I was a little kid, all I ever wanted to be was some kind of cartoonist as opposed to a fine art painter or other kind of artist. There’s just something about black line on white paper, the simplicity of cartoons and the charm of cartoons, that appealed to me.”
Midsouthcon “Author Guest of Honor” Christie Golden, 52, of Arlington, Virginia, also got into the business for love (she attended many conventions as a fan before becoming a professional). Yet she owes her ability to make a living as a writer to the genre’s expanding popularity.
Golden’s first published novel was written as an assignment for TSR, the company that produced the “Dungeons & Dragons” game. In the 25 years since, she has become a prolific go-to writer for novels that tie in to the universes of “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “World of Warcraft” and other sources.
“It’s about storytelling,” Golden said. “I’m also trained in theater, so that I have an ear for dialogue and characterization. That kind of talent lends itself to writing for characters that you may not have created but that you can inhabit.”