San Diego Comic-Con 2018: Finding Comfort in the Apocalypse

Thursday, July 19 | 1:00pm—2:00pm | Room 32AB

Some apocalyptic or dystopian novels allow us to explore larger issues (or serve as a reminder of the threats facing our society). Meanwhile others serve up a heavy dose of humor to remind us that surviving the unthinkable is possible and maybe things aren’t as bad in our real lives as we thought. Whether horrifying or humorous, the novels that paint a picture of our grim future can be surprisingly comforting and fun for both author and reader alike. This panel of writers and illustrators discusses approaches with moderator Adron Buske (Fictitious podcast).

Speaker Panelists:

• Cory Doctorow — author of Walkaway
• Elizabeth Hand — author of Fire
• Douglas Holgate — illustrator of Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond
• Andrew Smith — author of Rabbit & Robot
• Emily Suvada — author of This Mortal Coil
• Scott Westerfeld — author of Impostors and Spill Zone: The Broken Vow

Add it to your official SDCC schedule using SCHED.

Presented by Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego.

The panel will be followed by an autograph signing session in the Sails Pavilion Autograph Area, at Booth AA09.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of Walkaway, a novel for adults, a YA graphic novel called In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema and Little Brother and novels for adults like Rapture of the Nerds and Makers. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Photo by Jonathan Worth | JonathanWorth.com

Elizabeth Hand flunked out of college a couple of years after seeing Patti Smith perform and became involved in the nascent punk scenes in DC and New York. From 1979 to 1986 she worked at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. She was eventually readmitted to university to study cultural anthropology and received her BA. She is the author of many novels, including Winterlong, Waking the Moon, Glimmering, Mortal Love, Illyria, and Radiant Days, as well as three collections of stories, including the recent Saffron and Brimstone. Her fiction has received the Nebula, World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Tiptree, and International Horror Guild Awards, and her novels have been chosen as notable books by both the New York Times and the Washington Post. She has also been awarded a Maine Arts Commission Fellowship. A regular contributor to the Washington Post Book World and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, she lives with her family on the coast of Maine.

Douglas Holgate has been a freelance comic book artist and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia, for more than ten years. He’s illustrated books for publishers including HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster, and comics for Image, Dynamite, Abrams, and Penguin Random House.

Andrew Smith is the author of several novels for young adults, including Winger, Stand-Off, 100 Sideways Miles, and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Grasshopper Jungle. He lives in a remote area in the mountains of Southern California with his family, two horses, two dogs, and three cats. He doesn’t watch television, and occupies himself by writing, bumping into things outdoors, and taking ten-mile runs on snowy trails. His latest novel, Rabbit & Robot, arrives September 2018.

Emily Suvada was born in Australia, where she spent her childhood reading, writing, and watching Star Trek. In college, she studied math and astrophysics, and went on to a career in finance before finding her way back to her first love—books. Today, Emily lives in Portland, OR, with her husband, and still spends most of her free time reading, writing, and watching Star Trek. She also enjoys cooking, coding, powerlifting, hiking, and art. Her interests include AI, nanotech, virtual worlds, space travel, and genetic engineering. Her debut novel, This Mortal Coil, is available now.

Scott Westerfeld is the author of the worldwide bestselling Uglies series and the Locus Award–winning Leviathan series, and is co-author of the Zeroes trilogy. His other novels include the New York Times bestseller Afterworlds, The Last Days, Peeps, So Yesterday, and the Midnighters trilogy. Spill Zone: The Broken Vow is the highly-anticipated follow up to last year’s graphic novel hit Spill Zone, which was praised by the New York Times, Boston Globe, io9, and more.

Adron Buske has been a broadcast and digital media professional since 2001. He is the host of the Nerd For A Living family of podcasts, including Fictitious, about the storytelling craft of science fiction and fantasy. A frequent presenter at pop culture events and comic conventions around the country, Adron speaks about careers in genre entertainment and ways to power-up your personal and professional life using ideas from gaming and fiction. During the course of his career, he has worn many creative hats, including: video director, graphic designer, web developer, fashion photographer, performing musician, corporate executive, gaming festival organizer, voice talent, and comic creator.