Over time, pop-culture conventions have become less about fans rubbing shoulders with sci-fi writers, comic artists and cult-favorite actors and more about star-studded celebrity events.
Hey, if someone wants to pay $100 for a photo op with a star from the latest Marvel franchise, there’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s something to be said for a con where fans can actually interact with the creators they love.
Those who want to revisit that earlier era — or at least get a sampling of what it was like — may want to swing by the San Antonio Public Library’s annual Pop Madness convention on Saturday, March 7.
The free, day-long celebration at Central Library will feature New York Times bestselling writers John Scalzi and Martha Wells, both award-winning luminaries in science fiction publishing, along with other guest authors and artists.
A Pokémon Champions Arena, escape rooms, gaming, crafts, cosplay contests and anime activities are also on the schedule.
“This year’s Pop Madness lineup is the best I’ve ever seen,” said San Antonio-based John Picacio, one of the featured artists at this year’s event. “Every literary festival and comic con in the country would be ecstatic to score a megastar author like New York Times-bestselling John Scalzi or Murderbot blockbuster Martha Wells, but they’ll both be headlining Pop Madness this year.”
The Hugo Award-winning Scalzi is best known for his Old Man’s War series about elderly Earthlings who enlist in an interstellar military to fight a series of wars across the galaxy.
He’s also a former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and served as creative consultant on TV series Stargate Universe.
College Station-based Wells writes both sf and fantasy and is best known for The Murderbot Diaries, a Hugo- and Nebula-winning series that follows a self-aware security android that learns more about autonomy when it gets pulled into dangerous missions.
And, yes, Wells’ work is the source material for the Apple TV+ science fiction series Murderbot, starring Alexander Skarsgård.
Other special guests this year include authors Robert Jackson Bennett (The Divine Cities trilogy) and Celso Hurtado (The Ghost Tracks) along with Picacio, Kwanzaa Edwards and Irving Herrera.
“What’s great about Pop Madness is it’s a chance to meet the authors and artists who create the stories that shape our world,” added Picacio, whose award-winning work has included illustrations for the Game of Thrones and Star Trek franchises along with top New York publishers. “Instead of draining people’s wallets for overpriced celebrity photo ops like so many other big events do, Pop Madness is free admission and people can visit and talk to their favorite authors and artists, which is such a fantastic opportunity.”
However, if you’re looking for movie stars, Pop Madness will also have that covered.
San Antonio’s own Miriam Spumpkin, who recently made her big-screen debut in the horror sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, will be around to meet fans.
“My brothers knew more about [the game] than I did and were the ones who really pushed me to audition,” Spumpkin told the Current earlier this year. “They told me it was really big, and that if I got it, I would be super-duper famous.”
Free three-hour parking for Pop Madness is available in the Central Garage.
Free, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, March 7, Central Library, 600 Soledad St., (210) 207-2500, guides.mysapl.org/popmadness.
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