Glasgow 2024 Schedule – WorldCon!
I write this from my hotel room in Glasgow for WorldCon 2024, with my badge collected and the Aviator Octo resting ahead of the weekend.
I’m on five panels this weekend (moderating one). Deep breaths… here we go.
From Prose to Pow!
Friday 9 August 2024, 11:30 – Argyll 2
Nnedi Okorafor, Rebecca Roanhorse, N.K. Jemisin: all high-profile, recent converts from writing novels to writing comics. Where does the attraction lie in writing for a different medium, and what challenges have they faced?
SF&F Musicals on Stage
Friday 9 August 2024, 14:30 – Staffa/Shuna
Return to the Forbidden Planet rocked our spaceship. The Rocky Horror Picture Show had us dancing the timewarp. The Little Shop of Horrors, taught us botany and Young Frankenstein put on the Ritz. The panel will talk about the best and worst SF musicals, originals versus adaptions, and why we should have more of them.
Comics Can Save Your Life
Saturday 10 August 2024, 11:30 – Alsh 1
Jack Kirby once famously said “Comics will break your heart.” But comics and a shared love of comics can play many positive roles in people’s lives, as therapy, as community, and as a means of creative exploration. Join us as our panellists share the love they’ve found in loving comics. –
I’m moderating this one!
What’s The Use of Feeling Blue? Grief, Queer Trauma and Growing Up in Steven Universe
Saturday 10 August 2024, 19:00 – Dochart 1
Steven Universe is a show for kids which ultimately deals with some pretty adult themes. The panel discusses how such things as grief, queerness, unrequited love and PTSD are framed through and for kids. What does the show have to say about these feelings, why do kids need to know about them, and how can we (even as adults) learn from it?
Fear Factor: Horror in Comics and Graphic Novels
Sunday 11 August 2024, 14:30 – Forth
From the gore of The Walking Dead and the folk horror of Scarenthood to the psychological terrors of The Nice House on the Lake, horror in comics and graphic novels comes in many forms. When the reader controls the pace of the narrative, how do writers and artists balance the seen and the unseen to induce the same thrills and chills as horror films?
There is some relief at not having something on the first day of the convention. I need to finalise notes for myself for these things, especially the one I’m moderating. It’ll be exciting to speak, though. My first (and last) time at Worldcon, I was only moderating. It was a trial by fire, but it taught me a lot. (So much so that myself, Catherine Sharp and Kat Dodd ran a panel about it for Octocon’s YouTube channel. It went live today.)
