Labor Day weekend means it’s time for Dragon Con, Atlanta’s beloved science fiction and fantasy weekend. It’s one of the country’s most well-attended conventions of its kind, and, as always, the annual parade is likely to be a highlight. In addition to a long list of actors, they’ll have comic book artists and illustrators, authors, puppeteers, screenwriters, musicians, podcasters and more.
Dragon Con takes over downtown Atlanta August 28 through September 1, with the parade happening along Peachtree Street beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 30. The sheer volume of options at Dragon Con can be overwhelming, and your best bet is to download the festival’s app, which provides the complete day-by-day schedule. Here are a few highlights to check out this year.
Film+TV
A Buffy buffet
There are several opportunities during Dragon Con to hear from the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Among them is a panel called Return to Sunnydale on Friday, August 29, at 11:30 a.m. The participants include Marc Blucas, Charisma Carpenter and Emma Caulfield. And if you like that, don’t miss the two Sunday showings of Once More With Feeling, the beloved Buffy musical. They’re calling it Buffy Horror Picture Show, because it will include a live re-creation along with the screenings. It happens at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 31, in the Westin Peachtree Ballroom.
Diggin’ up Bones
Speaking of Buffy cast members, David Boreanaz is at Dragon Con, too, but he’s there primarily to take part in a cast reunion for Bones. At 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 30, he’ll join fellow cast members Emily Deschanel, Tamara Taylor and TJ Thyne for a panel interview. You’ll also have the chance to take photos with the cast on Friday, August 29, at 2 p.m.
Tai Chi with the Colonel
One of the weekend’s more unusual opportunities involves Erin Gray, best known for her five-season run in the Ricky Schroeder sitcom Silver Spoons and as Col. Wilma Deering in both the movie and TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Gray will be leading a Tai Chi session each day during the festival.
Anime district
Harmony Gong
If you love all things dreamy, whimsical and ethereal, Harmony Gong’s soft, delicate artworks certainly fit the bill. Reminiscent of Sailor Moon and embodying a Shoujo style, Gona’s dreamy artwork is steeped in mystical and girly symbolism.
Sang Lam
Those who appreciate lo-fi aesthetics in games, videos and other popular media will be delighted by Sang Lam’s otherworldly landscapes and interiors. With a focus on setting, complemented by cute and playful characters, these art pieces can transport viewers to a calm and serene world of imagination.
Hollow Ram
The painterly quality of Hollow Ram’s artwork feels like a perfect balance of oil painting, digital illustration and watercolors. Some artworks feature classic anime characters such as Miyazaki’s protagonists from Nausicaa, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, while others seem to portray unnamed gods and goddesses of the artist’s imagination.
Liang Zhao
Talk about cute — Liang Zhao’s worldbuilding brings Chibi aesthetics into a setting where the everyday is adorable, and commonplace moments can evoke a sense of nostalgia for the carefree nature of childhood. Zhao makes her own artwork using oil paint and digital media and also is employed as a background inker and colorist for comic strips.
Art show
Beth Radloff
Beth Radloff seemingly operates in two different artistic aesthetics. While all of her artworks are technically superb, with exquisite detail and an excellent grasp of light and dark, she has the ability to span from the macabre to adorable. Her portfolio includes a series of “Poképantry” Pokémon characters rendered as food items, an obvious affinity for birds and a clear understanding of folklore in her works.
Bruce Brenneise
Do you want to be transported? Look no further than the works of Bruce Brenneise. His intricately detailed artworks depict fantastical worldbuilding that can at once captivate and terrify. Some of Brenneise’s worlds feel like a glimpse into hell, while others offer visions of what civilization might look like on a faraway planet. Employing some qualities one might expect to find in surrealist art, Brenneise is definitely one artist whose work you’ll want to take some time with during this year’s Dragon Con.
Amanda Brack Art
Inspired by folklore and the magic of the New England coast, Amanda Brack brings those sensitivities to her artwork in which she portrays supernatural and transcendental versions of classic tropes from the Middle Ages, often featuring women in scenes that would typically depict men. Brack has won numerous awards for her work and today is published in board games, book covers, children’s books, coloring books and more.
Josiah “Jo” Cameron
Colorful and energetic, Josiah “Jo” Cameron’s illustrations evoke magical lands with mystical creatures and heroes. From warrior mice to transcendent dinosaurs, his illustrations could almost make you believe in magic. And that might just be precisely the point. With a portfolio that includes works dedicated to Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, plus modern interpretations of classic fairy tales, futuristic imaginings and creepy mind-bending illustrations of his own creation, Cameron’s work is detailed and technically stunning.
Blind Coyote
What if animals were actually an embodiment of magic? Artist Sephen Scott, AKA Blind Coyote, creates illustrations that depict enchanted creatures in serene, otherworldly settings. Scott draws inspiration from years of conventions and was initially inspired by the furry community. In the years since, he has expanded into the broader horizons of fantasy work, wherein he infuses his animal depictions with vibrant color and a masterful approach to light and shadow.
Kristine Poole
Working in clay and bronze, Kristine Poole crafts expressive sculptures that touch on social commentary and archetypes through expansive, imaginative realism. With a penchant for hands-on pottery, she uses classic ceramic and sculptural techniques to convey contemporary, sociocultural experiences and commentary such as social justice. She enjoys incorporating relief imagery and motifs which can encourage a deeper, more contemplative approach to realism in sculpture.
Romas Kukalis & Allison Barrows
Technically impeccable and inspiring for their fantastical content, the works of Romas Kukalis and Allison Barrows span from classic Greek mythology to ideas around futurism, alien worlds and mystical heroes. Working in oils and acrylics, their portfolio includes stunning cover illustrations for Scholastic Books’ classic Animorphs series.
Sean Andrew Murray
Dark. Mystical. Magical. Those are just some words one could use to describe the worldbuilding of artist Sean Andrew Murray. Featuring intricate linework, exquisite attention to detail and an impressive grasp on the power of light within his works, he creates surreal, futuristic and creepily beautiful scenes of homes, buildings, neighborhoods, ships, machinery and more.
Abby Williams
If a delicate, painterly approach appeals to you, don’t miss Abby Williams. Both dark and romantic, her oil and acrylic paintings are reminiscent of works by great masters such as Alphonse Mucha. After receiving her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), she spent more than a decade tattooing and admiring artwork on bodies, and now she brings those same sensibilities to her fine art.
Dustin Panzino
Dustin Panzino is an artist whose work employs eccentric concepts, malleable motifs and a strong grasp of color and shape to create fantastical works that evoke classic tropes and archetypes of pop culture figures. One can expect to find recognizable figures from Disney movies, the Pokémon franchise and fantastical imagined worlds in his works.
Music
Georgia Philharmonic
The Georgia Philharmonic has been appearing at Dragon Con for years, performing favorite film and TV scores. They’re back again this year with a performance at the Hyatt at 8 p.m. on August 30.
CrüxShadows
This dark wave/goth-infused industrial outfit from Jacksonville, Florida, is a favorite at Dragon Con, having first played at the convention back in the late 1990s. They’ll be playing a late-night set in the wee hours of Sunday night (technically 1 a.m. Monday). They’re promising new merch for the occasion, too.
Comic book alley
Bob Burden
Perhaps one of the most influential comic artists alive today, Bob Burden is a comic book artist and writer best known for his creation of the Flaming Carrot Comics and the Mystery Men. In his long career, he has won numerous awards for his work and was featured locally in Art Papers, composed an original cover drawing in Sotheby’s art auction, and a variety of written works including a Gumby story and short stories.
Lauren Brown
Local to Atlanta, Lauren Brown is not only an impeccable artist but also an Emmy-award winning art director, podcaster and outspoken advocate for inclusion of BIPOC artists in the fantasy and gaming industries. She has worked on shows including Archer, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League and Unsupervised and on a number of video games, plus a coloring book, enamel pins and journals.
Ragon Dickard
Cute, playful and maybe a little unhinged, the works of Ragon Dickard combine terrifying subjects with charming settings, adorable countenances and silly circumstances. Macabre and whimsy go hand in hand for Dickard, who creates prints, stickers and pins depicting goblins enjoying coffee, ghosts snuggling with cats and evil furbies.
Bottle Cap Creative
Fusing classic illustration technique with a modern appreciation of meme culture, Austin Drake of Bottle Cap Creative pays homage to the artistic stylings and aesthetics of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Nostalgic and technically impressive, her works embody the spirit of classic romance novels, and she has worked with illustrious clients including Lauryn Hill, LaLa Romero and Beach Bunny, just to name a few.
Brandon Kenney
If one thing is clear from viewing artist Brandon Kenney’s work, it’s that he loves popular culture and films. With a portfolio of works that feature characters such as Princess Leia, Superman and Indiana Jones, his intricately sketched mixed-media pieces celebrate his favorite characters, spanning from the Lord of the Rings to the Muppets and many similar franchises in between.
Deb Lee
Korean American illustrator Deb Lee is a celebrated, award-winning artist based out of Brooklyn, New York. Lee’s dreamy application of color, flowy and soft forms and delicate sensibilities give her works a glowing quality and translate well into fantasy and book form. Last year, Lee published Death Fiddles and We Dance, a self-directed comic about a crew that has been adrift on a spaceship for 500 years.
Devin Elle Kurtz
Devin Elle Kurtz fuses technical skill with an embrace of fantasy in her works. Building upon her experiences as a background painter, designer and visual development artist since 2017, she has illustrated books for HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster and created works for clients including Netflix, Disney and Adobe. As an author-illustrator, she published The Bakery Dragon with Random House Kids and illustrated Mother of Sharks with Penguin Workshop.
Natalie Andrewson
Natalie Andrewson is an illustrator, comic artist and Riso printmaker, with a CV that includes concept art, character design, comic and book illustration, editorial and advertising work. She infuses every project with magic and especially loves using the risograph method to showcase her illustrations in a more gritty, process-based medium.
Georges Jeanty
For more than 25 years, artist Georges Jeanty has made a name for himself working in the comic book industry. Over his illustrious career, he has worked for DC, Marvel and Dark Horse Comics on titles such as Green Lantern, Superboy, Teen Titans, Superman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Bishop, Gambit, Deadpool and Weapon X. Today, he works on Star Wars titles including Ahsoka and the Mandalorian. With excellent linework and an eye for energetic compositions, his work has won numerous awards and recognition over the years.
ABV Gallery
Atlanta’s own ABV Gallery will have three booths in the Comic and Pop Artist Alley this year and will offer original pop-art inspired artworks, prints and limited merchandise for sale. Additionally, each day they are inviting local artists to make live art in their booths. ABV Gallery founder Greg Mike will kick off the live drawing sessions on Friday, August 29, followed by Chris Veal on Saturday, August 30, Courtney Hicks and Chris Alvarez will be drawing on Sunday, August 31. The last session is reserved for Drew Borders on Monday, September 1.
Books
Learn more about the elements of writing with one (or more) Writers’ Hourly Workshops
These seminars cover the basics of writing and publishing, including developing characters and presenting a manuscript. Single seminars between Friday and Sunday are just $8, or attend all 20 for $160.
Elevate your writing with this two-day Intensive Workshop led by a pro.
Science fiction and fantasy writer Jody Lynn Nye is the leader of this two-day workshop, helping beginning and seasoned writers elevate their craft to the professional level. The workshop spans August 28 and August 29, is $300 per writer and is capped at 20 people.
Theater
See Atlanta’s longest-running live-action Rocky Horror Picture Show.
LDOD is an Atlanta-based Rocky Horror Picture Show cast performing Friday midnight shows at The Plaza Theater, and you can see the same cast at Dragon Con on August 30. The first LDOD show premiered at the Plaza on December 1, 2000, and the group has continued screen-accurate performances the last 25 years.
Participate in improv with the help of Dad’s Garage. Ensemble Members of Dad’s Garage will perform short-form improv scenes for Dragon Con attendees between August 29 and Augusst 31. Improv themes include Dad’s kid-friendly show Wowie Zowie, improvised Dungeons & Dragons and improvised Baldur’s Gate 3.
Special shout-outs
Puppetry Track
The Puppetry Track at Dragon Con is a beloved celebration of the art of puppetry. Live puppet shows geared toward children and adults alike offer something for everyone. Visitors can get one-on-one instruction from professional puppeteers, make a puppet during a workshop and even bring your own puppets for special puppet-only events like The Magic Puppet Tea Party and Puppet Karaoke. There’s also an Ultimate Puppet Ninja Warrior Challenge, puppet slam featuring Bob and Carl: The Sci-Fi Janitors, The Late Night Puppet Slam and much more.
Meg’s Mashables
If you love cute animals and you have an active imagination, Meg’s Mashables might just be the stop for you. Local to Avondale Estates, Meg is a whimsical and energetic artist who is known for creating Mashables, which are two animals or characters, chosen at random, that are then mashed together into an altogether new creation. This year, Meg will not only have a booth where she will have prints, merch, stuffed animals, stickers and more for sale, but she will also lead a Let’s Make a Mashable workshop on Sunday, August 31 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on America’s Mart Floor #2.
