It's the end of the world this weekend in Atlanta, as downtown is overrun by zombies. But don't worry, the nuclear holocaust will get most of them.
Or perhaps you prefer your apocalypse in the form of plague, which gets loose from a secret government lab and kills 99.9 percent of humanity. Been there, contracted that? Then maybe our own computers turn against us, or aliens take over our bodies, or God sends a flood.
It's Labor Day weekend and Dragon*Con is upon us again, the huge pop culture convention where tens of thousands of superfans from all over dress up, act out, and fly their geek flag proudly today through Monday.
The Con, as veterans call it, is always a precarious balancing act between the serious and the silly. "Apocalypse Rising," one of the Con's tracks — groupings of panels and events — shows off that spectrum.
On Saturday, a bloody tongue-in-cheek panel on "How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse" will probably attract an invasion of "real" zombies to spice things up, while on Sunday, Richard Alstatt, an actual rocket scientist, will lecture on the likelihood that Earth will get hit by a giant asteroid.
Other panels will deal with the apocalypse in religion (with the title "My God is Smitier Than Your God," the Con can be a pretty irreverent place) and modern pop culture, where it spreads like a killer virus through movies ("I Am Legend," "Children of Men," "The Road Warrior"), books ("The Host," "Left Behind," "The Stand") and TV ("Jericho," "The Day After").
"It's fun to do the fun side of it, but we also do the serious side," says Tami Brown, who organized the track. "One of the most popular panels last year was on actual emergency preparedness, what to do in case of natural disasters, so we expanded it this year."
But much of the talk will be about our love of armageddon.
"It's one of my favorite genres. Everybody loves the idea of wiping it all out and starting over," says Gary Mitchell, a sci-fi blogger appearing on several panels.
"But there's also a hope aspect," he continues. "The worst may happen but we're all going to go on."
"Almost everybody who is anybody in science fiction has used apocalypse as a theme," says sci-fi author Selina Rosen, also a panelist. One of Rosen's books, "Bubbas of the Apocalypse," explains how a plague was tracked out of a secret government lab on toilet paper stuck to a scientist's shoe, and that the only immunity comes from a lifetime of eating cheap generic barbecue sauce.
"I'm the comic relief," she cracks.
She points out, however, "there are very few books that deal with the apocalypse itself. They deal with the aftermath. The fun part is not the death and dismemberment of our society. It's people wanting to build a new universe."
(Actually, for the zombie fans, who are legion at Dragon*Con, the fun part is the death and dismemberment.)
The idea of the end of the world is as old as humanity's self-awareness and creation of myths.
"If you want to go old-school religion, there's the Ragnarok, the twilight of the Norse gods," says Mitchell, referring to the battle in which Norse gods like Thor are killed.
"And Noah's Ark is an apocalyptic story — 99 percent of the people and animals are wiped out and it's a fresh start again," he adds.
There will also be discussion of a Mayan prophecy that the world will end on the winter's solstice of 2012.
"Part of it is a fear of what's going to happen," says Brown. "We've become a society where information is readily available. The fact that we don't know what's going to happen makes this an interesting topic for people."
That, and the desire to dress up like Mad Max and ride down Peachtree Street in the Saturday morning parade on a tricked out Camaro equipped with a flame thrower.
IF YOU GO
• What: Convention with sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, comics, wrestling and celebrities.
• When: Friday through Monday
• Where: 265 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. Events also at Atlanta Hilton, Marriott Marquis Atlanta and Sheraton Atlanta Hotel.
• Cost: $25-$90.
• Parade: 10 a.m. Saturday. Begins at Woodruff Park.
• More info: 404-249-6400; www.dragoncon.org.
• Appearances: Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes"), George Takei ("Star Trek"), Sean Astin ("Lord of the Rings"), Mickey Dolenz ("The Monkees"), Avery Brooks ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), Ray Park (Darth Maul), authors Laurell K. Hamilton, Harry Turtledove, Anne McCaffrey.
