In 2005 Memphis, I wrote an adventure set in 2024 Memphis. That’s SCRAMBLE. Back then, I figured 19 years into the future wouldn’t be too different…
Boy did I not predict 2020.
But in 2020 Africa, I started formulating the Samson’s Girl comics, about Elizabeth and Juliet Samson, set in 2040 Philippines, after LT Beth rescued and adopted infant Juliet in Marawi. The destruction of Marawi in 2017 led to the question – what would it look like two decades later?
I imagine a dazzling city, but I’m still exploring the region and the culture to project the urban design, the planning, the architecture, the society that that city, rebuilt, encourages.
And so far, I see a memorial, a day when veterans and survivors gather at a monument to lay wreaths and say prayers for the good people who didn’t survive that siege. To remember the fallen, whether civilian or sundalo. To promise that no such thing would happen again.
I have a lot to learn, to research, to explore, but… it fascinates me. What can the country and society be in 20 years?
I know hope colors my imagination, but in a country where resilience is unfortunately required, perhaps hope is the only way to not be blinded by the present smog.
Who can live without hope?
But… can my hopeful imagination lead others to dream and shape a better future? Just like the science fiction of generations past led later scientists to make so much fantasy into reality, from electric streetlights to submarines to spaceships and more?
The chance to shape the future dictates I mustn’t write one too bleary for a reasonable human to persist in reading. A golden, dazzling vision can guide the creation of so much!
In this, I remain hopeful.