Two months ago (That's February 2006 A.D, for the archaeologists who have just found this in a pre-war data center that survived the 100-year winter that followed The Impact. But I digress) I attended WoderCon in San Francisco. WonderCon is ComicCon's little brother - smaller showroom, only half as many events, fewer visitors (30,000, compared with ComicCon's 100,000), three days instead of four, one hour train ride instead of one hour flight. It's perfect.
The con was in San Francisco. I love San Francisco, except for how cold it is in the summer. The upside of this weather wackiness is that once it starts getting colder everywhere else, SF gets perfect weather. Just look at those skies! In February! And the building is cool too. I love SF architecture.
You know you're home when you are met at the door by an Imperial stormtroopers. They were everywhere. I guess the local garrison volunteered to help at the con. I later went to visit a few of them and they're all seem to be amazingly normal people. God, I wish I were a stormtrooper. Or Wonder Wooman.
The troopers were so great. They even made sure to always use that "move along" gesture with two fingers like real stormtroopers do. Watch Episode IV again and see what I mean.
I was tiny bit smarter about this con than I was at ComicCon. I knew the first day is the slowest day, and thus the best day for shopping and autographs.
So here's me with my friend Mike. Mike. That's Mr. Mignola to you. Prononunced Min-yo-la. Mike writes and draws Hellboy. He seemed so excited to meet me, I couldn't refuse him a picture. This is a great example of how much calmer WonderCon is - in ComicCon, nobody has time to talk with you and certainly not enough time to hold the signing line and take a picture with you. Here, there was only one guy behind me in line. Mike is lucky to have caught me on such a quiet day. I even let him draw a sketch in my sketch book.
And check out the Sin City poster in the background. More Sin City action on the Sunday report.
Oh yeah, new tradition. I bought a sketchbook, and I'm getting all the cool artists I meet to draw sketches for me.
Unloaded some of the cash I brought with me, saw some booths, time to hear important people speak. I'll be quick about it, because nobody cares except me, and I don't remember any more. And I want to get to the hot stuff already.
The lady on the left is Karen Berger, of Vertigo Comics. She makes stuff happen. The guy next to her wrote Crisis on Infinite Earth, I think.
Oh, right. You don't give a shit.
After that, a quick stop at the Mirrormask DVD preview, just to see if Neil Gaiman would make a surprise appearance. He didn't, but we got an amusing clip with Dave McKean saying hello.
Getting hotter. Focus on Mike Mignola. These 1-hour "focus" events are usually all Q&A and pretty fun. The artists try to run through the lame I-always-get-asked-the-same-shit questions quickly and spend more time talking about stuff they haven't talked about in at least a week. Sitting firmly in the first category is the "Hellboy 2" question. The answer: soon. It was cool. I liked Mike.
Now we're talking! WonderCon had about three different events centered around the currently running Infinite Crisis story. It's going to change everything. I've only gotten into superhero comics very recently, and I'm not completely up to date on all the history and how it's being change by Infinite Crisis, but I know I had a ton of laughs with these guys. That's Mark Waid in the middle, and he wrote Crisis on Infinite Earth. So who was the other guy?
These guys are some of the hottest writers in comics today. I love that the next day I ran into a couple of them and just stood in the hallway and chatted with them for a bit. I nearly hosed my shorts, and there was nobody to take my picture with them.
Grant Morrison. Need I say more?
And he's not faking that killer Scotish accent.
Right! People want to see babes, and I've been writing this post for over a month.
The con was in San Francisco. I love San Francisco, except for how cold it is in the summer. The upside of this weather wackiness is that once it starts getting colder everywhere else, SF gets perfect weather. Just look at those skies! In February! And the building is cool too. I love SF architecture.
You know you're home when you are met at the door by an Imperial stormtroopers. They were everywhere. I guess the local garrison volunteered to help at the con. I later went to visit a few of them and they're all seem to be amazingly normal people. God, I wish I were a stormtrooper. Or Wonder Wooman.
The troopers were so great. They even made sure to always use that "move along" gesture with two fingers like real stormtroopers do. Watch Episode IV again and see what I mean.
I was tiny bit smarter about this con than I was at ComicCon. I knew the first day is the slowest day, and thus the best day for shopping and autographs.
So here's me with my friend Mike. Mike. That's Mr. Mignola to you. Prononunced Min-yo-la. Mike writes and draws Hellboy. He seemed so excited to meet me, I couldn't refuse him a picture. This is a great example of how much calmer WonderCon is - in ComicCon, nobody has time to talk with you and certainly not enough time to hold the signing line and take a picture with you. Here, there was only one guy behind me in line. Mike is lucky to have caught me on such a quiet day. I even let him draw a sketch in my sketch book.
And check out the Sin City poster in the background. More Sin City action on the Sunday report.
Oh yeah, new tradition. I bought a sketchbook, and I'm getting all the cool artists I meet to draw sketches for me.
Unloaded some of the cash I brought with me, saw some booths, time to hear important people speak. I'll be quick about it, because nobody cares except me, and I don't remember any more. And I want to get to the hot stuff already.
The lady on the left is Karen Berger, of Vertigo Comics. She makes stuff happen. The guy next to her wrote Crisis on Infinite Earth, I think.
Oh, right. You don't give a shit.
After that, a quick stop at the Mirrormask DVD preview, just to see if Neil Gaiman would make a surprise appearance. He didn't, but we got an amusing clip with Dave McKean saying hello.
Getting hotter. Focus on Mike Mignola. These 1-hour "focus" events are usually all Q&A and pretty fun. The artists try to run through the lame I-always-get-asked-the-same-shit questions quickly and spend more time talking about stuff they haven't talked about in at least a week. Sitting firmly in the first category is the "Hellboy 2" question. The answer: soon. It was cool. I liked Mike.
Now we're talking! WonderCon had about three different events centered around the currently running Infinite Crisis story. It's going to change everything. I've only gotten into superhero comics very recently, and I'm not completely up to date on all the history and how it's being change by Infinite Crisis, but I know I had a ton of laughs with these guys. That's Mark Waid in the middle, and he wrote Crisis on Infinite Earth. So who was the other guy?
These guys are some of the hottest writers in comics today. I love that the next day I ran into a couple of them and just stood in the hallway and chatted with them for a bit. I nearly hosed my shorts, and there was nobody to take my picture with them.
Grant Morrison. Need I say more?
And he's not faking that killer Scotish accent.
Right! People want to see babes, and I've been writing this post for over a month.
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