WonderCon

By Adrienne Rappaport
March 1, 2006

Moscone Center West
San Francisco, CA
February 10-12, 2006

I can smell it in the air. Con season. Actually, I can't smell a thing. That's right, gentle readers — I've got con crud. Where do you think I got it? At the first awesome con of the season, of course. But I'm cranky. And I can't breathe through my nose. So bear with me as I ramble through ... WonderCon 2006.

Con season actually started on the evening of Friday, February 10th, for us. Our awesome local comic store — Isotope — was having a Grant Morrison signing. We're Isotope early adopters. We've been going to the store for more years than it's had its current name. And somewhere along the way, I started helping Kirsten Baldock (Special Projects Director) behind the bar.

That's right. The awesomest coolest comic store in my life also has a bar. And they know how to throw a party.

So Friday night I'm serving beer, Kirsten is making her famous Dark and Stormy drinks, and that Morrison fellow? Um ... he was there, so I hear. I understand that he was great about hanging out with everyone — talking to his fans and chillin' just like everyone else. I honestly never even got to meet him. I was Beer Girl, and the next thing I knew it was almost 1am, and we had a whole weekend of con to get through, so we went home. But everyone insisted they had a good time when I saw them the next day.

Saturday, we slept in a bit and headed to the con. Parking for WonderCon is easy peasy if you're willing to pay. Because it's located just next door to the Metreon, a huge downtown San Francisco mall/movie house/shopping/food/funplace, there's a huuuuuge garage. When we got there, it was almost noon, yet we still found parking.

The WonderCon line was out the door, down the side of the building, and around the corner. I was concerned but my oldest, bestest friend Julie was waiting in it with her five-year-old, Eli — they reassured us that it was moving fairly fast. We went inside to pick up press badges, and by the time we were done, they were almost done as well.

We walked in to the con and found ourselves almost as awed as Eli. While this was his first convention ever (!!), this was the first time we'd seen the show in this space. It seemed really big! It was exciting. We used to joke that WonderCon was "warm-up-con" because it was like a mini-San Diego. When the show moved from Oakland, I felt that it really struggled for a few years. It was getting its feet back under it and felt a bit confused. But walking in to the con last Saturday morning, it was clear to me that the event is really back on track. There were tons of people, from all walks of life. The place was packed.

So packed that when we went to go out for lunch near 1pm, they told us that if we left we would have to wait in line to get back in.

Wait. What?!

You read that right. Apparently the fire marshal had declared that the hall was too full. People were being forced to queue up to get back in, only as other people left the hall. So those of us in the hall would have to wait to get back in if we left, and those who had gone to get lunch suddenly found themselves unable to get back in.

To a convention they had already paid for.

Problems like this arise. It's not that there was a problem, but rather how I felt it was incredibly poorly dealt with. Staff at the Moscone were surly and confused, snappy and rude. They would bark explanations to adults and children. Inside the hall, people complained of being trapped to eat the food there. Outside the hall, people complained about having paid to get in but having to wait in line. We heard what was going on at least 30 minutes before announcements were being made about it.

You get the idea. I was cranky. A lot of people were cranky. But hopefully they'll learn from this and things will be better next year.

Otherwise — this was an awesome con. The panel rooms were easy to find, even without a map. I decided to risk stepping out of the main area to go up to Terry Moore's panel. Unless you're in the super big room, panels are ideal for getting to know creators better. It was great to hear Moore talk with enthusiasm about really knowing where the story is going to end, how Casey became a more central member of the gang, and how important it is to him to share something happy and positive with people.

Afterward, I headed back down stairs to find my fella. The floor itself was laid out fairly well — with the main publishers toward the front and center, indy peeps on one side, artists alley on the other, etc. There weren't a large number of indy booths — I think they wait for APE — but Artists Alley was full of finds and famous people.

I had lovely conversations with some of my favorite creators including Tom Beland, Keith Knight, Debbie Huey. It was wonderful how relatively calm the atmosphere was and how accessible people were. With con season just getting under way, people were just getting used to it again. I ran into Tristan Crane, Gary Amaro, and Wendy and JH Williams, and everyone was fairly relaxed.

I survived talking to Steve Leialoha because he had not brought any art with him. PHEW.

Saturday night there was another party at Isotope. This time it was an Eric Powell signing, with DJ SamSupa spinning. The beats were bumping, and Eric was great about meeting people. I was serving beer and having such a good time that next thing I knew it was almost 2am.

I still managed to drag my *ss out of bed in time to see the Future of Retailing panel at 11:30am. I learned a good deal about the history behind some of my favorite local stores and heard some interesting thoughts about electric copies of printed comics, Diamond, and, of course, floppies versus graphic novels. It was an interesting peek into what goes on behind the place that gives me my fix.

And then it was back to the convention floor to socialize more.

Did you know Rhode Montijo is going to have a children's book out soon called Cloud Boy? Scott Morse has a chortling little baby boy! Maryanne Snell from Oni is due in June. SLG and Disney are publishing a new series by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew called Wonderland. That's a creator-combination that I can't wait to see. And for those of you who haven't been paying attention: Strangers in Paradise is ending. That's right. I'm so excited for Moore and proud of him for knowing he's found the end to his story and for being ready to tell it. Rafael Navarro is teaming up with Atomic Basement on a new comic. Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker are working on a new story — a caving thriller. As in spelunking. Nye Wright has a new comic coming out called Left on Mission and Revenge, collaborating with Chip Mosher. Oh yeah, and the CBLDF did some huge fund-raiser thing with some Frank Miller guy.

I learn so much by just hanging out on the floor.

Con season. It's started. I have con crud. I'm rambling. But going to WonderCon was worth it.

WonderCon — the official web site