WonderCon Is Evolving ...

With Mixed Results

By Katherine Keller
March 1, 2006

My husband Ralph and I inadvertently started a tradition of going to WonderCon when, for three years running, the weekend we picked to go visit Ralph's Grandpa happened to be the weekend of WonderCon.

Ralph and I ended up at a Best Western a few blocks from Moscone West (the new home of the con) and found it by following a group of "our people" to the building.

Although I have never preregistered for a press pass, the staff was very smooth and efficient in getting me set up, with none of the confusion and snafus that have plagued recent SDCCs. But, I somehow didn't get a badge holder with a press ribbon on it— a fact that would come back to bite me in the ass later.

Ralph and I happened to bump into a retailer friend of his who mentioned that DC was going to do a preview screening of V for Vendetta and was doing some sort of ticket lottery. Inwardly I screamed in horror. Ralph is obsessed with this movie. As we got in line (they sent us up to the third floor only to have us come right back down to the first to go in — an arrangement that actually worked pretty well) I heard nothing but V antsyness. I was more interested in watching the local members of the 501st (a Star Wars club that does cosplay) handle the crowd control. I think it's kind of neat that WonderCon makes use of them in this way. It gives you something to look at (the costumes are generally fantastic), and it's a sort of live action meta commentary on the mundaneness of a typical Stormtrooper's life.

We got in and right away hit the DC booth and chit chatted with Bob Wayne for a few minutes and he directed us to the line for V wristbands. We got in line and for the next 15 minutes I heard nothing but V speak. We were initially told it was going to be a lottery for tickets, but DC decided to give a wristband to everybody until they ran out. I cannot thank them enough for this because if Ralph had not gotten to see the movie, I would have never heard the end of it. (And neither would have any DC sales rep.)

As it was, after we got our wristbands, I had to tell Ralph that when saying hello to people like Batton Lash and Jackie Estrada, he didn't need necessarily need to mention that we had wristbands to see V, because not everybody was all hot and bothered to see it. Although, a casual mention of screening and wristbands caused a staffer at the CGC booth to all but levitate in his haste to get to the DC booth.

By this time it was 11:15 and both of us wanted to go to the big DC panel. I had only a few minutes to say hello to my fellow Tart, Mia, (working the Image Comics booth ) and to Shawna Ervin-Gore (a very nice editrix and Friend of the Tarts at Dark Horse).

Ralph and I got good seats at the panel, and saved a few so that my friend Stephen Rauch and his compadres (including his lovely girlfriend) could sit with us. I haven't seen Stephen face to face in about a year and was really looking forward to seeing him again. Stephen and I actually managed to behave ourselves at the panel. We restrained our MST3K commentary to the occasional aside and a wee giggle fit over the new Blue Beetle costume. As far as Stephen and I are concerned, that character is now and forever more "Blue Grendel".

Other sites will have a blow by blow of revelations, I will just say that it's really fun to watch Bob Wayne get his snark on (a pity it is he's never, AFAIK, written a comic; I wonder if he's saving it all up for a tell-all book about the industry) and to watch the "geek" go into overdrive when Geoff Johns and Mark Waid are in a panel. Waid brought down the house when, after a fan asked Johns if Hal's ring was still immune to yellow, Waid burst out, "And that's why I want to know what his plan is! You! You in the back!"

A poor schlub in the back of the room happened to be wearing a banana costume.

After the panel I grabbed a moment to give Grant Morrison the dark chocolates I picked up for him. I was planning to see his later panel but ... more about that later.

The panel ended at 1pm and Ralph was really hungry so we crossed the street to the Metreon and grabbed lunch there. One of the things that I thought was so cool about Moscone West is that it's right across the street from a small mall (the Metreon) that's loaded with good restaurants. While having lunch, a bunch of Stormtroopers sat next to us, and I got to watch a very good Hal Jordan and Nightcrawler go by. (Seriously, both of those gents were no stranger to the gym and hoo-boy! did they look good. Alas, my camera's flash didn't work right so none of the pictures I snapped turned out.)

On the way back from lunch I called my fellow Tart, Izzy (we had been playing phone tag) and got some distressing news. The Fire Marshal wasn't letting people back on to the floor of the con. So, if anybody left the main floor of the con to go to a panel or get lunch and their badge didn't have a tag on it, they were screwed. It was a 30-45 minute wait to get back in.

Okay.

First off, there needs to be a villain called the Fire Marshal, because the Fire Marshal is the biggest killjoy known to man. Where I work there are entire rows of shelves that we're not allowed to put books on the top shelf of because the Fire Marshal says so. And when the heating wasn't working right in my part of the building and it was a toasty 65-67f and we had cold air blowing on us, we couldn't bring in space heaters because of the Fire Marshal. And now, because of the Fire Marshal, if person's badge didn't have a ribbon on it or they weren't a pro, they couldn't get back on to the con floor because the Fire Marshal said it was too crowded. (As if having a huge mass of hundreds of pissed off fans in the lobby was so much safer!) Also, at one point, having a ribbon or a pro badge wasn't enough to get a person back on the floor.

When I managed to get a ribbon on my badge and finally managed to get back in (during which time the security staff let almost everybody waiting go in) the floor was still considerably less crowded than SDCC on a Saturday. So I have no idea what the Fire Marshal saw that got his/her knickers in a knot.

But the fact of the matter is, WonderCon already needs to find a bigger venue or see what they can do to use the floor space at Moscone West differently (such as putting all the panels on the 3rd floor and some of the exhibitors on the 2nd) because fans shouldn't have to choose between eating lunch/going to a panel and being able to get back into the con. And as much as I wanted to spend more time with my friend Stephen, I didn't dare go to the Spotlight on Grant Morrison because of this. I had only one day at WonderCon and I didn't want to spend it pissed off and waiting in the lobby. (However pleasant my fantasies of burning the Fire Marshal in effigy might be.)

When I got back in I wandered back over to where Matt Wagner had set up. I had vowed not to buy art on this trip, but Wagner had a book full of beautiful drawings, several of which were in my price range. The temptation mounted. Then a fan came back with a stiff Mylar and backing board from Bill Cole Enterprises — those damned enablers! — and I gave into temptation and left with lovely head shot of Hunter Rose. I chit chatted with Wagner, who graciously put a sketch in my book, for about 20 minutes and learned that 2007 is the 25th anniversary of Grendel, and that Dark Horse has a lot of plans for Grendel related items.

I then walked over to the DC booth and had a wonderful time talking with Howard Chaykin, who's going to be doing the pencils on the upcoming Hawkgirl. I'm really looking forward to his run. A lot of people are rubbed the wrong way by Chaykin, but we've always gotten on well. He was holding forth on what SDCC used to be like, and why he didn't like the internet porn starlets in the back 40 of Artists' Alley. (Chaykin's for T&A as much as the next horn-dog, but it's the zero connection to comics and shameless pandering that really annoys him; and that's the Cliff Notes version of his rant.)

The last panel that I wanted to go to was the spotlight on Greg Rucka, which was from 6 until 7pm. After I got done talking to Chaykin (who also gave me a sketch), I spent the rest of the time in Artists' Alley and the independent publisher's rows. What sucked about this was, several actors and fan clubs had their booths on the same aisles as the indy publishers, which made it very hard to walk through those aisles because I was fighting crowds of people in line for an autograph or information about a fan club. A similar thing happened with the last row of Artists' Alley. I had to press through crowds of young men trying to get an autograph or picture from a scantily clad woman in order to make my way to the restroom or get to the table of a friend.

(As an aside to the CCI people: if you take my suggestion about putting some exhibitors up on the 2nd floor, don't make it an Artists Alley/Independent ghetto. Put a major publisher such as DC or Image up there to keep the traffic flow good. Or, you can put the porn starlets, actors, and fan-clubs up there, which would free up floor space for the comics content and comics fans, plus give those exhibitors and their fans a better, less crowded space to be in, one more amenable to picture taking and standing in line.)

I bumped into several old friends in Artists' Alley: Brian Kolm (talking to his cousin, Ken, who showed me how to get to WonderCon my first year), Steve Lieber (still one of the 2nd sexiest men in comics!), Jim and Wendy Williams, Peter Siegel, and "Heinrich, the Danish Journalist". (I've known Heinrich since my first SDCC; we never plan to meet at a con, we just always manage run into each other.)

Eventually it was time for me to go up stairs and meet Stephen for the Greg Rucka panel.

Now, there are things you must understand about my relationship with Greg Rucka — namely he manages to break my heart on a regular basis.

Before the panel got started, Rucka was kind of fooling around with the crowd and cracked a joke about how he's not going to answer any questions about which hero would win in a fight. I asked who he thought would win a Rucka-Brubaker throwdown. Rucka maintained that Brubaker doesn't stand a chance. I still maintain that Brubaker has an untapped heart of darkness. (Stephen on the other hand, still believes that Rucka and Brubaker are the same person having never seen the two of them in the room at the same time.)

And then the panel began. Next door to us was a showing of the new Marvel Avengers cartoon, with the sound turned up to eleventy one. The background music and explosions just happened to provide hilariously appropriate mood music for almost anything Rucka said, and sent Stephen and I into giggles on several occasions.

I love Queen & Country and have been bending over backwards for the past few years to avoid any spoilers whatsoever for A Gentleman's Game, Private Wars, and the as yet unpublished issue #29 and the upcoming "Red Panda" arc.

And Rucka spoiled me on everything less than two minutes into the panel. (I told you he manages to break my heart!) On the other hand, I should have thought, that maybe, just possibly Rucka might be, y'know, discussing his works at a panel spotlighting him.

(Incidentally, A Gentleman's Game is excellent, and I'm enjoying Private Wars.)

I left the panel very psyched about the upcoming Checkmate and am delighted to hear that no, really, there's Queen & Country coming out in March.

Oh, and Greg Rucka is completely nucking futz. But that's not really news is it?

Ralph and I ate dinner and made our way back to the Metreon to go see V for Vendetta. I think it was really very nice of DC to give fans a sneak preview. I just wish I had liked the movie more. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad movie, it's just one of those movies that would have been better if ... And those are the kinds of movies that just break your heart. "This is a good movie, but it would have been a great movie, if ... " (If they had remained a little more true to source material and hadn't scored the movie with all the subtlety and finesse of a drunken bull in a china shop.)

I had a good time at WonderCon, and I'm looking forward to attending next year. I like the fact that at WonderCon the fact that the focus is still on comics. I like the fact that they are big and important enough to get a wide variety of "mainstream" and independent creators. But they've now got some serious growing pains and I hope they can take steps to correct them.

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