The Wonders of WonderCon
WonderCon, the first major comics and pop cultural convention of 2008, stormed into San Francisco last weekend and celebrated its 22nd year in the San Francisco Bay Area. As has been the trend since the convention moved from the Oakland Convention Center to San Francisco's Moscone Center in 2003, Hollywood's presence has grown again this year, bringing a host of premieres, exclusive footage and celebrity guests. Comic books remain the primary focus of the convention, however, as the all-star roster featuring many of the industry's top stars can attest.
Friday, February 22, 2008 This was the eighth consecutive WonderCon I've attended, so I had little difficulty filling the day just catching up with artists and friends that I've met over the past decade. I've worked nearly 50 conventions since 2001, and it's always a bit unsettling to me that I see original series Battlestar Galactica alum Herbert "Boomer" Jefferson more times in any given year than I see my sister, but that's the comics biz in a nutshell.
DC Comics offered up individual spotlight panels on popular creators Becky Cloonan, Darwyn Cooke, Terry Dodson and Bill Willingham, as well as The Adventures of Superman television series' Lois Lane, Noel Neill. The major premieres and panels from Hollywood are generally reserved for Saturday programming, but Universal gave attendees advance looks at Forgetting Sarah Marshall (along with special guests Jason Segel and Kristen Bell) and Wanted (with special guest James McAvoy), which is adapted from Mark Millar and J.G. Jones' comic book of the same name.
Plenty of programming for fans of Japanese comics and animation was on tap throughout the weekend as well, including two presentations by Jason Thompson, author of the essential guidebook Manga: The Complete Guide, multiple panels from Los Angeles-based publisher TokyoPop, and round-the-clock anime screenings all three days of the convention. San Francisco-based manga publisher Viz was once again M.I.A., although many of its editors and staff attended WonderCon in an unofficial capacity.
Friday, as usual, was the most relaxed day of the convention. People with jobs outside of the comics industry and those children whose parents aren't willing to pull them out of school for the opportunity to spend an extra day hunting down Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are nowhere to be seen, leaving an audience consisting primarily of those in and around the industry and the diehard fans who refuse to miss a minute of northern California's largest comic convention.
Friday evening programming offered something for everyone, as well. The Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge returned for its seventh year, allowing amateur filmmakers an opportunity to screen their movies for an appreciative audience. Anime fans saw the premiere of Appleseed: Ex Machina prior to its release on DVD. New Line Cinema trotted out footage from the upcoming live-action digital 3D movie Journey to the Center of the Earth, and its star, Brendan Fraser, was on hand to discuss the film. And one of the world's most respected and admired cartoonists was on hand for a special screening of Steven-Charles Jaffe and Robert Jaffe's documentary Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, a lively and entertaining portrait of the man whom Mexican director Guillermo del Toro honors with the title "the poster child of disenfranchised children."
At the close of the day, visitors had easy access to San Francisco's bustling nightlife, from the restaurants of Chinatown to the clubs of North Beach and The Castro, as well as a variety of cartoon- and comic-related parties and book signings throughout the city. The nearby Cartoon Art Museum held its annual WonderCon Friday fundraiser, allowing visitors an opportunity to view its gallery space outside of convention hours, while visiting cartoonist Dan Piraro, creator of the syndicated panel Bizarro, performed his one-man Bizarro Bologna Show at the legendary Purple Onion comedy club.
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