WTF moment of the week- Wondercon 2010!

Hi!  Omar the big N.E.R.D. is here.  Well all my long-time friends probably imagined Wondercon was a date that was circled and highlighted twice in Outlook, Google Calendar, and everywhere else because I am a life-long comic aficionado and yeah, I have lived in SF for most of my life.  Wrong!

So not since last year's SDCC have a ever found myself walking thru a comic-con-- though I had a lot of experience with other shows like: E3 (worked for over 3 years at Sony), Magic (yep used to be in textiles/apparel too), CES/AEE (come on gadgets and bewbies come hand-in-hand right?!)-- and just a week passed at my first Wondercon.  Oh boy, did I love every live-tweet of it!!!

Let's start first with the panels...

So I have listened to many of the podcasts covering panels through the years whether at Newsrama, ComicVine, iFanboy or many other fav sites- but just like watching Kobe destroy the Warriors live at Oracle Arena vs. from your couch on ESPN- their is no dayum comparison.  What you miss most of all from not being at a panel live is the roar, energy and just geekdom that is vibing from fans of all ages and walks of life.  And when I say that I include the creators of the books being that they are probably the most crazed-passionate on this shizz out of the whole lot of us.

This was especially felt in the DC Nation panel that was moderated by the big 3: Co-Publishers Dan DiDio, Jim Lee and CCO Geoff Johns.

I always assumed and took Didio for a hardlined-mofo being who he is and the weight of the Multiverse on his shoulders, but when I saw how easily Lee, Johns and Didio maneuvered and played off eachother through questions, issues and so on-- I got a glimpse as to why DC will be taking over the #1 spot in the comicbooks game.  Yeah, I said it.

With DiDio running his full-court press through all Editorial facets, Johns making our fanboy dreams come true- HELLO?!!?

White Lantern Sinestro both in print and as a toy in less than 2 weeks??!...follow that with another Hawkman, Stargirl appearance in Smallville this season-- and Lee keeping comics where they need to stay- on the pages in print..

unless of course he can teach everyone how to bust digital magic on their ipad like so.








In the Writers Unite panel I got to experience a rare glimpse into how my favorite writers colloborate and help to construct the fantastical worlds of Kate Kane, Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, Ragdoll and all the other kick-ass characters we love.

The news of Greg Rucka moving away from some DC books for awhile to focus on his IP was a stunner.  Let's hope and pray that Gail Simone (this is a wish, not news) can be the one to takeover the mad, hypnotic world of Batwoman (yeah and just imagine it pencilled by EVS!!).

Another treat was when David Finch (in the DCU Editorial panel) was sharing his new found happiness at doing his damn DC thing in the worlds of Aquaman, Supes and playing off the landscapes in Gotham.  Shit got real quiet when he was talking.  I didn't realize how crazy of a following he had.

Since I got lucky last year with some of the Blackest Night exclusives, I took a stab at it again.  For those of you that don't know- there were two DC Direct toys that each had only a 1500 print run- with over 35,000 heads in Wondercon that means you have like a close to minuscule chance of pulling a winning ticket that allows you to then buy it.  It was like this-- FAIL, FAIL, WIN, WIN. 

Each of those raffle pulls consumes nearly an hour of your time = NOT FUN.  Props to some cool ass heads I got to meet and chat it up with while waiting.  Especially those kids with the radios playing the ranking game (watch Shes out of My League to get it) for everyone to hear and laugh their asses off to.

Thankfully, I came through clutch and made it back in time to chat it up with one of my Top 3 artists- Ethan Van Sciver.  A super-cool cat indeed.  Along with that, I ran in to one of my fave comics industry mamasitas- Sara/Babs of ComicVine.  This woman was working her ass off and still made time to say hey to some fans and regular peeps like yours truly.

The experience of the intimate nature of Wondercon no doubt balanced off my initial scare and feelings of just overwhelming dread that is and will be SDCC coming up in July, but I am hooked and will be there.

Getting into some panels was nice this time around along with the epic Imperial Barcrawl and the next component we will attempt to sink our pearly yellows in to is interviews...good luck to us and thanks for following us on this journey-- oh man we are 9 months old already!!!

Ahhh...Wondercon--Whoa That's Fresh!!


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big O