WonderCon 2011: Wrap-Up

I am sitting here, wheezing a bit, nursing some kind of existential hangover, my right eyelid is twitching, I feel a bit nauseous…yup, it's the Monday after WonderCon.

Now, we did tape quite a few interviews with creators and you've read any of the news that came out of the show by now, so my writeup is really just my own experience, an experience that, quite honestly, is one that I really could never have imagined having when I started going to conventions.

First and foremost, the only panel that I ended up going to was the one I was actually in (which I will get to later).  This was a massive shift for me, but given what we were up to, it kind of made sense. For whatever reason, there was a real reticence, at least from the major publishers, to discuss stuff that was going to happen in the future, which, you know, is usually what people are interested in hearing about. There were rumors, of course, of secret plans and initiatives, but that's all they were. This is the way it is at most conventions, "Oh we can't really speculate," or, "Ask me in San Diego," or "Please stop staring at me," were the phrases I heard and overheard during the three days I was roamed the halls and (nicely carpeted) floor.

Ron and Conor got some great interviews, though, and I really think you are going to enjoy the video show that will be coming soon, lots of great discussions with some fantastic creators.  For my part, I had some non taped conversations with a few people that I was really looking forward to meeting, including Frank Quitely, who was the featured guest at the off-the-hook Isotope party on Saturday night. Frank was there until very late, talking with fans on the promenade deck, and I was just so impressed with how personable and amiable he was with the teeming masses of fans, many of whom, like myself, were kinda nervous to talk to someone whose work can quite rightly (quite frankly?) be labelled as "genius."  I joined a conversation with him and his friends in front of the store after 2AM, and told him how much I appreciated his take on Damian (I am convinced that without Frank's initial take on him, he would never have the kind of fan affection that he has today) and how l was truly and utterly inspired by his art. He was gracious and made great pains to stress Grant Morrison's influence regarding his work, which was neat.

 

The Isotope party was a crowded affair, to be sure, but it was well worth the effort of battling the crowds to get a peek at the pages Frank was selling.  Have you ever played with one of those fractal generator applications? You know the kind, where you magnify the image and you can just keep going further and further in, revealing more and more detail? That's what looking at Frank's pencil work was like. His detail, his line control defies accurate description. This was poetry in pencil, with the graphite dust being laid out in a way that described life, emotion and action in a way that I can honestly say I have never experienced before.  The wrinkles of fabric, the loose strands of hair, the furrowed skin — it was almost three dimensional.  Describing art reminds me of the Heisenberg principle, where to describe it is to alter the subject, so I will resist discussing it further, but suffice to say, seeing his pencil work was truly a sublime experience, and is something I will never forget.

 

I had a great conversation with Nick Dragotta, whose work on the final issue of Fantastic Four was the subject of much conversation in episode 273 of the Pick of the Week Podcast. My friend Chris introduced me to him, and I realized that although I had met him in passing earlier in the day, I had not associated his name with his work on that spectacular issue. It was fun to talk to him about working with Hickman, how he did his best to celebrate Romita's work, and his stealth decision to bulk up Spider-Man.  I got the sense I was meeting a guy who had been working at this for a long time and who was truly on the cusp of being a readily recognizable (and celebrated) creator in the world of comics. It was fun to hear how he was a regular listener to the podcast, and how he was really pleased with how we discussed the comic during the show.  I told him that it was pretty easy to discuss his work, given the quality! I had other discussions with folks, but you'll get a sense of them when you see the interviews on the upcoming video show.  

 

In addition to talking to creators, we had the much-anticipated Walking Dead Zombie Bus Tour with Robert Kirkman on Friday night. To sum that night up…well, I guess the word "unique" comes to mind — I certainly never expected to see Robert Kirkman staple money to some guy before leaping on a bus with its windows covered by screens onto which scenes from The Walking Dead were projected. Usually when I say "that night was a freak show," I just mean that it was kind of a random night – this time, I'm being literal: there really was a (carny-style) freak show that kicked off the night, with sword swallowers, block heads and…well…lots of stuff that I heard people reacting to (I couldn't watch, I just heard the screams from the audience). 

 

The bus tour itself was fantastic and I really appreciated getting a chance to meet so many of the iFanbase. It's a real thrill when someone comes up and introduces themselves; it's just a pleasure to get a chance to actually talk and hang out. It sounded like everyone who wanted to got to speak with Kirkman, too, which is great. He was a real trooper and I gotta give him credit–he lasted a lot longer on the tour than I thought he would!

 

I'll admit it–Saturday was rough. I think I looked a lot less myself and more like one of the zombies from the night before as I shambled along after Ron and Conor as they took care of interviews. I walked the floor with my friend Chris a bit, had fun talking to the legitimately cool folks running The Game of Thrones booth, and realized that I am never, ever going to find Hellblazer: City of Demons #1, which I have been looking for for far too long.

 

The big event of the day, to be sure, was the iFanboy vs. Comics Alliance panel discussion that night.  It was my first panel, and I don't mind telling you: I was nervous. I have literally imagined what it would be like to speak at a comic book convention panel more than a few times (like way more than a few times), and, suddenly, I was sitting at a table behind a name card with my name on it, complete with the text reminding me that there were mostly likely kids under eighteen in the audience (there was one!). It was freaking awesome (the picture at the top of this article was taken from my seat as people were finding their seats while the AV was being set-up). 

 

For those of you who were at the actual panel, thanks so much for coming, first off, and second, you could probably tell I was of very little help to Conor and Ron for much of the actual proceedings, but that's okay. The panel was a welcome departure from the normal "how do I get stared in comic book podcasting?" and more of a friendly gameshow style competition moderated by Ryan Penagos, from Marvel Comics. It was a lot of fun to be on, and the feedback from the audience seems to point that it was a lot of fun to watch, too. A very loud shout out has to be made to Rick Remender, who was a key part of the evening success. We had an interview contest where David Brothers from Comics Alliance and Ron talked with Rick for five minutes each in front of the audience. For my part, both interviews were equally fascinating (with zero overlap, interestingly enough), and Rick was hilarious and insightful during both.  

 

On Saturday night, Conor and I left Ron to manage the door at the Isotope party and basically hung out in an overflow bar during part of the evening because the party was just so packed. Discussing how fun a party was is even harder to do than discussing art, but suffice to say, it was a party. With music. And art. And some really great people. And toilet seat art, like Isotope's newest edition from guest of honor Frank Quitely. (Above, left.)

 

WonderCon is my appetizer for San Diego but for Ron and Conor, it was the 3am pizza slice after the four course meal from earlier in the evening, having gone to three of these things in a month's time. I don't know how they do it! It was fun to get a chance to help out with the show and finally meet fellow iFanboy contributor Ali Colluccio in person—it was a reminder of just how much the iFanboy staff has grown over the years, and how interesting, fun and sharp the team is. Kind of intimidating, but in a good way!

 

While some news came out of the weekend (I was impressed with the Green Lantern trailer), for me this convention was much more about listening to a variety of creators discussing not only their work, but how they collaborated with their partners to tell stories. Rick Remender's discussion of working on Uncanny X-Force was just fascinating and I was really taken with what he said about working with gifted artists like Jerome Opeña. Basically, he found himself removing a good amount of the dialogue because the pages told so much for the story. Dragotta said something very similar, when we discussed the notion of the silence in the last issue of Fantastic Four. The emotional narrative of loss and grief came out more strongly without the word balloons; it let the reader's personal experience of tragedy inform the moments more. WonderCon is nice that way; you can have these discussions with creators that go deeper than "I like your work" — you have a bit more time to discuss the process of comic book creation.  And if you're talking to Jason Aaron, you can figure out which books his beard is going to write once it gains sentience.

 

So, I survived WonderCon…barely. Like I was murmuring to Conor after it was all said and done, it would be great if I could just get a bacta tank and rest in it until San Diego, but I'll walk off the Con SARS soon enough.  Thanks to all of you who introduced yourselves, thanks to all of you who made it to the panel and the parties, and I hope you had a blast. If you have a second, share your thoughts below!

 

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Mike Romo is an actor with writerly notions who lives in LA. Twitter/Facebook.