“I have a really bad case of con legs right now.”
That’s a text message I got from Ron about five minutes ago and WonderCon ended (for us) more than 24 hours ago.
Whoever said that covering two major cons in two weeks was a crazy idea? Oh, yes — everyone.
Ron and I arrived in San Francisco on Thursday. We were barely settled into the hotel before we headed over to Isotope to hang out with the gang there before dinner. Isotope is a unique place. It’s not called Isotope: The Comic Book Store, it’s called Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge, and with its wide open floor space, comfy couches and free flowing alcohol, it truly is. While we waited for our dinner reservations, store owner James Sime did some personal shopping for Patrick the Intern and I. Having James shop for you is a dangerous yet fun prospect because he makes everything sound so amazing. I’ve got a lot of reading ahead of me.
Dinner was punctuated by our table of nine people trying to outdo the noise level of the much larger table that shared our small dining room. I think we won out once the subject of Civil War #7 and Civil War: Frontline #11 came up.
With Friday, the con began in earnest. Well, sort of. It began, anyway. To be perfectly frank, Wonder Con was dead on Friday. How dead? There is a rumor going around that one of the iFanboy staff fell asleep on the con floor on Friday. At 4pm we attended the “DC Nation” panel, which we had attended just a week earlier at New York Comic Con. Why would we do this? Two words: Dan DiDio. The man works a room full of comic fans asking mostly inane, pain-inducing questions like nobody in comics. It’s a fun time.
Friday night was the Tiki Tour with Adam Beechen that we were co-sponsoring. This tour was not for the faint of heart or weak of spirit. There are twelve Tiki Bars in San Francisco, and we managed to make five of them before last call. We started with 40+ people and ended up with around 10 (Adam Beechen was lost somewhere around the third stop, the Tonga Room — no one knows what happened to him). Walking the (sometimes nearly vertical) streets of San Francisco from tiki bar to tiki bar with a mass of people in Hawaiian shirts and leis was an experience to behold. It was kinda like the Bataan Death March, but with mai tais.
Saturday! On Saturday the WonderCon exploded. There were people everywhere and the energy level had increased noticeably. Ron hit the “Vertigo: Looking Ahead” panel and I hit “DC Universe: Super Heroes Go DVD,” where I got a sneak peak at one minute of footage from Superman: Doomsday. It looked fantastic and I literally cannot wait for its release and the next straight to DVD movies.
Saturday night was the annual WonderCon Party at Isotope with special guest J.M. DeMatteis, which, again iFanboy co-hosted. Lots of fans of the show stopped by the party and it was very cool to see and meet and hang out with everyone. You know it is a good party when the S.F.P.D. makes a brief appearance.
Sunday morning was hazy but Ron and I made it to our panel at 11:30am — “Comics Podcasting” with our fellow panelists Lene Taylor and Logan Hall from I Read Comics. It was a fun time with some good discussion that the audience hopefully enjoyed as much as we did. And speaking of the audience, we were shocked to see that the room was as full as it was. It was a great turn out!
Sunday at WonderCon ended slowly and quietly. It was sort of a hybrid between the dead zone that was Friday and the bustling sea of humanity that was Saturday.
All in all, out WonderCon experience was unique and fun. If you’re in the area next year, we definitely recommend you check it out. We’ll be back — and that’s not something I thought I’d be saying after the first few hours we were there.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
A new copy of Arkham Asylum?
Hah! Con legs, that’s why I’m limping today! Man, I need to get off my drafting chair more often and get some exercise. I’m sorry I missed the panel, but glad I met you guys in the hallway afterward.
Yay, good to see you continuing your exploration of Fables. For me, the book really started heating up in book 3, and just took of with book 4. Now it’s my favourite book being published.
-One of those nutty Fables readers
Homelands just thrilled me to no end.
I think volume 2 was actually my favorite so far, but I’ve read the series in a big, jumbled, incomplete mess, so mine should probably not be considered an authoritative opinion. Or even a credible one. Never mind.
Hoo boy are you guys crazy! Sounds like it was a blast though. Why do I get the sinking suspicion that we’re going to have another sick episode coming soon…?
Great work as always fellas. I’m sure if we could help take your exhaustion/germs away, we would politely offer, but only kinda, sorta mean it… 🙂
A new copy of Arkham Asylum?
You know, I’ve never actually owned a copy, just read other people’s. So I decided it was high time to actually own it.
Can’t wait to check out that Superman: Doomsday DVD, I’ve seen some of that Avengers and the Hellboy Animated stuff (mainly on the artists website for HB) and that looks like fun, heard they got the movie actors voices for it, so all these cartoon versions of comic properties is looking great
Cons like these ones you all get sound like so much fun…. I just found out that the only ‘Con’ we get in NZ is going to be hosting Brian K. Vaughn and Jimmy Cheung so can’t wait to drive 8 hours to check that out in April 😀
Can’t wait to check out that Superman: Doomsday DVD, I’ve seen some of that Avengers and the Hellboy Animated stuff
The Avengers cartoons blow. Avoid them. These DC movies are being overseen by Bruce “Quality is Job One” Timm. They should be good.
Damn… I was really hoping for a decent animated version of Ultimates, what about that Iron Man animated movie?
Iron Man animated movie = no good at all
Marvel: what’s an original idea?….hmmm, has anyone done anything w/ the elements? y’know, earth, wind, fire, water, that kinda stuff? what if iron man fought stuff like that w/ mediocre computer animation? would fans watch that for 1:20?
unfortunately i did and i’m not happy about it
I rented that Iron Man animated movie and it was pretty bad. If you watch the special features, they interview the guys that put it together, and you learn that they had absolutely no idea what the hell Iron Man is even about. If I was paid a dollar for every time that they said something like, “Well, we had this idea and then Avi would come in and say, ‘No, no do this…this is the character.'” I would have like a billion dollars. It was really very funny, but also very sad.
There was a preview for the new Dr. Strange cartoon movie, which didn’t look too bad. The Hellboy movie was pretty awesome, but then again, I’m a little partial to the character. Superman: Doomsday sounds cool though.
Superman: Doomsday!!! Is it done is the Bruce Timm style? Is there any word on when will be released? Was there any information on New Frontier? I may be a Marvel Zombie in comics, but DC heroes own the animation arena.
Thanks for posting the picks from isotope Conor–there are some really interesting titles on there I want to track down now. Can you post your thoughts on em as you read them?
Nice choice with Union Station – it’s excellent. Recommended to anyone with an interest in historical true crime stuff.
Superman: Doomsday!!! Is it done is the Bruce Timm style? Is there any word on when will be released?
September 18th. They had just gotten the first batch of completed and colored footage back before the con. The style is in a slightly tweaked Timm-style. This might be the only one. They are trying to closely mirror the comic book art style in the animated movies. Although, to be honest, the clips looked nothing like Dan Jurgens.
Was there any information on New Frontier?
Just that the script was almost done and that they had finished casting.
Cool. I will be regularly scanning youTube for that footage.
Homelands just thrilled me to no end.
Yeah I think that continues to stand as my favourite arc. Despite all the setbacks, “he” (trying to be vague for those who haven’t read it) still pulled off his coup of the Homelands perfectly.
“I have a really bad case of con legs right now.”
But think, by weeks end, you’ll be able to kick like a mule!
As for the Supes/Doomsday DVD….WOOOO! I’m glad you gave us that little tidbit, Conor. I’ve been a bit nervous about these upcoming flicks, and this totally helps put my mind at ease.
As for the Supes/Doomsday DVD….WOOOO! I’m glad you gave us that little tidbit, Conor. I’ve been a bit nervous about these upcoming flicks, and this totally helps put my mind at ease.
There was an awesome shot of Superman on his hands and knees, blood pouring from his face and pooling below him. I actually went “whoa!” when I saw that.
The are not fucking around with these movies, it seems.
The are not fucking around with these movies, it seems.
Well God bless ’em for that.
I was curious about the blood. They’re totally not skimping out!
Did you guys get those DC pins that I heard were given away? I would perform stupid human tricks for a W.W.M.M.D? button. (What would Mary Marvel do?) That is just pure genius.
I only have JIMMY OLSEN MUST DIE, and I’m not really sure why. I just found it in my bag.