WonderCon 2010

It seems like every time we go to a convention in San Fransisco, my boyfriend and I leave for and arrive to the convention way later than intended. We left around 12:00 noon and arrived at about 2:00. Registry was surprisingly fast, and cheap, for such a big con. Walking through the line took no time at all, and it was only $15 for one day.

The line for registration put all entering attendees directly into the dealer's room. It was ridiculously crowded though, and the layout wasn't the best in my opinion. It seemed like four booths were the main attractions: A Capcom booth where you could play Street Fighter IV, a Dante's Inferno booth, where you could play at some points throughout the day, a booth promoting Kick-Ass, which sold limited-edition memorabilia, and a booth showcasing a 3D graphic design program, which showed some tutorials and explained different aspects of 3D graphic design and animation. All four of these booths were on two neighboring corners in the dealer's room, and crowds from them nearly completely barricaded two aisles.

Just past the dealer's room, in the same open auditorium, was the artist's alley. Unfortunately for the artist's, there was almost nobody there. Admittedly, it did provide a relief from the dense dealer's room crowds, but I still felt bad for the artists.

By far, my favorite booth, without competition in my heart, was the booth selling tribbles from an episode of Star Trek titled "The Trouble with Tribbles." Essentially, they're just little balls of fur, no feet, legs, or defining features, but ever since I saw them, they've been clicking and chirping their way into my heart, and for $20 I now own a little gray fluffball of my own. The booth was even run by David Gerrold, the creator of tribbles, and author of the episode that made them so lovable. (Tribbles can be bought at www.tribbletoys.com)

Regrettably, we missed the panel I had really wanted to see. It was a series of movie trailers (for Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Toy Story 3) and Q&A's with several of the actors. So instead, we went straight to the panel my boyfriend was most interested in: "Marvel Comics: X-Men". However, he was not particularly interested in the X-Men talk, he was there because a couple of the creators of the Marvel character Deadpool were there. The panel itself was rather entertaining and informative, but I felt that the speakers were too impersonal. However, it was very well-run and time-efficient.

We had actually arrived to that panel about a half hour early though, and sat in on part of the Spotlight on David Finch, comic book artist for titles including Call of Duty: The Brotherhood, New Avengers, and X-Men Unlimited. His panel was entertaining as well, but the highlight of it for me was when this little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, asked David how he got started in the business and how he got famous, and requested that David review his (the boy's) comic book drawings. It was probably the cutest things I've seen in a long time. Besides a tribble, of course.

After the X-Men panel, we decided to get lunch. It seems that I'll never learn to research food places outside of convention areas, but convention food will always be ridiculously expensive. Lunch drained the end of my money and left my boyfriend with only $5. So we ate and then found our way up to where the Lion Gate: Kick-Ass panel was to be held.

We went and found our seats just as the previous panel (Trailer Park) was ending, and the staff played movie trailers on the giant screens at the front of the room until it was time for the panel to start. Lion Gate: Kick-Ass was essentially a trailer showing and Q&A with the actors of the movie (Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Nicholas Cage). Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I were sitting in literally the second to last row of a room that sat an estimated four-thousand people. So people on stage appeared to only be about an inch tall (luckily they appeared on two movie theater-sized screens at the front of the room). The panel was a blast and I got some decent pictures of the giant screens.

After the panel, there was an exclusive autograph signing with the stars that you had to pay to get into. I wanted to check the price, even if we did only have $5 left, but as fate would have it, they were sold out by the time we got there and figured out what was going on. The autograph line for other stars, which you didn't have to pay to get into, consistently looked about two hours long. Even though there were big stars that I would have loved to get autographs from (including Martin Klebba, Tim Russ, Carel Struyken, Marina Sirtis, and Lou Ferrigno), I just didn't feel like waiting in line for two hours. So we left for home.

Overall, I had a great time and fully intend to go back next year, for more than one day if possible. The only downsides were the placement of the most popular booths and the cost of food.

Quote of the Day:

Little 5-year-old Boy: I have some of my drawings with me, and I was wondering if you could critique them.
David Finch: Of course!
Audience: Awww~! ♥ *clapity clap*