WonderCon Report 2005 WonderCon is a mid-sized convention. (I believe that there were 10,000 attendees last year?) This years show was February 18-20. Being President's Day weekend, attendence was good, but it put it against several other conventions. Apparently there was room enough for everyone, because WonderCon turned out to be a great show! There was a decent amount of stuff to do and see. The Exhibits floor included Comics, Books, Sci Fi toys, Anime toys, plus DVDs of movies and TV shows.

Elsewhere were the Programming panels. One of the panels allowed attendees to call out suggestions for their favorite artists to draw. Sergio Aragones and Jeff Smith were 2 of the artists whipping up all kinds of crazy pictures. There were small panels and big ones. Some of the larger ones were: Dragons, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Cave, Fantastic Four, House of Wax, Batman Begins, Star Wars Revenge of the Sith & War of the Worlds.

My favorite was the Serenity movie panel. Joss Whedon brought part of the Firefly crew with him: Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau & Nathan Fillion. Joss Whedon is a Wonderful speaker! Adam & Nathan are SO funny that they cracked up Summer. She could not speak for a few minutes and neither could the audience. We got to see a clip from the movie and it looks FANTASTIC! I can't wait to see it in September! If you are a fan of Science Fiction and Westerns please go out and support this movie!

I finally decided to get an autograph and chat with Herbert Jefferson, "Boomer" from the original Battlestar Galactica. The atmosphere at WonderCon was peaceful and it gave everyone a chance to talk. I also picked up a Graphic novel of Girl Genius from Phil Foglio, a very nice man. I bought a Wonderful piece of art from Jason Palmer. He does these totally accurate and glorious group shot paintings. I picked up a large print of the entire Firefly / Serenity cast.

There was a small Games section, where attendees could bring their own games or play one of the two demo games. The games being demonstrated were Steve Jackson's original Munchkin and Heroclix.

WonderCon had its first ever Masquerade. It had a surprisingly large turn out for a first time event. 29 entries crossed the stage to a packed room of about 600 spectators, Saturday night. Most of the 29 were well designed and the few that did a skit were clever. It was a pleasure to watch. I wish I had recorded it. BUT I do have pictures!
Warning, these pictures may contain images that you do not want to open up at the work place (some people are easily offended, I am not.) They are costumes from the WonderCon Masquerade. There are *18* jpeg pictures listed, so take a look. http://www.nosewheelie.com/marysgarage/news/wcpics/

On a more personal note: it rained a lot! But I finally got to use the Taurus zodiac umbrella my husband bought me at DragonCon. San Francisco is a beautiful city, but it is rainy in February. The weather turbulence going to and from San Francisco was bumpy, but the bumpy ride was worth attending WonderCon. I look forward to 2006.

SWAG REPORT for WonderCon 2005

WonderCon  WonderCon   THE DEALERS ROOM   There was a long Freebie table at WonderCon. It had a lot of great movie posters, most of them from horror movies. I never have any place to keep a poster, so I donŐt keep track of them. A decent amount of items were at the individual Booths and Panels.

• Nickelodeon was accepting portfolios for future animators. They gave out tattoos and pencils at their booth, plus Avatar postcards for the new show.
• There were lots of Postcards: 4 different Madagascar, a Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Serenity and Dragons.
• ADV gave out 4 postcards for: Gantz, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Madlax and Cromartie High School.
• The Ring Two: Fear Comes Full Circle and The Amityville Horror had lenticular postcards.
• The Amityville Horror also had a Lanyard and a Light stick.
• The Jacket movie, Starring Adrien Brody & Keira Knightly, gave out shirts and an army green Military cap.
• Constantine, based on the Hellblazer series gave out Cleopatra Hotel Amityville Metal Promo Pins.
• The Sega / Sony booth had Tenchu shirts and headbands based on the new Playstation 2 game.
• Buttons: There were DC Comics buttons for JSA, JLA, Wonder Woman, Superman and a cute Death.
• There were also buttons for The Watchmen, Dragons and Serenity.
• Bookmarks: DC Comics gave out JLA, Flash, Batman/Superman.
• Jeff Smith had a 4 part separating bookmark for Bone.
• There was a cool bumper sticker that says, "I'm Not a Real Hero but I Play One Online, cityofheroes.com"

I know there were other things given away at the larger panels that I never saw. When I find out what they were I will add them and update the list.

I will be processing pictures for a while, but Currently you can view a large group shot of all the WonderCon Swag at http://www.nosewheelie.com/ebay/WConGroupShot.jpg

The WonderCon website is jam packed with information. Go there directly or through the Comic-Con website at:  http://www.wondercon.com/

Mary, marysgarage@hotmail.com