WonderCon logo copyright © 2004-2010, Comic-Con International. All rights reserved. This week for the Short Report, I’m continuing my break from the opinion pieces for a short semi-personal/semi-professional blog entry which discusses my accounts from WonderCon and everything that went right and wrong at The Moscone Center.
Before I start, I’d like to thank my buddy Ramses for helping out and getting a ton of good photos for use on the site.
This past weekend was a busy one for yours truly. From networking with people in the industry to going to panels and press events, I was all over the place. Here is a glimpse of what I went to and through at WonderCon.
First and foremost, there was a panel with regards to film composing and how it helps expand the depth of television and movies. Here we discussed how it works with industry heavyweights Jim Dooley (Pushing Daisies), Lisa Coleman (Heroes), and Jeremy Zuckerman and Ben Wynn (Avatar the Last Airbender). I found out this day that they’re the unsung heroes of the medium, as without it, scenes often fall flat. Even in something as subtle as a ticking clock when Sylar is around is probably one of the most important things you never notice, and it’s essential for add layers to a scene. The challenges of the job seem overwhelming and I don’t know how they do it. Kudos.
After that, it was off to the Geoff Johns Spotlight. Here’s where I got into a little bit of trouble, as I misheard something that was said, causing a mini-ruckus over at the DC Boards. I apologized, and I moved on. Johns is notoriously cagey when it comes to storylines (with good reason) but is still a really personable guy. And you have no idea how many times people asked him how he was doing. Well, not as much as when there was when Kevin Smith had his panel, but more on that later.
More Geoff Johns followed, but he was joined by Dan Didio and Jim Lee for the DC Nation panel. This was especially important because it was the first time they have all appeared in the same place at the same time. Foregoing the normal panel format for a more interactive “town hall” format (Didio even joked about it being similar to the tea party town halls. Here, they listened to ideas and questions from the fans on how to become number one. I didn’t get to ask a question, but I did get to speak with Didio, and I gave him an idea that got the guys very excited. He also seemed to love our website name. But while we’re on the subject of Multiversity Comics, someone asked about it, and while he said it was still on the horizon, it looked like someone put the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it said a lot to me.
Finally, in the last panel of the day, I went to the Kevin Smith panel, which started late due to an extended Human Target screening. It was enjoyable, but a work print, so it looked weak.
Finally the Kevin Smith panel started. If you’ve ever seen Kevin Smith talk, it’s something that must be experienced for sure, but not if you have conservative sensibilities (read, he’s dirty as hell). At the end of the panel, David called to discuss our exciting new opportunities (which I won’t share explicitly with you, but let’s just say it’ll make our site better) but since I have an iPhone, the call dropped and then my battery died. Yeah. It was a double whammy.
Continued below
In between those panels, I looked around on the floor and found many cool things. First I met Q himself, John de Lancie, who could NOT be nicer. I was lucky enough to snap a picture with him and bought an autograph for a friend who was unable to attend. I also found some single issues and got a Flash Rebirth Variant signed by Ethan Van Sciver (which was later signed by Geoff Johns as well, Yahtzee!). I felt bad because I stumbled onto Frank Cho, Geoff Johns and Jeph Loeb on the floor and acted like a huge nerd. It was fun though.
I met some Suicide Girls (yes, I am a member) and snapped some pictures with them. They’re all so sweet too. I don’t mean to be a commercial, but there is a pretty decent comic community on there, and they even have comic themed sets from time to time.
Saturday:
Saturday was a crazy day. It started with another writer’s panel called DC Writers Unite! It featured Geoff Johns (seriously the man was all over the place, I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought I was stalking him), Greg Rucka, who recently left DC to pursue other projects, Jim Palmiotti, Judd Winick, Gail Simone, and moderated by San Francisco resident James Robinson. Here we heard about how they got into the business and how it is working together. It was fascinating and they’re all nice. I 
brought a coke flavored Slurpee for Geoff because I felt bad for blind siding him the day before. He liked it, even though it was half melted. The funniest part of that moment was Rucka saying “you’re really gonna drink that?”
I laughed, Geoff laughed, and then he took a sip. I hope he enjoyed it.
After that was a less than stellar moment in an event. I went to the Prince of Persia/Sorcerer’s Apprentice/Toy Story 3 Press Event and I was ill prepared for it, so it came out with mostly unusable footage and poor audio, all in all, nothing worth posting. But on the other hand, I was lucky enough to talk to such people as Jake Gyllenhaal and John Turteltaub (who is a FUNNY guy, seriously), and Jay Baruchel (the apprentice, that guy from She’s out of My League) actually found my question funny (it was meant to be)
“So, Jay, will stoners find this new movie as enjoyable as the original?”
“[Laughs] I think we both know the answer to that question.”
Good times.
After, I went over the Gail Simone’s spotlight, where we discussed her story, and it is a good one, and one that should be told. I can’t remember it right now, so you’ll have to wait for elaboration. But she was really nice too, and I was able to get a picture with her. I even went to the signing she had in between her spotlight and the Brightest Day panel.
In between here I got a ticket to go to the Kick Ass Free Screening from a really nice Booth Babe and waited to go into the Brightest Day panel, but that was all for not, as it was stuffed with people who were not necessarily interested in Brightest Day but more into the Doctor Who screening. I was really upset as to how it was set up, because I had no interest in Doctor Who, but lost out on Green Lantern. Hmph.
So I made my way over to the local theatre to watch Kick Ass. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the line in time to actually watch it, which seemed to be the theme for the day. Oh well. I had a lot of fun waiting in line with other fans. We talked about comics and a host of other things. In the end, like I said, I didn’t get in, but the time was worth it.
Continued belowSunday:
Sunday was a tough day. All of my “interns” backed out at the last minute, so I decided to spend the day largely as a fan, waiting in line for a Limited Edition White Lantern Sinestro. On the bright side, I was able to buy one, and I even got it free because the guy behind me was not able to get any, and he bought mine if I used my wristband to buy the maximum allowed two sets (two Sinestros and two Black Lantern Hal Jordans). In retrospect I think I should have tried to get one of the Hals too, but I don’t mind so much (actually I think I do). Oh well.
I interviewed the guys who created the new book Kill Shakespeare, (which you will see later this week, I promise), they were all awesome dudes and the book looks fantastic. Look for it. While waiting for them, I got a couple books signed by Darwyn Cooke, who was a really nice guy. Stand up gentleman. But I think you learn to be that way in the industry, if you want to actually succeed. I also met Blair Butler from
I followed them to the Kill Shakespeare panel, where the question was “would Shakespeare approve of comics? Well, the crotchety returned Shakespeare professor from Stanford seemed to think he would, but that this comic in question he would find abhorrent. I don’t necessarily agree, since, like it was discussed at the panel, even characters like Hamlet were adapted from older legends.
From there, I went on to the Archaia panel (for which David already posted the news and notes. It was a great panel.) One of the strangest things was seeing the good reverend from True Blood talking about a comic called Lucid. Fraggle Rock aside, it was the most exciting title at the panel. I love it when fantasy merges with the real world.
If you made it this far, I applaud your efforts. A lot happened at WonderCon.
EDIT: I’ll leave you with this. This photo actually caused a bit of an uproar between my photographer and the internet. It’s not important why, but I’m leaving it here for posterity’s sake.
Nic, you just cause controversy where ever you go, huh?
