WonderCon 2012

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:26 pm

I'll be there. As will Sean (BadDeacon) and Andrew (LARabbit) and GABE!

Anyone else going to be there?

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:18 pm

In general, the fact that the con is not large enough to fill the convention center posed some problems. There was a big girls volleyball tournament & some kind of cheer-leading competition (for what looked like middle schools, they seemed really young). Parking was an absolute nightmare, I think the sports folks got up very early & filled all the close parking. They were shunting WonderCon parking to Angel Stadium. To hear Andy tell the tale, it was about a 25 minute bus ride to go the ~4 miles.

Trip report - FRIDAY:
I got there about 90 minutes before the show opened and snuck into the lot that was advertised for the volleyball people (they didn't card me or anything so I parked there with no problem).

I got my press badge & they let me walk right in. I met up with Sean and we wandered around for a while and then went our separate ways. I was talking to the folks at the IDW booth about recent stuff they were doing & realized I had not tweeted about the 2 IDW interviews that had gone up just that day on the ComicBookPage feed. I was tweeting that from my phone when an announcement came over the PA that everyone who didn't have a yellow exhibitor badge had to exit the floor.

I ignored that & went on doing the tweet and some other stuff with my phone when a security guy came up and asked to see my badge. I had a press badge, not exhibitor, so he escorted me out of the hall. I went downstairs and stood in a Press/Pro line to wait to get back in.

After about 15 minutes, I realized I didn't have my art portfolio. I had leaned it against the IDW booth while I had been on my phone tweeting and when the guard shooed me out, it slipped my mind & I left it behind.

Right around then, they let us in, I ran directly over to the IDW booth, the portfolio was gone. The IDW guys didn't have it and nobody had picked it up and said to them "Hey, there's a portfolio here, does it belong to you guys?". I checked lost & found each day, no luck. It had my name & phone # inside, so I figure, if someone was planning to return it, they would have called by now.

So, it was lost/stolen. I'd not call it outright theft, the person who has it probably feels it's "salvage". It's one of those grey areas that some people are cool with. Not returning "found" property, pirating stuff on the internet, etc.

Fortunately, it was at the beginning of the show and I hadn't bought anything yet. I did lose a jam piece I had been working of for about 6 years though.

LOST:
1 large hard-sided vinyl art portfolio w/handle ~$40
1 16x20 Itoya art holder ~$20
5-6 mylar sleeves for art ~$15
Jam piece - I had maybe $200 of commission fees into it.

ART DESCRIPTION:
* large 14x17 bristol, landscape format
* B&W Redheads of the Marvel U with colored hair
- Each was full figure, and maybe 6" high
Some of the figures I recall:
* Black Widow by Jun Bob Kim
* Mary Jane Watson by Tim Seeley
* Shanna the She-Devil (hanging from a vine) by Ron Randall
* Siryn (flying) by Dave Beaty
* Firestar by Ben Glendenning
--> there were others I can't recall right now

LESSON LEARNED:
I don't seem to have any pictures that I can find of this art project "work in progress". I should have been taking a picture every time I had a figure added.

------------------------------------------

So, I had kind of a rough start to the con. Moving on......

I picked up the limited con edition of IDW's Spider-Man by John Romita Artist's Edition. This is signed by both John & Stan Lee & has a sketch by John Romita of Spider-Man in it:

The Spider-Man in the middle is an original by John Romita:

This was kind of pricey at $250, but a "holy grail" for me, since the Lee & Romita Spider-Man is what got me into reading comics.

Andy (LARabbit) picked up the Con Exclusive of the Wally Wood Artist Edition & was kind enough to trade me for the regular edition I had & I paid him the difference in cost between cost of the 2.

Went to the IDW panel about artist's editions and it was REALLY good. I'm looking forward to the stuff they have coming up. They will have a con exclusive of the Mazzucchelli/Miller Daredevil with a signature plate in it for SDCC. They also have a Groo by Sergio Aragones and The EC Art of Jack Davis coming up that look really good.

Boom! announced some more pretty cool looking series, most of which will have the $1.00 1st issues. Everyone should be trying those out, that's a really great deal for a full-length comic.

I was talking to Greg Espinoza & when I mentioned to him about losing the portfolio/jam piece, he suggested I start a new one. He had a ruler & a blue-line pencil, he helped me rule off some 2"x2" squares on a piece of bristol and contributed the 1st head-shot (his title character from the "Pug" OGN) and I was off & running on a new Jam piece......

Other than the con exclusive artist editions, I didn't spend any money on Friday. I was kind of bummed about losing the portfolio & jam piece, but I had a new one to work on now.

After the con, we had a pretty decent dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant: Bob, Andy, Gabe + 3 buddies from his LV comic shop, Sean & a friend of his.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:49 pm

Trip report - SATURDAY:
I got there 90 minutes before the show opened & was one of about the last 15 people to get parking near the convention center. Unfortunately I was not in the parking structure, but in an open-air lot & it was raining for the first time in about 6 months.

Dashed thru the rain to get into the convention center, it was CROWDED today.

I spent ~20 minutes talking to Marv Wolfman about Night Force & the TT "Games" OGN. He's a great guy!

I went to 1 panel today: Before Watchmen

I must say, I was pretty ambivalent about this previously, but the panel (with Didio, Jim Lee, Len Wein, JMS, Mark Chiarrello, Bob Wayne) was REALLY compelling. They showed some fabulous art from the various books and talked about the big meeting the held (where everyone had a copy of Watchmen in their hands) plotting out how everything would stay true to Watchmen canon from the original series. I'm on board for this now, all 35 weekly issues. They have really put a lot of thought into the whole thing, and I really got a good feeling about the care they're putting into making it a quality set of comics. So, I'm reversing my previous position. More info = a more informed opinion, now the proof will be in the reading of the books once they come out.

AUTOGRAPHS:
Jason Brubaker - reMind HC
Stan Sakai - Vol. 1 & 2 of the Usagi HC set

INDIE/SMALL PRESS COMICS:
Super Siblings - 5 issues of the comic by Patrick Scullin. I follow this on the web, where it's more of a family-oriented gag strip. Turns out the actual super-hero antics of the kids happens in these comics.
http://www.supersiblingscomics.com/

Sonambulo - the 3 issue "Mexican Stand-Off" series by Rafael Navarro
http://www.sonambulo.com/

Strangeways - Vol. 1 & 2 of the Western + Horror mash-up. Vol. 1 has Werewolves & 2 has Vampires. This can also be read on-line:
http://strangeways.highway-62.com/

Night of the 80's Undead by Jason Martin - Zombies in 1980's Hollywood
Zombie Tramp by Dan Mendoza - When a hot girl with loose morals becomes a zombie that's not exactly mindless.

Knightingail - This series started out with Ardden, but apparently the creator was not happy with how frequently (or the fact that his issues were NOT being published) by Ardden, so he went self-publishing and issues 4-6 of the series are only available from him, he calls his self-pub house Crucidel.

Holli Hoxxx v1 by Austin & Adam Tinius - I picked up issue 1 last year, this volume has #1 & the all new #2 & is recolored. He gave it to me 1/2 price since I already had bought #1

Indie Comics Magazine #4 - I picked this up from Rich Koslowski because it has a new 8-page "3 Geeks" story! He gave half off. There are some good stories in here, including a new Arsenic Lullaby story.

Shorthand - art by Rahsan Ekedal - This one is pretty cool, it's git a 12-year old who's a detective. He has that disease that make little kids age & look like really old people.

Princeless - I've heard good things about this series from Action Lab & will try it out.

ART PURCHASES:
I only got a couple of things:

This is a mash-up of Batman with Amazing Fantasy #15 by Tone Rodriguez & I loved how he did it. 11x17

2-page spread (pages 4-5) from Booster Gold #8 by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund. This was a great story:

davebeaty · Post by **davebeaty** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:00 pm

Sorry to hear someone walked off with your Jam piece. That was the nicest sketch I've done for you. If you come to PHX I'll do something new for you to help make up for that. Lin had the same thing happen to him at San Diego a few years back. And art theft at cons seems to be a pretty common thing unfortunately.

davebeaty · Post by **davebeaty** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:01 pm

And that Booster spread is fantastic!

Gilgabob · Post by **Gilgabob** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:01 pm

My sympathies for the theft. Hopefully whoever has it will contact you after the con.

BadDeacon · Post by **BadDeacon** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:32 am

That is a total bummer about the jam piece, Bob.

Wow, man, Wondercon. In some ways it felt really short, in some ways, it felt really long.

I got home a little after midnight last night, I'm running on about 5 and a half hours of sleep today.

Really good time though. I'm glad I made the trip down.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:19 pm

Trip report - SUNDAY:
I got there 2 hours before the show opened & there was a huge traffic snarl & NO parking near the convention center.

I think the other events at the convention center ate up all the parking, there's no way that it filled up from WonderCon people being there 2 hours early for Sunday.

I didn't feel like parking at Angel Stadium for $10 & taking a 20 minute bus ride so I just turned around and went home.

Sunday was going to be my buy-some-comics-day, so I bought some comics on-line from a couple of my favorite CCL sellers. Then I went to my LCS, picked up my books from last week they were holding for me, bought a couple of extras I had missed (like Exiles of the Planet of the Apes #1) and had lunch at a local BBQ place with my wife & kids.

At home I read a bunch of the indie/small press books I had picked up on Saturday.

If they plan to move this (or any other con) to Anaheim, they really need to be mindful of traffic/parking in the context of other events going on, and what the load is going to be at Disneyland across the street (I think it was experiencing some Spring Break traffic over there).

I like the Long Beach convention center for a show this size a lot better. If they can't fill up the big convention center, use a smaller convention center.

BadDeacon · Post by **BadDeacon** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:51 pm

My photos.

I managed to get into the show two hours before the doors opened, due to an odd lapse of security near the press registration booth. I took some pictures of the hall before it opened, while things were still being set up. It was strangely empty.

Artist Alley:

Looking down the hall:

Up front:

Some R2 units, one with a little girl inside:

You rebel scum:

Dave Dwonch had a bottle of whiskey under his artist alley table, so I went to break this in:

Seksee robot:

Aquagirl:

Superman races the Flash

Gender Bender Justice League:

Hunting Jedis:

Daredevil and Spidey hanging out:

There are two reasons I took this picture:

Gotta give this guy props:

atomic99 · Post by **atomic99** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:57 pm

Every time someone posts those Artist's Editions, I die a little.

I ordered the Wally Wood one through DCBS and it hasn't arrived yet. DCBS says they didn't get enough from Diamond (and with the demand, there is that little voice that wonders if someone was grabbing them and flipping them on eBay and shorting orders). But, apparently, they are going back to press with this and the Romita one so I have hope that it will be filled by summertime rather than me having to pay $300+ on eBay.

Good to know about the SDCC exclusive on the next one. Will it be more money? I have to put my DCBS order in in a few days but I might leave the Daredevil edition off and go directly through the IDW site now. Looking back, I guess I had done that with the Dave Stevens and Walt Simonson editions.

I know Groo and Aragones are popular but, for me, I might have to pass on that one. Wasn't there suppose to be a Will Eisner volume? That seems to have fallen off the radar.

With the talent involved, I might be one of the few that isn't complaining about BEFORE WATCHMEN. I'm looking forward to it.

Greg Espinoza! Small world!! He, Shepherd Hendrix and some friends of mine use to live in a house together near Diablo Valley College back in the 1980s. My friend Glenn, their roommate, invited me over once and it was great to see all these artists living together working on Blackthorne comic pages. A year later, Glenn and a couple others broke off from their group and we all got a house together a block away and were doing our own art thing.

I'll see Greg and Shepherd at the local cons here in the Bay Area but I was surprised to see Greg on the evening news 6 months ago. I didn't realize he was also managing the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland (and, with his love of movies, I shouldn't be surprised, really). Unfortunately, the news bit was that someone had walked into the place and took their money. So Greg was probably really sympathetic to your art theft, Bob.

Dave Dwonch and the Action Lab crew are doing well with the PRINCELESS book.

Love that inking on the Batman/Amazing Fantasy piece.

And so now begins the post-Anaheim WC "will it come back to SF?" discussions on The Beat and Bleeding Cool. It has shifted from beyond "The Moscone won't give any long term dates" to "hotel occupancy to make it worth it" discussions. I guess we are long past the days of just having a good comic-centric con that is well attended and being okay with that.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:54 pm

atomic99 wrote:Every time someone posts those Artist's Editions, I die a little.

I ordered the Wally Wood one through DCBS and it hasn't arrived yet. DCBS says they didn't get enough from Diamond (and with the demand, there is that little voice that wonders if someone was grabbing them and flipping them on eBay and shorting orders). But, apparently, they are going back to press with this and the Romita one so I have hope that it will be filled by summertime rather than me having to pay $300+ on eBay.

Bob, there goes your DCBS guarantee -- though with the amount of business you do with them you are probably gonna get front of the line treatment.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:27 pm

Trev wrote:
atomic99 wrote:Every time someone posts those Artist's Editions, I die a little.

I ordered the Wally Wood one through DCBS and it hasn't arrived yet. DCBS says they didn't get enough from Diamond (and with the demand, there is that little voice that wonders if someone was grabbing them and flipping them on eBay and shorting orders). But, apparently, they are going back to press with this and the Romita one so I have hope that it will be filled by summertime rather than me having to pay $300+ on eBay.

Bob, there goes your DCBS guarantee -- though with the amount of business you do with them you are probably gonna get front of the line treatment.

I don't get any special treatment, but I do make sure to enter my order very fast (within a few days of the order sheet becoming available).

DCBS fulfills orders first-ordered first filled. People who wait until the end of the month to put in their order are likely to not get an item that is in short supply.

Gilgabob · Post by **Gilgabob** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:54 pm

Appears Bob wasn't the only one who had a theft issue relating to Wondercon.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/22/ ... ic-novels/

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:16 pm

Gilgabob wrote:Appears Bob wasn't the only one who had a theft issue relating to Wondercon.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/22/ ... ic-novels/

Weird:

returning from Wondercon and heading to Emerald City was stolen from the parking lot of our good friends at Corner Store Comics in Anaheim, CA.

They must have parked it there overnight. That's a small parking lot, I don't think there's any way for someone to steal this if they guys were just in the shop.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:54 pm

Here's the Jam piece I got at WonderCon......

Almost everyone did the sketch for free, I think total this set me back $15, plus the cost of comics I bought from various creators.

Row 1:
* James Clark by Patrick Scullin (the father in his web-strip SuperSiblings)
* Mavis by Batton Lash (secretary in Wolff & Byrd)
* unknown (help me out if you recognize) by Micah Gunnell
* Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk by Ben Costa
* Cassie Hack by Mark Dos Santos

Row 2:
* Sonambulo by Rafael Navarro
* ??? by Tony Fleecs
* Keith Pankowski by Rich Koslowski (from 3 Geeks)
* Solomon Kane by Rahsan Ekedal
* Indigo by Ashley Riot

Row 3:
* Doctor Zaius by Gabriel Hardman
* Nightwing by Norm Rapmund
* Pug by Greg Espinoza
* Zombie by Chris Moreno (from Zombie Dickheads)
* Crusader by Thom Zahler (from Love & Capes)

Row 4:
* Captain Carrot by Scott Shaw!
* Reed Gunther by Chris Houghton
* Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
* Alana by Fiona Staples (from Saga)
* Beanish by Larry Marder (from Beanworld)

Row 5:
* Axe Cop by Ethan Nicolle
* Bomb Queen by Jimmie Robinson
* Darkseid by Tone Rodriguez
* Victuals by Jason Brubaker (from reMind)
* Holly Hood by Jason Martin (from Super Real)

Row 6:
* Yvette by Richard Starkings (from Elephantmen)
* Miki by Gabe Bautista (from Elephantmen)
* Kevin Keller by Dan Parent
* Zombie Tramp by Dan Mendoza
* Griffin-prime by Dave Dwonch (from Space-Time Condominium)