As the day before we drove down to the bus depot and caught the bus down to the Anaheim Convention Center. The price of parking there is just too high. In the past we’ve stayed at a local hotel, but that’s gotten to be too high as well. Hopefully, once I’m employed again, we’ll be able to stay for the entire weekend.

In the meantime, …

We only scheduled three panels to attend on the second day.

One thing that we have learned after years of attending the San Diego Comic Con: If there is a panel you really want to attend; show up early. Not just early, but to sit in through the panel before the one you want to see.

It wasn’t all that necessary this time, as WonderCon is much smaller than San Diego, and this year the turnout was smaller too, but it was still a. good thing that we did it none the less.

Before the Writing Animation Panel, we came in half way into the Eisner Noir: The Spirit and Beyond panel about the comic book artist Will Eisner who created the masked hero The Spirit, and how his art style may have influenced Film Noir over the next decade. His story telling skills are masterful and it happens in the art not in the words.

Before attending the JAKKS panel, we came into one called Art Heals. A faith-based school who uses art to help people.

On the second day of our time at Wonder Con we wanted to attend the World of X-Men ’92 and X-Men ’97, about the X-Men animated series that first appeared in the early 1990s. It’s fandom kept the series alive so that a few years ago Marvel was willing to have the show revived. Not as a new series, but an ongoing story from where the old series left off. Less than a year from when the story ended.

My wife and I have friends that worked on the series so we wanted to support them as well. So, we headed off to one of the larger ballrooms at the Convention Center figuring that there would be a large turnout for the show. We weren’t wrong, but there was also a large turnout for the panel before it which we came into soon after it had started. That panel was entitled: 11th Annual Women Rocking Hollywood: Surviving and Thriving in a Changing Landscape.

This was very interesting and exciting panel as we both like to support fellow creators in the entertainment industry.

After the X-Men panel we headed out to lunch. There are several food trucks out front the convention center,(something that San Diego Comic-Con doesn’t have) but my wife and I chose the food court inside the adjoining hotel. It’s always busy during a con like this, but we found seats and ordered our lunch.

Once our bellies were satisfied, we spent a couple hours wandering the exhibit hall again. My wife picked up a couple books from the Edgar Rice Burroughs table, and I would pick up a couple of magazines on Jack Kirby art work from the TwoMorrows table.

At 4pm was to be the Cartoon Voices panel that is run every con by Mark Evanier. It’s always fun as he has voice actors talk about their own careers and then do a reading for us of a script they’ve never seen before.

Knowing it would be crowded we showed up an hour early there as well and were very surprised and pleased by the panel we were sitting in on: A Faith-Full Dickens Tale: The King of Kings Animated Movie. This is a movie based on a story Charles Dickens had written for his children. He wanted to give them a version of the Christian Gospel they could understand.
Many on the crew and in the cast are Christian themselves so they wanted to see that it was done right. What’s really interesting, is that the director/producer Seong-ho “Jay” Jang is from Korea and found this story and wanted to tell it. So production began in Korea over ten years ago. The story of its creation was a wonderful addition to our time at WonderCon.

Finally, before attending our final panel, we sat in on VAM PD, an Audio Drama series from Big Finish (best known for its Doctor Who audio stories). It was interesting and fun, about Vampires and helping the police.

Staying in the same room, we were there for Star Wars and More Movie Memories. Our friend, and fellow animation script writer, Craig Miller was there to promote his latest book (under that title). He worked for George Lucas in marking on some of the original Star Wars movies and others. Craig has a lot of great stories about his experiences throughout the industry. A few years ago, when I was taking my first acting classes, I took an Radio Announcing class, and I did an interview with Craig which I believe you can still listen to elsewhere on my website.

One last thing before I sign off. Comic Book conventions have something else that’s special beyond the comics, animation, and movies, and that’s Cosplay. People dressing up as their favorite characters, sometimes looking even better than the art they came from.

You’ll see the Cosplayer at ever con. They gather at different locations; there’s a great set of stairs at San Diego Comic Con they use for large group photos, but it is at WonderCon where the Cosplays shine bright. (At least in Southern California, I know there are other Cons around the country that cosplays and costumes are celebrated.) Out front the Anaheim Convention Center the costumes seem to multiply. Whether they be anime characters, comic book heroes and villains, and many more. I think that many of these Cosplays pay to come to WonderCon but never go inside as they spent so much of the time out front getting photographs and getting to know one another. It really fun to watch.

I’d love to do some cosplaying someday, going full out like so many of them do. The closest I’ve come is when I dress as the title character from my novel Revenge of the Masked Ghost. But all that requires is a trench coat, fedora, and mask.

Will we be back at WonderCon next year, I certainly hope so. Hopefully I’ll have a job by then to afford a hotel room so we can enjoy the entire weekend.