Wonder Con
Moderator: JohnMayo
-
yensid4disney
- Contributor
- Posts: 64
- Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:51 pm
Re: Wonder Con
So you all getting together Friday or Sat? I might be able to make dinner. Not going to the convention at all.
Re: Wonder Con
I'm on my way down from Victorville. So I should be arriving soon.
-
BobBretall
- Master Reviewer
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44 pm
Re: Wonder Con
Great show on Friday...... HUGE crowd. Bigger than I ever saw on a Friday in San Francisco BY FAR and much larger than last year's crowd in Anaheim.
Went to 4 panels:
Quick Draw - Jeff Smith, Scott Shaw!, & Bobby London (hosted by Mark Evanier) - Great, as always to watch these cartoonists respond to humorous topics with real-time drawings.
Spotlight on Terry Moore - Fascinating to listen to Terry talk, he makes these panels more of a conversation with the attendees.
IDW Artist's Editions - Scott Dunbier is great! Special Guest Jeff Smith showed up as they premiered the announcement of the Bone AEs. I won a large proof copy of the special edition cover art for the Jack Davis AE by answering a trivia question.
Thrillbent Comics with Mark Waid - Mark is always fascinating to hear talk. Not a huge audience because it was at the same time (7pm) as a big Doctor Who panel. They talked about the "Thrillbent 2.0" coming up, some modifications to the site design, premieres of a lot of new series, and also the fact that you'll be able to embed a comics viewer for Thrillbent content just like you can embed YouTube videos.
Dinner with BadDeacon (Sean) & his charming girlfriend Vera, Fudd71 (Sam), LA Rabbit (Andrew), and UltimateTodd at a great local pizza place (2 Saucy Broads) recommended by Todd.......
Went to 4 panels:
Quick Draw - Jeff Smith, Scott Shaw!, & Bobby London (hosted by Mark Evanier) - Great, as always to watch these cartoonists respond to humorous topics with real-time drawings.
Spotlight on Terry Moore - Fascinating to listen to Terry talk, he makes these panels more of a conversation with the attendees.
IDW Artist's Editions - Scott Dunbier is great! Special Guest Jeff Smith showed up as they premiered the announcement of the Bone AEs. I won a large proof copy of the special edition cover art for the Jack Davis AE by answering a trivia question.
Thrillbent Comics with Mark Waid - Mark is always fascinating to hear talk. Not a huge audience because it was at the same time (7pm) as a big Doctor Who panel. They talked about the "Thrillbent 2.0" coming up, some modifications to the site design, premieres of a lot of new series, and also the fact that you'll be able to embed a comics viewer for Thrillbent content just like you can embed YouTube videos.
Dinner with BadDeacon (Sean) & his charming girlfriend Vera, Fudd71 (Sam), LA Rabbit (Andrew), and UltimateTodd at a great local pizza place (2 Saucy Broads) recommended by Todd.......
Re: Wonder Con
Sounds like great fun. Looking forward to seeing everybody at sdcc!
-
BobBretall
- Master Reviewer
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44 pm
Re: Wonder Con
Saturday stuff:
I picked up a signed HC of "Ed the Happy Clown" by Chester Brown from the CBLDF booth. Also got a HC of "Clive Barker's Age of Desire" adapted by P. Craig Russell with art by Tim Bradstreet from Tim at his AA table.
I bought a nice OA page from Matt Kindt that I'll scan & post when I get a chamce. He told me it was his "tribute to Rob Liefeld" because the character's outfit has tons of needless pouches & straps.
6 Panels:
That 70's Panel - Mark Evanier hosting a conversation with Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Brent Anderson, & J.M. DeMatteis. I was so stoked to hear about how ALL these guys just love comics so much.
Mark got a call from Joe Sinnott during the panel, Joe will be coming to SDCC this year!! 1st time he'll have been on a plane since WWII when he was in the service.
Digital First Comics - Interesting panel with the Digital representatives from Comixology, IDW, DC, Monkeybrain, & Thrillbent. Fascinating talk about the business & future directions of digital as a delivery platform.
Oddball Comics - I try to never miss this slideshow highlighting bizarre & humorous comic covers from Scott Shaw!s extensive collection of oddities....
Spotlight on Frank Cho - Frank is a tremendously gifted artist, but he really came off as kind of a jerk in this spotlight panel, at least to my ears. I left about half-way through. That said, he was "multi-tasking" and drawing a Shanna commission he had taken from a guy (for a "shoebox full of $20s") and it was fascinating to watch him draw ("don't let anyone tell you different, when drawing women it's all about the B**bs & B*tts")....
Ten Years of Aspen Comics - I was really happy to hear these guys talk about comics. They all love comics so much and the 10 for $10 program for 2013 is a really great way for them to be making their titles accessible to readers. Love 'em or hate 'em, I appreciate being able to try out 10 new comic series for a buck a piece. I won a Fathom mini-bust at this panel, and they also handed out limited edition comics to everyone at the panel.
Valiant 2013: Harbinger Wars & Beyond - What a great relaunch Valiant has had, it really seems like more than 10 months since the re-launch. Some really cool insights into what's coming up from Valiant in Harbinger Wars & the news that Joshua Dysart has been signed to an exclusive contract. Got to hear more about Quantum & Woody from James Asmus, I'm more enthused about the series after having a chance to talk to James down on the show floor today. Lots more details can be had from BadDeacon's "Only The Valiant" podcast.
After the panel I had an opportunity to walk down to the booth with Valiant Publisher Fred Pierce & have a really great conversation with him. They also handed out "Gold logo" Harbinger #1s to everyone at the panel, a continuation of an old Valiant 1.0 tradition.
Bumped into Mark Waid while walking around & thanked him for selling off his comic collection to fund Thrillbent. I I told him about my Guinness attempt & said he was probably a good rival before selling a bunch of stuff. He congratulated me on the attempt & told me he had actually never had that many books. He was constrained by the # of long boxes he could store & it was quite a bit less that I have now. Talked about some other stuff too, I love Waid, he's such a pure fan of the comics medium.
Ended the day having an early dinner with Mr. & Mrs. LARabbit at a local burger place. Dropped them off at Disneyland after (they have passes) & went home early-ish to spend a couple of hours working on organizing comics for my Guinness attempt.
I picked up a signed HC of "Ed the Happy Clown" by Chester Brown from the CBLDF booth. Also got a HC of "Clive Barker's Age of Desire" adapted by P. Craig Russell with art by Tim Bradstreet from Tim at his AA table.
I bought a nice OA page from Matt Kindt that I'll scan & post when I get a chamce. He told me it was his "tribute to Rob Liefeld" because the character's outfit has tons of needless pouches & straps.
6 Panels:
That 70's Panel - Mark Evanier hosting a conversation with Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Brent Anderson, & J.M. DeMatteis. I was so stoked to hear about how ALL these guys just love comics so much.
Mark got a call from Joe Sinnott during the panel, Joe will be coming to SDCC this year!! 1st time he'll have been on a plane since WWII when he was in the service.
Digital First Comics - Interesting panel with the Digital representatives from Comixology, IDW, DC, Monkeybrain, & Thrillbent. Fascinating talk about the business & future directions of digital as a delivery platform.
Oddball Comics - I try to never miss this slideshow highlighting bizarre & humorous comic covers from Scott Shaw!s extensive collection of oddities....
Spotlight on Frank Cho - Frank is a tremendously gifted artist, but he really came off as kind of a jerk in this spotlight panel, at least to my ears. I left about half-way through. That said, he was "multi-tasking" and drawing a Shanna commission he had taken from a guy (for a "shoebox full of $20s") and it was fascinating to watch him draw ("don't let anyone tell you different, when drawing women it's all about the B**bs & B*tts")....
Ten Years of Aspen Comics - I was really happy to hear these guys talk about comics. They all love comics so much and the 10 for $10 program for 2013 is a really great way for them to be making their titles accessible to readers. Love 'em or hate 'em, I appreciate being able to try out 10 new comic series for a buck a piece. I won a Fathom mini-bust at this panel, and they also handed out limited edition comics to everyone at the panel.
Valiant 2013: Harbinger Wars & Beyond - What a great relaunch Valiant has had, it really seems like more than 10 months since the re-launch. Some really cool insights into what's coming up from Valiant in Harbinger Wars & the news that Joshua Dysart has been signed to an exclusive contract. Got to hear more about Quantum & Woody from James Asmus, I'm more enthused about the series after having a chance to talk to James down on the show floor today. Lots more details can be had from BadDeacon's "Only The Valiant" podcast.
After the panel I had an opportunity to walk down to the booth with Valiant Publisher Fred Pierce & have a really great conversation with him. They also handed out "Gold logo" Harbinger #1s to everyone at the panel, a continuation of an old Valiant 1.0 tradition.
Bumped into Mark Waid while walking around & thanked him for selling off his comic collection to fund Thrillbent. I I told him about my Guinness attempt & said he was probably a good rival before selling a bunch of stuff. He congratulated me on the attempt & told me he had actually never had that many books. He was constrained by the # of long boxes he could store & it was quite a bit less that I have now. Talked about some other stuff too, I love Waid, he's such a pure fan of the comics medium.
Ended the day having an early dinner with Mr. & Mrs. LARabbit at a local burger place. Dropped them off at Disneyland after (they have passes) & went home early-ish to spend a couple of hours working on organizing comics for my Guinness attempt.
Re: Wonder Con
Sounds like they are starting to duplicate a lot of the classic sdcc panels there. How long has that been going on? I wonder if they are trying to drive the comics content from sdcc toward wonder con?
Those are some of my favorite panels.
Or make wonder con more like sdcc light? An acceptable alternative for those who can't get to sdcc.
Man, wouldn't it be nice to know their 3-5 yr strategy?
Those are some of my favorite panels.
Or make wonder con more like sdcc light? An acceptable alternative for those who can't get to sdcc.
Man, wouldn't it be nice to know their 3-5 yr strategy?
Re: Wonder Con
When the SDCC folks bought Wonder Con ten years ago, they claimed they didn't want to turn it into another SDCC. But it is a SDCC-lite and they do follow the same patterns with Hollywood panels to bring in foot traffic. To be fair, when they first moved it from downtown Oakland to the Moscone center in San Francisco before SDCC took over, the exhibitors did complain that there wasn't enough people and sales. So those type of panels do bring in people.
Trev, for years now they have either duplicated panels at WC or used WC to test panels. I "suspect" they might have even flown up cosplayers the first couple years from SoCal to NorCal to help out the first few Masquerades.
Joe Sinnott was at SDCC in the 1990s. If he didn't fly, then that was a heck of a drive. It will be good to see him again as he is one of my favorite inkers and a fellow Giants baseball fan (from their old NY days).
Yes, Frank Cho's panels are very un-PC. His conversations are like how he draws. That commission he was working on; he was doing a few at the con for $800 a pop. He'll be at Big Wow! in San Jose in May and does a figure drawing demo with cosplay model Ivy Doomkitty. Fans are invited to draw along and then he gives a critique of some of the drawings. Somewhere, Fade2black (the other Trevor) has video of Cho giving my work a crit.
If you are looking for good face time access to top artists and original art, Big Wow! in San Jose in two months is a good opportunity for this in NorCal. Without a Bay Area WC, this is kind of filling that void.
http://www.bigwowcomicfest.com/guests/artists_alley/
Bob, be glad you got that Kubert sketch in your AE. He was suppose to do a round of blank sketch covers (more special editions!) but passed away before he could so other artists will be doing them.
From Bleeding Cool....
"As had been done in the past with other Artist Editions, there were going to be several copies of the book with blank covers that the artist would illustrate individually. But tragically, we lost Joe Kubert. So instead, the 26 blank cover volumes will now be illustrated by a who’s who of comic greats, donating their work, while IDW and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate waive their share of the money so that 100% of the profit made by auctioning off these editions will go to the Joe Kubert Scholarship fund to send deserving creators to the school Kubert founded."
"Mike Mignola. Jim Lee. Alex Ross, painting over a Kubert piece. Jeff Smith. Lee Bermejo. Kevin Nowlen. Art Adams. Mark Schultz. Andy Kubert. Adam Kubert. These should be available around San Diego Comic Con, and will be highly desirable collector’s editions."
But yes, I can't keep up or afford all these exclusives and am even being picky about which regular ones I'll be getting. But the Mark Schultz one planned for the future is a lock for me. I haven't seen any info on this in any WC news.
Trev, for years now they have either duplicated panels at WC or used WC to test panels. I "suspect" they might have even flown up cosplayers the first couple years from SoCal to NorCal to help out the first few Masquerades.
Joe Sinnott was at SDCC in the 1990s. If he didn't fly, then that was a heck of a drive. It will be good to see him again as he is one of my favorite inkers and a fellow Giants baseball fan (from their old NY days).
Yes, Frank Cho's panels are very un-PC. His conversations are like how he draws. That commission he was working on; he was doing a few at the con for $800 a pop. He'll be at Big Wow! in San Jose in May and does a figure drawing demo with cosplay model Ivy Doomkitty. Fans are invited to draw along and then he gives a critique of some of the drawings. Somewhere, Fade2black (the other Trevor) has video of Cho giving my work a crit.
If you are looking for good face time access to top artists and original art, Big Wow! in San Jose in two months is a good opportunity for this in NorCal. Without a Bay Area WC, this is kind of filling that void.
http://www.bigwowcomicfest.com/guests/artists_alley/
Bob, be glad you got that Kubert sketch in your AE. He was suppose to do a round of blank sketch covers (more special editions!) but passed away before he could so other artists will be doing them.
From Bleeding Cool....
"As had been done in the past with other Artist Editions, there were going to be several copies of the book with blank covers that the artist would illustrate individually. But tragically, we lost Joe Kubert. So instead, the 26 blank cover volumes will now be illustrated by a who’s who of comic greats, donating their work, while IDW and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate waive their share of the money so that 100% of the profit made by auctioning off these editions will go to the Joe Kubert Scholarship fund to send deserving creators to the school Kubert founded."
"Mike Mignola. Jim Lee. Alex Ross, painting over a Kubert piece. Jeff Smith. Lee Bermejo. Kevin Nowlen. Art Adams. Mark Schultz. Andy Kubert. Adam Kubert. These should be available around San Diego Comic Con, and will be highly desirable collector’s editions."
But yes, I can't keep up or afford all these exclusives and am even being picky about which regular ones I'll be getting. But the Mark Schultz one planned for the future is a lock for me. I haven't seen any info on this in any WC news.
-
BobBretall
- Master Reviewer
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44 pm
Re: Wonder Con
Yes, they showed a lot of these sketch covers in their slide show. Maybe 6 or 7 of them.atomic99 wrote: Bob, be glad you got that Kubert sketch in your AE. He was suppose to do a round of blank sketch covers (more special editions!) but passed away before he could so other artists will be doing them.
From Bleeding Cool....
"As had been done in the past with other Artist Editions, there were going to be several copies of the book with blank covers that the artist would illustrate individually. But tragically, we lost Joe Kubert. So instead, the 26 blank cover volumes will now be illustrated by a who’s who of comic greats, donating their work, while IDW and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate waive their share of the money so that 100% of the profit made by auctioning off these editions will go to the Joe Kubert Scholarship fund to send deserving creators to the school Kubert founded."
"Mike Mignola. Jim Lee. Alex Ross, painting over a Kubert piece. Jeff Smith. Lee Bermejo. Kevin Nowlen. Art Adams. Mark Schultz. Andy Kubert. Adam Kubert. These should be available around San Diego Comic Con, and will be highly desirable collector’s editions."
-
BobBretall
- Master Reviewer
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44 pm
Re: Wonder Con
Con was PACKED today......all day long. WAY more people than last time it was on Easter Sunday in SF......
I left at 4:20pm (show closed at 5pm) and the aisles were still packed with people..... More so than most any show I've been to at 4:20pm on Sunday.....
I left at 4:20pm (show closed at 5pm) and the aisles were still packed with people..... More so than most any show I've been to at 4:20pm on Sunday.....
-
BobBretall
- Master Reviewer
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44 pm
Re: Wonder Con
Sunday report:
Walked around in the morning handing out chocolate Easter eggs & wishing the best of the day to the folks at the Publisher's booths & lots of artists I know in Artist's Alley.
Had great conversations with Brent Anderson & Len Wein. Talked to Daniel Corey about Moriarty & picked up the #1 prototype Moriarty statue hand-painted by Daniel's wife. At lunch Josh Fialkov recognized me in the food court & joined me for lunch wtih his wife & daughter & Josh Williamson. Josh Fialkov is going to be doing Ultimates for Marvel & showed me some of the art from that book (from his 1st arc) on his phone. Looked real good. Fialkov doing the book may get me back buying a book from the Ultimate line.
2 panels:
Jeff Parker & Gabriel Hardman - Moderated by Pat Loika! They spent a lot of time going over the recent digital Batman story they did that showed up in print in Legends of the Dark Knight #6. 2 really nice guys, loved hearing them talk about their craft.
Amanda Connor & Jimmy Palmiotti - These 2 are such a great couple, it was a pleasure listening to them talk for an hour. I have a new respect for Jimmy. He buys every #1 comics that comes out at his comic shop just to check out what's going on in the industry. So many creators do comics but don't READ comics this was refreshing to hear.
--------------------
Bought a couple of splash pages from the Time Masters series by Jurgens/Rapmund from Norm Rapmund to round out my day......
Overall, a great con....
Walked around in the morning handing out chocolate Easter eggs & wishing the best of the day to the folks at the Publisher's booths & lots of artists I know in Artist's Alley.
Had great conversations with Brent Anderson & Len Wein. Talked to Daniel Corey about Moriarty & picked up the #1 prototype Moriarty statue hand-painted by Daniel's wife. At lunch Josh Fialkov recognized me in the food court & joined me for lunch wtih his wife & daughter & Josh Williamson. Josh Fialkov is going to be doing Ultimates for Marvel & showed me some of the art from that book (from his 1st arc) on his phone. Looked real good. Fialkov doing the book may get me back buying a book from the Ultimate line.
2 panels:
Jeff Parker & Gabriel Hardman - Moderated by Pat Loika! They spent a lot of time going over the recent digital Batman story they did that showed up in print in Legends of the Dark Knight #6. 2 really nice guys, loved hearing them talk about their craft.
Amanda Connor & Jimmy Palmiotti - These 2 are such a great couple, it was a pleasure listening to them talk for an hour. I have a new respect for Jimmy. He buys every #1 comics that comes out at his comic shop just to check out what's going on in the industry. So many creators do comics but don't READ comics this was refreshing to hear.
--------------------
Bought a couple of splash pages from the Time Masters series by Jurgens/Rapmund from Norm Rapmund to round out my day......
Overall, a great con....
-
BadDeacon
- Reviewer
- Posts: 248
- Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:44 pm
- Location: San Frantastic, CA
- Contact:
Re: Wonder Con
Yes, it doesBobBretall wrote:This smacks of "super-secret Valiant attention"BadDeacon wrote:I'll be busy after the show on Saturday for an hour or so. If folks are getting together Saturday evening, I may not be able to make it, or might make it late.
Don't change or hold up any Saturday plans that work for everyone else, I'm not exactly sure what my schedule will be.
We recorded a great round table discussion with Hunter (Marketing Manager), Fred (Publisher), Atom! (Sales Manager), Dino (CEO, CCO), Josh Dysart (Harbinger, Harbinger Wars), and James Asmus (Quantum & Woody). It should be released soon. It was really fantastic, and tons of fun.
