Wondercon!

By Lil’ Yoda,

WonderCon this year was held for the the first time in Los Angeles, California. This may be it’s only year there though as the convention has confirmed it’s move back to Anaheim. The three day convention had a bit of trouble fitting into the smaller center, as many people were not able to get into some the bigger panels and they had to rent out the Microsoft Theater for extra space. That being said, almost everyone I spoke was enjoying the stay in LA and had a wonderful (all puns intended) time. I spent most of my Friday in Artists’ Alley. I was very excited to get a sketch for my A-Force #1 done by Jim Cheung, who did a great job creating a rendition of character he helped create, Kate Bishop. Speaking of Hawkeye, I got to speak with Annie Wu and have her sign some of my Hawkeye comics. My other stops were Jason Fabok who did the art for this year’s WonderCon (he had a huge line since he doesn’t do cons often) and Charles Soule as I was dressed up as the version of She-Hulk that he worked on. Moving on to Saturday. Historically it is the most packed day of the convention and that seemed to be true this year. I arrived at 7:30 and was fortunate enough to win the lottery and get into the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. signing after waiting for two hours. I was not fortunate enough to get into the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel as there was only room for 1000 in the panel room. Instead, I headed over to Microsoft and watched a little bit of Justice League V. Teen Titans before heading back to the convention center for the signing. The long wait for the signing was well worth it as almost the entire cast was there and taking their time with the signing. I got an exclusive poster as well as some precious memories of joking around with the cast and having my cosplay complimented. After having such a busy day and planning to get up early the next, I skipped the cosplay ball and went home.

Sunday was a bit of blur arriving at 7:30 again but this time not winning the lottery. I spent the rest of the time covering what was rest for the exhibit hall that I hadn’t covered. I saw many great and impressive cosplays that seem to be at WonderCon every year. There was also some very unique merchansise from t-shirts to jewelry for sale throughout the hall. Some well known vendors such as ‘welovefine’ and ‘Her Universe’ were also present. For the first time at WonderCon, Cyanide and Happiness, a popular webcomic, was selling prints and doing custom sketches. I then went over to Microsoft for the Legends of Tomorrow panel, the same cast I was in line for signing for earlier that day. The panel was great, showing a quick trailer for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, my luck ran out again as I was not able to ask any questions due to most of the panel time being taken by the moderator. After that the con was almost over and I headed on home. There are a few things worth mentioning that I haven’t said or that I wasn’t able to attend. First is that this year WonderCon was using badge that you had to scan in. Some people had difficulty bending over or reaching up to scan, others had technical diffculties. Mine worked fine but we’ll see what happens for Comic Con and future WonderCons. There were also some big names such as Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman, who did a panel at the same time as Legends of Tomorrow. There were also panels and premieres by big names such as Disney, Warner Brothers and NBC. WonderCon seems to be big and only getting bigger. I look forward to next year.