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"It was a dark and stormy night"
. . .
or so the gentleman at the Muni station quipped when he saw
me taking notes as I head towards WonderCon. In fact it was
a sunny afternoon for a change in San Francisco as it had
rained a bit almost every during the week and was likely to
do so again.
I arrive at WonderCon and
headed over to get my Press Badge, after a few minutes of
flubbing around with the man at the counter ( I had forgotten
to bring enough proof that I write for an e-rag ) we get it
all sorted out and I'm on my way. Pretty dumb of me really,
I had spent the better part of the day before getting my gear
ready, camera, batteries, pens, note pad, all the stuff I
tend to forget about and panic about later ( next time I'll
pre-register ).
Anyway it's early Friday and
the room is packed with dealers, vendors, guest artist and
alike. It's early so the crowd is thin, but plenty of people
are definitely here regardless. My plan is simple, start at
one side of the room and work my way to the other and get
a feel of who's doing what, then head over to Artist Alley
and see some friends I know will be here and meet some artist
that I have in my collection of comics and art prints ( the
cheap poster prints, not the expensive stuff )
First of the more impressive
or maybe imposing booths I run across is the booth for Stylin
Online, this thing is the size of a small house, you can walk
into it and it's nothing but T-shirts, caps, sweatshirts,
jackets everywhere. T-shirts with every anime, cartoon character
or TV show you can think of, then the guy tells me they have
another booth just as large of more stuff on the other side
of the room!
My budget for the day is pretty
small and seeing this booth makes me think I'm going to break
the bank and then some pretty quick if I keep seeing this
many goodies I want to buy. Time to write a check list of
what I really came here to get before I get off track. One
of my targets is CapCom's Chun Li on the Number
# 1 Street Fighter Foil Cover ( I still don't have it
by days end, I'm bummed ).
I'd also like to get a shot
of import model Linda Tran for the pinup collection.
As I go around I see all kinds
of things of interest and a small table called Vampire Tours
of San Francisco really caught my eye. I'm thinking I'll have
to take that tour for a future article, anything with a name
like that has got to be fun.
Another eye grabber for me
was all the Anime figure statues at the Hobby Fan booth and
the temptation to spend freely was hard to resist. Then there
was Channel 101, they have tons of wonderfully wacky shorts
films with titles like "Laser Fart". These great
homemade cheezy ball movies had everyone laughing when Laser
Fart started popping off laser beams out his backside to fight
off the undead.
Of course there's plenty of
people in costume, I spot Death and some Anime Bunny Girls,
assorted cat ears, an Obi Wan and of course the obligatory
Storm Trooper ( Lucas must have enacted a law about having
at least one Storm Trooper at every Con I think ).
After looking at seemingly
endless rows of comic books I decide to head over Artist Alley
and see some friends and look over all the independent artist
comics and art. Being a struggling artist myself I try to
spend at least a few moments at every booth and table to chat
with all the independent artist and check out their stuff,
talk shop, pick up their info, buy a few comics and what have
you.
This year there seems to be
more of these guys putting out some really great stuff, like
Rabid Animal Comics, totally twisted and scores big on the
Laugh Meter and Gun Fu with it's Hong Kong Detective fighting
Nazi's in London and speaking Hip Hop in 1939 is just out
there laughs. Then there's stuff like Dorothy a warped take
on the Wizard of Oz that uses actors, photographs and 3D work
to make up their panels.
The level of the art and creativity
was just mind boggling and I wished I could mention everyone
by name, but I'd have to write a book to get them all in so
instead I have everyone's links at the page bottom so you can see all the same great stuff I did.
So I'm cruisin' Artist Alley
and I notice there's only a few people talking to Adam Hughes,
I had brought a few of his covers from my collection in hopes
of getting them signed as I'm a huge fan of his work. Adam,
like a true gentleman is more than willing to put the old
AH! on a couple of them for me.
I proceed to spend a little
time drooling over the large Tomb Raider prints he's got for
sale and at a mere $ 50 bucks for a signed numbered short
print run, suddenly my credit card is burning a hole in my
pocket. But better sense prevails and the credit card is safe
for another day.
Next I'm off to say hi to
Keith Knight whom I haven't seen in quite a while, he's got
a few new books of his cartoons that I haven't seen before,
must have been a longer time than I thought. It's good to
see him as last time I heard he was in the hospital, but all
is well now. I suggest to him that he should do some art on
the boot brace he had to wear and auction it off on EBay rather
than just toss it out, celebrities sell odd stuff al the time,
why not that?
On my way to say hi to Eric
Joyner whom I've been a huge fan of since I saw his work at
a show at Lo-fi
Customs, I spot Sandra Chang an artist I met briefly at
the last WonderCon I was at. So I stop to grab a photo so
you guys can see she's every bit as hot as her comics.
By this time I've been around
the room three or four times and have a bag full of promo
stuff from all the artist I've met, a free Tenchu
Fatal Shadows T-shirt from Sega, a review copy of the
City
of Heroes video game ( which has an amazing character
builder ) and a butt load of goodies that I bought.
My personal favorite purchases
of the day where a T-shirt from Alex Zemke's Dirty Little
Tees, a print from Jim Silke and a Adam Hughes Sketch Book,
I just love pinup girl stuff.
I also have to vote Channel
101 of course as most wacky and entertaining booth of the
day, overall WonderCon was a great time this year and I really
enjoyed meeting all the new people and seeing all the amazing
art and ideas.
Well that's all for this year,
see you at the next WonderCon !
- gWebber
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