Blind Prophecy

My first day at WonderCon was a blast. Since things didn’t get rolling until after noon, I slept in a bit this morning and still arrived too early. It gave me a chance to really look closely at the panels and decide which ones I wanted to attend. Lotsa photos and details after the jump…

But first, I started with the exhibit hall and some shopping. I was first lured in by a booth announcing half-off all trade paperbacks. I used the opportunity to pick up some titles I’d been keeping my eye on at our local comic shop but felt ambivalent about buying at full price. I also picked up some really cute patches (including some for Craig and Callie — which I’ll probably send to them for Easter, but if I forget, I already have a present for my trip home in June to take the LSAT). But my proudest purchase–and my most expensive–was a complete run of the 18 issue Emma Frost series produced in 2003-2005. I’m not normally a collector, more of a read ‘em and enjoy ‘em kinda guy, but I almost feel guilty taking these mint condition issues out of the bags to read. I will, though.

Some interesting costumes wandering around, but I expect I’ll see more tomorrow, which is Masquerade day.

My first panel was Becky Cloonan, who worked on American Virgin. I wasn’t familiar with any of her other work, but she seemed fun and I liked the art in AV, so I sat in on her session. She spent her entire hour answering questions–including three times being asked what comics she reads. She definitely has a thing for Gambit and is frustrated when she hears stories of other artists being asked to “make the crotch smaller” on superheroes. Her solution, she keeps making them bigger and bigger so that when she finally does get asked to pull it back, it’s still a respectable size. I so want to make her my fag hag (although, I’d have to convert her to seeing Cyclops as the drool-worthy mutant).

A little later, I attended a workshop about writing led by legend J. Michael Straczynski (The Amazing Spiderman, Babylon 5, and so very much more). Like most writing seminars I’ve attended, his advice was generally “Start writing. No, seriously, do it.” He’s a very entertaining speaker, however, and had a few nuggets I found worth noting:

• Finish what you write.
• Somewhere along the way, we unlearn our passions.
• Commercial writing should amuse you [the writer].
• To be unpublished is not to be unprofessional

Up next was Terry Moore, writer and artist behind the much-praised Strangers in Paradise. I may lose geek points here because I still haven’t picked it up despite the LGBT-friendly nature of the story. I attended because Moore is picking up Runaways if Joss Whedon ever finishes his short run on the title, and I like that book quite a lot. After hearing Moore’s wicked tongue, though, I’ll have to start in on SIP soon (perhaps after I’ve financially recovered from today’s purchases). Moore was mostly here to plug his newest project, Echo, which also sounds interesting despite his caginess about the actual plot.

As evening began, I wandered into the large hall in time to catch the five minute preview of Wanted starring Angelina Jolie and a Q&A with cutie James McAvoy (who will, I suppose, be getting back to LA quickly before Atonement gets sucked into Oscar madness). McAvoy was charming and did his best at answering what I thought were pretty boring questions.

Finally, some behind-the-scenes footage of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D followed by a panel with Brendan Fraser and a producer and special effects artist from the film, moderated by the editor of Wired magazine. I felt bad for the other panelists because they were completely ignored. I would expect that from the audience Q&A, but the moderator also completely ignored the other two guests as well and their names don’t even show up in the program book. Also, Brendan Fraser may just be the most boring speaker on the planet. He told jokes that only he laughed at and rambled on and on about nothing. At least he mentioned The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and publicly apologized for Monkeybone (the “$80 million art house film” – an example of the jokes he told that cracked him up and bored the crowd).

Anyway, the technology being used on Journey looks interesting, even if the film itself doesn’t. The new digital 3D camera being used might actually revitalise the theatre-going experience, since it will be years before it’s possible to reproduce in the home (and, have no doubt, that is part of the Hollywood plan – develop new technology and then keep it proprietary so they can control how you watch it and–more importantly–how much you pay to enjoy it).

So that wrapped up the first day of WonderCon. Tomorrow promises to be a bit more interesting in general, but probably also more crowded.

Filed under: WonderCon, comic books by Jere Keys