WonderCon 2025: Win Some, Lose Some

Another Saturday at WonderCon has come and gone for me and it remains the same as it always has been:  A great place to find comics/T-shirts/posters to buy, a welcome opportunity to hang out with friends I don’t see all that often, and a showcase for some informative and entertaining panels as well.  More often than not, really.  That last part can always be a bit dicey as there’s always the chance you’ll encounter an eye-rollingly ridiculous panel about a show chasing the existence of Bigfoot, only to escape from it into something even worse in the process.  That didn’t happen this year as any real issues I had with the panels stemmed from not reading the schedule closely enough.  Things did get off to a great start with:

Mark Waid:  50 Questions in 50 Minutes

Did (more than) what it says on the tin as the veteran writer took all kinds of questions from the audience.  Including:

Who would win in a fight:  Saturn Girl, Gorilla Grodd, or Martian Manhunter?  Martian Manhunter due to his shapeshifting abilities.

Which artist – dead or alive –  would he most want to work with?  Dead:  Steve Ditko.  Alive:  Denys Cowan.

What’s the status of the superheroes who sold their souls as part of the “Underworld Unleashed” even that Waid co-wrote back in the 90’s?  They sold their souls on their own recognizance and that’s not his responsibility (which, like most of his joking responses, got a laugh from the audience).

What were the top three books that made him cry?  “Superman Miracle Monday,”  “The Death of Jean Grey,” and “Superman” #148.  He went into detail about the last one, which he first read as a kid, and how it was about the IRS finally coming for Superman after all of the back taxes he’s owed over the years.  Which amounted to something in the range of a billion dollars.  After all of his efforts to drum up the money don’t work, because Supes is just that nice of a guy, one of the higher-ups at the IRS steps in and points out that based on how many times he’s saved the world, he can claim everyone as a dependent and they’d likely owe him money if they pursued this further.

What’s his favorite bit from “Batman/Superman:  World’s Finest?”  The part where Batman realizes that Superman doesn’t believe in Hell.  (He’s right, too.)

There were also other tidbits that came up through the questioning that didn’t spring directly from it.  Things like how Waid knows Clark Kent’s SSN, that he doesn’t miss working in comics journalism, that he once picked up Dave Sim at an airport the day after the latter’s divorce, and that his favorite comics in recent years are “Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees” and “Luisa Now and Then.”  He also mentioned that plans are in place at DC for the return of the “Legion of Super-Heroes,” and that he missed the set visits for the upcoming “Superman” and “Fantastic Four” movies because of convention commitments.  He’d also like to take a crack at Doc Savage or the Lone Ranger if he ever got a chance.

When the panel was over, Waid managed to answer 53 questions total, and a great time was had by all.

Women in Comics:  How Much Do You Know

Hosted by comics writer Amy Chu, and also attended by writers Tilly and Susan Bridges (“Monster High,” “Star Trek:  Prodigy”) and The Beat’s Editor in Chief and 40-year industry veteran Heidi McDonald.  If nothing else, I figured attending this panel would be worth it to see McDonald in person after I’ve been reading The Beat for a couple decades now.  The panel was also advertised as  being held in a fun quiz-show format with the opportunity to earn actual comics prizes.  Sounds fun, right?

Well, the quiz-show format was very, very loosely handled with Chu usually bringing up a general question like, “Who’s the oldest woman working as a writer in comics?” and then having the audience try to guess.  It was… very lacklustre with subsequent questions like “How many of this week’s comics from Marvel/DC were written or illustrated by women?” only reinforcing the Things Are Better Now, But We Still Have A Long Way to Go mindset.  McDonald had to take off halfway through the panel due to business (at least, that’s what she said).  I took off before the panel was over too because I wasn’t getting any useful information or entertainment out of this.

Scott Dunbier and Act 4 Publishing:  Breaking Free

The veteran comics editor, art collector, and founder of the Artist’s Edition format at IDW recently left that publisher to start his own operation and this panel was all about that.  It probably won’t surprise you that Act 4 is going to continue to specialize in publishing comics in the Artist’s Edition format – hardcover collections featuring original comics art pages at their original size in their black-and-white form spotlighting specific artists.  Dunbier has also partnered with Skybound for distribution of these new collections as well.

So what’s on deck?  A Jim Aparo DC Classics Artist’s edition spotlighting his work on “Batman” and “The Specter.”  “The Complete Spirit by Darwyn Cooke, Connoisseur’s Edition.”  Artist’s Editions for Jason Pearson’s “Body Bags,” and J. Scott Campbells “Danger Girl.”  A new edition of Wally Wood’s EC Stories, with ten more stories.  And “Hellboy in Hell vol. 2 Artist’s Edition” which was announced at the show.  Dunbier was cagey about future Artist’s Editions beyond these, but he didn’t discount the possibilities of ones for “G.I. Joe,” “Rom,” and one for legendary DC artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

All of this was interesting to hear even if it wasn’t really for me.  I’m not a nut for original art in the way that Dunbier is, but he was clearly passionate and informed about everything, which made him a good host.  Still, this was the one panel I regretted attending at the con.  Why?  Because at the same time “The Folio Society:  What Makes a Marvel Story Unforgettable” was also on.  That generic title hid the fact that it was all about Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum talking about their recent project with the Society.  Which sounds like it would’ve been A LOT of fun.

Tales From My Spinner Rack LIVE!

Gary Sassaman is the former Director of Programming & Publications for WonderCon and Comic-Con and this is his forum for discussing the comics that have meant the most to him over the years.  With “Fantastic Four:  First Steps” hitting theaters in July, he figured now was the time to talk about his experience with the legendary Stan Lee & Jack Kirby run on the series that lasted for 102 issues.

This was a brisk, yet informative talk, about those issues that basically kicked off the Silver Age of Comics and started Marvel’s ascent to the king of the comics hill.  We got to hear about its origins, saw all of the major additions it made to the Marvel Universe, and saw how the quality of inking can really influence final art (BOO!  Vince Colletta.  YAY!  Joe Sinnott).  Sassaman also didn’t shy away from how the title’s quality petered out towards the end of this run, undermined by the current editor in chief’s preference for single-issue stories, and Kirby’s plans to leave Marvel for DC (again).

Also on hand was former Kirby assistant, longtime “Groo” writer, and all-around man of comics Mark Evanier.  He provided his own insight into his experience with these issues covered and also talked a lot about Kirby’s return to DC at the end of that run.  It was a fun talk with the veteran creator giving a long, detailed analysis regarding the long-held rumor that Kirby asked to take on DC’s lowest-selling title upon his return.

Spotlight on Brian Posehn

This Spotlight panel on the comedian/actor/writer was co-hosted by “Transmetropolitan” and “The Boys” artist Darick Robertson.  Which you’d think would be the perfect setup for the “Deadpool” co-writer to talk about his longtime interest in the form.  Except it wasn’t as Posehn and Robertson mostly talked about their shared nerd interests for the next 50 minutes.

So it’s a good thing that Posehn’s a funny guy and Robertson had some good anecdotes to share as well.  There was a lot of talk about how he got to cameo as a landspeeder rider on “The Mandalorian” and how Jon Favreau actually asked for him to do this cameo.  Which was down to them wanting someone recognizable, and one of the tech guys saying Posehn would probably be willing to do it.  Still, it was a dream come true for him, particularly after he had joked that seeing the Prequel Trilogy was like getting molested by your uncle.

There were also a lot of fun bits thrown in here as well.  Like hearing how Posehn based the voice he used on “Transformers” on Dave Mustaine.  Hearing him say that the “cool half” of Metallica doesn’t think he’s a dork.  That Sully from “Monsters Inc.” was written for him, but Disney/Pixar went with John Goodman in the end.  How he once saw a guy grab a filet-o-fish  sandwich out of the fryer at McDonalds (most horror-movie thing he’s seen in real life).  And how his mom has always had his back – one time she made their pastor buy him a new KISS poster after he tore Posehn’s down – even as she ruined some of his favorite songs by singing along to them (like “Shout at the Devil”).

They did eventually come back around to comics at the end of the panel.  Posehn noted that the “Rifters” collection, co-written with Joe Trohman with art by Chris Johnson will be out in May, and that “Grommets,” co-written with Rick Remender and illustrated by Brett Parson, final issues will be out soon with the collection following in July.

Aaaaaaand… that was it.  After the Posehn Spotlight I met up with some friends and slowly migrated over to the Marriott for dinner.  It was a long glorious, gluttonous affair where we spent a few hours talking and catching up on recent and old times.  That was it for me for the con, and it was a great note to end on.  No, not everything from this year’s WonderCon went as planned, but enough stuff went right for me to make coming back next year a no-brainer.