WonderCon 2024: Not Rained Out
WonderCon was dealt a bad hand this weekend as it coincided with the latest storm system to hit Southern California. Rain? In SoCal? I’m as shocked as you are, but storms have been hitting pretty regularly for these past few weekends. We’ll likely be back to our regularly scheduled drought season next year, though.
Bad weather didn’t stop me, or a few thousand other people, from descending on Anaheim to check out what the latest installment of this venerable convention had to offer. In addition to picking up several shirts, I also did something I hadn’t done in quite a while: Root through the half-off bins. Or, in this case, the bins advertising “50% off Recent Trades” next to one of their regular retailers. I found some titles that I definitely wasn’t about to pay full price for, titles that I wish I’d paid half their cover price for, and some that I re-bought to hopefully fuel a future podcast with Steve. You’ll likely find out which comics fit the first category here in the next few weeks.
However, the real draw of the convention for me, as always, was the panels. While there weren’t any ones that stood out to me as incredible experiences that you should’ve been there to see, there weren’t any Bigfoot-level disasters either. With that said:
Spotlight on Colleen Doran
The veteran creator, best known for her long-running (and soon to be concluded) sci-fi fantasy series “A Distant Soil,” and for illustrating and adapting the works of Neil Gaiman – in the pages of “Sandman” and in multiple graphic novellas for Dark Horse – got to talk about her career here. It’s one that has been marked with multiple struggles, from dealing with companies and editors that have tried to steal her work to health issues that have plagued her over the years, and triumphs as well. These include storming into the DC office one day to rustle up some work from her current editor, Karen Berger, and having her first encounter with Gaiman there. There’s also the time she illustrated a story for an anthology based on Tori Amos’ work on spec, and took a chance on a new style that wowed everyone who saw it. As well as the time she was recovering from a health scare and was recommended by Peter David to draw the Stan Lee biography, “Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible” which helped revive her career at the time.
That last one sounded like a lot of fun, and I may check it out at a later point. Doran also made an impassioned speech about how her series with J. Michael Straczynski “The Book of Lost Souls” broke her heart when it failed to find an audience. This was another case where hearing about a book at WonderCon made me more interested in checking it out; hopefully, it’ll turn out better than “Star Trek: Year Five” did. Doran also has multiple projects upcoming as she’s currently hard at work on the graphic novel adaptation of “Good Omens,” as well as the final issue of “A Distant Soil.” She made it clear that she wants the comic to end showing that she was still fully invested in it and that’s why she’s been taking her time with it.
A Look Back at Comics Magazines and Periodicals
This panel was hosted by an Eisner judge, Jessica Teseang, and featured Mel Caylo, a former Editor-in-Chief of Wizard Magazine, Erik Amaya, the editor of Comiccon.com, and Jim Thompson, a comics historian and Eisner judge. The three main panelists were here to talk with Jessica about the good old days when people got their news via comics magazines and other periodicals (natch) rather than the internet. Jim provided the historical view, talking up the appeal of The Comics Journal and Alter Ego which would talk about everything from the “X-Men” to R. Crumb, to Harlan Ellison. All three also acknowledged the role the internet played in the slow decline of this format, noting that the internet had immediacy, but print had depth. You could go on for 4,000 words in a print article, while metrics have showed that people’s attention on the internet tops out at around 1,500. Amaya also acknowledged the fact that comics periodicals were a niche, of a niche, of a niche, which didn’t help the format’s longevity or survivability either.
As you might have guessed, a lot of the talk here revolved around Wizard and its dominance of the format through the 90’s and into the 00’s. There’s no denying that, particularly when you factor in how there were some months when it was outselling the best-selling comics it was reporting on. While the magazine has taken a lot of flack over the decades for its role in fueling the speculator market, most of its discussion here was positive (save from Thompson, who got some laughs when he said he’d never read it). Caylo talked about how the magazine would make an effort to spotlight talent it felt was worthwhile, and discuss subjects that most comics readers wouldn’t consider. Articles from Wizard are still being cited today as valid sources on comics-related issues and the issues themselves have become collectibles due to the unique art they featured.
I’ll also cop to carrying on Wizard’s legacy as well. Not directly as you should never buy a comic with the intent of making it a collectible (THEY ARE MEANT TO BE READ!) and I shudder to think about how its sophomoric sense of humor has aged after all these years. That said, if you wonder where I first heard about the likes of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Brian Michael Bendis, Brian K. Vaughn, or Hiroaki Samura, the answer is Wizard.
Spotlight on Bill Sienkiewicz
If I recall correctly, Wizard once spotlighted this creator as “The man who brought impressionism to comics.” Superhero comics specifically after his groundbreaking work on “Moon Knight,” “The New Mutants,” “Daredevil: Love & War,” and “Elektra: Assassin.” While I was very familiar with his work, I wasn’t all that familiar with the man himself, so I decided to attend this spotlight panel. It was hosted by one Chris “Doc” Wyatt who has worked/is working with Sienkiewicz, and while he gave an enthusiastic introduction, it was one-upped by a surprise guest for the panel: Todd McFarlane. The “Spawn” creator showed us how you introduce a legend as he talked effusively about the artist’s impression on his own work before bringing the creator himself onstage.
What followed was an informative, occasionally rambling conversation between Sienkiewicz and Wyatt that covered a broad swath of the former’s history in and out of the industry. I would’ve liked to have heard more about the man’s formative years, though we did learn that he liked reading the funny pages together with his dad and the general path of his career. He also supplied some interesting tidbits about his time with Marvel and creative process. For instance: I didn’t know that he was also offered “Uncanny X-Men” after “Moon Knight” but turned it down. Mainly because he was concerned about the added scrutiny such a high-profile assignment would bring to him, and he was worried that his sensibilities would drive the title into a ditch. He took “New Mutants” instead because it was a lower-profile gig and liked the “Demon Bear” arc pitched to him by Chris Claremont. We also got a nice anecdote about the origin of the design for Hand-puppet politician Ken Wind from “Elektra” about how he took the faces of multiple male models from the Sears Catalog and blended them together to give him his photorealistically unnatural look.
Resident Alien: Cast Conversation
I’ve read the comics, but haven’t seen the series that has been spun off from it. The TV series is… very different. To the point where I wonder how much of the comics actually made it into the series besides the names of the characters. Still, it looked like it does what it does very well based on the clip I saw, which spotlighted Alan Tudyk as Harry Vanderspiegel. Tudyk wasn’t at the panel in person, but he did appear via video to give an appreciably unhinged introduction to it, which featured showrunner Chris Sheridan, Astra actor Sara Tomko, and Sheriff Mike actor Corey Reynolds. Again, despite not having any familiarity with the show itself, they all gave a pretty entertaining presentation, with Sheridan offering interesting tidbits about the showrunning process for this series and Tomko and Reynolds clearly having fun improvising everything onstage. I might have to check this out after all.
2024 WonderCon Masquerade
There were lots of people in some great costumes this year, which is the case as it is every year. I will say that the quality of the skits for most of the presenters left something to be desired, however. The best ones tended to be short and sweet, like Bishoujo Optimus Prime, or musically based, such as a sci-fi jazzercise routine set to “Maniac” by two cosplayers from a series I wasn’t familiar with. There was also a cool Devil Chainsaw Man cosplay which I definitely approved of. You could also make a case that the best was saved for last with a musical-comedy take on “The Lord of the Rings” as the cast danced and showed off some sharp choreography to enhance the comedic timing of the songs being played.
All in all, another win for WonderCon and you can bet I’ll be back next year. Hopefully with better weather.