By Jonathan Bilski
Do you know we have Supergirl, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday out this year? Well, WB's and Disney forgot to mention them at WonderCon. Really, almost everybody forgot WonderCon with no major booth being at the con this year. No Funkos. No Bandai Namcos. No nothing. Though, giving props to Send Help. They had an escape room to promote the release of the movie on digital to rent. (In an announcer voice) It's a fun new horror comedy from Sam Raimi. Blood, guts, in an island adventure, check it out.
After almost beating the free Send Help Escape Room with a random group of fellow escapees, but losing by seconds, the shame, the con became a blur of random nerd and fan booths. An artist alley island, like some leprosy colony. And, panels of random content, but of no big shows or movies or even mid-tier or low level shows coming out. Ohhh, there was a
Regular Show Panel.
WonderCon had become more of a fan convention than a big name convention with cool schwag and promotions and special screenings seen in yesteryear. There's endless speculation from Hollywood not being so hot right now to gas prices. Whatever the reason, it's noticeable to not see a giant head of Bill Murray and Zendaya promoting Shrek 5.
Giant Zendaya heads aside, I'll break down some of the highlights below, because it was still nice to wander and easily eat up a day or two there. Let's you and I get lost in the show floor for hours with so many different fandoms. Or get lost in a convo with someone of similar interests. Oh, and of course they had actual comic book writers to talk to and voice actors to gab with. But, I'd probably just yell at Joshua Williamson, then here his opinion.
The collection of professional artists and art you can collect at WonderCon remains intact. With a large collection of goods Amazon is never gonna carry makes it a must for any fan wanting to get something to adorn their home or office. I can just grab something, be it clothes or art and put it on or up and say, I'm a bigger fan than you and not just in size.
Steve Minty was back showcasing he's wonderful collection of bottle openers, pins, keychains and more. We've been checking out his booth since back in the days of DCon in Pasadena. "I'm happy to be back at WonderCon. The community is always super fun and it's a really good show, so far." He's always making new stuff so it's always great to see what new playing cards or whatever comes in. He should be at Comic-Con later this year.
more after the jump, including cosplay
Janome was showing off this year again, the sewing company is trying to get in swing with cosplayers and people on the craftier side of their fandom. It was nice to see a different kind of booth showing off.
Writing about cosplayers here's some of the best I spotted Friday.
Moushley (Resident Evil 4 Memes)
John Jones (Absolute Universe) with Martian Manhunter
Wario, Waluigi, Prince Peach and Toad (Mario Kart Series)
Cartman (Fortnite South Park Collab)
A mobile playable Panasonic 3DO
Undertaker (WWF) buying cute plushies
Eevee (Pokémon) Oh, dear G-d! It's coming for you!
On Pokémon, Stern Pinball was showing off the new Official Pokémon Pinball machines. It's a work of art. Not sure, how or why, but the team behind it did a great job capturing the sound and visuals of the show making the early seasons of the anime come alive. It's like ita come back in some sort of HD pinball way. Well, worth your quarters or more realistically the credits on your card.
Artist Alley booths seem harder and harder to tell what defines them from one of the booths on the expo floor. Some of the goods are better made than the stuff out there. And, it's a lot of artists we see from cons the year round.
Strangely, this year WonderCon lacked so many big booths booths and we guess a little common sense that they added a sort of extra Artist Alley area, but separated it from the main Artist Alley. It was really weird. I would suggest never doing that again and putting them all in one location.It feels like that section was a bit shunned. Not sure how that sort of broke down, but it did.
Anyway, here some of the Artist Alley booths that caught my eye, check out their work online or if there coming to a con near you.
ZEROTYPE
Sure, there were some no shows, Lucas Narrative Museum ?!?
WonderCon doesn't need help from its fans. There ready and willing to show up for it, but it has to be upfront with what it is. Is it a fan convention now? Is it going to be more niche? Do we need one with smaller ones throughout the year. Is it going to be more community driven, because if so, you've got to let the people know and make them feel welcome to it.
X-Men '97 is supposed to be coming out this year, but there was no panel showcasing cast or crew. They've had them year after year at WonderCon, leading up to the show actually coming out. Not sure if they'll have one at D23, but it strange to see it gone.
Also, missing was cosplay activity called the Hellfire Gala Walk. It showed off interpretations of X-Men outfits and though the event ended in the comics, I was hoping it would continue at WonderCon.
I saw people cosplaying as the X-Men. But, I didn't see much reason for them to make the trek over to WonderCon. I didn't see the studios or comic companies care. So, if the fans needs to step up and do it, you need to tell them if they need to be X-Men. Or at least dress like them.
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