WonderCon 2014 Wrap Up

WonderCon 2014 has come and gone, and my wallet is lighter but my swag bags are heavy! We had a great time at WonderCon this year.

We made the long trek to Anaheim Thursday night to have a little time to relax before the show. We had a nice dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, stopped at Target for snacks and supplies, and then headed back to our room at the Clarion Hotel to peruse the programming schedule and make our final selections of panels to hit up over the next few days.

Friday morning dawned, and we headed over to the convention center to get our badges and begin the fun! The first panel we checked out was The Art of the Pitch, which was about the Disney/ABC Talent Development Program. They had a few writers and directors from some ABC shows who spoke about their jobs, and then they had some people from the audiences give pitches about themselves. One interesting take-away from the panel was when one panelist said it was helpful to start with a personal story, as

it will engage the person you're pitching to. After that, we walked the exhibit hall for a while and had a nice lunch at the Lazy Dog Cafe before going back to the convention center. Jim Lee's panel was, as always, delightful. This time, he brought up 3 people in the audience who said they were artists, read a page from an upcoming comic he's working on, and had each sketch their interpretation of it. Then, he drew over and fleshed out what they had drawn. It was a really cool idea and it's always awesome to watch him draw live. We also checked out a panel called Secrets of Creating Scripted Television. Panelists included a writer from Arrow, a composer, a director, an AD, and a guy who does the YouTube channel for Marvel. 

Saturday was our Arena day, WonderCon's answer to Hall H (minus the insane line: we waited for maybe 10 minutes until it opened, and even then, we could have just walked in later with no difficulty). First panel was the Warner Brothers lineup. Bill Paxton was utterly charming discussing his new Tom Cruise move, Edge of Tomorrow. He casually threw out his most famous lines from movies, and the crowd ate it up. It was obvious how appreciative he is of his fans, and talked about how he enjoyed this stage of his career where he can just be the supporting character actor rather than trying to be the leading man. Next was Into the Storm, a movie about a bunch of crazy tornadoes assaulting this one town. Then, Godzilla! The director was there, and showed some awesome new footage of it, including a reveal of the entire Godzilla, as well as the fact that Godzilla will be facing off against some other monsters, including this crazy looking wasp thing. Fox's lineup was up next. Jay Baruchel was there for How To Train Your Dragon 2, which looked cute. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes panel had Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, and Andy Serkis, and showed some new footage. Several cast members were there for The Maze Runner, based on a book I've never read, so I'm not actually super interested in this. They showed a scene from the upcoming Colin Firth-starring Secret Service, which I'd never heard of before this, but now I'm super excited for. Last up was X-Men: Days of Future Past; they showed the first scene from it and more new footage. Pretty good stuff!

Sunday was a light day, panel-wise, so we spent most of our time in exhibit hall, after the Nerdist panel with Chris Hardwick. I listen to several Nerdist Industries podcasts; there are currently 26, and he said they're looking to increase that number to in the 50s by the end of the year. Dear god, there's only so many hours in my workday to listen! That said, I'm really excited to see what they come up with, especially Jessica Chobot's ghost/conspiracy theory podcast. She sounds exactly like me, in that I love reading about ghost stories and conspiracy theories, without actually necessarily believing in any of it.

I bought SO much stuff on the exhibit floor, more than I've gotten in a while. But I needed all of it, NEEDED.

2 Pacific Rim jaegers - Cherno Alpha and Coyote Tango
3 Game of Thrones mystery box vinyl figures - Arya, Robb Stark, Ghost the Direwolf
2 Walking Dead action figures - Glenn and Maggie
a Death Star ice cube sphere, and Han Solo in carbonite ice cube tray
2.5 Funko Pops - Black Widow, Snow White, and a Disney vinyl of Maleficent
Panda t-shirt and tote bag from Steppie
a stuffed Ewok, 3 Disney pins, and a She-Ra I've been wanting forever, for a price I couldn't refuse.