San Joaquin, CA Wondercon wrap-up

Cherie and I left for Wondercon on Thursday, and I unfortunately decided to move our reservations to the Parc 55 from the Argent, since I liked that hotel once when I stayed at it many moons ago (<-- note, this is the important part)

Unfortunately the hotel was now noisy (street vehicles and yelling bums, audible even up on the 30th floor) and it is off my must-stay list now...now matter how close to wonderful shopping.

Wondercon is a breath of fresh air, only "9" aisles of exhibitors, compared to the "57" aisles at Comic-Con -- for the old folks like me, *this* is what Comic-Con *used* to be like for us, say back in the early 80's, about 18,000 people, very manageable. We got everything done and met everyone we needed to meet in about two hours on Friday, and were so excited about this fact that we didn't know what to do with ourselves for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was the *crowded* day, we were assured, but compared to Comic-Con, it was, hmm, about the same as Thursday at CC, starting to fill up but still not at critical mass. But I spent most of Saturday shopping at the Ferry Building and Farmer's Market, stocking up on goodies to take home, so not a problem. Cherie and I had dinner with SW artists Matt Busch, Tom Hodges and "How to Draw Star Wars" author Bonnie Burton, as well as a retinue of other folk, and it was a blast.

"How to Draw Star Wars," just released from DK, was pretty much one of the hits of the exhibit hall -- only three dealers had it that I know of, and everyone was getting Matt and Tom to sign and sketch in copies, and also getting Bonnie's autograph (and cute sketches!) if one was lucky.

My best acquisitions: Original art from the book -- Cherie and I bought several pieces from both Matt Busch and Tom Hodges -- our haul:

Matt Busch:
Obi-Wan full frontal costume detail (from the "fabrics/props" section)
Obi-Wan fighting action stance
(we basically bought all of the book's OWK pieces, since the facial and fabric renderings were so wonderful)
Han Solo "Confident" (think 'she expressed her true feelings for me') facial expression.
Luke Skywalker on sand-skiff plank three-point perspective demonstration sketch.
Another piece that I literally can't remember...(day-after-con syndrome...)

Tom Hodges:
Two pages of Darth Vader head, costume and gesture studies - wonderful commercial/ marker renderings.

So big art haul -- always fun!

I have managed to maintain my record of going to only one panel in three days.

Anyway, WC was terrific and downright relaxing compared to CC. I'd highly recommend it to anyone!

Mary Thomson

 

It was sometime Saturday afternoon that I remembered that this was WonderCon weekend. The Wizard and I had spoken about this a couple of weeks ago and decided that we would skip this year, although we agree that it is a great con to go to and had a wonderful time last year. (It was Sid'ious first big convention and where he met the Dragon) Then it all just faded from my mind.

Anyway, I had looked at schedules and things we needed to get done and made the tough choice to stay at home. It worked out well as we did get quiet a bit done this weekend even if part of it included going out to dinner with good friends and seeing a movie.

Sorry we missed you guys but the art haul sounds most impressive. I would like to see it sometime and I hope that you two can make it to the next Fan Day this month.