Whimsical Characters Descend on Anaheim for WonderCon

An array of personalities and faithful comic followers headed to the Anaheim Convention Center this past weekend. Among them, at least on Sunday, was Eric and myself. The only type of "nerdy" convention we had attended were the last two D23 events at this same location. Although we had a slight idea of what to expect, there was also the unknown. A few goals we had for ourselves was to see a few celebrities and commission a drawing or two from a favorite of ours, Amy Mebberson.

After the easy process of picking up our entrance badges, we were glad to find out that we were  to queue up inside the exhibit hall. To compare to the D23 event, we waited outside on Anaheim's Katella Blvd in what felt like disarray. We already were seeing a few interesting costumes and a few "tossed together" as well. There was a guy behind us as we waited standing on jumping stilts, all while he wore a blanket showing the Tardis from Doctor Who. I think he just really wanted to wear the jumping stilts. Since it was Easter Sunday, there were some hopping around with bunny ears. I need to add this was the best Easter Eric and I ever had.

I was ecstatic to see Gadget of the Rescue Rangers!

I should note the Perrier bottle had wine in it.

When the floor opened, half hour early, we made a quick leap to Artist's Alley to find Ms. Mebberson. I'm glad we made it our first stop because there was already a four person queue putting in their commission orders. It must feel nice to have people rush to one so quickly for ones talents. I put in for Miss Piggy dressed as The Queen of Hearts. When Eric stepped up to the table he requested Chung Lee from the StreetFighter arcade game. Chung Lee has always been Eric's favorite character to use. And, from what I have been told, Eric used Chung Lee many times to beat all the kids at the arcade. Miss Piggy is a Muppet, which I love, and she is my absolute favorite Muppet. I even wore my Muppet shirt that day on purpose. Amy complimented my shirt, which I secretly hoped she would notice. (Amy has drawn Muppet comics and even designed Skeeter, Muppet Babies, as a grown character) We retuned later in the day to pick up our drawings she had done for us.

Check Amy out on www.mimisgrotto.com/

As mentioned before, Eric and I knew which celebrities we would want to see. To wait out the time for those panels we began the wandering up and down the main floors booths. It was a real shame that this was a week when rent was due! There were so many gadgets and toys Eric and I were eyeing. There is a Wizard of Oz comic out there we have pondered buying for at least 6 years. We almost bought two, but we showed restraint. Eric even wanted a Fin cap from the show AdventureTime! He had to ask himself if he REALLY wanted it, or was it just impulsive. He didn't buy the cap. I ended up purchasing an action figure of Rose Tyler from Doctor Who.

This Aquaman was really into cosplay

As we went to check on the wait time for the arena presentation of Nerdist Productions, headed by Chris Hardwick, we found it already started! Chris Hardwick was fielding audience questions or rather debating with the audience about various "nerd" topics (Back to the Future, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who). It really is cool to see that there are so many people out there that understand your obsession for what one person might think to be odd.

Chris Hardwick ( @Nerdist ) doing his thang!

After The Nerdist panel was over, it was time for the panel from Arrow, a show on The CW. The lead role, played by the steamy Stephen Amell, is a character seeking vengeance over the reason of his father's "accidental" death. On the television there are some great workout scenes of Amell showing off his muscular body (enhances the storyline). There was some good insight regarding what to expect within the current season and hints to next year. Eric and I were ecstatic to see Stephen Amell in person, but we were very cool about it.

Amell is center.

Eric made a good point that this convention center holds more people and vendors than the San Diego convention center. He also added to his thought that this must have been what San Diego ComicCon was like before Hollywood stormed into that event. I was even surprised to see that Disney had a VERY small presence, if at all. I do know that Disney was represented in the form of a video game, Duck Tales remastered. The main focus at WonderCon were comics, and general Sci-Fi.

Blurry pic of me hanging with Lumpy Space Princess of AdventureTime

Now that we have Member IDs and will receive SD ComicCon information, I hope we get to attend in 2014. I think it would be interesting to see what the event down there has to offer and compare it t WonderCon.

Yay! It's Coraline!!