Sunday, March 31, 2013

Wonderful Wondercon

My love affair with comic books started at an early age. Every summer my family would jam into our car and drive to Mississippi. It was a four day drive fueled by watery Koolaid, ritz crackers and comic books bought at gas stations. Once we got there my grandmother had crates of comics from a drugstore that had the covers torn off, remainders that hadn't been sold. I was in heaven reading my way through Richie Rich, Wonder Woman, Lil Lulu, Dot, Batman and all the Classic Comics, illustrated versions of Shakespeare and Dickens.

One of the lovely perks about being an illustrator is getting pro passes to Comic Book conventions. I've been going to the San Diego ComicCon for somewhere around twenty years but this was my first Wondercon.

Cosplay - Characters in Costume


There were a ton of people in costumes of all kinds, superheroes, elegant steampunk adventurers, Storm Troopers and Wookies, anime and video game characters. Here are a couple of my favorites...

 An adorable Angel Castiel from "Supernatural"


 My favorite for innovation, "CatDog" from the Nickelodeon cartoon.



I saw lots of Doctors from Doctor Who, mostly Tens and Elevens, but also a couple of Fours with long scarves and a Five, complete with celery boutonnière. This guy in red is Doctor Horrible from the online musical.

Small Press

My favorite part of going to comic book conventions is seeing the small press sections, indy self publishers. In the last couple of years the San Diego ComicCon has grown so huge that these small visionaries renting small tables have been replaced by slicker money backed imprints. But here at Wondercon they were out in full force.

A few of my favorites...

Wylon Robotical the world's only flower delivering robots...

I bought a little field guide to these innovative creatures. See more of them here:

http://barrymcw.com/wrylon/






 This array of whimsical handmade toys is from Victoria Rose and Ann Sidenblad's booth, Rawrz Toys. Lovely stuff! http://rawrztoys.com/



This caught my attention, Tapastic. It's a website that hosts webcomics, similar to the way YouTube hosts videos. The interface seemed very elegant and accessable for iPads and other e-readers. I look forward to checking it out. http://tapastic.com/

 How can you not love "Penguins Vs. Possums" http://www.penguinsvspossums.com/


All in all, it was a great event. When I first started going to comic book conventions I was one of the few girls in a sea of guys. Then about ten years ago I started seeing a mom pushing a stroller or a bored girlfriend with her fanboy boyfriend as well as indy tables with female authors and illustrators. Around six years ago I started seeing more Anime and girls would attend wearing hats with kitten ears. Now, I am happy to say that half the people are female, dressed as superheroes, Frodos, angels, Edwardian Adventurers, My Little Pony, Tintin, warriors and yes, Doctors and even Captain Jack Harkness.

It makes me happy to see doors opening and a new generation of women reading comic books, making comic books, writing, drawing and dressing up like heroes. 

Do you have a favorite character? Who would you dress up as?

Marilyn


Here's a photo of my own video game character offspring on the right, Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts. He is posing with a cute girl in a blue dress holding a fanged brain. I can't pretend to know that that means.


Posted by Thetoymakers at 11:25 AM

7 comments:

  1. celiaMarch 31, 2013 at 3:45 PM

    Sigh. You get to go to ComicCon AND WonderCon. My son would expire with excitement. It all looks too fabulous for words to this old comic book reader.. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ThetoymakersMarch 31, 2013 at 4:40 PM

      It is a remarkable amount or awesome. And this Con was much more relaxed then the one in San Diego. :-)

      Delete
  2. TeacherMarch 31, 2013 at 4:27 PM

    What a great adventure! Love The Boy's costume and all the great photos! I am a lifelong comics fan, and have a few stacks of collectibles, mostly early Disney. Growing up, I loved Bugs Bunny, Little Lulu, the Classic Comics, Batman and Superman. I remember jumping out of trees in my Superman cape. Comics were a dime in those days...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ThetoymakersMarch 31, 2013 at 4:43 PM

      PS the funniest part of the day for me was when the boy took the wig off and his long blond locks tumbled out. I keep asking him if he can't go as a character with hair like his. :-)

      Delete
  3. ThetoymakersMarch 31, 2013 at 4:41 PM

    I can't tell you how many adults that I know say, "I wasn't allowed to read comics." We read everything!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 2, 2013 at 10:31 PM

    Thanks for liking our CatDog costume!! My sister and I have always wanted to dress up as CatDog and finally found a reason to make it :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ThetoymakersApril 3, 2013 at 8:37 AM

      It was one of the cleverest costumes I've seen in twenty years of ComicCons. So awesome! It was up there with Jack in the Box Jedi Knights and Bender the Robot. :-)

      Marilyn.

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)