Once in a while, I actually take off a day off from working here at www.affordablelamps.com and go to a convention. It was fortuitous that the annual Wondercon, a Comic Con International event, fell on the Easter weekend. I left early on Good Friday with my wife and we made the six-hour trek to the city by the bay, whereupon we found the Moscone Center, home of the convention. Although I have attended Comic Con in San Diego since 1971, this was my first Wondercon, and with the room rate at the Marriot Marquis at $109.00 a night, who could resist?
Wondercon is the Northern California equivalent to the San Diego convention which continues to sell out five months in advance. I had to re-qualify for pro status, but the good news was that this gains me entrance to both events. I must admit that I think I enjoyed Wondercon more than the last year’s Comic Con in San Diego, primarily because there were a fourth fewer people in attendance. Comic con gets an attendance of 140,000 people and up. Wondercon was about 35,000 or so. The dealer’s room was about one third the size of San Diego and there was no art show, but plenty of artists in the artist’s alley, plus the usual celebrities hawking their autographs for rent money. Warner Brothers put on a show of film clips from new movies like The Losers, Nightmare on Elm Street, plus Supernatural, V, Fringe and Kick Ass. The weather was cold out that weekend, so staying inside and doing the fanish thing was an ideal way to pass the time. As I said, I have been attending conventions like this since 1971. My first Comic Con was actually in the Disney Con in Anaheim back in ’71, where my three favorite artists at the time, Carmine Infantino, Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko, were in attendance. That was a magical con, and in many ways, the Wondercon had that feel to it. Comic Con 1971 followed three months later. It was the 2nd San Diego Convention, with about 600 attendees, me being one. Oh how times have changed.
This year’s San Diego con is sold out. I will attend, of course. I’ve only missed two in 39 years and both of those times I was out of the country. It’s too damn big for its own good, but nevertheless, the pull is strong, and like the Borg, we will be absorbed.
But I think more people had fun at Wondercon. Of course, in a few years, this show will grow, and become as big as its summer event. Fandom has become mainstream, something even I never thought would happen. But as a charter member of the Shel Dorf fan club, named in honor of the late founder of Comic Con, it is my duty to archive the Fanzines of that era. That is my secret identity, and I am in very select company indeed:
