{"id":5963,"date":"2014-04-29T06:37:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T06:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/?p=5963"},"modified":"2024-02-29T09:16:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T09:16:09","slug":"wondercon-2014-part-1-panels-floor-and-shenanigans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/29\/wondercon-2014-part-1-panels-floor-and-shenanigans\/","title":{"rendered":"WonderCon 2014 \u2013 Part 1 (Panels, Floor, and Shenanigans)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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IMG_0129<\/span><\/span>WonderCon\u00a0is a trip for me because it\u2019s grown so much since I first started going to it up in Oakland back in 2002. Just in the few years it\u2019s been in Anaheim it\u2019s gotten a lot bigger. It\u2019s a great balance between the little conventions and Juggernaut that Comic Con has become.<\/p>\n

Mama Jedi and I got a 3-Day pass and headed up to\u00a0WonderCon\u00a0in\u00a0Anaheim from San Diego after working a half day on Friday so we were there for the latter half of Friday, all-day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday. Saturday is the day I crossplayed as\u00a0BBC Sherlock\u00a0and I got Mama Jedi to Crossplay as Dr. John Watson. It\u2019s the first time Mama Jedi has dressed up for a Convention and no one had any idea who she was dressed as even when she stood right next to me. Unless we told them. Oh well, it IS a pretty subtle costume, I guess.<\/p>\n

We even ran in to a few friends and acquaintances while we were there. Shout outs!<\/p>\n

Top row, left to right: my sister-in-law, Reba\u2019s friend Cat (Mario) ran into us over by\u00a0John Mulhall\u2019s\u00a0booth, my High School friend Rich (who did this amazing\u00a0HNG Delilah art) and I spent 10 minutes trying to find each other near the food court, where I then randomly ran into Paige (red hair) who is the best friend of my friend Cris.<\/p>\n

Bottom row, left to right: Geek Outlaw and I met Daniel at Comic Con in 2012 and seem to run into him at every Con we go to, we met\u00a0Capt. Seekerman\u00a0at\u00a0ConDor\u00a0last month and have since hung out with him sans amazing Steampunk Costume at the LRH Writer\u2019s of the Future Awards (coverage of that coming soon), and through\u00a0Capt. Seekerman\u00a0we met Andrea.<\/p>\n

And these don\u2019t even include what we call our \u201cConFam\u201d \u2013 the writers, artists, and cosplayers we see at most of the conventions we go to and have gradually developed friendships with. You\u2019ll see some of them later. This year, I even ran in to someone who might turn out to be ActualFam. This illustrator and concept artist\u2019s name caught my eye while I was making my way towards my friend Brett\u2019s booth in the Small Press section. I zeroed in on it because I am also a Doering and it\u2019s not a surname you see very often in the US.\u00a0Matt Doering\u00a0was incredibly nice (and uber talented) and I think we even kind of look alike (Maybe? A little?). Who knows if we\u2019re actually related but, either way, he\u2019s officially one of my new favorite artists.<\/p>\n

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Watch out, there\u2019s two Doering\u2019s in the hizzouse<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking of\u00a0Brett\u00a0(the guy who\u2019s booth I was looking for when I ran into long-lost-maybe-family), he\u2019s been a good friend of mine since High School and he was there representing his hilarious online web comic,\u00a0Orky the Porky Orca. It\u2019s possible we love Orky a little too much.<\/p>\n

Brett also wrote and illustrated a book about 101 Random Conversations with Strangers (most of which are true) that is turning out to be very popular thanks, in part, to it\u2019s extreme hilarity. Mama Jedi bought one and I caught her laughing out loud for real in her hotel room while reading it.<\/p>\n

Artist\u00a0Mike Hicks\u00a0is a recent addition to our ConFam. We met him at (I think) Long Beach Comic Con and were immediately drawn (heehee) to his unique style. He creates beautiful drawings using one continuous line that never crosses or touches. (Want to follow the line and see for yourself? Click\u00a0HERE<\/strong>). The first time we met he offered to do a piece based on one of my\u00a0Batgirl poses. When Hayden found out, he naturally wanted a Geek Outlaw one as well. We finally met up with Mike again at WonderCon and were able to pick up the originals. Thanks, Mike!<\/p>\n

I was already a fan of\u00a0Patrick Ballesteros\u2018 art when he sent me an email about his latest piece a couple of years ago. I was only too happy to share it! Since then we\u2019ve connected at several conventions and he\u2019s one of the friendliest guys you\u2019ll ever meet. See that adorable\u00a0Firefly<\/em>\u00a0picture behind him? I\u2019ve got it hanging on the wall in my office\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another member of the ConFam, we met author\u00a0John Mulhall\u00a0at a convention a couple of years ago (we had a whole conversation trying to remember exactly which one and couldn\u2019t decide) and started hanging out with him more and more at each subsequent con.\u00a0Even though I bought it a looooong time ago, I only recently read his book\u00a0Geddy\u2019s Moon<\/em>\u00a0and, to be honest, it\u2019s fantastic. I wish I\u2019d read it sooner. And I\u2019m not just saying that because he\u2019s now my friend. I\u2019ll write up a review of it and fill you in on exactly why you need to read it. Because you do. John also participated in a panel which I\u2019ll get to later.<\/p>\n

Side note: John Mulhall, Blayne Alexander of the band\u00a0Idiot Stare,\u00a0Geek Outlaw, and I recently started recording podcasts for a geek round-table idea that John had, the first of which should be coming out any time now. So stay tuned for that!<\/p>\n

Hayden and I met\u00a0Georges Jeanty\u00a0when we had our very first booth at the\u00a0LA Comic Book and Sci-Fi Convention\u00a0where he broke a piece off of my Mal Reynolds pistol (yes, I forgave him). Georges is\u00a0one of the cover artists for Dark Horse\u2019s new\u00a0Serenity<\/em>\u00a0comic book series\u00a0that takes place immediately following the events of\u00a0the movie. We even found a girl dressed as\u00a0Illyria from Angel\u00a0who was really excited to get Georges signature on her costume.<\/p>\n

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Geremi Burleigh\u00a0is another artist we look out for and visit at Conventions. His comics\u00a0Morningstar<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Eye of the Gods<\/em>\u00a0are great reads and Geremi is a ridiculously nice guy. He\u2019s starting to do Cons all over the US (I think his next one is in Minnesota) so keep an eye out for him at your local con!<\/p>\n

Mama Jedi and I first ran into this lovely Oregonian couple while we were walking back to our hotel room and got distracted by a giant blue Furrie (REALLY wish I\u2019d gotten a picture of that) and then\u00a0Guinan\u00a0speedwalking past us. Together the four of us wandered over to a room labeled \u201cTen Forward\u201d (this Trekkie could NOT pass up seeing that) which turned out to be the flotsam and jetsam of what I\u2019m sure was once tables teeming with beverages and snacks but was now merely an\u00a0exhausted volunteer and some leftover cans of pop. Once the disappointment receded, we chatted them up about the pink stuffed critters attached to them. It turns out that John is the brains behind the adorably terrifying and very aptly named,\u00a0Tentacle Kitty. Why would school girls run away from such a cute little critter?! John has a web comic that includes a ninja kitty, a pirate kitty, and a rat tailed unicorn. I checked it out and it\u2019s delightful! Welcome to the ConFam\u00a0<\/p>\n

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I love my new posters! Ninja Kitty and Doctor Who crossover ftw<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hey, Mjolnir! I\u2019ve got one of those too!<\/p>\n

The\u00a0USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D bridge restoration project\u00a0folks were there but instead of the bridge they had a transporter room on display. We took full advantage of the Transporter Room.<\/p>\n

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A \u2013 B \u2013 C. As easy as 1 \u2013 2 \u2013 3!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I even took a stab at\u00a0Chief O\u2019Brien\u2019s\u00a0old job.<\/p>\n

I would like for\u00a0Chris Hardwick\u00a0to become a member of our ConFam but I wasn\u2019t about to wait in the crazy long line just to meet him or his Lego alter-ego. I only wait for\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0actors and\u00a0Stan Lee.<\/p>\n

And rounding out Part 1 of the WonderCon 2014 coverage, we\u2019ve got the Panels! I only made it to four of them this year but they were good ones!<\/p>\n

Falling Skies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelists: Seychelle Gabriel, Moon Bloodgood, Sarah Carter, Doug Jones<\/em><\/p>\n

I went to the\u00a0Falling Skies<\/em>\u00a0panel last year and enjoyed it so much that I really wanted to make it again this year and I was definitely not disappointed. They started off with an amazing trailer for Season 4 (which starts Sunday, June 22nd at 10:00pm) before they introduced\u00a0Seychelle Gabriel\u00a0<\/span>(Lourdes),\u00a0Moon Bloodgood<\/span>\u00a0(Anne),\u00a0Sarah Carter<\/span>\u00a0(Maggie), and (YAY!!!)\u00a0Doug Jones<\/span>\u00a0(Cochise). It was worth it for Doug Jones alone.<\/p>\n

They revealed a surprising amount of details about Season 4. I don\u2019t want to give too much away but everyone gets split up after a very intense opening battle scene (which they showed us and which looked REEEEALLY good), we get to see Lexi all grown up, Anne become a badass, Lourdes overcompensating for her Season 3 bug, and Pope meet his match in Mira Sorvino. The general consensus was that the show is really nuts this year. One fun tidbit we learned is that Seychelle and Moon once snuck into an ER and pretended to be medical students in order to see how a real ER looked and felt and had to fend off the teaching Doctors when they were asked to perform tasks like change a catheter.<\/p>\n

Psychology of Cult TV Shows<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelists: Dr. Janina Scarlet, Josue Cardona, Dr. Travis Langley, Elizabeth Ann<\/em><\/p>\n

We sought out this panel mostly because we\u2019d seen Dr. Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight<\/em>) on a writing panel at a previous WonderCon and it was one of our favorite panels of all time. They basically said that it was OK to be obsessed with TV hows like\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>,\u00a0Sherlock<\/em>, and\u00a0Firefly<\/em>\u00a0as long as it doesn\u2019t prevent you from living a fulfilling \u201creal\u201d life. There was a really long line for this panel so we only caught the last third of it but it was fascinating!<\/p>\n

Afterward we stayed and chatted with Dr. Langley and Alan Sizzler Kistler who was also on that previous writing panel and who had stayed and answered all of our questions last time we saw him. Awesome guys!<\/p>\n

Game On!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelists: David Buckley, Inon Zur, Woody Jackson, Charles Deenen, Gwen Riley
\n<\/em>Moderator: Thomas Mikusz\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This panel was about the sound and music of video games and started off with a video montage of\u00a0Video Games, Live!\u00a0in which a live (no, really, they\u2019re live) orchestra performs the theme songs from your favorite video games while scenes from those games play on giant screens in the background. It actually look really rad. Video game music is tough in that the player is going to be stuck with it for several hours so it better be good. Because of that, the developers now really understand how important the music is. The original\u00a0World of Warcraft<\/em>\u00a0had approximately 2.5 hours of music. The latest one has approximately 52 hours.<\/p>\n

After this panel, Hayden and I had the opportunity to interview\u00a0Batman: Arkham Knight<\/em>\u00a0Composer\u00a0David Buckley!<\/p>\n

Check out the interview here:<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u2013<\/p>\n

Surviving Well<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelists: Markorie Liu, Cecil Castellucci, Genese Davis, Gretchen McNeil, John Mulhall<\/em>
\nModerator: LeAnna Herrera<\/em><\/p>\n

We attended this panel because our\u00a0writer friend\u00a0and Podthingy co-star\u00a0John Mulhall\u00a0was a panelist and I\u2019m glad we did. It was about how saving the world isn\u2019t enough if the world isn\u2019t worth living in after you\u2019ve saved it.<\/p>\n

As the lone male on the panel, John was able to offer a different and unique perspective from the ladies. At one point the conversation veered off into a commentary about what it means to be a \u201cstrong female character\u201d and how that term really isn\u2019t very appropriate.<\/p>\n

At this point Hayden lost the hand from his\u00a0Rick Grimes\u00a0action figure which we found HILARIOUS.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for the cosplay pictures tomorrow!<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Side note: the first run of HNG calendars sold out (yay!) and I need to order some more for an upcoming event. If anyone would like to get one, now\u2019s the time to order! The calendar features all of the nerdy holidays (and the regular ones too) and a convention calendar. Order one today!<\/strong><\/p>\n