April Fool’s Day was transformed to Con Fan Day at Wonder Con today! This event took place at the Anaheim Convention Center and will continue through the weekend to April 3rd, Sunday. I started out slow, a little tired walking up to the lanyard area, but once I reached Artist’s Alley and saw the table of Becky Cloonan and Michael W Conrad, the con adrenalin kicked in and walked around the con for hours, no eat, or drink. My walk meter read 13.75 miles and I activated it after about an hour or two. They were setting up the table, but the fans were very patient. Conrad and Cloonan were very nice, answering questions, and signing books. They had many books on their table; Cloonan's The King's Story and Conrad's The Strange Disappearance of Stanley Lau. Their site where you can order copies and get info is at: https://mysteryschool.bigcartel.com.
The con floor at Wonder Con, photo by the author.
I started going down the aisles to check out the different artists. I checked the Heavy Metal table and then passed by Bandai Namco with its statues of Naruto and Goku from Dragonball. There was a statue of the classic Mechagozilla, I think from a booth that sold jackets? The major surprise was Stuart Ng Books. On their front table was the Art of Turning Red book signed by Domee Shi, the director, and film’s writer, Julia Cho. The retail price is $42.50 so this signed edition was about twice that price. There were only a few copies left so I picked up my copy! Check out: https://stuartngbooks.com. His store is in Torrance. I looped back and found the Edgar Rice Burroughs booth. I would really like everyone to click over to https://www.edgarriceburroughs.com for information, the online store, and news. I’m working on some exclusive interviews, stay tuned!
Vigilante cosplayer, photo by the author.
I returned to Artist’s Alley and found a brilliant artist, her booth was Lothlenan: Art of Andrea Tamme, website: https://www.lothlenan.com. Incredible homages of classic paintings; I was stunned by Link and Zelda in God Speed and The Accolade by Leighton (probably my most favorite paintings), Monet’s Woman with a Parasol except it was Totoro!, and there is also the Steven Universe version of Fragonards The Swing. Her youtube channel is Lothlenan, https://www.youtube.com/c/Lothlenan, excellent tutorials. I kept weaving through the aisles and saw Ron Lim, I think I saw him at Comic Con years back, I had a copy of Silver Surfer: Rebirth #1 by Ron Marz and Lim. Plus, there was a page from Hero Initiative: Captain America 100 Project. Hero Initiative is to help comic creators who have fallen on hard times or need to pay medical bills. If you would like to see what is available and get more info, look here: https://www.heroinitiative.org.
Lim is one of friendliest creators, we laughed and chatted about comic book films and shows. Also there was Craig Miller, Lucasfilm’s Director of Fan Relations, he was promoting his book, Star Wars Memories: My Time In The (Death Star) Trenches, now available. I went to see Elliot S. Maggin, mostly because I had a copy of Superman: Son of Krypton (1978). We had a lively conversation about the character and depictions of Superman. Next, I went to see Tula Lotay, she is a fine artist, I told her I sensed movie poster illustrator, Robert McGinnis, as an influence. I picked up her art book and a Wonder Woman print which she painted on! Don’t forget to go to her site: https://www.tulalotay.com. I finished the day, after an hour walk meter was at 13.75 miles!, and took pics of cosplayers, an excellent Indy and Sallah, also Vigilate. Exhausting, but the con adrenalin kept me going, the best part is talking to so many creative and fun people! I hope you are able to go (or are going) to Wonder Con this weekend!
#WonderCon, #BeckyCloonan, #MichaelWConrad, #StuartNgBooks, #Lothlenan, #CraigMiller, #ElliotSMaggin, #TulaLotay
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