Blog@ has coverage of Day 1 of WonderCon. So does the
Mercury News. In the above photo, Ian Brill, Matt Brady and Graeme McMillan, snapped by JK Parkin.

Big weekend comics story: WaPo has a looooong story on Deepak Chopra and Virgin Comics

Chopra is outside a Coffee Bean in Santa Monica, Calif., where he’s drinking a cup of coffee containing two scoops of white chocolate powder. (“It’s my own concoction,” he says.) He sounds like a guy living the sweet life. He’s just come from a two-hour workout, which included weight training and yoga, and he’s taking the rest of the day off.

As he tells it, he isn’t in this comics thing just to make a few bucks off a major motion picture. No, he’s thinking way bigger than that. He believes comic books can bridge cultural gaps, including the yawning maw that stands between the United States and its enemies.

“Kids all over the world are reading comic books,” he says, “and if we could create a transcultural hero that appeals to kids in countries like Iran and Syria, that could have a huge impact. We’ve even made a proposal to the State Department to study celebrity heroes in Islamic countries and make superheroes out of them. It’s a good way — ”

Wait, you called the State Department?

“Yes.”