WonderCon? FUNdercon is more like it. Just this once, we decided to take time off at a show to chill and hang out with pals instead of running around like a maniac. Oh sure, we had our Henry Cavill sighting and late night Fix Comics talks. But the great thing about WonderCon is that you can walk the floor of the Moscone Center taking pictures of people in costumes, and buying sketchbooks from your favorite artists and watching exclusive trailer footage…and then run outside and eat or shop in a full-service, world class city, with ocean front views, tiki bar decadence and other exotic thrills a short ride ride away.
Of course there were the usual rumors and industry-shaking undertones, many of which will play out over the next few months. It was obvious that Marvel and DC are offshoots of big entertainment conglomerates, as comics become marketing vehicles for film franchises. But there was something for everyone, and comics stayed in the forefront of the “comic-con” formula this time out.
Is WonderCon going to get too big? Attendance was up, and three-day passes sold out early. Movie roundtables were tighter than ever. Saturday was too crowded to walk around. But the Comic-Con personnel seem dedicated to keeping WonderCon a little sister and not a twin; as David Glanzer told GamerLive
I think WonderCon has done a wonderful job being exactly what it is. I’m sure we’ll see some growth, but no one expects it to be another Comic-Con International.
Wow… they only used Moscone South!
Only half of the Exhibit space was used. Two ballrooms (two in West) unused.
San Francisco: A-E, Plus West First Floor = 541 K sq.ft.
Ballrooms: 2960 (in between A-C/DE!), 5354 (Esplanade), 6075, 6075 (West 2,3)
San Diego: A-G = 461 K sq.ft.
Hall H seats 6130 Ballroom 6 seats 4000.
“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
A rather large portion of the Moscone Hall A was used for registration and line control prior to the con opening. The floorplan they released doesn’t really show all of that. And while the exhibit floor was packed on Saturday, the place it really hurt was in the lobby area where you have the entrance to the floor, food vendors, entrance to large programming rooms and escalators all shoved into a ridiculously tiny space.
(my ‘yes, but…’) The Moscone South location is much better than the Moscone West location used in the first years of Wondercon in SF. As crowded as it gets, I don’t believe the fire marshalls needed to limit the number of people on the floor as they did with Moscone West. The line control area was used as a Film preview area originally, but the lines-to-get-in problems caused that change in plans.
All of my comments are marginal (in importance).
BOTTOM LINE: THANK YOU to all of the volunteers and to the organizers. I had three days of heaven, and I’m already excited about APE!
MOSCONE West is catty-corner and separated from MOSCONE North, South— it’s gonna be tough for attendees to cross back and forth the busy 4th St. in a bifurcated, expanded WC. (Unless SF blocks off 4th St. for all 3 days a la 5th Ave. in San Diego for SDCC.) But expanding to North, gotta be a given for WC ’12.
And, I was somewhat surprised by all the WONDERCON coverage here— way more than the preceeding C2E2, definitely. Didn’t expect such ‘expansive’ West Coast Con love from The Beat…