As I sit on my couch this lovely Sunday morning I’m still recovering from last weekends Wizard World Con in Portland Oregon. Wizard Cons tagline is “Where pop culture comes to life” and I would have to agree with that. The level of Wizard Con is comparable close to that of Emerald City Comicon and what I imagine the San Diego Con is like, since I’ve never been to the San Diego Con I assume it’s bigger, but what makes me feel it’s similar is the different halls with different workshops and talks. At first it was just a little overwhelming; comic book booths, toys, clothes, artists with prints, writers with books, and if that wasn’t enough there was a huge gamer area with PC’s and consoles, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Although the above mentioned was enough to keep me busy for hour there was a ton of guests and cosplayers that had my head snapping at every turn. Among the most popular were Captain Kirk himself William Shatner, Jessica Jones/Krysten Ritter, and Doctor Who’s Matt Smith. These are a few of my favorite cosplayers from the weekend.
Although seeing an amazingly talented and beautiful woman like Krysten Ritter up close would have been pretty cool it was the last activity on my list. I was very interested in some of the workshops and talks they had. The author of the Shanara Chronicles Terry Brooks was there and he had a little talk about the books. Unfortunately I didn’t make it in time for his talk, which really depresses me but I did make it for my personal main attraction, a writers workshop for aspiring comic book writers. The comic writer panel was about forty five minutes and it felt like two, I had so many questions, but I had a ton of fun and will forever remember the advice I did get while there. Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid, Dennis “Denny” O’Neil, and Danny Fingeroth were the panel of writers and listening to them talk was a dream come true. Between the four of them they had nearly a century of knowledge and they were light hearted and sincere during the talk. Even though I do mostly indie reviews and deal with indie artists these gentlemen were just as humble and approachable as indie creators, which made me feel very comfortable.
Kurt Busiek has worked with Marvel and DC, as well as other well known publishers like Dynamite and Dark Horse. He has a book that I really enjoy in the Autumnlands Tooth and Claw. Mark Waid is also a veteran of DC and Marvel having wrote some stuff for two of my favorite heroes, Superman and Batman. One of Waid’s most famous writings is Superman Birthright, but he has had a hand in many other stories featuring the likes of famous characters like Daredevil or Spiderman, and he did it not only as a writer but an editor as well. Dennis O’Neil, Denny, has the largest resume of them all spanning decades as a writer and editor. This man is legendary and had a hand in so many different iconic runs of comics that it’s hard to choose just one, not to mention the different awards he has won, but I will say that this man has worked with the likes of Stan Lee and Frank Miller during his Daredevil run. Enough said. During the panel it seemed that Danny Fingeroth was the moderator but Fingeroth has a very impressive Marvel resume that includes editing Spiderman. As I said, these gentlemen are heavy hitters and attending this talk was the coolest thing I could have done at Wizard Con.
Here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment and I hope you all consider going to cons in your home town or near where you live!
