WonderCon Anaheim convenes two weeks from today. I’d say “Nothing in the world could keep me away from it” but a couple years ago, breaking my ankle did. It’s a con run by the same people who bring you the monster that is Comic-Con International in San Diego but WonderCon, though big enough that you won’t be able to see or do everything there, is about a third the size. It’s not as crowded. It’s not as Hollywood-oriented. It’s not as overwhelming.
And best of all, you can still get in. There are badges and hotel rooms available.
Last year at Comic-Con, I moderated or appeared on nineteen panels over four days. This year at WonderCon, I’ll moderate or appear on either seven or eight. (One is still under discussion.) The entire programming schedule should be on the website some time today and I’ll post my list of panels here in a day or so.
WonderCon started out in Oakland, California and there were nine of them there between 1987 and 2002. They skipped a few years. When the San Diego Comic-Con people took it over in 2003, they moved it to the Moscone Center in San Francisco and it was there for nine years. They had no intentions of leaving S.F. but in 2012, the Moscone Center was undergoing serious renovations and couldn’t find room for the comic convention.
So that year, WonderCon was held it at the Anaheim Convention Center for what they thought was a one-time event there. As it turned out, Anaheim was a whopping success and in following years, they couldn’t get acceptable dates at the Moscone…so WonderCon became an Anaheim event. For a while, they talked about having WonderCon Anaheim and WonderCon San Francisco each year but they seem to have given up on that idea. WonderCon has stayed in Anaheim except for 2016 when the convention center there was undergoing serious renovation.
The one at the L.A. Convention Center was the only WonderCon I didn’t enjoy. That complex is a horrible place to hold…well, anything. You’ve got a bad layout, bad parking, it’s not near anything good, it’s staffed by people who are indifferent to every inconvenience you may suffer…it’s just a depressing place. I’ve been there a few times for different events and it’s only made me appreciate the convention centers in Anaheim and San Diego more. The Javits Center in New York also strikes me as the kind of place you’re sentenced to dwell for all eternity in the Afterlife if you’ve been a really horrible person on Earth.
But Anaheim is great if you can avoid Disneyland-related traffic congestion. Hope to see some of you down there.
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