WonderCon 2007

San Francisco, California. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." WonderCon 2007 happened. In the heart of Downtown San Francisco on the planet earth, was the beginning of a wonderful weekend filled with stormtroopers, aliens, heroes, villians, and all the wonderful elements you can think of. Many people forget that comic book conventions were the original conventions to make ways for more to come. The anime convention world may be bigger but many stay true to their childhood memories. Growing up with Spider Man, X-Men, Star Wars, Star Trek, Duck Tales, Gargoyles, & many more! As people who come to these comic book type conventions, we learn about a brief history of cosplay. Many people forget that this was where it all started, when one famous japanese author by the name of "Nov Takahashi" came to Worldcon in 1984. He saw many people dressed up in costumes from various cartoon series. The term "Cosplay" was a combination of "costume" & "play" which would mean wearing a costume while playing or interacting with others. Today, cosplay is now the biggest hobby to any convention goer whether you go to sci-fi, comic book, or anime convention. You will be surrouneded by many people in cosplay.

WonderCon is the sister convention of the world famous "San Diego Comic-Con International" convention. WonderCon in many people's opinion serves as the preview show for Comic-Con allowing convention goers a chance to see a smaller version of Comic-Con while at the same time getting chances at meeting some of their favorite cartoon heroes from the past. Many of these heroes include, Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddmore) from Ghostbusters, Peter Mayhew (Chewie) from Star Wars, Noel Neill (Lois Lane) from the original Superman TV Live Action, Legendary TV Host Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, and many more! Take a walk down the stairway of the Moscone South Center and be greeted by the WonderCon sign as you head on over to the Dealer's Hall. With 15 aisles of dealer's ranging from 1st issue comics to the latest in the hottet comics, the 501st Legion making their patrol around finding those two droids, costumes were people come asking to pose with their hero, artist alley to buy prints of your favorite character, and autographs to get your favorite DVD signed by the star of that movie. Fans go up and down each aisle begging to buy that item they desire the most to take home and be proud of. While the costumes keep appearing one by one.

Remember this is a comic book based convention, there is a higher probability you'll find more comic book characters while anime cosplay will be smaller than anime conventions. While roaming around the Moscone Center, be sure to look out for your crime fighting heroes making their way around. Take the chance to ask them "Can I pose with you?" cause you never know if you'll see them again later in the day. There was no real big group of costumes you would most likely spot the most at this convention. For example you'll see more Naruto, Bleach, Ouran, & Final Fantasy costumes at anime conventions instead of here. There's nothing wrong with cosplaying anime at this convention, just remember one thing. You won't find many more of your costume seen around these type of conventions. Friday offered attendees who pre-registered the chance to see Frank Miller's "300" later in the evening before premiere night on March 9, 2007. If you were one of the lucky viewers who got the chance to see it, you won't be dissapointed with the film. Didn't get a chance to see 300? Well WonderCon spotted up a special Independent Film Festival showing the best of 2006 from Comic-Con themselves! As friday drew to a close, it was time to rest up and get ready for tomorrow.

Saturday morning at the dawn of 8:45AM. The famous 501st Legion gathered in front of the Yerba Buena Gardens getting a chance to show who's running the convention. If only that were true but then again this is a convention after all so who knows what goes on behind the scenes. If your favorite movie star was here then you know you'll definately stop by their panels to ask them the one question you've been dying to ask them for so long. Saturday filled up with Hollywood panels featuring Spider Man 3, 300, & Resident Evil Extinction. Not a fan of the movies? Then how about asking Disney's Greg Weisman about what was it like to work on your favorite Disney cartoon shows from Gargoyles to Alladin. Not a Disney fan? Ok then lets go to room 220 and meet famous comic strip artist Patrick McDonnell who's millions of viewers who read the most popular newspaper comic strip "The Mutts". WonderCon this year offered more panels this year over last year. Fans weren't dissapointed with what they were offered, thus giving WonderCon one of the highest ranking convention in California. As the day rolled through into the night, fans began lineing up for the next event that all conventions of any genre would have. The Masquerade!

This was Team Misaki Studios' first time being backstage of any masquerade. It was a wonderful experience getting a chance to meet the cosplayers and take their pictures in a brightly lit area without being forced to take pictures without the flash in the stage area. With at least ten different photographers backstage, it was easy to get great pictures of the costumes while getting the opportunity to chat among ourselves about costumes many of us have seen, what conventions we've been to, and pretty much all the knowledge of photographers who travel around the US to these conventions. The costumes ranged from Star Wars, to House of Flying Daggers, to Devil May Cry, and even Monty Python. Every costume was amazing one after another, there was one Star Wars group that surprised all the photographers when the two came walking in as Lego Star Wars. It was fun and funny at the same time because when was the last time you ever saw a Lego Darth Maul walking around the convention center? Well only one way to find out, go to WonderCon and Comic-Con and see if you can spot them! While there was only 25 entries from this masquerade, the costumes as we mentioned were amazing one after another. This definately won't be a masquerade to forget, because every costume were just beauitful. Thus ending saturday night, time for another sleep break.

Sunday morning, the last day, the day everybody hates when its time to leave convention grounds. However sunday is also the day when people in costumes do silly poses with their friends. Lets mix Teen Titans with Star Wars, Naruto & Final Fantasy as seen on the right of this paragraph. It's always fun to get those last minute poses with your favorite character if you can find them. There was even a line to get an autograph from Darth Vader himself while the stormtroopers line up to get it. WonderCon this past weekend made us here at Team Misaki Studios make our attempts to go to the biggest comic book convention in the world. "Comic-Con!" We hope to make our way to this show in July as WonderCon proved to be a great preview show of Comic-Con and we look forward to seeing everybody in San Diego. We're in the planning stages right now so stay tuned as we'll continue to give you updates on our plans for Comic-Con 2007. We thank the staff at WonderCon for a wonderful show and we'll definately come back next year! We'd like to thank the attendees who were wearing costumes who posed for our coverage and hope you love the pictures.

If you would like to see pictures from this show please "Click Here" til then,

See you at the next Convention!