Since the 1800s

Show floorAfter the ComicCon left me beaten and senseless last year, I was looking forward to the more low-key WonderCon this year. Low-key is what I got.

The little of WALL-E I saw looked good, but at this point, advertising for Pixar movies is kind of like advertising oxygen.

I learned from the Shutter panel that ghost photography has been around since the 1800s or the 18th century, whichever came first.

I learned that panels like the one about the new “X-Files” movie are a lot more enjoyable when the panelists haven’t been drug out of bed after a full night of filming, and instead seem like they really want to be there. I also learned that celebrities really are a different class of human, because they handled awkward questions from people dressed as Link with a lot more grace than normal people would’ve been able to on 15 minutes of sleep.

I finally got my copy of Mage: The Hero Discovered autographed by Matt Wagner, and a copy of the new issue of B.P.R.D.: 1946 (which is awesome, incidentally) signed by Mike Mignola. I’m hoping that neither guy was looking forward to conversation more interesting than “Could you sign this?” because I’m not that good at conversations with strangers anyway, much less in an artificially awkward situation like a comic book convention.

I got a copy of the new edition of Surfin’ the Highway signed by Steve Purcell. There was a good long line of people waiting for signatures.

Speaking of awkward situations, I also interrupted more important and knowledgeable panelists and spoke too much at a panel about the Sam & Max games. But it was very cool seeing and hearing a room full of people laughing at the right moments. (Surprisingly good turnout, by the way, considering that a woman from “Firefly” and the new “Terminator” show was appearing in another room in the same building).

And I started to wait in line to get Bill Willingham to sign my copy of Fables: Animal Farm and Darwyn Cooke my copy of New Frontier, but decided a twenty-minute wait for an awkward “hello” and an autograph weren’t worth it, as much as I love both books.

I think the best way to sum up my reaction to WonderCon: the best thing that I saw all weekend was this commercial for Jack in the Box. (Second place was Kristen Wiig’s hot-air balloon ad on “Saturday Night Live,” but NBC’s stupid site doesn’t have that video online.)