WonderCon, the San Francisco version of Comic Con. And one more convention type to experience.

PAX, BlizzCon, GDC, are all slightly different experiences from each other, so it is no surprise to me that WonderCon was in it’s own way awesome.

First, the fact that unlike other conventions, where it seems to be mostly marketing or production people, WonderCon is more about the artists, writers, and creators. The booths are for the creators to be able to interact with, and get money from, their fans. And I loved it.

At the tender age of 12, I had to come up with an email address. I wanted it to be a name, not some silly <insert thing> <insert number> creation. So I took 2 things I adored, ElfQuest, the comic, and a character from a book, smushed two names together, and voila, thus was born Ember Dione. Ember is a character from Wendy and Richard Pini’s fantasy comic ElfQuest. She has red hair, is known to be stubborn, annoyingly curious, and overly excitable. Sound like someone? Over time, Ember Dione simply became a name for myself.

Today, at WonderCon, I got to meet Wendy and Richard Pini. And in fact, got them to sign pictures, much to my joy. I then wandered around checking out other booths, other stores (purchasing a few ElfQuest comics and a Chocobo hat), and watched my friend buy huge piles of $1 comics.

I understand Joss Whedon was running around, along with a few dozen other famous types but I never ran into any of them.

I enjoyed WonderCon, and have every intention of going next year and picking up any missing EQ comics at that time. I don’t collect any other comics of real import, but it is wondrous to see the joy and exchange of comics going on at WonderCon. It just makes me wish I collected more comics.

As a side note:

WonderCon was the first place I took my 3DS which now carries my website as my Mii’s introduction. This site is a personal blog, mostly discussing game design and World of Warcraft, with the occasional forays into Real Life, Books, Movies, and other Games.