I got up at 7:00 on a Sunday so I could get to WonderCon at 9:00, 2 1/2 hours before the Doctor Who panel.
- There are a lot of Chinese people in San Francisco. Weird, and unexpected, I know. Particularly in Chinatown.
- Some of the more memorable costumes I've seen outside of the Masquerade:
[I wrote this list on the bus] - The alien from
Alien, including a several-feet-long tail.
- The Predator from
Predator.
- Slave girl Leia - and she pulled it off.
- A few
Zatanna. They looked kinda uncomfortable.
- Various Death Star officers.
- Strangely, I think I only saw one Doctor.
[I saw at least half a dozen Doctors on Sunday, and several more people just wearing fezzes. Fezzes are cool.] - A few Dr. Horrible.
- Many steampunk people, of varying degrees of quality.
In line for and waiting for the Doctor Who panel:
- There was guy in line behind me wearing a t-shirt with:
Blue Lantern Corps symbol +
The Flash's symbol = The Flash in the Blue Lantern Corps's
symbol (whose power comes from and creates Hope).
1. I am pleased that there is a t-shirt for this.
2. I am pleased with myself for recognizing this.
-
THIRD ROW! Getting here 2.5 hours before the panel was
so worth it. That wasn't even that early.
- Not only am I in the third row, I'm directly in front of the moderator's podium.
- So many Doctor Who fans in one place.
[That was probably the best part of WonderCon, actually. Being in a huge crowd of nerds. We are, in general, a nice crowd.]
The panel had
Neil Gaiman and
Mark Sheppard! Weee! And Toby Haynes, who directed the last two episodes of the last series and the first three of this coming series. Neil Gaiman wrote the fourth episode of this series, and Mark Sheppard is appearing in the first two-parter.
- "Nixon is
scary." - Mark Sheppard. He compared Nixon to other Steven Moffat monsters.
- Neil Gaiman taunts the audience with a flashdrive that contains his episode.
- Mark Sheppard fanboy moment - seeing 9/10's TARDIS (which is appearing in this series, for some reason)
- "Vancouver is a double for everywhere." - MS.
- TH says that his next job is directing
Sherlock, and MS begs for a part in the show.
- NG is appearing as himself in an episode of
The Simpsons this fall.
I'm sorry. I could have written more, but I was watching and taking pictures instead. They played a clip from NG's episode, which includes Time Lord sign, and a scene with MS, in which he acts disrespectful towards Nixon while talking to him on the phone. I am very much looking forward to seeing how he interacts with the rest of the cast.
Terra Nova panel:
A new show in which people from a dystopic future (the year 2149), go on a one-way trip to 85 million ybp (via a supercollider-caused time crack. Whatever) . It's described as a "postmodern scifi western." I didn't think much of the show before the panel, but I might watch some of it now. Which, of course, is the point of having a panel for it.
- It stars
Jason O'Mara (who was in the US version of Life on Mars) and
Stephen Lang (who played the bad guy in
Avatar).
- "I only do shows that include time travel as part of the premise." - JO
- Oh whoa! JO is Irish?
[I immediately liked him more. Am I shallow or what? At least I'm pretty sure he's Irish. I don't know what else that accent could be]- The show will include a twist on time paradoxes.
- JO takes pictures of the audience at various points in the panel.
- This is another very expensive show.
- It took 12 weeks to build the Terra Nova set in Australia.
- The show will include feathered dinosaurs, which were made using motion capture suits on human actors.
- Sonic weapons.
Thundercats panel:
Some of the people with whom I chatted before the Doctor Who panel helped me acquire a seat in the
front row! Thundercats, if you don't know, was a cartoon from the 80s. It now has a cult status, particularly among people who grew up watching it (which doesn't include me, but hey, io9.com recommended going to it, and I was in the front row). A re-imagining of the show is currently in development. The animation is beautiful - lots of detail and generally good-quality animation.
On the Floor:
- Wow, I did not know that the
Firefly soundtrack is out of print.
- I noted to Zach Weiner (author of
SMBC comics) that lefties rule. He concurred.
- An explanation as to why DC won WonderCon so resoundingly: Marvel is lame. I talked to a vendor, and he said that this is the first time in a while that Marvel has even had a booth here, so obviously they didn't have a panel for any of their three movies coming out this year. DC wins. They gave me free stuff and had lots of panels.
I didn't stay long enough for the people to kick us out of the building, but vendors had started to break down their booths. Thankfully the hostel let me keep my car in the parking lot even though I had checked out, so I didn't have to find parking downtown. Yay. And I only got lost about three times trying to get out of San Francisco. Yay for cellphones and the internet, and Mothers who use cellphones and the internet.
The Chinese restaurant whose exterior was the inspiration for the story that is at the center of my work.
One of my favorite picture books as a child, it showed me a world full of mysterious transformations and drew me in with its illustrations that helped my imagination run wild.
Their image may exist only in my memory now, but they were my first regular experience with porcelain and its marvelous subtlety.
The museum in general and the gate in particular showed me that the way fragments are displayed can make all the difference in making the distant past seem real.
The book from which I learned the potency of ice and eye-horror as themes in storytelling.
Which showed me that silly things can be art and art can be silly.
Which taught me that confusion can be orderly and that an image doesn't need words to tell a story.
I don't remember where I first saw them, but they suggested some possibilities of pierced surfaces that I had not considered before.
The extensive discussion of chaos theory in the book taught me that chaos is beautiful.
Which inspired me to make some of my earliest drawings of nature for its own sake, rather than just decoration in the background.
Which made me realize that my love of things that looked like one thing but were actually another could apply to my art.
The painting that taught me the delights of the grotesque and that discomfiture is a good thing in art.
This episode taught me the use of disembodied faces and their power to be both amusing and disquieting.
Which were the original inspiration for the porcelain lace that I am making today.
A book that reminded me that the combination of beauty, creepiness, and silliness is a recipe for awesome.
