WonderCon '09

I went to WonderCon in San Francisco today. I am still undecided if I like this con better or less than San Diego Comic Con overall but this year really was great. I went with my good friend Dave and saw lots of great stuff. This year was pretty easy going and one thing for sure, it's a lot less crowded in SF than down south. There were still folks who went all out to make great costumes as you'll see below but WC is also small enough (still) to get to chat with sellers and so on. Some well respected names in the animation industry were at their tables and actually had time to have a conversation. The guys I wanted to rub elbows with were the most approachable folks I've had the chance to banter with in some time. I mean where else are you going to get to talk with Emmy award winning Ben Balisteri about hockey? Or swap stories about your kids with Pascal Campion? Dave and I talked about Zoo Sketch Crawl and Sketch Crawls in general with Pixar story artist Enrico Casarosa while he and Ronnie Del Carmen were signing our books, congrats by the way, to you guys and everyone at Pixar for winning the Oscar for Wall-e.
I also spent some time chatting with the gang from ghostbot who were responsible for animating the Esurance commercials, some of the best "traditionally" animated commercials I have seen in a long time. Even better I very pleased to see my 'ol college chum Kris works there, it was great to see her again.

I always wanted to be a cylon but this guy actually was one complete with that crazy noise with red eye moving.
I've never wanted to be a big yellow bug but these ladies sure did with style.Here's Fabian Molina a former student of mine doing us proud by doing up a kick ass sketchbook and serving up copies hotter than hotcakes to lumberjacks.Here's my loot from the event, I was a strict budget this time but I still came home with awesomeness. What a great day. Only bummer was that hot dog from the cafe outside. Stay away from those, next time I bring my own lunch. If I saw you there, I hope you had a great time if I didn't let's make a point of going next year!