WonderCon, Anaheim Convention Center, April 18-20, 2014

The Collective bloggers have been working our asses off recently, at our day jobs, fangirling here at acollectivemind.com, and preparing a brilliant femme!Avengers group cosplay for our most recent endeavor, WonderCon 2014.

https://twitter.com/nerdwrldprblms/status/457913533242433536

 

If you follow @Nerdwrldprblms on Twitter, then you might have seen some of the pictures from our Saturday at SoCal’s spring kick-off comic convention or followed our tweets as we sat through presentations by Warner Brothers, Fox Films, Marvel Now, Showrunners, Legends, The OneRing.net and saw sneak previews of films such as Godzilla, How To Train Your Dragon, Into The Storm, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and more. There was so much to see and plenty to discuss, so The Collectress and I have decided to split our “best of” moments into two separate posts, one written by each of us. I’m lucky enough to start us off with my top 3 moments of WonderCon 2014.

3) Showrunners

 

This top 3 moment came as a surprise to me. I had never heard of this film, but after sitting through the panel, I’m fascinated by the idea of a documentary which explores the jobs of those who create and run popular television shows today. The project was originally funded on Kickstarter, and so it seems to be a labor of love to those involved. The pleasant surprise came when Chris Carter–X-Files showrunner, and Andrew Kreisenberg–Arrow showrunner, happened to sit on this panel, both of whom have created unique and engaging television shows that I love. I have been a fan of X-Files since I was a teen watching it on Fox, Friday nights at 9pm with my mom, and thus, Chris Carter’s work. The writer admitted he hasn’t written much past the pilot for The After (watch S01xE01 here) a new web series which premiered in February on Amazon TV, but has hopes for what the show might become. Click the link above to check out the show for free on Amazon.com.

Also in attendance was Andrew Kreisenberg, the showrunner of one of my new favorite television shows, Arrow on the CW. I’m just going to get down to business and say yes, I did tweet about Olicity yesterday and yes, Kreisenberg seemed to be hinting at the legitimacy of that particular ship when he said that fans should just be patient for relationships between characters to develop and not tweet wank to him about the show. Basically. The writer and producer also discussed the imminent Flash series and all the fun they are having creating these comic book series that fans, producers and even the network president, seem to love.

Kreisenberg also talked about the John Barrowman and his the role of Malcolm Merlin, stating that all the “hero” baggage the actor brought from the role of Captain Jack Harkness (from Doctor Who, you dolt), gave the villain role depth and went against the normal fan perceptions of the actor. I couldn’t agree more.

2) Cosplay Badassery

I’m not going to dwell too much on the cosplay, because I know The Collectress has loads to say about our experiences at WonderCon. Still, I can’t write about my top moments without mentioning some of the kickass costumes I encountered. Nerd girls get a lot of flack and our legitimacy is questioned in the sci-fi world. Just because I have only read a few of the Batman Comic books does not mean I didn’t gobble up the cartoon, the Adam West show and the films and therefore develop an unhealthy obsession with the Dark Knight that started way back in grade school. I have a soft spot for geek girls, and try to do my best to support the ladies of nerdom all across the interwebs and IRL. Even as a novice cosplayer, I am not too humble to admit that I have a real knack for finding the feminine aspects of some of my favorite male characters. As I explained to my eleven year-old, I will never be a blue eyed white male, but I can find the essence of any character and reinterpret it into a feminine version that reflects what I love about that person. Seems to kinda be my thing. So of course at WonderCon, I went on the hunt for femme versions of superheroes, villains, even time traveling aliens. Here are my favorites.

 

1) Grandpa Winchester

WonderCon is the little sister con of San Diego’s Comic Con, and is a haven for a unique kind of comic book, superhero, sci-fi geek. Locals and nerds from all over the world come to WonderCon, and there was one nerd in particular I had heard through the Twitter!verse planned to attend all 3 days. Um, that would be Gil McKinney.

Gil McKinney, AKA Grandpa Winchester or Prince Eric (for you Once Upon a Time fans) tweeted a while back that he planned to be at WonderCon 2014 all weekend, and it was then and there I made it my day’s goal to find this Man of Letters and let him know how much I truly do enjoy his character on Supernatural. Now, I don’t get the chance to fangirl too much over Supernatural here on ACM. I try to get a few references in now and again, but if you follow me on Twitter or over on Tumblr, you know that SPN is my fandom to end all fandoms. That being said, I am a huge fan of the Men of Letters storyline and of course, Grandpa Henry Winchester, but it was already almost 5pm on Saturday before I found him at WC. To be fair, it was really The Collectress who found him, hiding against a back wall of the vendor area, signing autographs and taking pictures in a random booth with about 2 thousand people in between him and me. My fellow lady Avengers had continued on shopping while I sat near a wall plug, charging my phone and tweeting you all, but when I got the call that she’d found Gil, I hopped up, grabbed everyone’s stuff (which I happened to be tasked with watching) and elbowed my way through the crowds toward the back of the hall. When the Collective bloggers finally caught up with Gil McKinney, he was so kind as to answer a few questions and to take a picture with us. Living in SoCal my entire life, I’m not one to step up to film or tv stars and begin gushing praise. That is just so blasé. Oh, a blogger’s life–I had to do it for the fans, and so I took one for the team and talked Supernatural with a Winchester. When I asked Gil about coming back to the show, he let us know that working on the set is loads of fun and he would love to see Henry Winchester come back from the dead. Gil wants to maybe play a scene in which his character menacingly sticks his hand out of the grave, alá Dean Winchester S04xE01, and, since bringing folks back from the dead is something this particular show has no problem doing, none of us really saw a problem with bringing back Henry for another episode (even a flashback!). Unfortunately, Gil doesn’t have any idea if he will be back on SPN any time soon. He let us know that the folks over at the CW don’t give him much notice before they need him for the show. He gets a call, reads a script and is shooting all within a week or two. Gotta love the secrecy of the SPN showrunners.

McKinney, who was there signing autographs with his cast mates from Once Upon a Time, didn’t get to participate in the OUAT panel at WonderCon this year, but he will be joining the Supernatural family at his first SPN Con in DC this May. I’m crossing my fingers for a BurCon 2014 appearance and I really hope he remembers us.

 

Status: Officially Dead.

xoxo

The Collectiva Diva

Tweet me about WonderCon, cosplay or Gil McKinney at @collectivadiva.