Con season is back! After two years WonderCon Anaheim returns to the Anaheim Convention Center on April 1-3.
WonderCon is a comic and pop culture convention produced and operated by Comic-Con International. The same company that handles the San Diego Comic-Con. It is smaller than SDCC, but one of the largest comic conventions on the West Coast. WonderCon has been growing every year since moving from San Francisco to Anaheim quite a few years ago.
During the two years of the pandemic, like all other conventions of this kind, WonderCon went virtual. There were both good and bad issues with the virtual convention experience. But now that life is slowly becoming normal in a post-pandemic world, with restrictions also being lifted, convention season has returned
There will be COVID-19 requirements to attend WonderCon. The site lists that you must show proof of vaccination or a current negative COVID-19 test and face masks are required to be worn by attendees. See their COVID-19 FAQ page for updates here.
Previous years of WonderCon, passes were only available online. However, this year, they will be selling passes on-site. It does not look like individual days Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and 3-day passes have sold out.
The programming schedule offers a wide variety of panel discussions, comics publisher presentations, movie and tv series events, and so much more. Special guests include:
Michael Cho, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Kevin Eastman, Shannon Hale, Sarah Kuhn, Elliot S! Maggie, Trung Le Nguyen, David A. Robertson, James Rollins, Kevin Smith, Michael A. Stackpole, Babs Tarr, David F. Walker, David Mark Weber, Tula Lotay/Lisa Wood, Gene Luen Yang and Scottie Young.
Your badge gets you into all the programming events for free. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-serve basis. Scheduled events are subject to change.
Most of the studios and publishers hold their big announcements and programming for SDCC, but there have been times where trailers and announcements have been shown at panels unannounced.
The exhibitor floor will have a large number of booths and tables from comic publishers, movie studios, video game publishers, retailers and artists. Selling comics, toys, books, prints, original art, exclusive items, live demos and more. A number of them will usually have some free giveaway items.
Cosplayers will be inside and outside of the exhibit hall. They are always willing to pose for pics, but just make sure to ask permission beforehand. You can even join in on the cosplay action by attending as your favorite character or hero too. Not sure how COVID-19 requirements will affect interaction with cosplayers.
It certainly will be nice to get back to an in-person convention after 2 years virtual conventions. The exhibit floor might be a little smaller than previous years, but should still be a fun experience.
Go to www.comic-con.org/wca for the latest updates on programming schedules, exhibitor listings, purchasing tickets, directions and more.
Note: SDCC in July is still on schedule to be an in-person event. However, passes that were purchased by attendees for SDCC 2019 have been carried over to SDCC 2022. At this time, it does not look like there will be any additional passes being sold.
