On Deck: WonderCon, World Building
Two of maybe a dozen important comics events of the year take place this weekend on opposite coasts:
* WonderCon at the Moscone Center in San Francisco hopes to build on a successful 2006 with a broad approach to comics and related media starting this Friday. Many have called WonderCon a throwback to the smaller, more intimate days of the same group's Comic-Con International, and this year's should serve as a dry run in anticipation of that bigger event for a new director of programming. This year's proximity to the just-completed New York Comic-Con should test some of the show's national-level aspirations, although it's worth noting that NYCC moves next year returning WC to the top of the North American convention calendar. It also puts WonderCon in a position to preview summer offerings in both films and comics instead of the upcoming Fall/Winter slates. A screening of 300 should be the talked-about highlight. It doesn't hurt Lee Hester is promising to give away comics off of his awesome spinner rack.
