WonderCon 2011 - Day One

Day one of the 25th Wonder Con is officially over and what a day it was. The con had developed some major hype leading up to it's opening days with news of the presence of the Green Lantern movie cast and several big comic book names making appearances to the promise of never before seen footage, premieres and big comics announcements. WonderCon was in such high demand that 3 day passes were not able to be sold on site and it looks like 1-day, Saturday passes will also be sold out. If you did not have a chance to make it to San Francisco for the big weekend, read on for coverage from Fanboy HQ's first day on site.

As always, the day starts with lines. Lines to get inside, lines to get exclusives, and lines to get in more lines. The big event of the day was the Green Lantern film panel being held in the early evening hours including appearances by the stars Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively and moderated by Green Lantern creative genius, Geoff Johns.

Check out our Green Lantern article here for more details on the panel. And you can see more pictures in our web album here.

Other panels on today's schedule were 2 DC Comics panels, DC Nation and DC Comics: Green Lantern that highlighted some of the details going on with the DC Universe leading up to this Summer's Flashpoint series (because "we can't talk about anything past Flashpoint" they said). There were on the spot polls taken by Dan Didio co-publisher of DC Comics about many topics and a lot of discussion about the War of the Green Lanterns with Geoff Johns and Eddie Berganza. More details from these panels can be found in our DC Nation and DC Comics: Green Lantern posts.

The Exhibit Hall floor was large and full of excitement. Within 2 minutes of entering the floor Fanboy HQ was already directed to a different line for a chance to draw tickets to possibly be able to buy the Graphitti Designs exclusive White Lantern Batman and Flash action figures. Although it was kind of a pain for the whole process, we did succeed at getting to buy these great figures.

Check out the WonderCon exclusives page for pics of the Batman figure too.

There was SWAG from DC Comics being handed out including copies of comics, buttons, and posters. The Marvel booth was hosting cheering contests for random Marvel merchandise including figures and comics. Artist's Alley was large and well populated with big and small name artists displaying great work. I spent time talking with Joel Gomez, Jeph Loeb (didn't have a booth, but was in the area) and J. Scott Campbell. I also bumped into Geoff Johns and Frank Quitely walking around the exhibit hall floor.

And what comic convention would not be complete without costumed folks? Check out some photos below and more online at our web album.

Also, the Marriott Marquis hotel (the Convention hotel) had some tie ins - we were awoken this morning to a knock on the door and a delivery of a message from S.H.I.E.L.D. (yes, that S.H.I.E.L.D.) saying we'd been recruited and to turn the TV on to get a special message. It was talk of the S.H.I.E.L.D. discovery in the New Mexico desert of Mjolnir, Thor's hammer (and a plug for ACURA, marketing partner in the new Marvel Avengers film). It was a really cool way to bring the Con out of the Moscone Center.

Tomorrow is another full day. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates throughout the day and online each night for summaries and photos.

Martin Bright, 4/1/2011