Wondercon, for those of you unaware, is one of the largest Comic Book conventions of the year. It’s held this year from April 1st-April 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. And while it is mostly for comic books, the years have introduced it to a lot of pop culture as well, much like its brethren Comic-Con. And there is nothing more pop culture than Star Wars, and so Lucas and companies fit right in. There are many educational and exciting panel and entertainment venues to go to while you are there.
Here are the Star Wars related events:
Now in its 10th year is the Star Wars Last Fan Movie Standing. Budding moviemakers get to show their stuff not only to the audience of fans, but to George Lucas himself, who has the final word on who wins, after the audience has their chance. While it’s surely too late to get entries in, you can cheer on the ones you love, boo the ones you hate, and have a good old time watching some great talent light up the screen with new Star Wars memories.
And if you are an artist and want to get your artwork put into licensing and production, bring your portfolio with you. Troy Aiders, who is the art director for the licensing department at Lucas, will be on hand to help with some great tips, provide critiques to artists and will check out your art. And if it’s good enough, who knows? You may even find yourself as the next great artist in the galaxy. He will be there both days (April 2&3) between 11:30-1:30pm.
As we’ve mentioned before, the season finale of Clone Wars on Cartoon Network airs April 1st. On April 2nd, there will be a panel discussion that will go into some of the secrets from behind the show and discuss Chewbacca’s return to the Star Wars universe. And there to do just that is the wookie himself, Peter Mayhew. Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano) will also be on hand to discuss the highly popular animated series.
And if you ever wanted to know how to build your very own R2-D2 unit, well they’ve got just the panel for you. Bay Area R2 Builders will be showing how they constructed their R2 units and tell you what you need and how to do it yourself. The educational session will run the gambit of building materials, electronics, techniques, what tools work best, etc.
And finally, you may have heard of the 501st Legion. They are a fan group that has some amazing costumes and often appear in Star Wars events like Star Wars Weekends at Disney, among others things. Three different types of Imperial Troopers (Scout, Clone and Storm) will be represented in this cool panel about putting together your own costumes. It also goes into detail what you need to do to join the 501st Legion. The discussion will cover all sorts of armor topics such as suiting up, creating, etc. A question and answer session will be provided for audience members to find out more information.
So it sounds like Wondercon for the Star Wars fan is looking to be quite the informative and entertaining place to be this April. You can find out more about Star Wars at the convention and the gathering itself at http://www.comic-con.com/wondercon.
