Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go check out the WonderCon comic book convention here in San Francisco. Basically it is a huge event held annually for the last 18 years to celebrate comics, sci fi, and movies. This year was WonderCon’s fifth year at the famed Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco after its early reign across the bay in Oakland.

Convention-goers from all over the globe arrived in droves to check out all the cool merchandise, artists, costume, and the huge hype surrounding the preview of the new X-Files movie and appearances by David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter, and Frank Spotnitz. In addition to the X-Files preview, attendees could also expect appearances by Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway promoting the new Get Smart feature, a first look at the new Street Fighter 4 game, and a endless bundle of other movie and comic related insider panels.

I arrived around 11:00 AM with camera in tow to be greeted by a totally massive line wrapping out the front door and out to the street. Luckily for me I had pre-purchased my ticket and just needed to hop in the speed line to obtain my badge and get the train a-rolling.

Once I walked into the main convention center, I was pretty overwhelmed by where to start my journey. I had a few definites on my agenda, but with about 8,000,000 of my my closest friends in attendance, I would have to wade through a sea of people to even begin to find some of the unexpected surprises that would await me below.

I gave my buddy ChillAura a call as he had just shown up as well, and we rendezvoused near the Artists’ Alley to check out some of the premier comic and sculpture artists’ work. We got the chance to scope out Jim Lee (one of my favorite X-Men artists), Tim Sale (Grendel, Hulk Gray), Mark Brooks (Arana, Marvel) and a ton of other great pencil and ink guys among the company of artists’ booths positioned in the hall’s northeast corner.

Chill and I were pretty stoked on all the Artists’ Alley stuff, but we had other things on our agenda that we had to take care of, so we headed to the far west end of the hall to check out the merchandisers, to see what new gear we could pick up. There was actually one ominously towering T-shirt vendor that caught our eye (along with the eyes of anyone not legally blind) and we made our way through the sea of fans and costumed heroes and villains to see what kind of deals we could score. Chill was able to add to and replenish his impressive collection of shirts, but one shirt in particular caught my eye — and it was on sale to boot!

Alright, now that we had dropped some cash and had some tangibles to bring home with us, it was time to take in some of the other sights. Not much effort was needed to be expended on our end, luckily, as the barrage of visuals and costumes was upon us whether we liked it or not. It just so happened I ran into Rex Adams, member of the USCM, a really cool group of guys dedicated to Aliens-inspired replica armor, weapons, and memorabilia that I’ve had the pleasure to get to get to know and meet recently. It looked like Rex had already caught the attention of a small group of people blown away by the detail of his USCM armor, pulse rifle, and working motion tracker — I know I was!

Rex and I headed over to meet up with his fellow USCM buddy David Wong over at his Sci Fi Military booth. We got to talk about all their gear and the differences between the types of armors and ways the guys have built replica weaponry to be as accurate as possible to the characters and movies. It’s amazingly impressive and I look forward to getting my chance to put together my own project. Rex also shared with me some info on this great Aliens movie project he and some of the guys have been working on called Drop Zone Copernicus, which judging from the trailer they have on their site and the passion behind its production looks to be pretty amazing once it is done. I was happy to get to share some of the work being done on the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines game here. They seemed really excited about the game and its direction, which was great, because I know these gusy are harsh critics when it comes to Aliens, the Colonial Marines and video games.

I parted ways with Rex and David to try and get over to the main hall, where they would be premiering the new X-Files trailer. Earlier in the day, the line for people trying to get front row was pretty incredible, so I had my fingers crossed that I would be able to get in quickly and find a reasonable seat. Luckily for me (seems I’m two-for-two on avoiding lines today) a friend had been camped out and had an extra seat next to her that would let me snag a great view. The first look at the X-Files movie didn’t tell a whole lot, but I think that the push behind this and the direction definitely sounds like fans who have been waiting for more X-Files will be pleased. The Q&A with David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter, and Frank Spotnitz was actually pretty great as well. I was slightly taken aback with Gillian’s candor as her role as Dana Scully is so much different than her relaxed and sarcastic presentation I saw during the Q&A.

A good hour or so had now gone by and I was pretty much starving — too much excitement on an empty stomach can be hazardous to your convention-going health, so Chill and I booked it across the street through the (now pouring) rain to grab some BBQ at the Metreon food court. After reliving some of our adventures for the day, we decided to head back over for one last pass through to make sure we didn’t miss anything and snag some more pictures of some of the cool costumes we saw there.

During our quest to find the coolest and most elaborate costumes, I stumbled upon a booth that had some pretty well-done Marvel masks. Unfortunately I didn’t see anyone actually dressed up as Dr. Doom or Iron Man, but word on the street was there were a few Marvel costumes I missed. I guess I will have to head to ComiCon in San Diego this year (which I hear has an even larger percentage of costumed fans) and bring my own motion tracker to seek them out.

So with the rain letting up, Chill and I decided it was time to split. Before we left, however, I had to find this guy I had heard about earlier from the USCM guys, who was rocking an Aliens T-Shirt with a real 3-D chestburster coming out of it. I had nearly given up with my anxiety levels rising with the tide of the crowd, but just as I hit the last booth before the door I found him! How cool is this?

For more pictures of the event, check out my Flickr set here. If anyone else was at WonderCon, what cool stuff did you see? Miss anything on your ‘must see’ list of things to check out, or find any really good merch scores? Epic.

-EggShen