The hall today at the Anaheim Convention Center today was relatively unjammed — plenty of people but not elbow-to-elbow, clogging the aisles. This is a statement I will almost certainly not be able to make tomorrow. As is the custom with WonderCons, cosplayers were out in great force displaying some amazing costumes and even the folks who had come in street clothes were wearing some amazing smiles. As I get older, one feature I appreciate more and more at these functions is just being around so many people having such a good time.
My knee problems did not allow me to make an exhaustive sweep of the room but it felt to me like everything one could possibly want in a comic-type convention was somewhere there with this possible exception: The recent passing of Joe Giella made a number of folks acutely aware that you now have to be fairly young to go to a con and meet the makers of comic books you grew up on. There simply aren't many left from a certain era and there's nothing we can do about it.
I floated about today, sitting at one friend's table for a while and then another friend's and another friend's. One gent with a pile of Groo comics he wanted to get signed looked like Inspector Javert finally tracking down Jean Valjean when he chanced upon me sitting with MAD cartoonist Tom Richmond. I apologized for not always being in one, easily findable spot but he said, after I wrote my name all over the comics, "That's okay. It was kind of fun in a way, like finding eggs on Easter." Whatever. If he says so.
I wish I had a great anecdote from today to share with you but I didn't observe any; just a lot of happy people having a happy time. That was for me the takeaway from Friday at WonderCon. I suspect there will be such people tomorrow and Sunday. They'll just be more tightly packed together. There are still badges available if you're nearby and want to be one of those people.