Broken Frontier

I didn't expect a line. It wasn't exactly crowded, but there were enough people waiting to enter the convention center for me to register surprise.

Just inside the foyer, I hear a voice call my name. My friend Victor had been waiting for a twenty minutes and the line snaked around the bend and out of sight. I made some pretense at not cutting into the line, but eventually gave in to the mass movement. In any event, it was more people than I was expecting. As the herd approached the doors, a burly security guard jokes at us - “No talking in line! No talking! Just Moving!” Of course, no one listens, but  would anyone expect different?

Wizard World Los Angeles, here we come!

Victor and I part ways; he goes to check out the Dabel Brothers booth while I wander aimlessly. I have a short shopping list, which I'm not sure I'll be able to fill – just some Batgirl and She-Hulk issues from the last few years. The big book of the weekend has got to be Captain America #25, the one where Cap gets capped. I see the fifteen dollar price tags and consider for a moment. "Let's get a lay of the land," I think to myself. "That book's going to be here all weekend."

Then I proceed with my wandering. The first thing I buy is the new Suicide Girls magazine. I honestly did buy it for the interviews, but I'm disappointed to find that they're all excerpted from the website and that I've read them already. On the bright side, there are plenty of nude photos of tattooed, dyed and pierced young ladies. "What are they doing here," I wonder to myself. "They're going to make a mint!"

Across the hall, I find two guys singing into microphones at the Playstation booth. It looks like karaoke, only there's a running tally of their scores. Of course, anything hammy requires my participation, so I jump. A passer-by wants to face off, so we do a round of a-Ha's Take On Me. It was a close match, but I walked away with a free t-shirt!

Then it's off to Wizard School. In past years, this has been my favorite part of the event, when professional comics creators give their best advice to young hopefuls. It's my third year attending classes, but I haven't seen any of this year's line-up. I run into Victor along the way. He's an aspiring writer too. He hadn't read anything by Bill Willingham before, and I thought I'd see what he would share. Willingham got off to a bit of a slow start, but he did describe a fairly useful exercise in visualizing pages and layouts.

After class, Victor and I wander the floor a little bit. I bought up all the items on my list and let out a yell “I'm done shopping!” and pump my fists triumphantly in the general direction of the Suicide Girls. Then we find one of my new favorite parts of the convention, the board game area. The Inquest Magazine crew have set up tables and tables of board games I had been wanting to try out. So Victor and I sit while Jeff, whom I would later find out was one of the Inquest editorial staff, taught us a few games. The Marvel Heroes board game made my head hurt, but I enjoyed Ingenious.

On Saturday morning, I met Victor in the front row of the Heroes panel, after signing up for the Pirates tournament. We're joined by our pal Matt, bedecked in the orange shirt of the Wizard World volunteer, and just off of his shift. Jeph Loeb hosted the writing staff in a lively Q&A with a packed house of fans. Non-spoilery highlights: there may be two releases of the Heroes DVD, in regular format and high definition; There is a plan for a Saving Charlie book,  focusing on Hiro's trip to save the memorable diner waitress; the webcomics will be released in print form.

It's weird to think, though, that there are areas of the convention which are more or less completely separate from the rest of the goings on. The Wizkids room has players showing up hours before the convention floor opens to face off in high-powered battles against Heroclix and Mechwarrior competitors from all over the country. Most of the players I met were local, but there I met at least one who was from as far away as Utah. A small group of us had a lot of fun playing in the Pirates tourney. Honestly, most of us had only been playing the game for less than a couple of weeks. It was goofy fun. Of course, in a tournament, only one person can win. I'll give you three guesses who that was.

Coming up: Sunday at Wizard World. Also, my write-up of this weekend's Wizard School program in part 2: It Ain't Hogwarts!

Note: Photos by Victor Ho