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Even as questions swirled endlessly about the future of the Comic-Con International: San Diego, the show's northern California cousin, WonderCon, proved that the combination of cartoonists, comics, and the toys, movies, video games and costumes based on them, makes for an irresistible combination for local pop culture fans.

Final attendance figures weren't yet available, but are expected to be comparable to last year's 34,000 fans, despite the show being held over the Easter weekend. While this had the potential to put a crimp in attendance, and the competition from Cadbury egg hunts on Sunday casued a quieter than usual crowd, Friday and Saturday were brisk.

WonderCon, one of three comics shows run by the San Diego comic-co—the other is the Alternative Press Expo, also held in San Francisco—was bolstered by many first timers among artists, publishers and fans. Most simply wanted to check the show out, and enjoy the well-known charms of the Bay Area, but a recurring theme—at least among professionals—was a desire to spend time at a comics convention that wasn't overwhelmed by Hollywood productions.

Among the biggest comics news at the show, writer Greg Rucka caused a stir by announcing on his spotlight panel that he was not doing any more DC work, preferring to concentrate on his own projects, including Queen and Country, Stumptown and an upcoming book he described as "Bladerunner meets Blake's 7."

Rucka has been a mainstay at DC with a long run on Wonder Woman and co-writer on the weekly serial 52. The future status of the award winning Batwoman series Rucka wrote remains unknown, although in a blog post, artist JH Williams said that DC remains committed to the character. Although many wished to paint Rucka's departure as dissatisfaction with DC, in subsequent comments on his blog, Rucka stressed that "There is no drama here."

DC had a few announcements of their own, including the first joint public appearance of the new creative brain trust of co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns on a "DC Nation" panel. Lee announced that the long delayed All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder will be reappearing in February rebranded as Dark Knight: Boy Wonder as part of writer Frank Miller's Dark Knight universe. A Batman mini-series created by art legend Neal Adams, Batman: Odyssey, is also in the works.

Lee, who is heading DC's much-delayed entry into digital distribution, spoke about their plans on the panel, citing the continuing lack of a digital business model as part of the reason for their hesitancy, and reiterating the appeal of paper comics. "We have to come up with some really compelling content that plays to the advantage of digital distribution.," said Lee. "Once we have something like that, that's when you'll really see things start to shift."

Image announced several new projects, including Office Downe, a new crime comics by Joe Casey and Chris Burnham; and a new collection of The Crusades by Steve Seagle and Kelley Jones. Anglophiles were pleased when Image hosted English chat show host Jonathan Ross, who is writing the mini-series Turf for the publisher. And Richard Starkings announced that his series Elephantmen has been optioned for the screen.

Over at IDW the big news was a comics continuation of the popular HBO vampire series True Blood by David Tischman and Mariah Huehner and artist David Messina. The publisher also spotlighted guest Darwyn Cooke with a preview of his next Parker adaptation, The Man with the Gateway Face: A Prelude to The Outfit.

WonderCon's success comes even as the even vaster San Diego edition of the comic-con brand has long outgrown its current convention center and hotel availability, and a move to Anaheim or Las Vegas is being seriously considered by organizers. Most people agreed, however, if San Diego is too big, WonderCon was just right.

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