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Artistic wonders at Wondercon 2014

by Mark Eades

The artistry on display at Wondercon 2014 makes my words on this page pale by comparison.
The images drawn by all the artists’ hands constantly amaze me.

Steve Feicht, creator of "Tiny Nightmares," characters that kids encounter in their dreams, with his daughters Katie, 11, (left) and Devon, 15, (right).

Steve Feicht, creator of “Tiny Nightmares,” characters that kids encounter in their dreams, with his daughters Katie, 11, (left) and Devon, 15, (right).

One of the artists there, Steve Feicht, I’ve known since 1977 when we both worked at the Riverbelle Terrace at Disneyland together. We went our separate ways, but have always stayed in touch.
Steve eventually went into toy design and went off to New York to work for several years. Walt Disney Imagineering, where I was working in the creative division, was on a hiring spree in the mid-1980s.
One day I heard a familiar voice in the hall, it was Steve. He’d been flown in with his portfolio for an interview with management, including my boss and Disney Legend, Randy Bright. Steve and I had a nice lunch together where he showed me his design portfolio.
Later that day Randy asked me about Steve, and I gave him a solid recommendation. I think it helped.
Anyway, Steve was soon hired into WDI. We worked on several projects together there.
Eventually both he and I left WDI for other things, he went back to the toy design industry and I went into the journalism business, but we’ve always stayed in touch.
Every year he sends our family a hand-drawn Christmas card. He even created my business logo.

Tiny Nightmares showed up at Wondercon 2014. Image courtesy: Tiny Nightmares & Steve Feicht.

Tiny Nightmares showed up at Wondercon 2014. Image courtesy: Tiny Nightmares & Steve Feicht.

Steve has designed some really fun toys and other things over the years, and now the father of two lovely girls has come up with a really fun concept – Tiny Nightmares.
It was a concept inspired by stories he would tell his daughters to help them sleep. Other friends, parents of small children, inundated him with requests for their own Tiny Nightmares creatures.
According to Steve: “The Tiny Nightmares are the gruesome gang that defends your dreams. They use their special powers to fight the nighttime nasties who spoil your slumber.”

Tiny Nightmares showed up at Wondercon 2014. Image courtesy: Tiny Nightmares & Steve Feicht.

Tiny Nightmares showed up at Wondercon 2014. Image courtesy: Tiny Nightmares & Steve Feicht.

He and his daughters had a booth at Wondercon 2014 where people could check out the characters he created.
It debuted in 2010 at the San Diego Comic-Con, and has been steadily growing as a business, and a wonderful concept.
Hopefully it will be an animated television show soon too. I urge you to check it out at the Tiny Nightmares website.

You can read about my overall impression of Wondercon 2014 here at a post on Inside the Magic.

If you’re into the Cosplay at Wondercon 2014, you can click here to find more photos.

Earlier I wrote about some of the writers I met up with at Wondercon 2014.

I also wrote about some of the other wonderful weird concepts I saw, and you can click here to read about them.

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Where else but at Wondercon would you find Pokey and Gumby together with Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent.
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Wonderful Weirdness of Wondercon 2014

by Mark Eades
Nightwing and Deathstroke are threatening Batgirl, while Superman tries to protect her, while a child and father watch the "action" out in front of the Anaheim Convention Center at Wondercon 2014.

Nightwing and Deathstroke are threatening Batgirl, while Superman tries to protect her, while a child and father watch the “action” out in front of the Anaheim Convention Center at Wondercon 2014.

Wondercon 2014 brought out some wonderful weirdness in its Cosplay as seen in this link, but it also brought out some wonderful weirdness in some of the concepts seen on the exhibition floor at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Really? Zombie bunnies?

Really? Zombie bunnies?

The first are Zombie Bunnies. I got my first hint of the dangers of bunny rabbits when I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975.

Now with the world being threatened, at least according to some successful television shows, to be overrun by zombies, it was only a matter of time before other creatures would become part of the walking dead world.

In fact, there is a whole kingdom of Zombie Bunnies, and they have their own Facebook page. We really have gone down a rabbit hole haven’t we Alice?

Of course it makes me wonder how Elmer Fudd would fare in this world? Would there then be zombie coyotes and more? Would the Roadrunner become a zombie too?

The thoughts stagger my cartoonish mind.

The character on John Merritt's head is Tentacle Kitty.

The character on John Merritt’s head is Tentacle Kitty.

In that vein, weird crossbreeding is the next item in “Tentacle Kitty,” a cross between an octopus and a cat.

Now how this happened I do not know. We all know how cats are terrified of the water; perhaps it was some poor cat’s chance encounter with an octopus leading to this.

Or maybe it was an effort by the society of Octopi to overcome the fear engendered by SciFi and horror filmmakers. Everyone knows cats are cute, insidiously so, whereas octopi do not seem to get the same kind of loving oohs and ahs from humans.

So maybe it was a plot to create a crossbred creature by the octopi to gain the loving trust of humans.

I do have to wonder, though, what kind of purring sound a Tentacle Kitty would make – would it sound like tiny bubbles wafting through water?

Would Tentacle Kitty like the water and can it swim?

 

I also found some wonderful authors at Wondercon 2014; learn more about them by clicking here.

Here is where you can find my overall take on Wondercon 2014.

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Wonders of Wondercon 2014

by Mark Eades

One of the fun things about attending Wondercon, besides seeing all folks dressed up to Cosplay as their favorite characters, is seeing some of the fun ideas that artists and writers have developed.

Nightwing and Deathstroke are threatening Batgirl, while Superman tries to protect her, while a child and father watch the "action" out in front of the Anaheim Convention Center at Wondercon 2014.

Nightwing and Deathstroke are threatening Batgirl, while Superman tries to protect her, while a child and father watch the “action” out in front of the Anaheim Convention Center at Wondercon 2014.

What’s more, because there is more space for the artists and small press, there are more of them, something I very much welcome.

Chris Ayers, creator of "The Daily Zoo."

Chris Ayers, creator of “The Daily Zoo.”

One of the first I saw is a gentleman I first met at San Diego’s Comic-Con a few years ago, Chris Ayers. He was at Wondercon with several of his books, including his first entitled, “The Daily Zoo.”

The story is a series of cartoons that Chris drew a year after being diagnosed with Leukemia. One year after being diagnosed, Ayers realized he needed to do something to keep from getting too depressed, so he started drawing, making a commitment to himself to draw a cartoon animal a day.

Subtitled, “Keeping the Doctor at Bay With a Drawing a Day,” the book contains all the cartoons he drew from that year and are a reflection of what he was going through, and was published in 2008. Ayers has been in remission for many years now, but continues to celebrate every day by drawing constantly.

He has published several more books, including succeeding years of “The Daily Zoo.” I recommend his books; they are filled with images of joy, as a terrific escape for anyone suffering from long-term illness.

The indomitable Jeff Tucker, Creative Director of Entertainment at Knott's Berry Farm, and in his spare time, an author. He has written three books so far, starting with "The Sixth Key: From the Secret Files of The Magic Castle."

The indomitable Jeff Tucker, Creative Director of Entertainment at Knott’s Berry Farm, and in his spare time, an author. He has written three books so far, starting with “The Sixth Key: From the Secret Files of The Magic Castle.”

Another terrific author at Wondercon 2014 was Jeff Tucker. By day, Jeff is a Creative Director for Entertainment at Knott’s Berry Farm, where he works on coming up with new scary things for its annual Halloween Haunt and more. In his off hours, when not being a loving husband and father to his children, Jeff writes.

He’s written three books now, part of a six-book series he tells me, the first of which was “The Sixth Key: From the Secret Files of the Magic Castle.” Now I’ve been teasing Jeff since the publication of that first book in 2012 about wanting to know where the other five keys are located. All he will say is read the rest of the novels when they come out.

He’s since published the second in the series, “The Lost Station: From the Secret Files of Engine 17.” He also has the third novel in the series coming out this year. Now Jeff won’t tell me anything more, nor will he tell me what I might see in “Trapped” at the Haunt or other devious plans he has for the Haunt, such as who will be hung at the annual tradition of “The Hanging.”

But I can tell you Jeff has the right spirit of fun, mystery and mischievousness that I like.

You can click here to read more at Inside the Magic of my overall take on Wondercon 2014.

If you like looking at this year’s Cosplay, check out the photos I took at Outside the Magic.

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