A squad of Imperial Storm Troopers gathers in a hallway, standing in formation, two by two, their weapons at the ready. Behind them, a group of dark, cloaked figures watches the surroundings intently. Suddenly, a lone Storm Trooper approaches them, but he is not wearing a helmet, and as he gets closer, his features become clear. The sideburns, bejeweled plate of armor, and those signature sunglasses make it apparent who has arrived—Elvis Trooper!

No this isn’t a scene from a bad B movie, or some teenager’s twisted imagination—this is Wonder Con 2004, a comic book and pop culture convention in San Francisco. Thousands of fans packed the three day event, held at the Moscone Center April 30-May 2, to see a wide variety of vendors, exhibitors, special guests and celebrities at this annual gathering of comic related enthusiasts.

Inside the vast convention center, vendors sold everything from Batman comics and Godzilla toys to science fiction movie posters and superhero t-shirts.
Wandering the aisles along with the regular visitors were dozens of truly dedicated comic and sci-fi fans, dressed as their favorite characters; Han Solo, Catwoman, Darth Vader, Electro, and even a man dressed as Wonderwoman made an appearance.

But Elvis Trooper really seemed to be the, well, king, of the costumed attendees. Ken Tarleton has been to a number of conventions in his Elvis Trooper persona—his Web site, www.elvistrooper.com, documents his many adventures. When asked why he chose to meld a Storm Trooper with the King of Rock n' Roll, his reply was “Are there two better things? I think not.”

On Saturday, a number of special events were held in a separate auditorium, where some of the highlights included visits from filmmakers and actors, with short preview screenings of upcoming releases. One such film was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie in a tale reminiscent of 30’s sci-fi serials, and the noir look of expressionist films like those of Fritz Lang. Writer/Director Kerry Conran and Producer Jon Avnet were in attendance, discussing how they made the film, and giving the audience several sneak previews of different scenes.

Another highlight was when Lance Henriksen, an actor known for his roles in Aliens, The Terminator, and the TV series Millennium, came on stage to take questions from the audience, and give them a taste of his newest movie, Alien vs. Predator, which pits the two famous franchises against one another in a battle for survival.

Probably the most crowded event was the appearance by Tobey Maguire, who was making his only convention appearance this year at Wonder Con, to promote the new Spiderman 2 movie due out this summer. Maguire brought with him a special preview clip for the movie, put together by director Sam Raimi just for the event. Following the screening, the floor was opened up to questions, which may have been a mistake—for every question about the Spiderman movie or his other work, there were two from over-excited girls, who had only come to the event to see their apparent heartthrob. One girl was so nervous that she was shaking and speaking so fast she was barely understandable, while others asked if he had a girlfriend.

Maguire seemed to take it all in stride, however, doing his best to please his fans. He seemed especially happy when a couple of very young kids asked him about particular parts of the Spiderman movies—indeed, their questions were probably the best of the entire group.

Aside from the spectacle of the visiting movie stars, there was another big part of Wonder Con—the small, independent companies and artists that come to the event to promote their work, and meet people. One such company was Floating Coffin Publishing, a brand new company run by Johnnie Arnold and Tony Guaraldi, two life long comic fans who met last year at Wonder Con, and wanted to work together.

After getting somewhat of a slow start producing their work, they decided to try a different approach, resulting in their first release—Synapse, a collection of several different artists in one book.

“We thought, why don’t we get all of our friends together, and therefore we can put out a real magazine--it will be an anthology, and instead of just comics, we’ll make it writing, poetry, and fine artwork, that’s kind of how Synapse happened. We got one for APE [Alternative Press Expo] in February, and we became the Floating Coffin Publishing Company,” says Guaraldi.

The two of them oversee and control everything about the company, and finance it themselves, with one other financial backer whom also contributes artwork. That also means that they have to do all of the other work associated with publishing a comic.

“It’s all small [print] runs at this point, for the purposes of shows and getting it racked in local comic book shops,” says Arnold. “We have to do all the promotion and marketing ourselves, we have to be the ones knocking on the comic book shops, trying to get in touch with distributors.”

“It’s just us, so that’s the beauty and the downfall of not being with a big distribution company—we don’t have to answer to anybody, but we don’t have any money,” says Guaraldi.

This is the duo’s second show appearance, and they are quickly learning what can be gained from attending events such as the Wonder Con.

“These two shows, we haven’t really sold anything, we don’t make any money, but we’ve made so many great contacts, and that’s been the value of these shows,” says Arnold.

Floating Coffin will have a new Web site up soon (www.floatingcoffin.com), and encourages people to submit their work for possible inclusion in a future issue of Synapse.

“I’m doing this because I love it—I have no illusions of making any money, at least within the first few years. It’s a way of getting my work out, and everybody else’s work out, and hopefully getting us noticed by somebody.”