The celebration will run from August 12th through the 15th, 2010 in Florida. They are expecting about 35,000 fans, and maybe me. Before I die I want to go to this, find myself a Shaak Ti hat, and dance with a Gonk.

Galaxy Quest: Granted, the worst thing that happened at the actual convention celebrating the long-cancelled (and nonexistent) TV show Galaxy Quest was its star getting wasted and telling off a fan. But a long ways away, the Thermians were experiencing the minor crisis of genocidal war. For them, the convention is a bit of a salvation, as it puts them in touch with the actor they mistakenly believe to be the heroic Capitain Peter Taggart.

Futurama "Where No Fan Has Gone Before": Yes, the slaughter of all Star Trek fans (whose conventions had evolved into religious ceremonies) was pretty horrible, but the cast of the original Star Trek series seemed more miffed by the actions of noncorporeal fanboy Melllvar, who stages the most annoying Star Trek convention ever, and forces them to battle the crew of Planet Express.

Family Guy "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven": After watching the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation field a litany of irrelevant fan questions, a frustrated Stewie builds a transporter and kidnaps the actors to stage his own personal Star Trek convention (taking a page, it seems, from Futurama's Melllvar). And, in the spirit of the show, he kills off Denise Crosby early on.

Family Guy's Stewie meets Star Trek The Next Generation from Work Avoidance on Vimeo.

CSI "A Space Oddity" and "Fur and Loathing": Some fans will take drastic measures to keep their favorite shows from getting remade. In "A Space Oddity," a filmmaker looking to remake the cult TV show Astro Quest turns up murdered. As if that weren't a sufficiently obvious reference to Battlestar Galactica, Grace Park, Kate Vernon, Rekha Sharma, and Ron D. Moore all have cameos.

Perhaps more notorious is the episode "Fur and Loathing," where a dead murder victim is found wearing a raccoon fursuit, leading the CSI team to a furry convention. But it's portrayed as less a fan convention than an opportunity for costumed attendees to "yiff" one another.

Mr. Monk in Outer Space by Lee Goldberg: How do you get away with murdering a science fiction creator? Dress as one of the show's most popular characters and escape into the convention. That's the set-up for the fifth Monk novel, where Monk must investigate the creator of the fictional scifi drama Beyond Earth, and rely on his agoraphobic fanboy brother to help identify the killer.

Bones "The Princess and the Pear": When a booth babe from a science fiction and fantasy convention is found decomposing in a nearby sewer pipe, her fellow convention-goers seem less concerned for her well-being than for the fate of a sword she owned, a prop from an early fantasy film. The otherwise geeky team is out of their element here, relying on gloomy intern Colin Fisher and wunderkind psychologist Lance Sweets (who, amusingly enough, dons a redshirt Star Trek uniform) to infiltrate the con.

Numb3rs "Graphic": Admittedly, this episode of Numb3rs has occupies a soft spot in my heart, and not for the theft-of-priceless-comic-book-ends-in-murder primary plotline. It's because in addition to Numb3rs star David "Mr. Universe" Krumholt, it features Wil Wheaton as a douchebag collector.

Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb: Sharyn McCrumb's novel is an object lesson for all crotchety creators. Appin Dungannon is a fantasy author whose temper is so legendary that his fans attend conventions just to watch him throw furniture. When the small-statured author winds up dead, a hard science fiction author (implausibly named James O. Mega) has to figure out if one of Dungannon's fans took his insults to heart.

Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones: Jones' novel brings the entire multiverse down on an unsuspecting scifi and fantasy convention. Rupert is a Magid, a sort of magical lobbyist aiming to make Earth more magic-friendly. When his mentor dies, Rupert must take on an apprentice, and he gathers all the likely candidates at science fiction convention. Naturally, when things go awry, all multiverse breaks loose, leaving the convention vulnerable to rampant centaurs and assassins.

Atomic Betty "Cosmic Comicon": Conventions just wouldn't be the same without the occasional supervillain attack. When Atomic Betty's pal Noah publishes Atomic Chick a comic book based on her adventures, Dr. Cerebral becomes confused by a fan cosplaying "Dr. Brainy," and launches an attack on the convention. But, fortunately, a group of cosplayers portraying Atomic Chick make short work of him.

Link:

Sandman "The Doll's House": The "cereal convention" described in the second arc of Neil Gaiman's epic comic series isn't precisely a fan convention, but it's too weird and disturbing to ignore. Like any other group of professionals, serial killers apparently need to meet, hold panels, and swap trade secrets. But woe unto any tourist who inadvertently wanders into panels titled, "Women in Serial Killing" or "There is No Sanity Clause."

Power Rangers: Dino Thunder "Drawn into Danger": Who knew that Artists' Alley could be weaponized? The Power Rangers run into typical trouble at a comic convention, where their nemesis/high school principal hands a famous comic book artist a magical pen that traps the Rangers in a superpowered battle with the latest monster of the week, Fridgia.

Roswell "The Convention": It's no surprise that the city of Roswell, New Mexico, would attract the occasional alien enthusiast convention. And, given that Jonathan Frakes numbers among Roswell's executive producers, it's hardly shocking that Commander Riker would make a guest appearance. What couldn't be anticipated is the bloodshed that ensues when a conspiracy theorist meets up with an actual alien.

The Simpsons "Mayored to the Mob": Generally, the worst thing to hit Springfield fan conventions is the Comic Book Guy and his perpetually superior attitude. But during one ""Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con," a riot sparks, threatening to kill Star Wars actor Mark Hamill. And in, a first for celebrity guest stars on The Simpsons, Hamill finds Homer Jay Simpson is his only hope.

Want to know more? Here are some of our picks for the coolest stuff at WonderCon. And here are some great pictures of last year's WonderCon taken by master of the cyber-indie underworld Scott Beale. See you at WonderCon!

FRIDAY

1:30 Battlestar Galactica panel with Richard Hatch
Who doesn't love Richard Hatch? Certainly not the man himself.

2:00 Spotlight on Astro City
Meet Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson, writer and artist of this awesome indie comic.

4:00 Spotlight on Darwyn Cooke
Hear the latest from the writer/artist behind DC: The New Frontier.

5:00 DC Nation
This is when DC makes all its announcements for what's coming up next for the oldest comic book publisher around. Graeme warns, "This might be boring."

5:30 Boom Studios
The scoop on what Boom is up to.

5:15 Universal Studios movie preview blah blah MEET KRISTIN BELL
Seriously we don't know or care what this dumb movie is. But KRISTIN BELL! We only refer to her in all caps, OK?

6:15 Sneak Peek at Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D with Brendan Fraser
OK — you've got a goofy movie, you've got 3D, you've got Brendan Fraser. Let's all ask about that cool cell phone reception at the center of the Earth.

7:00 Sneak Peek of Appleseed Ex Machina Bioroids and cyborgs in love. Annalee says, "Hellz yeah!"

SATURDAY

12: Comic Book Arts Session with Douglas Wolk
Wolk, author of the terrific book Reading Comics, gets all smartypants on you by talking about the ways comics could become the new "novel of ideas."

1:30 DC U Countdown to Crisis, followed by Spider-Man panel at 3:00 in the same room
"This could get really weird — apparently there was some kind of incident with the Spider-Man fans last year," says Graeme.

1:30 Making an R2D2
We're gonna make one. Oh yes. We will.

2:00 X-Files preview.
With special guests Gillian Anderson and that guy from Red Shoe Diaries.

3:00 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's live art jam
Jim Lee and Terry Moore drawing shit live on stage while you watch. Hellz yeah.

3:30 Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
Beloved creators Wood and Cloonan talk about their work and share an "exclusive announcement."

4:00 Iron Man sneak peek
We are hoping to hurl some iron underwear on stage.

4:00 Hang out with J. Michael Straczynski
He's written Spider-Man; he's written World War Z (the movie); and he wears a cool black hat.

5:00 Inside LucasFilm
Hello? Star Wars? Duh we're going to this.

5:00 Vertigo
The latest from Vertigo, publishers of pretty much every cool comic book we read this year.

5:00 Sneak Peek: Starship Troopers

5:30 Sneak Peek: Gabriel

8-11 PARTY WITH IO9!!
io9 co-sponsors a party with Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Last Gasp. Ten bucks at the door — all proceeds go to CBLDF's fight for free speech in the world of comics. Come out, say hi, get drunk with us!

SUNDAY

11:30 Japanese Superheroes Now!
Giant monsters will be discussed. Need we say more?

1:00 Jericho Sneak Peek

1:00 WildStorm: Revelations Revealed!
Catch up with the publishers of Astro City, and chit-chat with Jim Lee, editorial director. Apparently a revelation will be revealed. Graeme is really amped.

2:30 Terminator Sneak Peek
Charlie is freaking out about this. In a good way.

3:30 Justice League: The New Frontier (encore sneak peek)
Encore sneak for people who did things like party on Saturday night instead of going to Justice League!

Picture above by the awesome Scott Beale, taken at last year's WonderCon.

According to http://roadrunnerdm.livejournal.com/84288.html">Roadrunner's LiveJournal:

• 
  
• Starbuck will be locked up in the brig for "some time." Not exactly the sort of reception you'd expect for returning from the dead.
• 
  
• Leoben will be back in Starbuck's life, and they'll be spending some quality time together on a beach... on Earth. At least they won't have to jockey for a good spot on the sand.
• 
  
• Starbuck will have a lot more scenes with Laura Roslin, and with the Cylon ladies as well. One thing Starbuck has never really done is have a girl's night out.
• 
  
• Starbuck believes that she is a Cylon, although Katee herself doesn't buy it. One thing is for sure, if Starbuck turns out to be a Cylon, half the audience will have expected it, and the other half will be searching for Ron Moore's house with torches.
• 
  
• Kate Vernon will be reprising her role as Ellen Tigh, although she's not the 12th Cylon. Since Saul has always been torn up about having to kill her, this will most likely be some sort of guilty flashbacks coming from the bottom of a bottle.
• 
  
• Lee Adama is still a civilian in season four, although it's unclear if that means for the whole season or not. After the way he resigned last season, it's hard to see him putting a uniform back on. Of course, that doesn't stop him from hopping into a Viper whenever he feels like it and taking off.
• 
  
• She also made it fairly definitive that she won't be coming back to Bionic Woman at all, strike or not. Apparently there is no love lost between her and series star Michelle Ryan.

• News dump from Burbank conventions [Roadrunner]