WonderCon 2024, the sister convention to the San Diego Comic-Con, opens at the Anaheim Convention Center on March 30.

While daily tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday continue to be available (costs start from $40 on Sunday to $57 on Saturday), Moorpark College students can attend for just the cost of parking and transportation simply by volunteering three hours on their preferred day of attendance.

Moorpark College professor of Film, Television & Media Arts Nicole Block believes volunteerism is an important part of the student experience.

“I think it’s always good for students to get off campus and network with professionals. That is what WonderCon would do,” says Block. “For example, we always encourage students to go to the Academy Museum. We have an alumni group for networking.”

Daily volunteers receive three-hour assignments in exchange for a badge for each day worked. Volunteers can work on any of the days of the show, states the WonderCon website. Typical volunteer shifts include helping attendees at the registration desks, acting as line monitors or guiding panelists to their assigned rooms or designated autograph areas. Volunteers make the comic convention experience a much more personal one for attendees.

WonderCon may be light on comic studio presence (DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Boom are skipping), but Hollywood maintains a presence to promote upcoming releases of movies and television shows.

The cast of the Roku Original series, “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” will appear be attendance on March 29. Paramount+ will premiere the first episode of “Star Trek: Discovery’s” final season, and Netflix will screen the first episode of the sixth season of “The Dragon Prince” on March 30.

“Even if students don’t talk to anybody there, they would see how films are marketed to consumers. And that’s valuable,” says Block. “Marketing is an excellent avenue for a career.”

Comic-Con badges are notoriously difficult to obtain, selling out within two hours after its release. For Comic-Con 2024, general registration took place on Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. and sold out by 10:14 a.m. according to Comic-Con International’s announcement through its official X channel. Comic-Con International opened its Daily Volunteer interest list on Oct. 11, 2023, and closed it two weeks later after maximum capacity was reached. Daily Volunteer interest will reopen in the fall of 2024 for Comic-Con 2025.

Though smaller in scale, WonderCon offers students a chance to experience the thrills of the convention without the madness of a San Diego Comic-Con. The hallmarks of the convention experience – cosplay, panels, hobnobbing with creators and shopping for exclusives – still prevail, albeit in a more intimate setting.

Daily volunteers must have a Comic-Con member account to qualify. To create an account, log in to the Comic-Con Member ID Portal and follow the onscreen prompts to create a new Member ID. Once the account has been created, select the “Daily Volunteers” dropdown from the Member ID Portal dashboard and provide contact information and request medical accommodations.

Once registered, prospective volunteers will receive an email confirmation, followed by an official volunteer registration barcode for use on any of the days of the convention.

Click here for more information on volunteer requirements for WonderCon 2024.