I died and went to heaven this past weekend–not literally, of course. No, this heaven is where God is Darth Vader and the angels include Sailor Moon, Cloud, the Transformer Bumble Bee and Batman.

This past weekend, I had the great fortune of attending WonderCon, the largest comic convention behind the behemoth Comic-Con of San Diego. Every year, thousands of fans, ranging from the dabblers to the I-own-the-first-edition-of-Batman #1, arrive in San Francisco, salivating at the thought of immersing themselves in their dreams.

As my friend and I walked through the convention center door, we were greeted by a horde of Storm Troopers and Jedi Knights hustling through the halls in fairly accurate costumes that must have taken weeks to put together. Not far behind, the Silk Spectre from “Watchmen” graced the onlooking male nerds with her skimpy unitard. Of course, Sailor Moon simply couldn’t be outdone, and her celestial presence affected both fanboys and girls. And me? I was loving it. The side I often hide was just screaming with joy! People dressing up as characters from my favorite video games, anime, movies and childhood cartoons? As I said, it was heaven.

As we made our way down to the show floor, some of the feebler looking attendees were hurriedly walking in the opposite direction. No, it wasn’t from the sunlight entering the rooms–it was much better. Darth Vader was walking toward us, and I couldn’t help but squeal when his voicebox kicked in. I felt like I was on the Death Star, preparing to I’m-your-father the place up.

Entering the main hall, I realized having a dismal bank account was possibly the best thing for me. Comics, anime, action figures, posters of every super hero you could imagine, and, for once, I felt like I wasn’t alone in a crowded room. Let me be honest here for a moment–I felt like a celebrity. Simply grooming myself led me to have the biggest self-confidence boost ever, though I love my peers and lauded their ability to embrace their inner nerd by dressing up, something I simply could not do.

Rows and rows of goods lay before our eyes, and I was floored that so many comics could fit into one space. Some booths that caught my attention: an exhibit flanked with roman columns, housing 6 LCD TVs running the new Dante’s Inferno video game, a giant Nickelodeon booth that brought me back to some of my best memories of childhood, an impressive Emily the Strange booth that touched all our dark sides and a towering contraption that displayed every super hero’s signature mark on a T-Shirt. Along with these elaborate booths were smaller stations, catering to the owners’ personal hobbies. Every one was unique and full of work that you knew he or she put his entire heart behind. It was rather uplifting to know that so many people follow their personal dreams, regardless of age, gender or background.

The final part of our WonderCon experience was definitely the most worthwhile. We were funneled into a large banquet room where segments of three upcoming major motion pictures were shown, each with select scenes chosen specifically for us. The first, “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” can be summed up in the following statement–Jake Gyllenhaal’s fabulous muscles star in another adventure where he ironically gets the beautiful woman, flashes his gorgeous smile and then achieves victory against whatever enemy in a stunning display of sand, swords and over-the-top computer animation. After the clips, Gyllenhaal sat for a panel interview with the director, Mike Newell, and super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The screaming was enough to deafen me for the rest of the day.

After some lackluster clips of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and a panel with Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage, the preview ended with “Toy Story 3,” and this wonderful piece of animation easily made up for the pieces of garbage that preceded it. I felt like the giddy child who only wishes he had awesome talking toys like Woody, Buzz and the others we have grown to love over the past twelve years. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a cute unicorn with a voice audiences will not expect.

While many of my friends spent their Saturdays doing laundry or staying inside, I was lucky enough to experience a convention that embraced comics, cartoons and other geeky obsessions. Whether I came out a Trekkie or with a love for samurai swords is another question, but I do know it was amazing to see so many people acting out their dreams instead of spending another day in earthly reality.