WIZARD WORLD!

Whew! As I posted earlier, I attended the Chicago stop of the 2008 Wizard World comic/pop culture convention last Friday. I would have stepped up w/ a recap earlier, but I had relatives in over the rest of the weekend and blogger has had issues w/ uploading pics. If I had to describe the experience in one word...i'd probably go w/ overwhelming. If I could use two...overwhelming and AWESOME!

It's just that there was so much to see, do and (cha-ching!) buy, with the extra added pressure of having only one day to do it all in. I had the best intentions to hit up several panels, but only ended up making it to 'Mondo Marvel' where I got a preview of upcoming offerings from their writers/artists/editors. It was cool, but once they got into Q & A w/ the audience...I lost interest and hit the show floor again.

People-watching was a trip, as one could expect. I saw everything from Stormtroopers to entire families dressed up as the Justice League to chicks in some deliciously NSFW costumes of varying themes. A good majority of those pics came out way to blurry to post up, but you can always image search on Flickr to get the point. Full-scale geekery abound!

I nabbed a ton of free swag from DC/Marvel/Image/Dark Horse/Futurama booths, ponied up for a subscription to Wizard magazine, donated $20 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and got this boss tee featuring Mike Mignola's HELLBOY in return...

...also picked up the New Frontier: Flash, Wizard World Exclusive Zoidberg and Hellboy figures...

...and best of all, I scoured a lot of the bins to get 50 to 75% off the following trade paperbacks...

The Goon, Hellboy, El Superbeasto & Godland (Celestial Edition)

Superman/Madman, World's Funnest, Catwoman & Justice (Vol. I)

As an extra added bonus, I met some new artists and old favorites in the 'Artist Alley' area. It was nice to be able to shake the hands of some of the folks whose work I find pretty amazing and get turned on to some new stuff in the process. No personal sketches were requested, but highlights were meeting...

Nathan Fox, Erik Jones, Art Baltazar & Geof Darrow

I could have spent 10X the dough and another full day of just browsing at all the cool stuff on display. Not only was it a bonanza of comic-related stuff, but everything from Japanese toys to vintage horror/sci-fi movie posters/memorabilia as well. Now that i know what to expect, i'll be ready to wreak havoc at next year's stop, currently slated for early August of 2009.

We'll be getting back to some useless pap not so comic book-centric starting tomorrow, so stay tuned...if you haven't already tuned me out! DOH!