Words & Stuff: The World of Wizards

Well Wizard World 2008 has come and gone but what a great time it was. This Wizard World, which is of course is located in the windy city (people also call it chitown...I was unaware), was my third consecutive Wizard World convention. The convention was held in Rosemont convention center. By posting this blog, I hope to inform my fellow comic dorks about the wonder of conventions and how they are the annual Mecca for any comic reader. If you ever dreamed to meet the talented men and women behind the books you read weekly then there is no greater chance to do so than at Wizard World. Every year, many different creators and artists appear and also local creators come such as Brian Azzerello and Alex Ross (no joke). This year’s guest list was by far the best I have seen in my convention-going career The convention had such attendee’s as Brian Michael Bendis (who happens to not like our dear friend captain cletus) Geoff Johns, Peter David, Sean McKeever, Phil Hester, David Mack, Ethan Van Sciver, Greg Rucka, Alex Ross, Tony Daniel, Alex Maleev and many, many others. Many people often wonder what all goes into conventions. What do you do and what is there to see? Well Wizard World is set up in four parts: company booths, vendors, artist alley, and panel rooms. The company booth section is the place where companies display their upcoming releases and is also the location where many writers and artists go to for their assigned signing times, which are often posted daily and the booths themselves. All publishers are located here, big and small, and there’s often a lot of things to discover at the smaller publisher booths (Such as Jeffery Brown’s Incredible Change-Bots). The next part is the most troublesome… the vendors. If you go to convention convinced that you are not going to spend a dollar on comics… think again. Vendors have every trade imaginable and usually at least a 35% discount. The most alluring of vendors are those that sell their trades at the 50% percent range. To give a taste for how much you can wind up spending, I will now share with you my personal purchase list: 24 seven Vol.1 and 2, Catwoman Vol.1, Cross Bronx, Absolute Edition Dark Knight Returns, Doctor 13, Doll and Creature, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Firebreather Vol. 1 and Firebreather: The Iron Saint, Godland Vol.1, Jack of Fables Vol.1, Jinx, Manhunter Vol. 1 & 2, New X-Men Vol.1, Savage Dragon Archives Vol. 1 & 2, Stray Bullets Vol1. X-factor: Madrox, X-factor Vol. 1-3, The Zombie Survival Guide, and an Invincible Statue. So needless to say, I spent a little bit of the monies. So after a couple hours and a series of back problems later, the next place to go is the famous Artist’s Alley, which is the greatest part of the convention. Here you get to see up and coming talent in the industry along with battle hardened veterans. All artists and creators are very welcoming and often excited to give autographs or even sketches. And last but not least, the panel rooms. At Wizard World, there are three separate panel rooms all displaying different things at different times. In example, DC Nation and the DC panel often talk about upcoming events in the DC Universe and usually contain a line-up of artists and writers talking about their individual projects. Marvel’s Cup O Joe (though this year it was entitled Cup O Bendis) is the equivalent to DC Nation and DC Panels. There are also panels for the smaller publishing companies and some panels that are just plain fun. Though I could ramble on about how awesome conventions are, you need to just….go. So that was just a glimpse into the world of comic conventions and the great thing is if you aren’t afraid to travel there are comic conventions going on year round. So go out there, see the world, and see the comics.
* Greg Rucka and Myself in the Photograph