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Random thoughts on Wizard World in Chicago 2008…

Wizard World Chicago started with a guy dressed up as Venom. Only he was also dressed up as a pimp. See where I’m going here? Yes, Wizard World Chicago had its own pimp-daddy Venom, strutting around the show all day on Friday. Stepping onto a convention show floor is like stepping into another completely different world for three solid days.

Wizard has been running the Chicago comic convention for over 10 years now, transforming it from a great regional show to an oversaturated pop-culture and wrestling show to something now that mixes the two experiences. Gone are all of the wrestling rings and a lot of the giant booths that have nothing to do with comics. Video games still have a decent representation at the convention, putting up large and noisy booths as they try to hawk their wears. Even the publisher’s booths have gotten smaller and less gaudy over the past few years as DC, Marvel, Top Cow and Aspen Comics have dominated the publishers area with fairly simple booths that allow fans to get in, get autographs and then get out.

The sales floor of Wizard World Chicago has been a strange beast the last few years. Saturday morning, I overheard one retailer tell someone that you could find very cheap stuff or had to pay big bucks for expensive books but that there wasn’t much of a middle ground. Spending quite a bit of time out on the floor, I had to agree with him. I just want to know where all of the cheap graphic novels come from. Half price trades have been the norm on the floor for a few years but this year many retailers had tables stacked with $5 trades, mostly Marvel. Cheap Marvel trades were everywhere. Even the hardcovers were cheap, with many retailers offering the recent hardcover of Stephen King’s Dark Tower for $10.

While Pimp Venom may be one of the funniest things I saw all weekend, there is one simple scene I saw that will help me always remember WWC 2008. On Saturday morning, I was in line at the Avatar booth waiting for Warren Ellis. Of all the creators in Chicago this weekend, Ellis was the one I wanted to see and brielfy meet the most. I’ve been wondering for a while what Ellis was really like because I’ve always maintained that his on-line persona was just that; a persona but not the real Warren Ellis. At Friday’s late night Question & Answer session, Ellis’s charm and humor came through much more than it does just through reading his replies on his forums or emails. Maybe it was the English accent. Maybe it was the usually present sly smile or the small twinkle in his eye that I could see clearly across the room. Maybe he’s just a good actor but he seemed to be actually enjoying being there.

Saturday morning, his signing was supposed to begin at 11 a.m. but he did not show up until around 11:20 a.m. I half expected the old bastard Ellis, cranky and not wanting to be around the fanboys. Instead, Ellis quickly walked up and down the line, half seeing how long it was and half wanting to briefly chat and thank people for waiting. Walking back to the Avatar table to begin signing, he stopped just behind me to talk to two young girls who couldn’t have even been 10 years old and who were probably there with their by their father. He bent over and ever so gently and polititely asked them, “Have you been waiting long? Well, we’ll see what we can do to get you out of here.” No barking. No biting heads off. No sense of entitlement because he was the talent and we were just the fanboys. Just a nice man, taking some time to talk to his fans and sign some books.

Artist alley was a busy place this year. From a fan perspective, it’s been slowly growing over the past couple of years and I think it’s only been getting better. Five years ago, it was a lot smaller and had an amateur wrestling ring taking up a lot of the space. This year, I think Artist Alley was often more crowded than the publishers area or even the sales floor.

Yes, there was a “gentlemen’s club” with a booth set up on the sales floor but I never saw anyone there.

How much time do Lou Ferringo and Virgil spend on the road at cons?

If you ever get a chance to, volunteer at a con. This year, I worked a couple of shifts for Hero Initiative and had a great time. While I was there, Mike Perkins, Gene Ha and Humberto Ramos were doing sketches and it was a lot of fun to watch them while also trying to raise money for a great cause. And I got to spend a large chunk of the weekend looking at their about fifty of the Hulk 100 covers, copies of Hulk #1 with sketch covers by great artists like Alan Davis, Chris Bachalo, Joseph Michael Linser, Herb Trimpe and Matt Wagner just to name a few. On Sunday, I even helped out a bit as Hero auctioned off ten of the books. It was a huge eye opener to be sitting on that side of the table, trying to talk to people about Hero and the great work that they do.

The convention was a quieter place this year, really noticeable on Saturday as the news of Michael Turner’s death spread through the con. But even on Friday, it did not seem as raucous as it usually does. I know it is fashionable to slam Wizard and the type of shows that they put on but for the last couple of years, I’ve been impressed at what they’ve been able to put together. With the wrestlers and television network booths gone, it no longer feels like a pop culture convention that caters to comic fans but an actual comic book show that’s about all kinds of comics.

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