Wizard World Chicago

I walked into the convention center and stopped. I had no idea where to turn. Everywhere I looked, there were people pimping their comics, giving out free things, or offering signatures. Intermittently, there were people famous only to comic book fans. I was overwhelmed, and a little embarrassed because I had no idea where to start.

This was my first comic book convention: a foray into a whole new level of geekdom.

While waiting in line for a "goodies" bag, I got my first surprise of the weekend. A little in front of me in line was a woman who posted at the same comic message board as me for a few years, but who I'd never met before. It was nice to meet her. She was the first of literally dozens of people that I'd meet from that board.

I started cruising the artists alley (where all the comic book artists have booths) and was amazed to find how many big profile artists were there. Everyone was very nice and ready to talk. I got several cheap or free sketches, and a lot of discounted books from these guys. It was great.

Eventually, I started going to the panels. These all had specific topics that told about writing comics, gave us some ideas of what was to come in some comics, and allowed everyone to ask the creators of comics questions.

Although a lot of the artists were easy to get signatures from, the writers were a little harder to catch. Still, I got several signatures over the weekend. One of which, though, I had to wait two hours in line for.

Overall, I had a great time buying comics, talking comics, and learning about comics all weekend long. I was a geek in a sea of geeks.

R

This is me with Ed Brubaker (middle) and Brian Michael Bendis (right). Bendis is my favorite writer. Great stuff. It was really cool to meet him. Ed Brubaker is the guy that's about to take over for him writing Daredevel (one of my favorite books). It's cool to get the old writer and the new writer in the same picture. They just happened to be close to each other. Lucky me. 

Me with just Bendis. 

Me with Paul Jenkins, creator of the Sentry. 

Adi Granov: artist of Iron Man. 

The HUGE poster over the Marvel booth. 

Some posters at the Marvel booth. 

Michael with Raven Gregory, creator of the Gift. 

Now Michael trying to LIFT Raven. 

Me with two friends: Christine and Michael. 

Hmmmm....what's this? If you can believe it, it's a hair salon in Chicago. 

A sketch of Daredevil by Adi Granov. 

A sketch of Daredevil by Taki Soma. 

A sketch of Diamond by the creator of the character, Michael Oeming. 

A sketch by Michael Goodman. 

Bastard Samurai #1 signed by creator and writer Michael Oeming. 

Ciderview Project #5 signed by Taki Soma (cover artist) and Michael Goodman (writer and interior artist). 

The Gift #1 signed by creator Raven Gregory. 

Kabuki: The Alchemy #1 signed by the creator, David Mack. He was a very nice guy. 

Gotham Central #1 signed by Ed Brubaker (writer) and Michael Lark (Artist). 

And now my little gallery of just Bendis stuff. Brian Michael Bendis is my favorite comic writer, and I finally got to meet him. I took with me some of my favorite stuff he's done. This one is the first part of "Purple" in the comic Alias. It's the best comic arc I've ever read. It's also signed by the artist Michael Gaydos. 

Pulse #25 also signed by Bendis and Gaydos. 

Daredevil #50 signed by Bendis. This is a GREAT issue. 

Powers #1 signed by both Bendis and Oeming (the artist). This is my favorite comic series. 

Another one signed by Bendis. This one will probably be worth some major cash some day. Too bad I'll never actually sell it. 

A free poster. There were plenty.