WHAT: Wizard World Chicago 2005
WHAT\'S THAT: A comic convention
WHEN: August 4th thru 7th, 2005
WHERE: The Donald J. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois
Wizard World Chicago is a friendly reminder that I need money. Yes, even I-- someone who reads comic books about as often as our president ponders world peace-- found himself seriously debating whether or not to go crazy with the credit card. I mean, you have so many vendors there. So many artists in Artist’s Alley. And the concession stand thinks a hot dog is worth $7.00. There is no being thrifty here.
On the main floor, Palisades Toys played cruel temptress with their display cases, showing off both their forthcoming Sesame Street line of figures, and the toys from Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. A few booths over, Tokyo Pop was heavily promoting my man Felipe Smith’s new book, MBQ. He’s bigtime now, and deservingly so. The book is good, and good comics are rare.
Which leads me to Top Shelf. They win the award for \"Most Purchase-able Books Published In The World\". Seriously. They treat comics like the art form it should be. I mean, can you deny the awesomeness of James Kochalka?
In Artist’s Alley, it was a little harder to find some diamonds in the rough. Luckily, Night Watchman pointed me in the direction of Katie Cook, whose crayon and marker pinups made a mockery of everything Marvel and DC worked so hard to build. I also really recommend that everyone go to Sarah Becan\'s site and pick up her \"Ouija Interview\" books. They’re fucking gorgeous.
The third arm in this triangle of spending is the celebrity appearances. 2005 brought us author/wrestler/human ball of awesome Mick Foley, the dude who played Flash Gordon, former WWE superstar Virgil, and some bald dude from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Marc Blucas was the real star of that show) signing whatever you want them to sign... for a fee. Margot Kidder was also there, signing her medicine.
There were tons of legendary artists and writers on hand (including Mr. Sin City himself, Frank Miller), hundreds of books and t-shirts for the buying, plus a lot of people dressed up like Ghostbusters and Jedi. But there’s not enough room on the Internet to go into full detail. Just keep your calendar open for next year. I’ll be in the back of the convention center, shotgunning beers with Lou Ferrigno.