Wizard World Chicago '05
For those who hate having a giant entry sprawling down their screen.
Day 1: Last Thursday Josh and I drove up to Chicago for Wizard World 2005. We made the drive in about five and a half hours. Geek by mcchris quickly became the theme of our trip, and we blasted both of his albums repeatedly during the commute. The plan was to go up for the Premiere Night on Thursday, drive to Josh's grandmother's house for lodging and supplies (i.e. food), and drive back to the convention center the following morning, lather, rinse, repeat. Miraculously we arrived at the con without getting lost in the Chi-town traffic, and they shuffled us through a line to pick up my ticket and our gift packs before herding us in to Hall D to await entry. The "Magic Curtain" (I know it's lame, but I gotta geek this up and that's what they called it) was pulled back at five o'clock, and we booked inside straight to the exhibitor's booths. The first stop was at Graphiti Designs to pick up the exclusive Kevin Smith Convention Inaction figure, followed by a trip to the Pallisades booth to snag Jessy her exclusive Zim and GIR figs and take some shots of their upcoming product lines. The Meatwad and Frylock figures look awesome. Afterward we picked up our tickets to enter two drawings: one for two exclusive Batman figures, and one for an exclusive Dark Phoenix figure (everything here is exclusive and highly e-bay-able), which resulted in each of us winning the Phoenix and Josh carrying two back to the car. We scored a lot of free loot and took a look around, but Josh hadn't slept for about 30 hours at this point and we didn't want to see everything right away, so we left and drove out to his grandma's. We had to traverse a toll road which was under construction, so by the time we found her house we'd been on the road another three and a half hours and were only up long enough to say hello, grab some chow and sack out for the night.
Day 2: Friday morning we got up about five a.m. and made some sandwiches out of leftover pot roast, packed them in the car and woke up to more mcchris and 80's music as we went back for the first serious day of the con. We managed the drive in two and a half hours, just in time to get inside as the curtain was pulled back again. Our first move was to pick up tickets to a Star Wars panel hosted by Steve Sansweet, head of fan relations for Lucasfilm, as well as tickets to Cup O' Joe, a panel held by Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. Once more we picked up tickets for the Batman drawing, then slummed through the vendor booths until the Star Wars show. Sansweet spent the better part of an hour showing us exclusive footage from upcoming games by LucasArts and some deleted scenes from the newest Star Wars flick, then discussed the company's aggressive expansion of its animation department which would be housed in their brand new facility in San Fransisco. The idea of some animated Indiana Jones shorts similar to the recent Clone Wars cartoons was thrown out to the crowd, as was the status of the new movie (they're working on it). The next panel with Joe Q. featured a surprise appearance by Jeph Loeb, who was announced to be working on a new project for Marvel. The artist for his book was then revealed as Joe Madureira, who was last known for his work on Battle Chasers before disappearing into obscurity and devoting his life to the production and playing of video games. His return was a huge hit, as was the signing session the pair held afterwards. I happened to be wearing a shirt I airbrushed in high school with the BC logo, and got Mad to sign it before he got too creeped out about signing a man's breast. We did however receive free posters of a wraparound cover he drew for a current Marvel title before leaving the exhibitor section, and discovered we had once more lost the raffle for the Batman figs. The remainder of our time was spent snagging assorted loot and getting pictures of a couple of costumed convention-goers before we left for the day and worked our way back to base for the night. Tickets would be required for certain events the following morning, so we decided to crash and get an early start on the interstate.
Day 3: We were anticipating Saturday to be the busiest day of the con, so we got up about four a.m. and started off, once more arriving after two and a half hours and getting a good position in line. After entry at nine, we got into the special events ticket line where they set us on one of two sides: those on one side got tickets to the Kevin Smith Q & A panel, the others to a signing appearance by uber artist Jim Lee and Sin City writer/director Frank Miller. I took a ticket for the former while Josh took one for the latter, and we both got tickets for the DC All Stars panel where Lee and Miller would discuss the new line launched by their hit take on Batman and Robin. He then went to a signing by artist Micheal Turner while I went to another Marvel panel. Turner ended up being late for his signing as he stopped by the panel to sign a contract that would allow him to do some work for Marvel. Their acquisition of both Turner and Mad, as well as Loeb to write, definitely had a big impact on all of the fans at the con. After the panel (which discussed the House of M storyline) ended, I managed to score the Batman figures that Josh was denied for the third time, and picked them up for him before roaming off to find none other than mcchris at a booth near the end of the hall. We talked to him for a bit about his first album and his new one due out in the spring, then got our pictures taken with him before we left. I really wanted to go see his show in town that night, but we were both too tired and would need more than two hours of sleep for the drive home Sunday, so we reluctantly decided to just wait and catch him in Indy on August 20th (for anyone interested, 12 dollars, 21 and over, sorry Jessy 8*( ). Josh then split off to see the DC panel while I waited in line for a Randor statue. He-Man's dad was limited to 2000 pieces, 1700 of which were sold out in San Diego, so fans were pretty upset to find out that there was a good chance they would be going home without a figure. The booth operator decided that instead of selling them to those first in line, he would ask He-Man trivia questions and pick random people who thought they knew the answer to go to the booth: if you got it right, you could buy a Randor. I was repeatedly past over and left without the figure (and having missed the DC panel), finding a spot several hundred people back in the Kevin Smith panel line and power napping for about ten minutes until they let us into the hall to find a seat. Jason Mewes was the first to arrive, and spent several minutes doing signings and posing for pics before taking off to troll for some booty as he seemed to have done the rest of the con. Smith arrived fifteen minutes late but still to thunderous applause, and even went about fifty minutes over before he was informed the convention was closed and people would need to leave. The man was hilarious, and being there was like watching one of his movies unfold: it was quick-witted, sarcastic and dirty as hell. He seemed genuinely happy to talk to his fans and was completely down to earth, running off on tangents for fifteen minutes or more for every question that was asked. When he finally climbed off the dias, I met Josh in the hall and took a look at his books he'd had signed by Lee and Miller, and we drove back once more to his grandma's. We knew if we got there at the same time Sunday we should get the tickets we wanted, so we decided to follow the plan we implemented that day and leave well before five o'clock.
Day 4: Getting up right after four, we said goodbye to Josh's grandmother and thanked her for her hospitality and the food she sent home with us. We made it to the con in great time (arrived around seven), but had to wait until ten o'clock today to get inside. Josh once more got a ticket for a signing by Lee and Miller, while I obtained one of only a couple hundred tickets for the Kevin Smith signing. We shopped around a bit more, and I managed to score a San Diego exclusive Kevin Smith figure that his booth received the previous evening. I snagged the last one out of the six cases, then had a bit of a panic attack when I realized my wallet was missing. We went back to the car and found it down next to the seat, then returned to the hall where I sat down to wait in line for Smith's signing. After about two hours of waiting I finally got up to him and had him sign both a screenplay book of Clerks and Chasing Amy and a Mallrats bumper sticker for Laura (also signed by Mewes). He's as nice and enthusiastic as everyone says he is, and I encourage anyone who has a chance to go see him to do so. I then did a few more laps around the dealers' booths as Josh waited in line for his signing, which I got back in time for and got photos of him with both Lee and Miller. We left the con at that point, shifting all of our swag into safe positions and gearing up for the drive home. The drive was rough, and I was nodding off fairly hard about halfway through, but we kicked up a conversation that kept me awake until just south of Indy where traffic started slowing to a crawl. I never saw any reason for the stall, but Josh was thoroughly pissed and my headache was only getting worse. We made it back in about the same time as it took us to get there though, and I sacked out so I could open at work in the morning. I hadn't slept that long in four days, or that hard in I don't know how long.
As I've sat here and typed this our air conditioning is out, I'm still tired as hell and I just realized I haven't eaten dinner tonight. And if you've read this far, you're probably in a similar state of discomfort because this is too much inane babble for any one person to take. I hope the lj cut thing works. 8 )
Day 1: Last Thursday Josh and I drove up to Chicago for Wizard World 2005. We made the drive in about five and a half hours. Geek by mcchris quickly became the theme of our trip, and we blasted both of his albums repeatedly during the commute. The plan was to go up for the Premiere Night on Thursday, drive to Josh's grandmother's house for lodging and supplies (i.e. food), and drive back to the convention center the following morning, lather, rinse, repeat. Miraculously we arrived at the con without getting lost in the Chi-town traffic, and they shuffled us through a line to pick up my ticket and our gift packs before herding us in to Hall D to await entry. The "Magic Curtain" (I know it's lame, but I gotta geek this up and that's what they called it) was pulled back at five o'clock, and we booked inside straight to the exhibitor's booths. The first stop was at Graphiti Designs to pick up the exclusive Kevin Smith Convention Inaction figure, followed by a trip to the Pallisades booth to snag Jessy her exclusive Zim and GIR figs and take some shots of their upcoming product lines. The Meatwad and Frylock figures look awesome. Afterward we picked up our tickets to enter two drawings: one for two exclusive Batman figures, and one for an exclusive Dark Phoenix figure (everything here is exclusive and highly e-bay-able), which resulted in each of us winning the Phoenix and Josh carrying two back to the car. We scored a lot of free loot and took a look around, but Josh hadn't slept for about 30 hours at this point and we didn't want to see everything right away, so we left and drove out to his grandma's. We had to traverse a toll road which was under construction, so by the time we found her house we'd been on the road another three and a half hours and were only up long enough to say hello, grab some chow and sack out for the night.
Day 2: Friday morning we got up about five a.m. and made some sandwiches out of leftover pot roast, packed them in the car and woke up to more mcchris and 80's music as we went back for the first serious day of the con. We managed the drive in two and a half hours, just in time to get inside as the curtain was pulled back again. Our first move was to pick up tickets to a Star Wars panel hosted by Steve Sansweet, head of fan relations for Lucasfilm, as well as tickets to Cup O' Joe, a panel held by Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. Once more we picked up tickets for the Batman drawing, then slummed through the vendor booths until the Star Wars show. Sansweet spent the better part of an hour showing us exclusive footage from upcoming games by LucasArts and some deleted scenes from the newest Star Wars flick, then discussed the company's aggressive expansion of its animation department which would be housed in their brand new facility in San Fransisco. The idea of some animated Indiana Jones shorts similar to the recent Clone Wars cartoons was thrown out to the crowd, as was the status of the new movie (they're working on it). The next panel with Joe Q. featured a surprise appearance by Jeph Loeb, who was announced to be working on a new project for Marvel. The artist for his book was then revealed as Joe Madureira, who was last known for his work on Battle Chasers before disappearing into obscurity and devoting his life to the production and playing of video games. His return was a huge hit, as was the signing session the pair held afterwards. I happened to be wearing a shirt I airbrushed in high school with the BC logo, and got Mad to sign it before he got too creeped out about signing a man's breast. We did however receive free posters of a wraparound cover he drew for a current Marvel title before leaving the exhibitor section, and discovered we had once more lost the raffle for the Batman figs. The remainder of our time was spent snagging assorted loot and getting pictures of a couple of costumed convention-goers before we left for the day and worked our way back to base for the night. Tickets would be required for certain events the following morning, so we decided to crash and get an early start on the interstate.
Day 3: We were anticipating Saturday to be the busiest day of the con, so we got up about four a.m. and started off, once more arriving after two and a half hours and getting a good position in line. After entry at nine, we got into the special events ticket line where they set us on one of two sides: those on one side got tickets to the Kevin Smith Q & A panel, the others to a signing appearance by uber artist Jim Lee and Sin City writer/director Frank Miller. I took a ticket for the former while Josh took one for the latter, and we both got tickets for the DC All Stars panel where Lee and Miller would discuss the new line launched by their hit take on Batman and Robin. He then went to a signing by artist Micheal Turner while I went to another Marvel panel. Turner ended up being late for his signing as he stopped by the panel to sign a contract that would allow him to do some work for Marvel. Their acquisition of both Turner and Mad, as well as Loeb to write, definitely had a big impact on all of the fans at the con. After the panel (which discussed the House of M storyline) ended, I managed to score the Batman figures that Josh was denied for the third time, and picked them up for him before roaming off to find none other than mcchris at a booth near the end of the hall. We talked to him for a bit about his first album and his new one due out in the spring, then got our pictures taken with him before we left. I really wanted to go see his show in town that night, but we were both too tired and would need more than two hours of sleep for the drive home Sunday, so we reluctantly decided to just wait and catch him in Indy on August 20th (for anyone interested, 12 dollars, 21 and over, sorry Jessy 8*( ). Josh then split off to see the DC panel while I waited in line for a Randor statue. He-Man's dad was limited to 2000 pieces, 1700 of which were sold out in San Diego, so fans were pretty upset to find out that there was a good chance they would be going home without a figure. The booth operator decided that instead of selling them to those first in line, he would ask He-Man trivia questions and pick random people who thought they knew the answer to go to the booth: if you got it right, you could buy a Randor. I was repeatedly past over and left without the figure (and having missed the DC panel), finding a spot several hundred people back in the Kevin Smith panel line and power napping for about ten minutes until they let us into the hall to find a seat. Jason Mewes was the first to arrive, and spent several minutes doing signings and posing for pics before taking off to troll for some booty as he seemed to have done the rest of the con. Smith arrived fifteen minutes late but still to thunderous applause, and even went about fifty minutes over before he was informed the convention was closed and people would need to leave. The man was hilarious, and being there was like watching one of his movies unfold: it was quick-witted, sarcastic and dirty as hell. He seemed genuinely happy to talk to his fans and was completely down to earth, running off on tangents for fifteen minutes or more for every question that was asked. When he finally climbed off the dias, I met Josh in the hall and took a look at his books he'd had signed by Lee and Miller, and we drove back once more to his grandma's. We knew if we got there at the same time Sunday we should get the tickets we wanted, so we decided to follow the plan we implemented that day and leave well before five o'clock.
Day 4: Getting up right after four, we said goodbye to Josh's grandmother and thanked her for her hospitality and the food she sent home with us. We made it to the con in great time (arrived around seven), but had to wait until ten o'clock today to get inside. Josh once more got a ticket for a signing by Lee and Miller, while I obtained one of only a couple hundred tickets for the Kevin Smith signing. We shopped around a bit more, and I managed to score a San Diego exclusive Kevin Smith figure that his booth received the previous evening. I snagged the last one out of the six cases, then had a bit of a panic attack when I realized my wallet was missing. We went back to the car and found it down next to the seat, then returned to the hall where I sat down to wait in line for Smith's signing. After about two hours of waiting I finally got up to him and had him sign both a screenplay book of Clerks and Chasing Amy and a Mallrats bumper sticker for Laura (also signed by Mewes). He's as nice and enthusiastic as everyone says he is, and I encourage anyone who has a chance to go see him to do so. I then did a few more laps around the dealers' booths as Josh waited in line for his signing, which I got back in time for and got photos of him with both Lee and Miller. We left the con at that point, shifting all of our swag into safe positions and gearing up for the drive home. The drive was rough, and I was nodding off fairly hard about halfway through, but we kicked up a conversation that kept me awake until just south of Indy where traffic started slowing to a crawl. I never saw any reason for the stall, but Josh was thoroughly pissed and my headache was only getting worse. We made it back in about the same time as it took us to get there though, and I sacked out so I could open at work in the morning. I hadn't slept that long in four days, or that hard in I don't know how long.
As I've sat here and typed this our air conditioning is out, I'm still tired as hell and I just realized I haven't eaten dinner tonight. And if you've read this far, you're probably in a similar state of discomfort because this is too much inane babble for any one person to take. I hope the lj cut thing works. 8 )