Wizard World Chicago 2008

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend my second comic con, Wizard World Chicago 2008. This year I did things a little differently than last year. I decided I could shop for comics online or when I travel, so I focused my time at the show in the "Artist's Alley" and at the Publisher booths. I had a great time and thought I would share some of the highlights.

One of my favorite comic artists, Alex Ross, was at the show and signing. Unfortunately, he is also very popular with half the rest of the world because of his gorgeous water colors, so there was a huge line to be able to see him. I opted to skip this and spend some time meeting others. Perhaps if I were at the show for multiple days I might have waited in line to meet him.

As it turns out, that worked just fine for me, as I was able to meet another of my favorite artists, Kenneth Rocafort, at the Top Cow booth. Not only did he sign three issues for me (Madame Mirage First Look sketch variant, Madame Mirage 1 convention variant, and Madame Mirage 2 convention variant), but I had the opportunity to watch him sketch "Dude" (one of the characters from Madame Mirage) for another convention goer. It was a real treat. Kenneth's sister took this nice pic for me after I got my autographs (Thanks!). Next time I will be sure to bring a sketch book.

Later on I attended the Top Cow futures session, for which Kenneth was on the panel. When he arrived though, he tried to sit in the back of the room by me. That would have been pretty cool to comment on the future directions with him.

One of my first stops when I get to the convention is to visit my favorite local creators, the guys from Imaginary Tales Comics. This is the team of Kurt Wood, illustrator (and manager at my favorite local comic shop, Collector's Edge) and Kevin J. Smith. I picked up Kurt's sketch book and (later) a snazzy ITC t-shirt. I already have their full series of comics. Kurt also informed me of the sad news of Michael Turner's passing the night before.

I didn't know Michael Turner in person, or even know a lot about him. What I do know about him is that he has not been well for a while. Mostly though, I know him for his beautiful artwork, and he deserves a paragraph of his own here. I know his variant covers and have seen some of his great work that he did for Top Cow and his own publishing company, Aspen MLT. I signed a card dedicated to him and picked up his sketchbooks from the NYC Comic Con. Marc Silvestri gave a really nice remembrance of him at the beginning of the Top Cow futures session. Michael, you will be missed, but you will forever live on in your work.

I met lots of great artists while I was making my way around the alley, but I would like to highlight some who stood out here.

Greg Horn is an artist who does a lot of great, painted art. I have collected quite a few issues of books for which Greg has done the cover art (most notably She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel). He is also doing some great Skrull work around the Secret Invasion. I enjoyed talking with him at his booth and taking some pics for other fans. I picked up a print of an awesome Wolverine piece he did that he signed for me.

I met a couple who write and illustrate a book together called The Uniques. Comfort Love and Adam Withers are a husband/wife duo from Grand Rapids, MI who were sure to emphasize that the both do the work on their pages. I liked what I was seeing, so I picked up issue #1 of the series (signed at the booth by Comfort and Adam and completed with a "Certificate of Awesometicity") and really enjoyed it. I'm really looking forward to picking up the next couple of completed issues and exploring the 'extras' on their website.

I spent some time talking with artist Mark Sparacio. I enjoyed flipping through his portfolios and talking about his art. He's done some covers for some comics I have. He also does covers for the Comic Book Price Guides. I was very impressed that with the fact that Mark remembered my name when I returned to his booth later. At that time he showed me a commissioned piece he was working on at the show of the ladies from the show Charmed. It was absolutely incredible. In support of Mark's work, I picked up a Batgirl print of a pencil drawing.

I've been going for quite a while here, but a couple other artists I enjoyed meeting (in no particular order):

• Freddie Williams II - Artist of some issues of DC's Robin series that I own. He has been working on The Flash lately, and will be returning to Robin.
• Adi Granov - Artist whose interpretation of Iron Man was used for the movie
• Marat Mychaels - one of the first artists I spoke with during the day. I was still a bit shy about talking with the artists, so I didn't speak with Marat as much as I might have.
  
• C. B. Cebulski - one of the few writers with whom I spoke. He has done an assortment of titles I've read, and I picked up a couple issues of his Wonderlost books.

I had a great time at the show and enjoyed interacting with creators whose work I knew before the show and those I just met at the show. That is enough for now, though... time to call it a night.