Monday, August 23, 2010

Chicago Wizard World 2010

Hello folks! Been a long time since my last blog! Wish I could say I've been slacking off and not dying on the floor somewhere. I decided to take a break from my secret project and website graphic designs to talk about Chicago Wizard World 2010. It was great time! My friend Andy Lane and I ripped up the town! Met a lot of nice people, all of whom didn't swat or shoo us away, so victory! I have photos up on my Facebook that I took with my Droid if you want to check them out and have more on the way.

Thursday was working against us with all of its might but we managed to turn everything around by Friday. Eight hour trip wrecked my body, we were in the wrong hotel like six blocks away, my body was revolting aganist me in more ways than normal all morning long. Stuffed pizza you so yummy, why you try to kill Dennis?! Thank you very much 7-11 for the Gatorade, which replenished my electrolytes, repaired the mornings evacuations performed on the Imperial Cruiser Dennis. I don't even really remember the bad things very much now. Just was stressing in those moments.

We took a cab from our wrong hotel to Chicago Wizard World's preview night. When I got there I had the wrong ticket purchased, that made me not so happy, I got over it eventually. Better than no ticket! We got to take a lot of photos of the Batmobile before they hid it behind curtains the other two days so they could charge three hundred dollars to glimpse it. That dollar price is made up but some of the prices for things were crazy.

I got to meet Art Baltazar! Which was awesome! Nicest guy! I wanted to met him when I was here in 2008 but just never got a chance. His lines extend to the moon and understandably so! Told myself I was meeting him no matter what this year! Sadly for him he got meet us everyday! He was a great sport and we got to hear some great stories from him! He drew me a wonderful Harley Quinn and Batgirl picture! I cherish it! Along with like four others! They are my new babies gonna hang them up and smile at them. Will post them all soon. Maybe I'll create my own little poster with them!

There were a lot of amazing costumes this year! Zombie Hulk, Moon Knight, Deadpool, Harley Quinns (Every little teen girl comes as Harley Quinn), Jokers, Bebop and Rocksteady, X Men, Red Hood, Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Superman, Iron Man and War Machine, Stormtroopers and many others! I do believe I saw the Old Spice guy getting chummy with super peeps. Really wish I had my costumes done. Hulk Sad.

Friday was amazingly fun day that included shopping, photo ops, and awesomeness! I got to meet J. Scott Campbell! I learned a lot of how I draw today from him, so it was really big for me to meet him. Its always so strange to meet the people who have impacted your life in some way. You try to always think of something cool to say, to not low talk, or stutter and than you vomit some ridiculous thing out of your mouth. "Dounts have pretty awesome holes." I grabbed his new Fairy Tales calendar, which I missed last years, and three sketch books, a sweet Black Cat print and Alice in Wonderland print from last years calendar. Got everything signed by him and the Alice print by the colorist too. Was pretty neat. Had Andy stop back and get some Gen 13 comics signed. Was one of my personal favorites as a kid. MMMMM Fairchild. I love me some redheads.

Also on Friday we meet Michael Golden and watched him free draw a sweet Batman profile for a fan and got our awesome Power Girl prints signed. Its really fun to watch real artists draw. Maybe someday my skills will get that good, in like 45 years. Give or take. Spectacular artist. Check him out.

We met with poor Adrianne Curry and Crystal Louthan all three days of the con minus Thursday. I will say they were two of the most beautiful and nicest girls I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Besides my wonderful girlfriend reading this of course! Andy got pictures of each, each day. Adrianne was wearing some awesome sci-fi/comic cosplay costumes each day. Mr. Knight you are a lucky man! First day was a Star Wars Imperial Officer, Saturday, Slave Leia, and Sunday, Leloo from Fifth Element. Sigh.

Saturday night went to the Mafia II Release Party! It was sponsored by Dr. Pepper and Venom Energy drink so I drank free all night. Sucks eating medicines all day to be alive. We dressed up for the masquerade ball in the closest thing we had to Mafia suits, sadly we were told Mario and Luigi costumes were inappropriate. Got lots of free loots and goodies! But best thing was all the great people we met and hung out with. Adrianne Curry, Art Baltazar, Jimmy!, the Soup Nazi, Boba Fett. Was a wild and interesting night, never gonna get to experience something like we did again, well until next Comic Con.

All I wanted to do well I was down at the party since it was my birthday was to talk to Adrianne Curry about WoW. Such a silly goal! But Queen Geek that is best Top Model, that loves Star Wars, WoW, NiN and dressing up how could I not try to talk to her. If I could do that I was done for the day. Andy spotted Ms. Curry and her husband and we went to talk to them and I somehow got stuck in a action pose photo shoot with her, which I will post soon, was so freaking cool! After that she had left and my chance I thought was gone. We went up stairs to the bar and found Art Baltazar and Jimmy and talked with them awhile. Jimmy is awesome! Great guy, fun stories, just great to talk too! After that we headed back down stairs to the party. They had roped off a VIP section for the celebrities, which I decided to cross when I saw miss Curry sitting at a table on the other side. Success! I got my birthday wish! Andy and I talked to Ms. Curry about WoW, Star Wars new MMO, and NiN. It was great! Such a nice girl! I look forward to playing Star Wars: The Old Republic with her next year! I got to take pictures of and get pictures taken with the First and Best Top Model EVER! Geeking!  

We partied in between the lobby and Mafia party after that, bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball. We ran into the "Soup Nazi" upstairs in the lobby. He may or may not have been drinking. Got to hear some neat stories about his college theater years. Its so cool to see that everyone is just a normal person. Watched Boba Fett call out and talk smack to his girlfriend. Was hilarious. I was dying. She did finally go upstairs with him but stormed off an hour or so later looking not impressed. "I didn't mean it baby" Got to watch Kevin Nash use some lady as a crutch to keep him up from his drinking shenanigan. And a silly fight between big tough douche guy vs silly drunken gay comic nerds. That pretty much killed the night for all the lobby lizards about 330ish.

Got so much stuff that needs framing! Between Art's amazing drawings he did for me and amazing prints I picked up. Filled back up my stack of trades to read and filled in a lot of gaps in comic collection of stuff I just could not find in this dead end town that is comic bookless. Oh somebody is gonna loot my home when I die! So much nerding was done the last four days, between gawking at celebrities and looting comic stores my body is still just trying to recover.  

Someday maybe I'll get a chance to visit Chicago and not just the conventions. That is actually probably a lie. If comic books are somewhere in the city limits that is probably where I'll end up. Follow your nose!