Only one more company to add in terms of signing schedules, but I do have two recent media stories related to the con …

CBS 2 in Chicago talks to local artist/WW Chicago exhibitor Sarah Becan about being a female comic creator:

When the North Side’s Sarah Becan takes pencil in hand, she herself becomes an illustration of the small number of women creating the art of comics.

“There certainly are too few of us. I’d like to see a lot more girls making comics,” Becan said.

The rock ‘em, sock ‘em genre in the past has been closely associated with testosterone, but female artists like Becan are also finding their voice in what’s traditionally called a comic book.

“I think there is a stigma based on the word itself,” Becan said.

Becan’s works, like the Shuteye Series, have a distinct hand-crafted look, and they tend to tell stories with a social message or intriguing narrative as only comics can.

“You get to use imagery and words graphics and text to communicate any message you’d like. It’s the best of both worlds,” she said.

Definitely check out her website to see all the cool mini-comics and web comics she’s done.

PioneerLocal.com, another Chicago-area site, looks at some of the “rather low-key aspects to the extravaganza” known as Wizard World Chicago:

One of those artists in the Alley is Alex Wald of Lakeview. Wald began his career at age 7 by receiving an Honorable Mention for his original interpretation of the Abominable Snowman in a Chicago Sun-Times contest. He is also a veteran of the Chicago Comicon — long before it was taken over by the Wizard Entertainment Group.

“I go back to year one at the Chicago Comicon, when it was held downtown at the Hilton,” said Wald. “I became involved in comics as a professional in 1983. I was an art director for eight years at First Comics in Evanston.”

They also talk to Charlie Athanas, the creative director of The Devil’s Candystore and one of the artists who worked on Shatter, the first computer-generated comic.

BOOM! will have signings at their booth:

BOOM! Studios announced the following signings at their booth (#548) during Wizard World Chicago 2007:

Friday 10-11am - TAG & TAG CURSED - Kody Chamberlain and Mike Leib
Friday 1-2pm - ZOMBIE TALES - Chris Moreno
Saturday 10-11am - TAG & TAG CURSED - Kody Chamberlain and Mike Leib

By the end of this summer, BOOM! will be offering a line of trade paperback graphic novels collecting their popular series, including TALENT, HERO SQUARED, DEATH VALLEY, X ISLE, and TAG featuring the illustration work of Kody Chamberlain along with ZOMBIE TALES featuring work by Chris Moreno.

Mike Leib’s TAG: CURSED, a follow-up to the hit Keith Giffen creation TAG, recently completed it’s five issue run.

Yesterday I mentioned the Michael Golden Vampirella print that would be sold at the con; here it is in all its glory:

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under Comic Books, Conventions, Creators, Independent, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.