Wizard World’s biggest show rolls into the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois tomorrow with a host of comic pros, a few media guests and some fun events planned over the show’s four days.
Guests include Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, Alex Ross, Todd McFarlane, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, David Finch, Gail Simone, Bruce Timm, Whilce Portacio, Alex Maleev, Jessica Abel, Brian Azzarello, Tony Daniel, C.B. Cebulski, Peter David, Olivier Coipel, Sean McKeever, Matt Madden, Humberto Ramos, Brian Reed, author Max Brooks, wrestler Mick Foley, actress Missy Peregrym and many more.
Some of the programming highlights (which start Friday; Thursday is “premiere night”):
– The direct-to-DVD animated movie Batman Gotham Knight will debut at the show, followed by a panel with many of the creators who worked on it.
– The Hero Initiative will host “The Green Room,” featuring original Hulk #1 covers by 100 different artists.
– There’s an American Gladiators Q&A panel at 2 p.m. Friday in the Steve Gerber room. If you don’t see anything wrong with that sentence, I probably can’t help you.
– Johns vs. Bendis takes place at 5 p.m. Friday, sponsored by A&E/The History Channel. Everyone who attends gets a free Last Stand of the 300 DVD. I’m not sure what the connection is between the two, unless they’re supposed to represent the two sides of the conflict. I’ll let you decide who’s who …
– According to their Twitter feed, Devil’s Due will be announcing something, probably at their 3 p.m. panel on Saturday.
– The weekend’s most “WTF?”-inducing panel (and the competition was pretty tough) … how to start your own wiki, on Saturday. A close second is the Ogeno.com panel: “Ever wondered what Entertainment Networking would be like? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have all your bookmarked sites in one place? If you’ve ever thought about this, your dreams are about to come true!” Egad, it’s like they’ve been reading my mind!
– Friday night Warren Ellis will host a panel in a room with two bars.
More info on the show can be found on Wizard’s site.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
“Friday night Warren Ellis will host a panel in a room with two bars.”
I’m pretty sure this is required by law whenever Ellis hosts a panel. I like the warning on his blog about him smoking during it.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Warren will be wearing a manly hat and using naughty words, so if that offends you, stay away.
Be sure to shake his hand vigorously, though — not! He will cry like a little girl if you do, so be gentle with the dear fellow.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
If only this was actually held IN Chicago.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
If it’s not IN Chicago, where is it? I’ve never actually bothered to look for that. Somehow, I just assumed it was near O’Hare. Maybe in Rosemont?
Anyhow, I’ve been debating myself about going. Ever since I found out about the surprise Dark Knight panel with Nolan, Bale and Oldman last year I’ve been kicking myself for not attending. So I was all excited about this year’s, my wife even said she’d go, and then..? Blah.
I’d love to see the Gotham Knight premiere and panel, but I’m not sure that’s worth it when I’ll actually own a copy a couple weeks later. Otherwise, it looks like it’s a lot of wrestlers and American Gladiators. WTF? This is a COMIC con. Right? Somehow, Mick Foley and George “The Animal” Steele just don’t do it for me.
Sure, there’s a lot of good writers and artists who will be there too… But I’m not fond of standing in lines for hours just to have some books signed, and maybe score a couple of sketches. It’s not like Alex Ross will be paining pictures for everyone who wants one. I’d be interested in meeting Ed Brubaker, but he’s not on the list.
Aren’t Didio and Quesada going to be there? I was hoping to finally attend some of these panels I read about all the time, maybe ask some questions or get to rake them over the coals about mistakes they’ve made (OMD, I’m looking at you!). I’d love to hear more about the Chuck Dixon fallout, etc. over at DC. Or at least see Didio squirm as he evades those questions.
On a less combative note, those gatherings that Didio’s been doing recently, just sitting with fans and talking about how they got into loving comics sounds like actual fun. But since he’s apparently not going to be there, that won’t be happening either.
Is there anyone going, or has gone in the past, who can clue me in to what cool stuff might be happening, aside from what’s being publcized? Right now, I’m thinking that saving money (including gas and lodging) makes more sense, but if there are better reasons to go I’d like to hear about it.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Stupid me… There it is, right at the top of the article: “the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois”
Anyhow, that counts as Chicago. It’s a suburb. It’s near O’Hare airport, and I’ve been to a number of concerts at the arena in Rosemont. It used to be called Rosemont Horizon, but I’m not sure what it’s called now.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Rosemont is not Chicago.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Umm… It’s a SUBURB of Chicago, as I mentioned in the previous posting. When bands play Rosemont Horizon or whatever the arena’s called now, it’s considered a Chicago stop on their tour.
I don’t know whether O’Hare airport is technically in Chicago or Rosemont, but it’s real close to Rosemont Horizon. Practically spitting distance. That’s like saying Shorewood, WI (where I live) isn’t Milwaukee even though Shorewood sits right next to the city, and you can walk a few blocks (in two different directions) and cross into it.
Why is this such a big concern for you, anyhow? Talk about splitting hairs…
Oh, and thanks to everyone about for their reasons why I should attend WWC this year. That’s called sarcasm, folks.
Looks like I’m really not missing much, aside from Gotham Knight. I’ll have that in a couple of weeks anyhow, so no big deal. I’ll just read about it here.