So I made the trek once again to the Windy City (or Rosemont, suburb of the Windy City) to hang with my fellow Shooting Star creators and work the booth at Wizard World Chicago.
Since I don’t have a bigger convention experience to gauge this one by, I’d say the show was pretty busy, with lots of attendees, but others may think differently. I know on Saturday, things were pretty tight when trying to walk around, but manageable. I didn’t have any fears of being trampled to death by a Tie-Fighter Squadron or anything like that.
I thought I’d jot down some quick thoughts on the various things that I experienced while I was there:
From left to right, back row: Yours truly, Erik Burnham, Scott Hileman; Front row, left to right: Greg Noon, Scott McCullar, Sean Taylor.
1. Shooting Star Comics: I had a great time getting together with my far-flung compatriots. My partners in crime, Scott (Yankee Doodle writer) Hileman, Ethan (Yankee Doodle inker) Colchamiro, and our book and booth mates Scott (Thrillseeker Comics) McCullar, Gregg (Rex Solomon) Noon, Sean (Fishnet Angel) Taylor, Erik (Nick Landime) Burnham, Rob (Rex Solomon) Bavington, Michael (Metro Med) Hutchison, Phil (Metro Med) Meadows, Todd (Aym Geronimo) Fox, Gordon Purcell (penciler par excellence) and Drew Geraci (indelible inker). We had a nice flow of traffic at the booth and enjoyed doing cover sketches for our customers on the Shooting Star Unconventional Special con-exclusive comic. Luckily no one asked me to draw anything strange or obscure, like a possum or a limousine. Ask Scott McCullar.
We were proud to announce (right before the show) that Chuck Dixon was partnering with Shooting Star for his own line of books. On a personal note, this is a dream come true, since Chuck is one of my all-time favorite comic scribes. His runs on Detective, Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey being some of the best of the Bat-verse in the modern era, in my humble opinion. Chuck is returning to an old favorite, the Golden Age Airboy, at Shooting Star, as well as establishing some new properties, with some top talent on art. Shooting Star has more exciting things in store for 2006, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further announcements! For more info, as always, click the banner at the bottom of my posts, are click here: www.shootingstarcomics.com
2. The toys: Okay, I’m a comic-toy nut. So of course I’m going to go drool over the latest offerings from DCD and Mattel, being a long-time DC fanboy. I was a little disappointed to see nothing new had been added to these display cases since San Diego, but it was a treat seeing them in person. I am super-jazzed over the 13” DCD collector figures. The Superman and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) are outstanding. The Superman was an actual production sample according to the fine folks manning the DCD area, and he looked great. I tried to coax the next 13” figure out of them, but no dice. Can’t blame a guy for trying. Oh and that Mike Mignola Batman Black and White statue is just plain FREAKY!!! It’s like a 3D optical illusion. It sure looks like a 2D cutout, but then you can see the back of it…just plain weird and utterly cool.
I enjoyed seeing the JLU, “the Batman” and 6” DC Comic Line for Mattel in person as well. The two-ups of the 6” line were jaw-droppingly gorgeous, a testament to the work of sculptors extroidanaire, The Four Horsemen. I did get one of the Catwoman con exclusives. I think I got the most common one, but I don’t really care. Nice figure! In addition to the toys, Mattel also had props from Batman Begins, which was a nice extra treat. The Scarecrow costume is genuinely creepy, and Batman’s weapons actually look useable and very sleek, and hi-tech. I’ve seen movie props before that don’t hold up on close inspection. These do, I’m happy to say.
3. The swag: In addition to Ms. Kyle, I came away with some decent booty this year. I gave most of my money to TwoMorrows, buying Michael Eury’s excellent Justice League Companion book, and several issues of his BackIssue! Magazine. If you are a fan of 60s-80s comics, try this mag out, you wont’ be disappointed. Several booths had DCD figures at rock bottom prices, include a 3 for $12 deal that was hard to believe. But believe I did, and buy I did! Most of these were for the kid’s Christmas, so don’t tell him!
The ever popular Marvel Legends line was in abundance, with many of the harder to find figures garnering some fairly-high prices. Or at least the dealers were asking for said prices. I didn’t see a lot of them moving. I can’t recall seeing any of the true “chase” variants other than one Red Skull. The nigh-impossible-to-find Ducard from Mattel’s Batman Begins line was NOWHERE!!! I’m starting to think that he’s a hoax (I really know better, so don’t email me telling me otherwise, please). One thing I noticed was the blowout of statues and busts. Many dealers were trying to move massive amounts of these at half the retail price, and even lower. While I am not a die-hard bust/statue collector, I would say that this market is a tad oversaturated. I’d expect to see the amount of comic-based porcelain and resin items to decrease in the next few years, but that’s just my speculation. There wasn’t a lot of vintage toys in evidence, besides a good sampling of loose Super Powers figures (that tempted me since most of my SP figures are my original, well-played-with versions). I did spot a few Megos, but the prices scared me off. I’ll stick to ebay, and the marketplace on the Mego Museum board (www. Megomuseum.com).
4. The Parade of Comic Characters. Of course no comic-con would be complete without those who….get into their hobby more than others. Plenty of costume-clad attendees to gawk at, from the Scarlet Witch to the afore-mentioned squad of Tie-Fighter pilots. Even the Ghostbusters were there. Nightwing seemed to be the one single character to be. I bumped into about 4 different Dick Graysons on Saturday. Shades of Zero Hour!!! I honestly admire the folks who cast their pride aside and just go for it and have fun as their favorite characters. Some of these folks obviously take a lot of time on their costumes, and it shows. It’s like giving out candy on Halloween, and judging which costumes are best. A fun distraction. Of course there are always a few publishers who use models to promote their books, and our next door neighbors at Xenophobe were no exception. Here our own Sean Taylor finally gives in to the models’ constant request for him to take a photo with them. He hated to see the girls go home broken-hearted.
All in all, it was a fun, successful show. Let’s face it, our hobbies (be it comics, toys, gaming, whatever) get little snickers and sneers from the majority of the masses. It’s nice to be in a large building filled with like-minded people who dig the same things you do. A Geek family reunion if you will.
Chris
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