Another Wizard World convention came to Chicago last weekend and I was there. I went to some panels and talked to people and even saw a few famous people. And of course there were also cosplay pictures.
There were a number of panels about getting into various creative fields. There were some authors talking about their books and how they were published. I manages to talk to some of them and even picked up copies of their books. The first as Meg Bonney @MegBonneyWriter who was actually giving away copies of her book Everly at a panel. When I finish reading it you will probably hear more from me on it.
Author Genese Davis @GeneseDavis was on a number of panels and talked about her book The Holder’s Dominion which I also picked up a copy. I will talk about that more later when I finish reading it. She had an interesting story about how she almost had The Holder’s Dominion published earlier but they wanted her to change the main character to a man which would have undermined why she wrote the book in the first place.
Dirk Manning was at Wizard World again but there was no row H in Artist’s Alley so he was not able to be at H8 this time. He did his Write or Wrong presentation at the Artist’s Stage. A few events were held on floor stages instead of regular panel rooms this year. I have read his Nightmare World series so I decided to finally pick up the first volume of Tales of Mr Rhee. I will have more to say on that in an upcoming Comic Book Storytelling article.
And in case you were wondering I did attend a few panels with famous people from television. Elizabeth Henstridge and Cobie Smulders from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were there and did a panel together. Although there ended up being a lot more questions about How I Met Your Mother than I thought there would be.
I also saw John Barrowman of Captain Jack on Doctor Who fame. He was wearing a TARDIS outfit and at the end he sang Copa Cabana and I Am What I Am. He was pretty great. He also might have leaked something about a Big Finish audio production he is working on.
There was a cosplay contest as usual and it was pretty good and I will be posting more about it later. The band Critical Hit performed ahead of it once again.
I have to say there was one sore spot over the weekend. Like many conventions these days there was a video game area. There were also video game tournaments throughout the weekend. I signed up for one early. However when it came time for the competition my name, along with others, was nowhere to be found. The whole thing was a disappointing and disorganized mess.
Over the years I have been to some great shows and I have been to some crappy ones. Overall I walked away from the weekend with a few graphic novels, a few books, and some nerd baby clothes for my niece and nephew. It was a decent year for Wizard World Chicago and we will see what next year holds.