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.