by Josh Crawley
(featuring photos by “What happens in Vegas” Dave Wagner)

For the first time since 2001, I went to Chicago Comic Con without a table in Artists’ Alley to call home. I went merely to walk the floor and, in the off hours, hang out with industry friends. Due to the reduced presence of many industry names, Dave and I didn’t arrive until around 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon. (Normally I’d've arrived Thursday midday.)

By the time I had dinner with Los Brothers Heffron at 6 p.m. in the now-severely overpriced Expoteria (you may as well get the burger & fries over at Gibson’s Steakhouse across the street for USD .50 more; they also have amazing lobster bisque), I was more than ready to be done walking the convention floor.

The best time on the floor was spent wandering Artists’ Alley with the amazing colorist Chad Fidler and chatting with Word Balloon’s John Siuntres, who I also ran into in Artists’ Alley. I also had the opportunity to meet Joel Gomez (a WildStorm artist primarily working on the DCU online game), who is a great guy! I really wish I could have bought him a drink; maybe at C2E2!

After getting some of the aforementioned lobster bisque, I made my way to the Red Bar at the Hyatt. When there, I proceeded to find only one person I knew: John Siuntres (who from now on will be referred to as John SunChips). Thankfully, John SunChips is a great guy and let me hang out with him and the other folks at his table: Jimmy the Muscle, Molly, Art Baltazar, and a few others whose names escape me at the moment (mostly because they were at the other end of the table and left the bar before we did).

Beyond that I didn’t even recognize any other professionals there, which is crazy! There’s usually plenty of local industry guys, at least.

Also crazy: I was back to my room around 1 a.m. Usually I don’t get back to my room until at least 3 a.m.

Saturday, after waking up feeling pretty well, I finally made my way back to the show floor around 11 a.m. with no agenda. On the way, though, I noticed something really odd: there was a huge line outside of the convention center waiting to get in! Thankfully I had my trusty professional wristband to get me past the line!

I eventually made my way of to Art’s table, and he did a great sketch of Ben Grimm for me, with The Thing wearing his Thing Ring! Prior to the night before and Art talking about a 70s cartoon appearance, I had no idea what a Thing Ring was. (Next time I’m thinking of asking him for an Aunt Petunia… or maybe Tiny Sixers; aw yeah!)

There wasn’t too much else noteworthy Saturday except for a beer tasting help in my friend Joe’s room at the Hilton (formerly Hotel Sofitel) of some of Chad Fidler’s Black Cat 13 (home)brew. It was tasty! After that, Dave drove us back to beautiful Madison. The end!

Here are some various observations (mine and others) concerning the convention:

• There’s even more media guests than last year, and their signing area (previously the publisher & small press area) felt the busiest that area has felt in years. Ten years ago I would have loved the opportunity to meet even half of the wrestlers there.
• I heard dealers had their best sales in about five years. The traffic felt that bad, too.
• Maggie Thompson surveyed people waiting in the enormous line, and over half of them had never attended before.
• Artists’ Alley had probably half the number of tables this year than previous years.

So, here’s how I see it: (New York Comic Con organizer) Reed Exhibition’s Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) didn’t kill Wizard World Chicago (WWC). WWC actually managed to reinvent itself in less than two years from a floundering comic convention into a thriving media convention. Of course, it also seemingly caused WWC to bring out it’s dormant Chicago Comic Con (CCC) trademark. Sadly, CCC seems to be losing the comics pretty fast.

At least, it’s sad to me. I heart comics and wish there could be more great comic book conventions within a three hour drive. Of course, maybe with the new convention-goers there’s the possibility of better sales for Artists’ Alley folks, too.

I hope so.

Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster at Westfield Comics. He may not be the keyboardist for Everclear.

twitter: @joshcrawley
josh [at] westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717