C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, in case you didn’t know) had its inaugural show this past weekend, April 16-18, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Comic fans from all over came to see what was new from their favorite publishers, meet their favorite artists, maybe get a sketch or an autograph, and generally have a good time enjoying this hobby we all love so much. What’s more, we at Westfield were there!
It was great seeing all the customers who stopped by to say hi, give us some helpful input, and even offer up the occasional outright praise. Your kindness made us blush (or at least we think it was blush – some of us had an awful lot of makeup on …). Anyway, it was also great to meet new friends who we hope will greet us next year as loyal customers and fun to give away some awesome prizes! Although Roger will be dedicating Thursday’s post to Westfield’s adventures at C2E2, here’s a look at the lucky winners along with their swag:
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by Josh Crawley
In case you missed it, last Wednesday we posted an interview by me with Athena Voltaire’s Steve Bryant about his Kickstarter-funded business model, among other things. For my first real interview (not that I recall ever doing a fake interview), it’s not too shabby.
In highly-related news, an Athena Voltaire Kickstarter campaign update (unless another pledge comes in before I finish this column): 84% funded 18 days in. That’s awesome! Remember: if Steve goes above that, it just means he can spend even more time making some kick-ass comic books!
And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…
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by Roger Ash
“What the heck is magic time, Roger?”
Good question! For the purpose of this column, “Magic Time” refers when comics were magic to you. I’ve found that with many of my friends this is the time shortly after you discovered comics and they had the biggest impression on you. It’s the time when you couldn’t wait for new comic day at your local comic shop, or if you’re old like me, when you’d haunt the spinner rack at the local convenience store looking for new issues of your favorite comics. Or when you were sure every UPS truck that drove down the street had your latest shipment from Westfield. (Yes, I know Westfield doesn’t ship by UPS now, but they did back when I was a customer.)
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by Miles “Okpank” Perzewski
Everybody is different and if you’re one of those who waits til the absolute last second, I’ve got some holiday gift recommendations for you. Get these at Westfield in Madison by 3pm the 24th! Or you can purchase some of them through our mail order site – they’ll just take a bit longer to get to you.
Here we go!
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Westfield Comics now has a channel on YouTube! If you were to go there now, you’d see some recommendations from the illustrious Westfield staff. We’re excited about these and want to share them with you.
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by Roger Ash
This year we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Usagi Yojimbo and I, for one, am darned pleased about that. The fact that a black and white comic starring animals that has gone through five publishers (that I can recall) has made it this long is a testament to the quality of creator Stan Sakai’s work. Let’s think about this for a moment. For 25 years, Sakai has been writing, drawing, and lettering his own comic. That’s impressive and puts him in very rare company (Dave Sim on Cerebus is the only other person I can think of who’s done that). I haven’t been reading Usagi since the beginning, but darn close. I first discovered him in the pages of Fantagraphics’ anthropomorphic anthology, Critters. I’ve been a fan ever since.
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We’re celebrating Usagi Yojimbo’s 25th anniversary with a new fan giveaway (we’re also doing a “Crazy Kimono Day” at Westfield HQ but that’s a whole ‘nother deal). One of our loyal Facebook Fans will be chosen at random to win a cool Usagi Yojimbo print featuring the cover to #100 signed by creator Stan Sakai himself. We’re also throwing in a copy of Usagi Yojimbo #100 to sweeten the deal.
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It’s time to do yet another one of these year-end lists with me yammering on and on about which comics I liked this year. But: Best? I’m not sure that I’m really qualified to say, since I read such a small percentage of everything published in any given year and I have this annoying tendency (at least in certain circles) to avoid anything even remotely “artsy”. Not that I don’t like art, but I don’t always know what I like, if you know what I mean.
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