Chicago Comic-Con: A Roaring Good Time
Posted by Carlos Gabriel Ruiz on August 11th, 2009Pretentious Record Store Guy spent the last week hanging out in the friendly confines of suburban Chicago, specifically Rosemont, for the Chicago Comic-Con (formerly WizardWorldChicago) and had the best con of his life!
It was great to meet all the cool fans of Pretentious Record Store Guy, to make a bunch of all new fans, to meet fellow artists and comic creators and to just talk shop with folks. Let’s be honest, there can be no Pretentious Record Store Guy without an audience to read it, and the fans in Chicago were absolutely awesome in showing their love and support of PRSG. For that, I sincerely thank you.
The high note of the con came when I got to meet one of my all time favorite creators, Mike Allred and his equally talented colorist and wife, Laura. It is indeed a rare occasion when a Pretentious Record Store Guy finds himself tongue tied with absolutely nothing to say — well I had plenty of things to say but none of them came out and for fear of looking ridiculously foolish, I smiled, said thanks and then scurried away. On a positive note, I was able to give them both Pretentious Record Store Guy #1 & #2 as well as a Pretentious Record Store Guy mug. Well, I more or less dropped them on their table and then ran away but I still gave it to them.
Now let’s address the 1,000 pound elephant in the Chicago Comic-Con room. Marvel, DC and Dark Horse decided to skip the con this year and that definitely took the majority of convention goers by surprise. The Marvel, DC, Dark Horse no show was the biggest buzz of the con, after all, it’s hard to have a major comic convention and not have the 3 major comic book publishers there. Because of the missing prescence of the Big 3, many people talked about not coming back next year, but the weekend was pretty much packed all Friday and especially all day long on Saturday.
A close second on the buzz-o-meter was the invasion of all the Twilight tweeners and how they and their parents should learn some proper manners in affairs of basic human interaction and crowd behavior, but I digress.
Not having the Big 3 there with booths also forced the big time artists to have their signings in Artist Alley, which brought a ton of foot traffic through artist alley and helped to make sales strong. It helped put the focus on the artists and comic creators, which can sometimes be lost in the buzz of Hollywood. Speaking as a fan of Wizard World Chicago (and now Chicago Comic-Con), I really hope that the con continues next year as strong as ever! I’ve been going to Wizard World every year since 2004 (with the exception of 2005) and have been selling my goods for the past few years. I really hope to make it out next year too.  Good times for sure.
CARLOS!! I have to agree, it was a pretty great show for me as well, which was a huge surprise. I was extremley upset that I didn’t get to drop off any portfolio’s to the big three, BUT!! the traffic was terrific. I sold lot’s of sketchbooks and prints, but more important, my sketch list was full all weekend. I was drawing like a madman. The downside was that I had no time to hook up with you or any of the other friends I’d met. Next year, we need to make some plans ahead of time to ensure we hang out. Glad to hear the show was a sucess for you.
Neil
OH! Love the books by the way, I can’t wait for #3.
N