Chicago Gets Its Con
Feb 02I must say, as a former Chicagoan who was proud to call the Chicagoland area his home for most of his life, I’m tickled pink by news of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, or “C2E2,” which is a slightly wanky abbreviation, but you can’t have everything.
I cut my nerd teeth on Chicago conventions, whether it be the waning days of the classic Chicago Comicon which Wizard then bought out and ran into the ground, or the one-off Trek conventions at locations throughout the region, where we’d gather in a sweaty hotel ballroom to hear Patrick Stewart crack wise.
Chicago deserves a world-class comic book and pop culture expo, on the level of San Diego or the NYCC, and Wizard has never been it. Frankly, neither was the Chicago Comicon, but that was a different era, and it served that era well.
Notice I said “Chicago deserves,” not “the Chicagoland area, as represented by Rosemont, which is conveniently located near O’Hare International Airport and not much else outside of shitty hotel lobby restaurants and second-rate pizza joints.” As a local, it never bothered me much that the Comicon and Wizard shows set up camp in Rosemont, but I can imagine that anyone traveling into the city for the show would find themselves pretty pissed off and bored by the location.
McCormick Place is the IDEAL location for a Chicago show; April could very well be a beautiful month in the city, and at McCormick Place, you’re a short cab or train ride from the heart of downtown or the most vibrant neighborhoods the city has to offer. I can only imagine the fantastic parties that Chicago Comics and Quimby’s will be sponsoring in ’10; I bet they weren’t quite as fun when you had to haul some disgruntled creator back and forth to Rosemont down the Kennedy expressway.
Anyway, this is great news. I doubt I’ll make it out for year one, as we’re planning a big boffo Chicago trip to potentially take place this spring, but I look forward to attending as soon as possible. Go Bears.
Watchmerch: The Comedian's Funny Halloween
Jan 26What kind of asshole–what KIND of ASSHOLE–will be dressing up as the Comedian next Halloween???
Can you just imagine that douchebag staggering up to you at a bar on October 31, 2009, breath reeking of the stale booze he’s been chugging since noon, slurring out that speech about killing the pregnant lady in Vietnam and how “the real joke is getting in your pants, baby”?
Jesus.
Lunch Bag Art
Jan 26
I’m not a dad, nor do I prepare lunches for anyone in a paper bag, but I’m inclined to pick up the pencil again and get practicing, just in case I need to try and be even half as cool as this guy.
Mighty Jean Leads to Toy Brainwashing
Jan 15Previously, I documented my probably-futile attempts to squelch a potentially dangerous Mighty Muggs obsession. Since then, I’ve given in a tiny bit. I bought the wee Skrull. Someone gave me Pissed-Off-Yet-Still-Cute Princess Leia to go with Chewie. I’m trying to be selective, but I won’t lie — I get a tiny thrill when I can somehow justify purchasing yet another piece of adorably-molded plastic.
Thus my heart skipped a beat — several! — when I saw the magic words “Wave 6: Cyclops and Jean Grey.” I can absolutely justify that purchase. I can justify it several ways, with charts and graphs and excruciatingly detailed essays, and then I can pose them holding hands (well, sort of, all the Mighty Muggs have their digits frozen in a closed-off, claw-like position) and beating up the cute Skrull.
Then I clicked over and saw the picture and the Jean Grey is sort of…weird-looking.
Image from MarvelousNews.com
Like, I don’t know, they can’t get the hair right in this form? Or the shiny smile is perhaps a little manic-looking?
I paused. I thought. Maybe I shouldn’t buy this? Maybe being selective means only purchasing character representations you find absolutely perfect, even if it’s one of your FAVORITE CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME and you want to own ALL REPRESENTATIONS, even the not-perfect ones?!
But, then…okay. I went looking for this image to include with my post and when I looked at it this time, I thought it was kind of cute. Have I been somehow toy brainwashed? Am I trying way too hard to convince myself? Was I just plain wrong in my initial impression? And the lopsided-grin Cyclops is pretty cute regardless, right?
Matt's Fave Comics 2008: The Rest, Part One
Jan 13I had great ambitions of writing about like ten or twelve different comics over the course of a couple weeks, and I’m looking at my little “best of” list, and I’m thinking, shit, lemme just get this out of my system. Writing about comics is generally something I WANT to do well more than I actually DO well, so let me pretend to be Jog for a few hours and you can either indulge me in my fantasy, or ignore me and move on.
So, yeah–some GREAT comics in 08, party people! Here’s my previous two entries, and here’s part one of the rest…
