Welcome to the 1st Annual Windy City Comicon

Chicago has always been a comic book town, Chicago has hosted one of the largest show in the Midwest, even before it was purchased by Wizard Entertainment.

But truth be told, Wizard world Chicago is kind of a False Advertisement with not actually being in Chicago, WW Chicago has been running in Rosemont for several years, even joked about in many podcasts.

So When I got a newsletter from one of my Favorite Podcast, Around Comics telling me that they are sponsoring the 1st Annual Windy City Comicon is coming this October, i couldn't to write about how excited I am for this.



So far the list of creators is starting to look very promising...

Special Guests are:

Gene Ha
Gene is best known for his work on Top 10 and Top 10: The Forty-Niners, the Batman graphic novel Fortunate Son, The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, Global Frequency and his many Wizard Magazine and Marvel covers.



Jason Howard
After years of drawing pictures for a variety of independent comic publishers, Jason Howard met up with writer Robert Kirkman in 2005. Together they created The Astounding Wolf-Man. Launched on Free Comic Book Day 2007.



Chris Burnham
Don't let the smile and the beard fool you, Chris was not a member of the folk rock group, America. He has however worked on Nixon's Pals, X-Men Divided We Stand 2, Fear Agent and Elephantmen.



Mike Norton
In February 2007, Mike signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics and has worked on the All New Atom, Green Arrow/Black Canary, Countdown to Final Crisis, Blue Beetle and DC's weekly series, Trinity.



Skottie Young
Skottie is best known for his work on New Warriors, Human Torch, Spider-Man Legend of the Spider Clan and New X-Men. He's currently working on an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for Marvel Illustrated.



And Many More...

If anyone is interested you can go to The Windy City Comicon website, and I hope to see everyone there, I will be the one with the cheesiest smile.

P.S.

I forgot to mention that it's only $5 to get in.

Summer Reading Week 3

Since there was a delay in my summer reading blog post, with this blog I offer you TWO First Volumes trades to read and hopefully enjoy. The two trades are Y: The Last Man Vol.1 & The Walking Dead Vol. 1




The first trade is Y: The Last Man Vol. 1 - Unmanned written by Brian K Vaughan with art by Pia Guerra, first volume was released in Sept 2002.

The story is about the only man to survive the mysterious simultaneous death of every male mammal on Earth. It starts on July 17,2002 where every mammal with the Y-chromosome is simultaneously killed except for a young escape artist slacker named Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand.

The story continues for several years as we try to find out how "the Plague" came about all the while we follow Yorick to Australia to find his girlfriend Beth. Along the way we meet allot of interesting characters like the ultra feminist group calling themselves The Amazons and Agent 355 who was sent by a mysterious US agency to keep Yorick alive to find out why he was the last man.

The Story just recently finished with issue #60 and with all 10 volumes out on trades and I can assure you that once you read the first trades, you will not stop until you read the whole series.

Also, they are releasing the whole Y: The Last Man in 6 Hardcovers volumes The first one will be out in 10/28/2008 you can pre-order it here.
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The second Trade is The Walking Dead Vol.1 - Days Gone Bye written by Robert Kirkman with art by Tony Moore

The Story is about a police officer named Rick Grimes who wakes up from a coma to find that a plague of the dead has swept through all civilization and the living dead walk the earth now. With ammunition and a squad car, he heads to Atlanta to look for his Wife Lori and his son Carl only to find that most of the major cities has been overrun by zombies.

We follow the stories of Rick and the survivors he comes across trying to live and survive in this new world, The story has always been about survival, we never find out was causes "the plague" but in the end, that doesn't matter because as rick says
in the end of volume #4 by making the assertion that they, not the zombies outside, are the Walking Dead.

the story is an ongoing series with the 8th volume(Made to Suffer) just came out in June of '08 with the rest of the trades coming out about every 6 months.

Hope you guys can enjoy these series as much as i have.

Summer Reading Week 2

This week in honor of the amazing success of the Dark Knight, I will be bring you the critically acclaim graphic novel, The Killing Joke.

Batman: The Killing Joke
(was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland)



For fans of : The Dark Knight Movie, Batman: The Animated Series and Watchmen.

This original graphic novel (with other notable novels like The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One) help established the "darker" side of Batman.

This original graphic novel published by DC Comics in 1988 and was the first to try and explain the dynamic relationship between the joker.

In this story, the joker tries to push commissioner Gordon to the brink of madness to prove that even the most upstanding citizen is capable of going mad after having "one bad day."
The joker;s origin is told in this book but since the joker is the one narrating, one cannot tell if his is telling the truth or lying to our face as his says in his own words "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice".



This novel has been nominated for several awards and is considered to be the best joker story ever told and is is one of the major influences in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.
Enjoy as you emerge yourself in the world of Batman.

Summer Reading week 1

Now to start of this bi-weekly series of graphic novels , I decide to chose a book that is simple but very enjoyable.

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 - Scott vs The world.
(written and drawn by Bryan Lee O'malley)



For Fans of : Video Games, Rock Music, Relationship drama and comedy.

This Book is the first volume of a 6 volume series, this digest size book (which means it's smaller than a regular book) and is drawn in black and white but that shouldn't stop you from picking up this up, it's book that will have you wanting to read it all in one sitting.

the story is about a 23yr old guy bass player in a rock band who meets the girl of his dreams, but a current girlfriend and a slew of evil ex-boyfriends of hers are standing in their way.

Along the way you get to meet an array of characters and locations in Canada where the book takes place.

Volumes 1 through 4 are out now with vol 5 and 6 coming in the near future and with the recent announcement of it being pick up to be made into a movie written and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).

See you in two weeks for the next volume of Summer Reading.

No T.V. to watch....read a graphic novel.

With the summer upon us and nothing new to watch on TV, I'm here to introduce you to a new and exciting stories for you to read, i want to introduce you to an amazing medium called Graphic Novels.

Each Week I will be introducing you to a different graphic novel that you will hopefully enjoy, even if you have been reading since you were a kid or picking up a graphic novel for the very first time

But first a little introduction to what is a "graphic novel" or "trades" are for those who may not know.

A graphic novel is a combination of a comic book and a novel it usually has complex storyline and are often aimed at mature audiences. It also encompasses comic short story anthologies, and in some cases bound collections of previously published comic-book series.

Graphic novels are typically bound in longer and more durable formats than comic books, using the same materials and methods as printed books.

My Collection of trades and graphic novels is extensive as you can all see for yourself,





So Join me in the next couple of weeks will we read thru graphic novels as fun as Scott Pilgrim to critically acclaimed novels like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns.

WW Chicago: a Convention, a remembrance and a couple of signatures.

Wizard world Chicago was this past weekend and as always we had a great time,
three days of enjoyment from the world of comics.



Everyone that went with me each had a special moment at the convention, either was meeting one of their favorite creators or getting a awesome sketch by someone famous or even getting a great deal on merchandise.

Before any of that i would like to say something on a sad note,
The convention was saddened on Saturday when the news was announce on the passing of Michael Turner (Aspen founder & Comic Artist),
Michael Turner (age 37) died on Friday night after an 8 year battle with cancer.



I have met Michael Turner several times at past conventions and he was a great person, he was never too tired to say hello or to give a sketch,
he was a wonderful human being and will be missed by his many fans and friends.

This year we were a smaller group that previous years, with some of our friends not being able to either have time go or afford to make it, and one who decided to go to Disney world instead
(your loss, Louie).


My girlfriend Elaine and I Stood in line most of the weekend to get autographs from some of my all-time favorite creators like Brian Michael Bendis, C B Cebulski and Skottie Young.



I was able to get Greg Rucka's (Queen & Country, Checkmate) autograph



and David Petersen's autographs (both on the book and on the figurines of Mouse Guard)



My Brother Tony was able to complete some of his Comic book runs like fantastic four and Exiles



My sister Nancy was around getting anyone and everyone to sketch in her sketchbook with the grand prize being a sketch of Runaways' Molly punching Wolverine by Humberto Ramos



Not to mention all the books I bought and the Awesome Spider-man and batman figures i got .



Overall this was a fantastic weekend a little sad to see a great artist pass away before his time,
but we will continue to enjoy his work and the work of many others to come.
Next year Wizard World Chicago will be in August 6-9, 2009
hope to see many more people there.