Things to do in Chicago in the Summer

Summer is upon us here in Chicago 
(at least for a while, who knows how long the great weather will last), 

so with great weather comes all the great thing to do in Chicago for the next couple of months.

There is so much to do in Chicago, you can go eat at many of the food festivals, enjoy at concert, even enjoy at movie at the park.

So look over the list and hope to see you at a few of these places.

Please check out my other blog on all the Movies at the Park Here or the complete list Here.

Being Charitable (or donating $1 to a good cause)

So I while back I discover Kickstarter which is a very cool website that according to their website "is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors."

We believe that...

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

So that means that if you donate and the goal is not reached no money gets collected and most ppl who are pputting up the project will have incentives to donate more (ex. if you donate $10 you get this, & if you donate $50 you get this, etc)

My C2E2 Collection ( or what I'll be reading this summer)

In my last blog I posted about all the books I ended up picking up at C2E2,
some of these books I've had never read before and some I wanted to have as part of my collection.

I picked up a total of 17 books total ranging from several different companies and different genres.
I only have read some of the books both recently and before

C2E2 ( or How my life got so much better)

In April, Reed Exhibitions (The People who brought us New York Comic con) gave us our first Comics Convention in the Downtown Chicago, Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo was a Three day event that was held in McCormick Place in April 17 -20.

With the first Con in downtown Chicago in over 10 years, they knew that the con had to be big and amazing, and I think they accomplished that.

here are a few pictures of all the wonderful people and things that was C2E2.

My adventure at the Chicago Comic-Con

This past month was Chicago Comic-con and it was amazing.
When I first heard that some of the major comic companies were not going to be there I was a bit upset, but once you step on the floor ans especially walk over to the artist alley you realized that this was going to be an incredible experience.

I was able to say hello to a lot of the greats in the comic industries and a lot of the up and coming artists without having to wait in long lines or go to panels.

this is my experience;



This is the First and probably the best thing I got at Artist Alley, it is a watercolor sketch from Francis Manapul artist of DC Comics' Adventure Comics.



Took my Queen and Country: The Definitely Edition Vol. 3 to get it signed by the Incredible Mike Norton & Chris Samnee which I did.



First by Mike Norton,



Then by Chris Samnee which actually drew a Tara Chase sketch in the book,
So amazing.



I also ended up buying Chris Samnee's sketchbook which is simply beautiful.



I also took my Scapled. vol 1 hoping to get it autograph by one of my New favorite Writers, Jason Aaron.



Which I Did, thanks Jason.


One of the best thing about the Con was going and just saying Hello to all of my favorite creators in the industry like . . .

Christina Strain (colorist extraordinaire)






Skottie Young (artist on Marvel's Wonderful Wizard of Oz)




Chris Samnee (artist on DC Comics' The Mighty)




And last but not least, all the great deals on all the book I bought were amazing.



The list of book I bought are as follows;

Sin City Vol. 1 & Vol. 7 (to finish my collection)

Northlanders Vol. 2 (vol. 2 of an amazing series of stories dealing with Vikings)

Myspace's Dark Horse Presents Vol. 1

The Losers Vol. 2 & Vol. 3 (finally read the first volume can't wait to read the rest)

Marvel's Eternals (been meaning to buy this for a while)

New Avengers: Illuminati (read the individual issues but wanted the HC)

Spider-man: Death of the Stacys (a classic)

Captain America: the Chosen (an excellent out of continuity Captain America Story)

X-men: Magneto Testament (A never before look at Magneto origin as a Jew in WWII)

Batman: Detective 27 (an elseworld tale about a detective in the 1920's)

The Nobody (Jeff Lemire's magnificent book loosely based on the Invincible Man)

The Clockwork girl

Legion of Monsters (a collection of new and old stories featuring classic Horror characters)


You can follow my on twitter here.

Windy City Comicon '09 (Or how i spend my September)

Living in a big city like Chicago, I have the luxury of having not 1 but 2 comic conventions this year (Wizardworld Chicago & Windy City Comicon). Now with Wizardworld Chicago that is a show that is big and sometimes overwhelming but with Windy city Comicon that is more personal and a place that is closer to my heart.

At WCCC you get a real connection with the Creators, you can stand their and talk to them one on one without the feeling of being rushed.
Last year was so much fun and Amazing, I got to meet several creators that I'm a fan of and a lot of new creators that open my eyes to their wonderful work.

The list of creators have increase dramatically (both in Volume & Talent) can't wait to experience the greatness that is Windy City Comicon.

The Guest list is as follows:

David Petersen - Mouse Guard

Tony Atkins - Jack of Fables




Art Baltazar - Tiny Titans




Matt Kindt - Superspy




Jeff Lemire - Essex County Trilogy




Tony Moore - Walking dead, Ghost Rider




Mike Norton - Green Arrow, Blue Beetle, Trinity




Skottie Young - Wonderful Wizard of Oz, New X-men




Jason Howard - The Astounding Wolf-Man




Robbi Rodriguez - Maintenance




Chris Samnee - Queen & Country, Capote in Kansas.




AND MANY MORE. . .
With over 50 guests (check out the rest here) this will be an amazing show that you will not forget

You can follow my on twitter here.

Chicago Comic-con 09' (or how I big of a geek I am)

Comic book Convention is in full effect by the time it hits Chicago in August,But with me living in Chicago it is something that I always look forward to.
So excited to have all these creators coming to Wizardworld Chicago or how it is now called Chicago Comic-con (going back to the name that it had before Wizard purchased them in 1997.)

The list of creators is not as big as previous years, but I really look forward to meeting or even getting a sketch from any of these creators.
(I especially will be hounding Jim Cheung, Mike Choi and Freddie E.Williams II for sketches and find Jason Aaron & Dan Slott and bow to their greatness)

Mark Millar - Guest of Honor
(Kick-Ass, Fantastic Four & Wolverine Writer)

Jason Aaron - Special Guest
Scalped, Ghost Rider, upcoming Wolverine: Weapon X writer)

George Pérez - Special Guest
(Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds artist)
*Courtesy of the Hero Initiative

JG Jones - Special Guest
(Final Crisis Artist)

Brian Azzarello - Special Guest
(100 Bullets, The Joker writer)

Mitch Breitweiser - Special Guest
(Captain America: Theatre of War, Uncanny X-Men Annual artist)

Jim Cheung - Special Guest
(Secret Warriors cover artist, New Avengers, New Avengers:Illuminati artist)

Frank Cho - Special Guest
(Hulk, Jungle Girl artist)

Dan Slott - Special Guest
(Amazing Spider-Man, Mighty Avengers writer)

Craig Rousseau - Special Guest
(Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Perhapanauts artist)

Mike Norton - Special Guest
(Green Arrow/Black Canary, Trinity artist)

Mike Choi- Special Guest
(X-force, Uncanny X-men, X-23 artist)

Shane Davis- Special Guest
(Green Lantern, Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lantern artist)

Mike Mckone - Special Guest
(Deadpool, Punisher & Amazing Spider-man Artist)

Sean Mckeever- Special Guest
(Teen Titans, Terror Titans Writer)

Matt Wagner- Special Guest
(Zorro writer)

Billy Tan- Special Guest
(New Avengers Artist)

Mark Texeira- Special Guest
(Moon Knight Artist)

Freddie E.Williams II- Special Guest
(Robin Artist)

Michael Golden- Special Guest
(Cover Artist Extraordinaire)

AND MANY MORE...

The Show starts August 6-9, 2009 @ Donald E. Stephens Convention Center hope you can make it and have as much fun as I will be.

You can follow my on twitter here.

Top stories From NY Comic-con (that I'm excited about)

On February 6-8, in New York City, the NY Comic con took place which marked the start to the comic convention season and with each convention there is plenty of news stories coming out and plenty of news to be excited about.
For me these are my favorite news stories (not in any order)

The marvel project by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting exploring the early history of the marvel universe.
Anything done by Brubaker and Epting is sure to be fantastic.

After ultimatum comes Ultimate comics
Ultimate Comics Spider-man by Brian Michael Bendis and David Lafuentes
Ultimate Comics Avengers by Mark Millar and Carlos Pacheco
As Much as I'm disliking Ultimatum, having Bendis and Millar back in the ultimate universe is something i can't wait for.

Amazing Spider-man: The Short Halloween by SNL members Seth Meyer and Bill Hader art by Kevin Maguire
SNL has been really funny this year and i think it's all because of this guys so for them to work on a spider-man comic is really cool.

Creative team after millar & hitch's fantastic four are
Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham
This is more excitement for Eaglesham than Hickman because I'm a huge fan of Eaglesham's JSA run, so I'm really looking forward to this.




Brian Michael Bendis's Powers TV Pilot offered to channel FX
(powers is one of my all-time favorite series and I can't wait to see it on the small screen)

Flash:rebirth #1 out in May by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver
Green Lantern:Rebirth is the comic that not only learn to love Green Lantern but got me into DC Comics again.

Vertigo crime line
smaller than standard comics mostly done in black & white around 200+ pages for about $20
some of the titles are:
Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos
Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell' Edera
Are Ten by Christos Gage and Chris Samnee
I hated that DC Comics' Minx Line didn't survive but I love a lot of vertigo book and a line of crime book sounds too good to be true.

Josh Howard's Dead@17 & Chris Giarrusso's G-man are coming to Image
Happy to see these series going to a good company to get a better exposure.




Dellec a new series from Aspen
(one man will discover that servants of God are creating evil on earth. It's all part of God's plan to the create enough disaster and fear on Earth that people will worship him.)
Co-written by Aspen President Frank Mastromauro and Editor-in-Chief Frank Hernandez with art by Micah Gunnell
Issue #0 in may($1.99), issue #1 in July ($2.59)
Finally a series from Aspen that I'm really excited to read.

Any many more, you can check Newsarama or Comic Book Resources for more info and for more news on NY Comic con.

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.

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.