Comic Geek Deluxe

Yep, um, 'nuff said?

I recently went to Chicago to attend the 2008 Wizard World Comic Book Convention. I went with Karibe and my sister, Karen, and we stayed with the Kindts (Matt, Sharlene, & brother Karl). This was my second year at the Chicago Con and I was pleasantly surprised at how many dealers were selling trade paperbacks and hard-bound graphic novels at 50% off cover price.

The Guardian of Great Prices

I could have walked around taking in the con atmosphere and experience, I instead dove right into those fabulous deals. I missed a large portion of artist alley and publishers on the expo floor, but it was worth it. Here's the glorious list of books I bought at the con:

TPBs: Earth X, Punisher: War Zone, Powers volumes 1-4, Hellboy: Weird Tales volumes 1&2, Squadron Supreme, Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Ultimate Collection, The Surrogates, Ex Machina volume 1, Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan, Doctor Strange: The Oath, Ultimate Spider-Man volume 19, Elektra: Assassin, Thor: Blood Oath, Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place, Batgirl Year One, Batman Year 100, Y: The Last Man volume 1, Infinite Crisis, Batman: Snow, The Other Side, Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin, & Spider-Woman: Origin

Graphic Novels (hard bound editions): Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil, X-Men: God Loves Man Kills, The Eternals (Neil Gaiman), Kraven's Last Hunt, Hulk: The End, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus volume 1, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Marvel Zombies 2, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Ultimate Power, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2, Immortal Iron Fist: The Last Iron Fist Story, Illuminati, Ultimates, Invincible Ultimate Collection volumes 2 & 3, & 300

Indie Books (for indie cred): Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown, Too Cool To Be Forgotten & Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson

It was definitely a successful year. I was surprised at how much I bought, but at 50% off, I couldn't pass it up. Plus, it saves me from buying stuff during the year as I know have a graphic novel to read a week before the next con. Onto the itinerary...

THURSDAY

After working nearly a full day, I got home, packed, then Kara, Karen, and I headed out and got on our way. I spent a little time watching shorts for work on Kara's brother's portal DVD player, but I also slept for a good chunk of the drive. When we arrived at our hotel, we had been bumped to a room with one king-sized bed as opposed to the two double beds I had originally reserved. When the Kindts arrived, we had a somewhat sloppy sleepy arrangement (the ladies in the bed, Karl in a rollaway, and Matt & I on the floor).

Lovebirds

FRIDAY

The next day we scurried over to a new room (with two double beds!), but also hijacked the rollaway to maximize comfort. We then scurried over to the con and I began to go hog-wild.

shop, shop, shop

I bumped into Scott Don't who is the manager at the Fairview Heights Fantasy Shop and he was excited about the comic podcasting seminar he had just attended. We broke for lunch at a place called Potbelly and I can only hope that a similar establishment comes to St. Louis soon. We shared lunch with Jeff, Kristen, Shaun, Kim, and Jonesy. We then returned to the con and I set about finding more deals.

Rock n' Roll

Karen entered a Guitar Hero contest and demolished her opponent so brutally, she was awarded a She-Hulk statue for her skill.

Victorious!

For dinner we visited Giordano's for the second straight year (something of an annual thing for Dan Nichols) and were joined by Dan, Erin, Chris, and Carole. After an aborted attempt to seat just two of the seven from our party, we were finally seated and enjoyed some fine Chicago-style pizza. We spent the evening in the hotel room chatting with Jeff, Kristen, Shaun, and Jonesy.

Mini-Thor

SATURDAY
Day two of the Con featured more of those wacky 50% off deals. I was lucky that Kara and Karen were eager to leave the con which meant Kara could carry my early purchases back to the room. I spent practically the whole day at the Con, which meant I missed lunch.

Frylock and Master Karen

We gathered with Jeff, Kristen, Chris, Carole, Shaun, Kim, Jonesy, Dan & Erin for dinner at The Beacon Tap, which is basically the equivalent of any turd restaurant you'll find in Imperial or Arnold or some other dumb place around St. Louis. Afterwards we went for ice cream at a Cold Stone Creamery and chatted for a few hours before everyone became sleepy and we all shuffled off to our respective hotels.

Mini-Hawkeye

SUNDAY
The two K's and I got up somewhat early, showered, and hit the road to head home. We stopped at an Ikea in Bolingbrook. K-Dub and I had hoped to find a bed as our bedroom nears completion of its renovation. No such luck, but we did pick up a few napkins, straws, and a blanket. We stopped for lunch at Wendy's, which because of some strange black hole, no longer exists in St. Louis. We got back on the road and rolled into St. Louis around 4:30 that afternoon. It was nice to be back home, but buying comics for a weekend will never cease to be fun.

Good times, indeed