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Roger Ash & Emma Caulfield

by Roger Ash

I got back yesterday from the Chicago Comic-Con, as well as kid are my feet sore! I had a fantastic time, however boy, standing on that concrete floor for three as well as a half days is tough. As a few of you know, the Westfield team – myself, client service Goddess Mary Carter, as well as VP Brook Anthony – spent the weekend satisfying people as well as providing away awesome prizes. It’s always a treat to satisfy clients in person as well as to see old buddies we’ve made over the years. I believed I’d share a few of my adventures over the weekend for your amusement.

Thursday

Brook, Mary, as well as myself pack up the Westfield van as well as head to Chicago about 11am for the Chicago Comic-Con (previously Wizard world Chicago, previously Chicago Comic-Con). I was wondering exactly how the convention would be this year as lots of publishers, including marvel as well as DC, made a decision not to have booths there this year. This area was utilized for the media guests including some huge names (Edward James Olmos, rowdy Roddy Piper, Ray Park, cast members from Twilight) to ones that left you scratching your head.

Mary as well as I headed to inspect into the hotel prior to assisting Brook set up the booth for preview night. When we got to the Aloft hotel, we found I blundered making the reservations. Luckily, we were aided by an fantastic desk clerk who worked some magic as well as made things OK, getting my gratitude as well as my greatest possible suggestion for the Aloft hotel. keeping that taken care of, it was time to get prepared for the evening.

Brook Anthony at the Westfield booth

Our booth, oddly enough, was next to a Gillette combination booth where people might really try out the razor. Throughout the weekend, a number of people (including Brook as well as myself) provided it a try with a few people even shaving their heads. If you’re wondering, it was a darn great shave. Kitty-corner from us was Jon Jordan as well as the team from crimespree, a magazine that features interviews with authors of criminal offense fiction (the present problem features 100 Bullets‘ Brian Azzarello),  short stories, as well as evaluations of criminal offense motion pictures as well as books. We’re believing of providing this at Westfield. would this be something you’d be interested in? let us know! Anyhow, between those two booths we had some great neighbors for the weekend. If you’ve ever worked at a convention before, you understand exactly how great it is to have people around you that you like.

Another friendly neighbor who stopped by as we were setting up was George Perez who spent a lot of of the weekend signing as well as mapping out at the close-by Hero effort booth. He “killed” Mary in problem 2 of Crimson pester as well as I was going to be in the book, however never rather made it. It was great to see his smiling deal with once again as well as you might always tell when he was at the Hero booth since the line would get truly long truly fast. I don’t understand exactly how much money he increased for Hero over the weekend, however I’m sure it was a lot.

The evening itself was rather slow. There were not that lots of fans, although the ones that were there were having a great time. I likewise heard a great deal of grumbling about marvel as well as DC not being there with lots of fans feeling slighted by them. It likewise seemed empty since a number of the stars weren’t arranged to show up till Friday as well as only about a quarter of the people in Artist’s alley were there. I was hoping things would pick up Friday.

Friday

Friday started slow, however things did pick up quite quickly. Friday is normally my preferred day at the Chicago-Con as there’s a great deal going on, however the crowds aren’t as huge as Saturday considering that Friday’s a work day. This year verified no different. Friday was likewise when people in costumes started appearing as well as there were some fantastic ones this year with one of my favorites being the tallest Guardian (y’know, the person from Oa) that I’ve ever seen. the most prominent costume for women this year was Supergirl. I saw bit women perhaps 3 years old dressed as her, adults, as well as whatever in-between. the most prominent costume for people is difficult to say, however the Joker as well as Indiana Jones were ideal up there.

On my walk with the hall, the dealership area was hopping. The dealership area was quite huge this year as well as I heard reports of people getting some fantastic bargains over the weekend. When I got to Artist’s Alley, it was a big difference from the night before. It was packed! Creators like Howard Chaykin, J. Scott Campbell, Frank Cho, as well as J.G. Jones had long lines all weekend long. I took a long time to go to with Craig Rousseau (Spider-Man likes Mary Jane, Perhapanauts), who had some terrific new sketchbooks as well as was difficult at work sketching. I likewise got the newest Joe as well as Monkey collection from Zach Miller. It’s always great for a laugh. I’ve heard mainly great things from the people who were in Artist’s Alley.

I heard from a buddy at the show that the line to get books signed by guest of honor mark Millar was impressively long as well as his evening panel was a great deal of fun.

Roger Ash & rowdy Roddy Piper

Allow me a somewhat geeky aside: I have a weakness for expert wrestling, particularly the people who were around in the 80s as that was my golden Age of enjoying wrestling on TV. So I was ecstatic to see that lots of wrestling legends from that age were going to be at the show. (I do believe there’s a connection between comics as well as expert wrestling, however that’s a subject for one more column.) I got to satisfy people like Honky Tonk Man, Ted DiBiase as well as Virgil, as well as Bushwacker Luke who was half of my preferred identify team. as well as satisfying the legendary rowdy Roddy Piper was the icing on the cake. All these people were exceptionally great as well as I got the exact same kind of feeling I get when I satisfy one of my youth comic heroes for the very first time. My primary believed is always,  “Thank you for all the fun you’ve provided me over the years.”

Friday was likewise when the panels began. There didn’t seem to be as lots of panel as usual, however it seemed like a much better mix than in recent years with panels featuring comic creators as well as publishers (DC as well as marvel were represented there even if there were no booths) in addition to star guests as well as things that were just fun such as costume shows. There seemed to be fewer “Here’s exactly how to get into comics” panels than recent years. The only panel I went to, Sunday’s WWE Legends panel, was extremely well run as well as extremely interesting. If you’ve ever seen the movie, The Wrestler, a few of what they talked about was eerily similar to what was shown in the film.

The lucky winners of the Hellboy print

I would have liked to have seen a lot more panels, however I was there for work as well as Friday was a hectic day. My voice was shot by the time the hall closed after speaking to people at the booth as well as providing away some fantastic prizes such as a signed Hellboy print. That was my preferred giveaway all weekend since there was a woman in the crowd who was dressed in an fantastic Delirium costume who really, truly wished to win it. She didn’t, however a buddy of hers did. When he handed it to her as a gift, she really started crying she was so overwhelmed. It’s such a great feeling to assist make somebody that happy.

Saturday

As expected, Saturday was busy, busy, busy! The convention hall was packed. It was the most popular day of the weekend with the outside temps in the 90s as well as humid. as well as the air conditioning wasn’t as much as the challenge. You coulda wrung a gallon of water out of my tee shirt by the end of the day.

With that lots of people there, I didn’t leave the Westfield booth as well frequently as I didn’t feel like battling the crowds. however that was okay as we were hopping. We had what I believe was our a lot of prominent giveaway Saturday with the gigantic Bone plush. Man, people like that!

Brook’s household – spouse Meg, child Lauryn, as well as kid Dylan – came down on Saturday as well as they had a terrific time. whatever was fun as well as interesting to Lauryn as well as Dylan as well as if they stopped smiling all the time long, I never saw it.

On one of my ventures out of the booth, I had the possibility to satisfy the charming as well as skilled Emma Caulfield, who played Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One thing I discovered from her is that she is doing a new web comic, together with Camilla Rantsen, Christian Meesey, as well as Thomas Mauer, that just started called Contropussy. It’s racy. You have been warned.

A long day was topped off by a fantastic dinner with friends.

Sunday

Things slowed down on Sunday which was a great break from the past two days. There was time for a final lap around the hall to state goodbye to friends. It’s hard stating goodbye, however there’s always a convention ideal around the corner, so you understand you’ll be seeing everybody once again sooner than you realize.

The Chicago Comic-Con truly had a different feel than it has in the past without a number of the publishers there. Not bad, just different. I heard some complaints about errors in the program such as inaccurate or nonexistent special items. However, everybody I spoke to had a great time and, at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Or is that the Hokey Pokey?

One final note

Roger Ash as well as Joker Lady

If you’re the person in this photo who’s not me, you failed to remember to pick up the umbrella you left at our booth. We still have it as well as will happily send it to you if you get us your address. just get in touch with us at help@westfieldcomics.com as well as put “Umbrella” in the subject line.

Here’s a video wrap-up at we did at the convention. Take a look!