This is how the con looked, felt, and tasted like.

Wizard World Chicago… probably the most confusing convention I’ve ever been to. Not on a programming scale or anything like that, but on an energy scale.

This year’s WWC (technically called Wizard World Chicago Comic Con) was packed with Star Trek nerds and stars, Battle Star Galactica nerds and stars, professional wrestlers, people with barely any movie career, tons of merch, tons of artists, people trying to sell me stuff, and god damn Rod Blagojevich.

Seeing that this convention wasn’t really focused on comic books at all, and I truly believe it’s a sham that Wizard still called it a comic convention, I didn’t have much to check out and “report” on.

Nonetheless, there were some cool booths and shops, as well as one real publisher and a few small time publishers around.

More after the break.

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"'Cause She's The Music MEISTER!!!"

Comic-Con is always a good time, but some years are less fun than others. 2010 was the unlucky year this time around.

I enjoyed myself, and saw some great stuff, but for a lot of it, I just felt like I was going through the motions. Let’s take it day-by-day, shall we?

Join me after the break.

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Me (left) & the girlfriend (right) Photo: opacity

6 hours of driving, 4 hotel rooms, 120+ comic books, TPBs, autographs, standing in line, eating fast food, ordering pizza, sleeping, coffee, Slim Jims, panels, disappointment, anxiety, awesomeness, and lots of damn walking.

That was C2E2 for me.

It began on a Friday, ended on a Sunday, and I wouldn’t change a minute of it. I met a ton of awesome people (writers, artists, web comic dudes, and other random people) and I realized–like I always do at comic conventions–that I love comics with all of my damn heart.

Do I have comic news? Not really. Do I have some cool stories? Definitely.

Check more after the break.

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He wasn't actually here for WonderCon; he wandered in off the street. The homeless problem in SF is staggering...

WonderCon is the middle child of the Comic-Con family. If San Diego is the overachieving oldest child, and APE is the free-spirited art school student, WonderCon is the slacker that is perfectly happy just doing its own thing. And I, for one, prefer it that way.

For one, I was pleasantly surprised that most of the panels were actually comics-related. Sure, I saw a panel about Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and got to see the Series 5 premiere of Doctor Who (which was exceptional), but almost all other panels had comics as their primary focus.

Plus, unlike Comic-Con, I was only unable to get into one of the panels I wanted to see. People may have complained about how crowded it was on Saturday, but it was a leisurely stroll compared to the lightest day of Comic-Con foot traffic. And San Francisco was not ground to a halt in the wake of WonderCon, although I do feel a small amount of power knowing that my people and I control an entire city for a week.

Anyway, on to the highlights:

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My back is bent.

It is sharing equal time with the wall and the floor near a convenient hutch of unloved condiments. I have crossed my outrageously long legs to avoid being chewed through by this dense, rabid throng of cackling robots and shy comedians.

Having spent years strolling the streets of various urban sprawls, I have the instincts of a back alley stray: cultivated boredom surrounds the calculating eyes of a mink in a dog kennel; a backpack, two decades old and just starting to thread, appears casually limp beside my reclining frame; my own water bottle (never drink the water in a landscape this bright, bleak, and sweaty); my papers are in order.

Ah, my papers. I am tired. I have been shuffled through a dramatic, confusing, half-understood series of events, all to exchange one set of identification for another. It’s like Brazil, but the costumes aren’t as good. (more…)

More info on what’s reviewed after the jump!
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Alright, so here’s the deal. I attended the DC Nation panel at Chicago Comic-Con on Friday completely ready with my laptop to take notes and give you guys a great rundown of what DC announced at CCC and all of the spectacle that comes with these kinds of panels.

Except… I can’t do that. Because for some reason, DC decided that this year, they don’t want to talk about shit. I started off the panel taking notes of everything that was said, but about 10 minutes in, I realized that nothing was being said. All DC was giving us was a rundown of all the books that they are publishing. That’s it. So I stopped taking notes.

Now, I’m not here to rag on DC and say anything bad about them, but seriously, when  you come to a major comic book convention, you have to come with a least something to get people excited. I can’t say that Marvel really announced a lot of stuff at their panels, but at least they gave fans something, instead of just saying that you should buy their books.

And then, to make matters worse, the Q&A portion of the panel turned into the moderator bashing the fans asking questions because they were asking for spoilers. Yes, they may have been asking for hints at what was coming in the big DC storylines, but that’s no reason to bash them. And then other fans started to yell at each other for asking dumb questions.

Bottom line, this panel was a mess. It put a terrible taste in my mouth. I decided to skip the Sunday Conversation because of this panel and am not sure if I will ever attend another DC panel at a convention.

Mondo Marvel Panel

Hey everyone, Mike here reporting from Chicago. Nick and I covered some panels today, so look out for his DC Nation post sometime soon.

Today, though, I hit up the Mondo Marvel panel featuring Jim McCann, Mark Paniccia, Dan Slott, Jason Aaron, Sean McKeever, Chris Yost and Craig Kyle. There was a little bit of information at this panel, just a bit more than the Ultimate’s panel, but nonetheless it was informative. I took notes on my iPhone so if I missed some small stuff, I’m sorry.

The convention covered a bunch of things, but I’ll just spit it to you as I got it:

Dan Slott featured a teaser for his arc that will be coming up in Amazing Spider-Man featuring none other than Mysterio! (But I thought he was dead?! Oh wait, this is Marvel mwhahaha). This should be showing up around issues #618 or #619.

Paul Toben and Patrick Scherberger will be putting out a 4 issue limited series called Spider-Man and the Secret Wars–yeah, from way back then–which will cover a bit of retelling of Spider-Man’s place in Secret Wars and his view of things.

More after the break

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Despite a small (and rather sad) contingency of Marvel people at this year’s Chicago Comic-Con (you may know this as Wizard World Chicago), there are still a couple of Marvel panels to report on. The first of which happened on Friday afternoon – the Marvel Ultimate Panel – involving news and discussion of the Marvel Ultimate Comics line. In attendance were Jim McCann, Marvel’s PR guru, Lauren Sankovitch, Associate editor (formerly with the Ultimate line), Mark Paniccia, Ultimate line editor, and Mark Millar, writer of many Ultimate books and co-creator of the Ultimate Universe.

The panel started a little late, as Millar walked in and said that he was “taking a poo”. To which McCann replied that they are only 3 minutes late, like many of their books. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the panel, which was as much filled with witty banter as with actual news on the Ultimate U.

As the laughter died down, McCann said that this is the first panel where they can actually talk about a lot of the Ultimate stuff, now that Ultimatum #5 has finally shipped. The first book coming out with be, as many of you know, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man this Wednesday. Paniccia said that these are his favorite books and Sankovitch said that they are resetting the bar even higher now after Ultimatum. The panel members said look for some huge surprises in Spider-Man from the very first issue. There was also a general praise for David LaFuente’s art on the book.

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Well, folks, Mike, Jeff and I, as well as our friend Jared, are off to Wizard World Chicago tomorrow (Thursday, August 6th). We are all pretty pumped and ready to bring you some coverage from the con floor. So, keep an eye on the site this weekend and on our twitter account (@destroythecyb) as we will try to post tweets and blog entries as soon as possible. The lack of wi-fi in the convention center might make this a little difficult, but we’ll at least get the posts the we write up from panels up nightly for you.

So, what exactly will we be checking out at Chicago Comic-Con this year?

• Ultimate Marvel Panel
• Mark Millar Q&A
• Mondo Marvel Panel
• DC Nation
• DC Sunday Conversation
• Dan Slott Q&A
• And so much more!

Along with those panels, we’ll also (hopefully) be attending 3 night time programming events. First is Shooting the Shit with Mark Millar and also the artists and writers parties. Not sure if we’ll have anything to post from those events, but perhaps we’ll get a writer or artist to slip on a big announcement!

If you’re going to be heading out to the con this weekend, let us know! Leave a comment on this post, or hit myself or Mike up on Twitter, via an @ or a DM at @nicknelson or @mikerapin. You can also @ or DM the @destroythecyb account.

So yeah… stay tuned! Should be an exciting weekend for us here at DTC!