I'm new here so if I shouldnt be posting this, My apologies.

For people around the Chicago land area, if you havnt heard, The Windy City Comicon will on Saturday the 19th of September (under 2 weeks away now!). It's the second annual, and it takes place at the center on halsted (Halsted/Waveland Ave) about A block away from Wrigley Field (and only 2 blocks away from me!)

This will feature guests including
Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash, G.I. Joe)
Mike Norton (Blue Beetle, Loaded Bible, Green Arrow/Black Canary)
Gene Ha (JSA Vs Kobra)
Don Kramer (JSA Vs Kobra)
Robert Atkins (Amazing Spider-Man)
Richard Starkings (Elephantmen)
Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County)
Tony Moore (Walking Dead, Battle Pope)
Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl)
Jenny Frison (Covers such as Dreamer, Vampirella and Hack Slash)
Tony Akins (Jack Of Fables)
David Petersen (Mouseguard)
Skottie Young (Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, New X-Men)
Christian Alamy (Final Crisis)
Tom Nyguen (Final Crisis)
Andrew Pepoy (Simpsons)
Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy)
and Many, Many More.

It will also feature plenty of vendors from chicagoland comic shops, plenty of events including Sketch Jam where in 45 minutes each comic panelist (such as Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Chris Moreno, Ect...) will sketch up an idea within 5 minutes that an audience member comes up with. All the sketches will then be sold at the Hero Initiative booth to benefit comic creators in need. WCC will also feature events including an interview with Richard Starkings, Webcomics 101, Interview with Skottie Young, A writing conversation with B. Clay Moore, Sean McKeever and Will Pfeiffer and An Inking conversation with Hilary Barta, Tom Ngyuen, Bill Reinhold, Christian Alamy and Andrew Pepoy.

Starts at 10 am - 6 pm!

Afterwards there will be an after party just about 2 blocks south on clark street (21 and older)
more info... http://www.windycitycomicon.com.

I wish I could go!! Damn friends getting married!!

I went to the first one last year. I wasn't all that impressed. For one thing, the parking situation is horrible. Secondly, the majority of what vendor's had there was their late 80's and 90's crap or the newer stuff that was in VF condition. And the prices were not all that spectuacular either. Last year admission was $5, this year it jumped up to $10! I love going to shows, but I might actually skip this one. Just not worth the effort.

I kind of had A different experience, While I will agree that parking over here sucks because it seems that the city has A monopoly around parking against tourists unless you have city stickers or parking permits or are just going in for 30 minutes, I was able to just walk there. The vendors I thought were pretty decent, some were not that great but A couple were pretty good I thought, I didnt notice A pattern in the comics (such as 80s/90s crap and vf newer comics), but last year I was buying mainly heroclix. This year even though I do intend to look through the vendors, I am mainly going for the signings, sketches, events and comics from local artist's booths. The price going up, I completely understand with the amount and quality of artists there this year. I am excited for the swag bag again this year, I dont know why.

I do see though what you mean, this is A small comicon but they should figure out A better parking plan.

Is it as small as the ones in Gurnee? Then again they don't draw any big names but they do have great selections.

I've never been to the ones in Gurnee, maybe i'll have to check them out. Since this is the only one i've really ever been to aside from knowing how big wizard world is, I dont know how big or small to say it is really. It fits into A basketball gymnasium so the actual size is remotely small I suppose. The events take place in A conference room/theater area but the rest (booths, vendors) are all in the gymnasium. Its only the second annual and I'm sure if the turn out is good then next year they may switch locations.

I would say from just my perspective it is A relatively small convention but with some pretty big names in comics and some what of an intimate feel to it so you can actually meet and talk to all the artists and have time for all of them.

Sounds good! My good friend Doug Klauba will also be in attendence if I'm not mistaken. We won't be setting up at this con, but I might come as a fan! :)

Thanks for letting everyone know about it!

Yep Doug will be there as well, Unfortunately I don't think I read anything that has his work in it but there's A few things he's done that I've wanted to pick up, maybe this will just be A reason to. I have him on my facebook and met him once before.

Y'know, that is true about the added talent being there this year. I was kind of kicking myself for not going over to Tony Moore at the Chicago Comic-Con and getting a signature on one of my Walking Dead books. I dunno... I'm on the fence now!

If you go get my an exterminators or fear agent

I forgot I should get something signed by Tony Moore...
so far my list goes like this...

Skottie Young (sketch/sign in Wonderful Wizard Of Oz HC)
Jenny Frison (signing Dreamer #1)
Jeffrey Brown (sketch/sign in Clumsy)
David Petersen (sketch/sign in Mouseguard Winter HC)
Tim Seeley (sketch to frame) (I already have like half my Halloween Nightdance and Hack/slash issues signed by him)
Jeremy Bastian (sketch/sign in Cursed Pirate Girl #1)
Christian Alamy (sign Final Crisis #7)
Tom Ngyuen (sign Final Crisis #7)
Andrew Pepoy (sign Simpsons Comics #155)
Erik Rose (sign The Roberts TPB)
Jeff Lemire (sketch/sign Sweet Tooth #1)
Robert Atkins (sign Amazing Spider-Man #603)

I cant wait! I also am picking up "Moonstone Monsters" TPB online right now so maybe I will have something for Doug Klauba to sign!

Also this weekend at A-F Books in Frankfort, The art team for JSA vs Kobra (Gene Ha, Don Kramer, Art Lyon and Mike Babinski) will be signing.

Well the comic-con is over. Did anyone make it out there? Ill give A recap of the day even tho itll sound like just rambling and no one will care.

ending up spending roughly... 200-240 which isnt as bad as I thought thankfully.

I only like A few blocks away so we left at 9 and got there and 9:15 and waited inline until 10 am. There were about 40 or so inline at that point
and when the doors opened I'd say around 100 or so inline.

we walked in and it was the same basic set up as last year so we didnt have to wonder wondering whats what really. The only thing that was different was the gaming tables were gone in placement were more artists (YAY). Right as we got in, we rushed on over to Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl). Got him to sign issues #1 and #2 and picked up #0 there which he signed as well, and purchased an awesome print that was hand dyed which looked awesome! Then turned around and got David Petersen (Mouse Guard) to sign and do A little sketch in each book and got some cool mice pins. Went through and got some random signatures on some stuff I brought (Robert Atkins, Chris Samnee, Doug Klauba, Chris Burnham (who was really awesome btw, Don Kramer, Gene Ha, Jeff Lemire and A few others). Then went to Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy) and got him to sign and do A sketch in Clumsy for me and bought A book by him called " Cat getting out of A bag" and talked to him for A little bit (such A nice guy btw).
Then was an event in the theater hall called "Windy City Sketch Jam", If you dont know what this is, it's where they have A few artists up on stage at A table and take audience requests for sketches, The artists' have 5 minutes to do each sketch (tim seeley earned some leway somehow though). They did it for 45 minutes and then sold each sketch for $10 on the Hero Initiative booth. The guys hosting it were fantastic and need to do it again next year. The artists consisted of Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Katie Cook, Robert Atkins and A few more. Some of the sketches by audience members selected were, Middle Aged Aquaman on A laz-e-boy eating twinkies, Tankgirl, Booster Gold giving the new Blue Beetle a noogie, Hot Stuff Little Devil burning A commercial friendly character of their choosing (characters chosen (that I can remember) were Spongebob, Deadpool, Human Torch and Ghost Rider).
After the sketch jam is was just A little bit before Noon and we got back in to the convention room/gymnasium. Got some stuff from Neil Briedieu (spelling check on the last name), Tim Seeley who did an awesome Michael Myers sketch and got A print of Hack/Slash as well. Got sketchbooks and A minipainting from Katie Cook. Got A Vampirella Print, Vampirella: Countdown to Second Coming Prototype edition, and A covers book by Jenny Frison. Bought A sketchbook from Mark Texeira (not the baseball player), Got an awesome Eric Jones print from Cadence Art (Eric Jones was not there but Cadence Art sells original and print art from various artists). Got my Wonderful Wizard Of Oz book signed by Skottie Young and picked up his "B-Sides" Sketchbook while my girlfriend got A print of Wonderful wizard of oz. Also got an amazing print from Tom Nguyen along with A sketchbook and tons of comics signed by him and Christian Alamy. I passed by Erik Rose's booth and wanted to buy "The Roberts" TPB, I ordered it from my comic shop about 2 1/2 weeks ago but didnt recieve it in time for the comiccon but felt the need of buying it, Luckily I passed and as I was browing through some comics at Brainstorm vendors, I came across both issues of it and figured not only they were just A buck each but I would love to have the issues and book anyways. Got both of them signed and he also gave me A free signed print as well (really cool guy). That wraps up most of the events through out the day, We left around 2-3 pm cause we were exhausted (and only got 3 hours of sleep before that). I also picked up quite A few old Vampirellas, All of Infinite Crisis, and Deadpool #1 (second volume - VF/NM!), All for A buck each.

I know most of that may of been incoherent but I did this fast without review and am tired. So just thought I'd share and see if anyone else ending up making it out there and if so, What they got to do

Awesome! Which old Vampirellas did ya get?

I got...

Vampirella (2nd volume) #2
Vampirella (2nd volume) #3
Vampirella (1st volume) #5 (dan brereton cover)
Vampirella Lives #1-A
and A couple others that are just escaping me right now

I kinda forgot about it. I was on the fence about going anyway and it just so happened that the guy who runs all the midwest comic shows had his annual garage sale this Saturday. So I made the trek down to Wyoming, IL. It was quite a drive but totally worth it. I bought 100 comics for $40! A lot of what he has is junk or 90's crap, but he's also got overstock of recent back issues and nice little gems here and there. I got a Star Wars #1 in good condition! It was the 3rd printing of it... but still! Also picked up Next Men #21, Hellboy's 1st appearance, a near complete set of Civil War (missing #6), #200 of the Brave and the Bold and the final issue of World's Finest.