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Wizard
World Chicago 2005 Day 2
Saturday-
I decided after my run-in the morning prior, that I may be better
off waiting a bit to show up. I didn't want to get too eager and get
squashed by security once again. I got to the convention hall around
9:30 and much to my surprise was able to stroll right in, granted
through the cattle pens once again, but I was able to circumvent the
"man". In I went to see if there was anything new that I needed to
pick up. Friday, I had got a Devil's Rejects poster for our store's
Randal and needed to see if I could snag one for Rick, since he was
eyeballing the one I got for Chris. When I saw the pile that they
had, I decided to wait until Sunday since Rick could then get it himself
(bad move on my part, they didn't have any Sunday). I wandered around
a bit and Dan and Lisa, showed up and we, with Rick's sketchbook in
hand, set out to walk around the floor again. We were going to try
and get Rick some more sketches for his book while stopping by their
(and the store's friend) Andy Lee to visit for a while. So we wandered
around and got some ideas of where to get sketches and looked into
some stuff that we wanted to pick up on Sunday, hoping for a sale.
I picked up a Thor trade, since Walter Simonson was in his booth signing;
I figured I should get the autograph of the guy who made Thor cool
(even though he did turn him into a frog for a bit). Dan and Lisa
were gathering sketches, while I waited in line a bit, it was only
about 10 minutes, and I saw something kind of cool. There was one
of those fan buy types that had a few boxes of books to get signed
and he actually noticed that there was a line behind him and after
getting about 4 books signed, picked up his stuff, without any urging
from anyone, and moved himself to the back of the line so everyone
else could have a chance. That was pretty cool, normally the fan boys
aren't that aware. I got my autograph and waited a bit for Dan and
Lisa to come back and we continued through the sales booths.
A few sketches later, we were hungry, and
we didn't want to spend the money for the concession stand nor did
we want to stroll down to McDonalds a second day. We decided to hoof
it to Marie's, heck it was only two blocks away according to the sign.
Granted their idea of blocks is somewhat different then city blocks,
but it was a nice day so the stroll wasn't bad. Well not really, the
walk was uneventful until we got to Marie's. You see Marie's doesn't
open as early as you would think it would. We got there a half hour
before it opened and debated mere moments before we decided to wait.
We crossed the street and watched a carload of nerds pull up and the
token one headed towards the door and exclaimed "CRAP". He couldn't
have put it any better. They decided to not stick it out and went
on their way, sad for them because the food was great. I would dare
say the best Mexican food I've had. After filling our bellies, we
headed back to the show floor for the most surreal experience I have
ever had.
We collected up Rick's sketch book from the guys we had
dropped it off with before lunch and were amazed at what he came up
with. Personally I'm not a zombie type of guy, but all of the sketches
were pretty amazing, especially this one. So we moved on to find our
next victim and came upon a guy about the middle of artist area towards
the back of the show floor. I can't remember his name, but that's
probably a good thing, since this story is so wacky. As we walked
by we saw some of his samples and thought that perhaps he would fit
in Rick's book, so we notice a sign at his table "Buy a book and get
a free sketch", the price was right so we went for it (the book was
pretty entertaining by the way). As he looked through the book he
was impressed by everyone else's sketches until he came upon the one
that we just had done and was blown away. He showed the book to the
guy next to him and asked how on earth he was going to top that. Apparently
there had been some consumption of adult beverages, and for the sake
of arguments I'm going to assume they happened at lunch at least at
this point, so his buddy suggested he "do one of them zombies from
the Thriller video" and started to do one of the zombie dances. That
alone would have been entertaining, but soon it would turn goofy.
So this guy is working on his sketch and he did a little color work
and even included some of the lyrics for Rick. It actually was a nice
addition to the book after several pages of rotting corpses that little
bit of levity gave the book even more personality. So the sketch is
done, the guys buddy is laughing and holding his sides, it was funny
but not to that level, and then we find out why. Well it appears that
with every purchase/sketch a toast is made, using the suspected adult
beverage from lunch. It seemed so natural, that once we started to
walk away form the table we kind of stopped cold and wondered what
the heck just happened. Yup we did a toast with one of the artists,
right in the middle of the convention, Dixie cups and all. Crazy.
From there we moved on to stopping by Andy again, the con was winding
down for the night so Dan and Lisa wanted to stop by before taking
off since they didn't have time to talk to him during the day since
he was busy with his paintings. |
The Batman and Joker Figures
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One of the many unsold Mattel Batman Exclusives |
The Display of Misfit Toys |
Comics Legend Gene Colan |
David Rodriguez- Writer of Starkweather from Arcana Press |
Louise and Walter Simonson
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If I could just crack one of you with the butt of my rifle this
costume would be worth it |
Somehow a Hogwarts got mixed in with the Imperial Forces- Must be
part of the Slytherin House |
These are DEFINITELY NOT the nerds I've been looking for
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Mercedes
McNabb- moments after the face making contest she had with a little
kid |
Store friend and great artist Andy Lee
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Store friend and great artist Andy Lee- Still ignoring me |
Saturdy morning show floor
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Now if they would just do some Zorg busts |
Battle for the title of Nerd King- to the winner the maiden... |
That is unless someone normal happens by |
Their faces say come hither, while I'm sure in their mind they are
already blocking out the memories of Nerdapalooza |
Don't worry I don't think I took any Harry Potter Pictures to post
with the Sunday pictures...I think
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This one is strictly for Rick, the rest of you look away |
Another great shot of me and Bendis- Thanks Dan!!! |
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Al n'
Ann's Collectibles
Store Hours:
Mon-Thurs
11:00am - 7:00pm
Friday
11:00am - 7:00pm
Saturday
10:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday
Closed
Location
3819 W. Main St.
McHenry,IL 60050
Phone
(815)344-9696
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