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My belated and ridiculously long WW Chicago report

Started by Guardian Comics,

53 posts in this topic

Guardian Comics

Guardian Comics

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Posted

While I don't profess to be much of a writer :), my Paradise show report seemed to be enjoyed by a few and I figure I'll try and break the sophmore jinx by writing my second ever con report on the most amazing comic convention I have ever been to...Wizard World Chicago.

 

On Thursday morning bright eye and bushy tailed after only being able to get an hours sleep, as I kep on tossing and turning in excitement of what might be in store for me the weekend (imagine a child on Christmas Eve) I hopped into a rented mini van to pick up my fellow passengers on the journey to Chi-Town. My first stop was to be Chris (Beyonder) but due to an accident with a mitre saw he was unable to attend. Bypassing Chris' house I picked up Drew (wasonff), Roy (r1970d) and his girlfriend Louise. According to mapquest, what was to be an 8 hour drive turned into a 12 hour journey (Chicago traffic is ridiculous at any time of the day, on any day) We broached all the taboo subjects on the drive, politics, religion, 9/11, Jessica Alba and CGC and even though we didn't always agree the tone was light and immediate friendships were formed. Although we knew each other from the Toronto convention circuit we had never spent that much real time together. The 12 hours passed relatively quickly and we arrived on preview night with about an hour and a half to spare. Well for my passengers anyways. I offered to drop them off at the convention centre and go check into the hotel for us. In all their wisdom, they suggested for me to keep travelling down River Rd. N to find our hotel, as the building numbers were descending. They did keep dropping and I learned about half an hour later that 2950 North River Rd. was not where our hotel was. I cursed my fellow collectors for abandoning me and I was going to die alone, in the wrong part of town, in a foreign country all by myself. A quick U-Turn and a half hour of back tracking rectified the situation and I finally found the hotel. After checking in and quick shower, I found myself back at the convention centre. Upon walking in, an announcement came over the loud speaker that the show was closing in 15 minutes. Again I cursed out my new freinds and scrambled for a quick look. At 7:00 waiting for the shuttle Drew, Roy and Louise caught up to me going into our shuttle and we went back to the hotel.

needing a good night sleeps Drew and I decided to get well rested for the next days festivities and get to bed. We ordered a genuine deep dish Chicago style pizza from Diorgandos. It was the most amazing Pizza I had ever had.

 

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The thing must have weighed 5 kilograms...I mean 12 pounds for all my new American friends :) Drew and I each finished 2 pieces each and I attempted a third but couldn't finish it. We shut the lights off and headed for bed.

 

We decided to not set that alarm and get up when our bodies told us too. We snagged some breakfast and headed for the con. Upon arrival we were treated to some pretty decent sights.

 

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I've never wanted to be involved in a threesome with a blue chick before but was quite willing to make an exception in this case.

 

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The first dealers booth that I really got a chance to stop and take a look at was Brent from Quality Comix booth. Among his Superman #1, and an incredible 9.2 PLOD AF#15 which I had almost purchased, was this gem that he let me take a nice close look at.

 

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Here's a pic of Brent doing a deal on a some silver books he picked up at the show.

 

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I headed next to Conrad Eschberg (sic?) booth and was in complete awe of the jaw dropping O/A that he had on his wall.

 

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and

 

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As a matter of fact, there was tons of O/A dealers but Mr. Eschbergs was the cream of the crop by a nose.

 

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Searching for books on my want list was actually quite easy in the Disney World/kid in a Candy Shop atmosphere that was WW Chicago. Instead of going through bins and bins of comics, I would ask each and every dealer if they had any Silver Age predigree books especailly White Mountains. After hitting a road block at evey major dealer I finally hit pay dirt at the JHV Associates table.

 

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I was told that there might be one or two in the bins of the lesser Marvel titales such as TTA, TOS and/or Strange Tales. I searched the Tales to Astonish bin, I pulled out not one, not two but 5 raw White Mountain books.

 

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After spending almost $2,000 the previous weekend through Heritage on two WM TTA slabs, I felt like I had just hit the lottery by picking up 5 copies for a measly $200. No matter what else happended from here on in, the show would be considered a success.

 

After trying three times to run into Angelo (theWatcher) at the Moondog booth and meet him for the first time, I was able to catch up with him, Pedigree Man and moondog himself.

 

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For the first time in my life I also wished I had found myself a prisoner of war, as these two beauties looked like they were willing to dish out some serious corporal punishment.

 

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Coming from a background in Star Wars collectibles, I thought this was one of the nicer costumes of the day.

 

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Managed to stop by a fellow boardies' booth and check his selection of prime material, Dale Roberts.

 

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Nelson Dodds set up was amazing as usual.

 

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As was Ted at Superworlds

 

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and Stephen Ritters

 

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Bob Storms at Highgradecomics as usual had the best selection of slabs

 

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I was able to purchase this Mass copy of TTA #93 as a placeholder until the White Mountain copy shows up on the market. Thanks Bob.

 

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I am a Marvel Zombie through and through but have always had a thing for Black Canarys costume and backside...can you tell?

 

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I can't remember the delears name but I sure do love that Defenders Splash in the top right hand corner of his booth.

 

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After the show closed on Friday I headed back to the hotel and thats where this trip actually became what it did for me. Arex, Nik and Danny were staying at the same hotel as us but I had never met them before or even knew what they looked like. In the lobby, Roy introduced me to all three and I was pretty intimidated to say the least. Here I was a Canuck, with all of 600 posts to my five year history of being on the boards amongst these legends of the boards. They have like 50,000 posts amongst them and it seemed they had been life long friends. Well was I wrong. From the minute I met them, I felt welcome. It wasn't until later that I found out the three of them were meeting each other for the very first time. We sat around the courtyard at our hotel smokin, drinking and getting to know each other. We even got to know Dannys girlfriend real well even though she didn't make the trip. Her incoming calls to Dannys cell phone every 15 minutes helped us all feel like we knew her too. From Friday night at 6:00 PM til the rest of the show, the seven of us Arex, Nik, Danny, Drew, Roy, Louise and I were pretty unseprable for the rest of the con. Well until Roy and Louise went dancing every night :)

 

We must have spent 4 hours chatting in the courtyard that night, as Drew left for the big poker game at eight o clock and caught back up with us after he got knocked out (he made it into the top half of the tournament but got rivered by his opponent one too many times) before we left for dinner. The 7 of us headed for dinner at Shoeless Joes and I must say the service was excellent, I mean the waitressess that were providing the service were excellent. Our waitress was extremely sexy, and there was a blonde waitress that was even making Danny drool (I mean he does only collect 9.8 books) and this girl was a ten. Their outfits were similar to Hooters girls but in black and way sexier. Sorry boys no pics :(

 

Saturday we all headed to the show but nothing really of note happened at the show. Nik, Arex and Danny manned the Toon Tumblers booth for a large part of the day...well at least Nik and Arex did.

 

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The highlight of the day at the show was Dannys' prank on Brent at Quality Comix. Danny says to me watch this. He asks Brent if he could see "That piece of Marvel Comics #1"? Brent did a double take (stare down) at Danny but grabbed the book off the wall. As he handed it to Danny, MK introduced himself to Brent. Brent's grin was ear to ear. He went from ready to start a rumble mode, to thank god you were screwing with me mode in about 10 seconds. It was hilarious to watch and not quickly forgotten. Another one of my favourite stories from the Con was provided by Mr. Roy Delic. Upon his searching of the con, he ran into a delaers booth where 4 older gentleman were chatting. Willing to strike up a conversation with anyone, Roy asked what they all collected? One gentleman, whose name escapes me told Roy that he owned the Mile High copy of Marvel Comics #1 !!! Roy looked him in the eyes and called his bluff. "Yeah Right" he replied. "Actually I own the entire Mile High run of the Timelys". Realizing that he wasn't kidding, Roy stashed the ASM #137 PLOD that he just received from CGC through the on site grading and left the booth with his tail between his legs. :)

 

The CGC forum dinner was amazing. Everybody standing up to introduce themselves and what they collected definitely made things easier. Although when I introduced myself and said that it is my long term goal to put the White Mountain 12 cent Marvels back together, I did hear a condescending "Good Luck" coming from behind me :( Dan did a spectacular job putting this together. I mean on what other occasion would I ever have Maggie Thompson and Michelle Knowlan sitting at my immediate left talking shop with me. The fact that some of the little "cliques" got broken up in the seating arrangements allowed for a much more incredible experience. Maggie, Michelle, Wes Hagen, Drew, Brent (from Quality Comix) the Dude and one other gentleman all sat at my table. Once the actual dinner was finished the smokers headed for the patio and the non smokers stayed inside. Our little group of friends headed out around midnight and once again Roy and Louise headed for downtown Chicago for some late night drinking and dancing :)

 

Although shown in other threads, the grouping of ten books sitting on the mantleplace unattended was amazing.

 

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When 10 books are worth more than most peoples collections, including my own it can really help you realize your place in the hobby but definitely could provide inspiration as well. Being the last night together, Drew, Arex, Nik, Danny and I chatted in their suite until the wee hours of the morning.

 

On Sunday Drew and I got a wake up call from Nik and Danny for breakfast and headed to the hotel lobby. With both of them having to catch flights (Arex had already left), we said our goodbyes and the show in essecence was over for me. I headed back down for a couple of hours on Sunday to get girfts for my children and get some last minute pics, such as the Bedrock booth

 

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Vinnys booth

 

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and Brad's part of the Moondog booth

 

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I said all my goodbyes to everybody at the show who made my experience a once in a lifetime event (you all know who you are) and regretted not meeting more board members. Dookie...where the hell were you?

 

Drew, Roy, Louise and I all packed into the car at 3:15 CST (after Roy made us wait a half hour making last minute deals) and it took another 2 1/2 hours to get out of the city on a Sunday afternoon. After such an exhausting weekend, you would have thought that my 3 passengers would have fallen asleep sometime, but nobody did. We spent the entire time talking non stop about what each of us had just experienced for 12 hours. A trip of a lifetime!!!

 

I finally rolled into my driveway at 4:41 AM EST, got my first good night sleep in almost five days and I was awakened to to my cell phone ringing. It was Roy, just checking to see if I had made it home safe. It was a thoughtful and kind moment, in a weekend of thoughtful and kind moments. I want to thank everyone for sharing a moment with me.

 

Jim

 

 

 

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aardvark88

aardvark88

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Fab-u-lous comicon report. Any problems with customs at the border crossing with your trunk full of collectibles? :wishluck:

 

Did you see any Canadian retailer/dealers that drove down from say, Winnipeg or Toronto, to sell at Wizard Chicago? :foryou:

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TheWatcher

TheWatcher

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That's a great con report, Jim. It was a pleasure meeting you. Sorry it took so many times. Those were some sweet books you got at the con. Just wait till next year when we get dibs on all the sweet books before SD.

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MutantKeys

MutantKeys

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"We even got to know Dannys girlfriend real well even though she didn't make the trip. Her incoming calls to Dannys cell phone every 15 minutes helped us all feel like we knew her too"

 

lol

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Fazybones

Fazybones

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:applause: :applause: :applause: Fantastic report Jim!!! (thumbs u

I can't get enough of these reports and your pictures were incredible showing so many booths and the massive amount of books available.

 

Nice job and as usual sweeeet pick-ups of some choice books. :cloud9:

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Guardian Comics

Guardian Comics

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You better believe it Nik...mark your calendars for either June or August of 2008. We'll see if we can knock this town on its , although I'm sure our completely nude strippers will knock you on yours :) If not you, Danny for sure.

 

Jim

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DrWatson

DrWatson

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You better believe it Nik...mark your calendars for either June or August of 2008. We'll see if we can knock this town on its , although I'm sure our completely nude strippers will knock you on yours :) If not you, Danny for sure.

 

Jim

I'm not sure if Danny can handle professional titties. (shrug)
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