Wizard World Chicago 2005

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Well summer is here, and for toy and comic geeks that means it is convention time. I'm not so lucky as to be able to attend the San Diego Comic Convention which is the biggest. But I do have the benefit of living within driving distance of the second largest convention, Wizard World Chicago. It has been a couple of years since I was able to attend due to conflicts with my work schedule. But I made the trek once more this year.

The convention is held at the Rosemont Convention Center in Chicago. It is a convient location in terms of accessability. O'Hare is nearby. Plus I90, I190, I294 and the Metro all run within a few blocks of the convention center. (A word of warning though. If you plan on driving there, take a good map. Every time I drive down there I seem to turned around because at least one part of the route I planned out is closed for construction.) The lobby to the convention center has the various registration areas for tickets, advanced tickets, press and volunteer registration. This was my first year preregistering and it didn't seem to help much with the wait to get in. Fortunately it isn't too long either way. The lobby also makes a good meeting spot to get away from the crowds on the show floor. There is a nice enterance to the show floor, though after all these years it could stand to be updated. But it's when you hit the actual show room that the fun begins. But before that, I should mention the free goodies. Everyone who attended the convention received a bag with a Nintendo lanyard and a free Hero Clix figure. The Hero Clix figure is marked as Elektra on the base, but it looks more like a generic Hand ninja. The can coozy was a give away from Toynk.com and was available at their booth.

There are opportunities for autographs, various panel discussions and presentations. But the lines can be quite long. People were waiting in line for hours for autographs from Frank Miller and Jim Lee. The convention is a little weak in terms of the panels and presentations. There were only about a dozen total, several of which required advanced tickets to attend. Still, depending on your particular interests they are worth checking out. If nothing else, they give you a chance to sit down for a while. They also provide cold water to drink in many of them which beats waiting in long lines to pay exorbinate prices for something from the refreshment stands.

There are lots of opportunities to meet various artists. In fact the artist areas seem to have grown substantially from the last time I attended the convention. In fact, artist alley has grown so large that they had to break it up into three different areas. Oh, and another word of caution, you may not want to let small children walk through these areas as some of the artwork is more adult.

Gaming has become a big part of the convention as well. On top of the manufacturer displays on the show floor, there were two large areas set up for playing games like Hero Clix. Gamestop also had an area set up to allow people to play videogames as part of their Ultimate Video Game Challenge. This is also a good example of why it pays to read your program at an event like this. The entrance to the larger game room was buried in the furthest corner behind the artist alley. I only stumbled upon it while killing time later in the day.