Wizard World Chicago, to be specific. Bought my plane tickets and everything! I know earlier this year, I announced, then wussed out from appearing at Megacon at the last minute, but as it's a more 'local' show for me, cancelling wasn't a hardship. I let my deadlines get carried away that weekend, so I'll make it up to MegaCon's Beth Widera next year.

   So I'm sure everybody's heard the great Wizard/Heroes Con controversy. I have nothing against Wizard, as I'm still going to the Chicago show in two weeks. However, Shelton Drum, who's hosted the Heroes Con for a quarter-century, gave Wizard clear advance notice of the weekend he was holding his convention. He even offered his services to them if they would start a show in Atlanta. In return, the fan-supported, long-standing institution he built was deliberately assaulted in what can only be perceived as a hostile challenge.

   I've got no problem with competition. I certainly couldn't stay in comics if I couldn't handle competition. But there's no way to paint a smiley face on such an act. Legal, yes. Ethical? Ehhhh.

   It appears that the good-heartedness of the mega stars, such as Millar, Hitch, Ellis, JMS, etc., will cause Heroes Con to win out. This is a special occasion, beyond simply 'market forces' at work. It's not charity, either. Those of us who will attend know we're at a crossroads, making a stance against what we perceive as a wrongness being perpetrated.
That said, I still have every intention of enjoying myself at WW Chicago and being friendly with the Wizard staff. There've been calls to raise a stink in Chicago, but I don't think anyone who's angry at the Atlanta scheduling should be disruptive at the show. We're all there to enjoy ourselves in fanboy fellowship. Besides, most retailers have committed to the show too much to pull out even if they wanted to, so show some support for them at least.

   I'll be attending all four days, timesharing with The Shooting Star Comics booth (Thanks, Guys!)
and Powerful Press' Artist Alley setup, whose table number is 9134 A (Thanks, Dudes!).

   If you pop by for signings, remember to check out the 'Checklist' section of this site, for a printer-friendly checklist of all my books. Some you'll probably find in the bargain bins, in case you forget to bring your signables!

   This years's San Diego Con reports brought up a memory from my last trip there in 1998. I had just begun work on Birds of Prey, the series, which wasn't releasing until the fall, I believe. Greg Land and I had only worked on the double-sized B.O.P.: Batgirl one-shot, and we had started already on the new ongoing book together with writer Chuck Dixon and editor Jordan Gorfinkle. The art was looking good and the direction of this new series was definate counter-programming to a lot of muscleheaded books that still had a lingering presence in the '90's. I myself was somewhat dubious of this book's potential success, as Black Canary's previous series bombed big and her partner was not Batgirl, but the ex-Batgirl, now computer genius. Not the usual recipe for big fanboy turnout. It would be an uphill battle, one that we were braced for, and Greg at the time was really trying to push himself artistically, probably also sensing that high-quality art would have to be a given.

   I had photocopies of the first issue at my cramped section of Artists Alley, and I was enthusiastically trying to stand out in a sea of creators, projecting my voice with the brashness of a carnival barker. I've found out one thing about bringing advance photocopies of ongoing series to shows: Fans don't want to see them. They hate spoilers. So I don't even bring copies of the latest book I work on, because a fan will wave their arms frantically and exclaim :"I don't want to know! I have a copy reserved at my local shop!"

   Anyway, since it was a new series featuring a fan favorite, if not then a highly commercial character, I presumed interest would be high. That's when I learned the importance of costume identification. More than once, after I'd done my three-card-monty shpiel, I'd be asked: Is she wearing the fishnets? I would shrink and say "No." Actually I didn't say it so much as exhaled it, much like a squirrel must wheeze his last when being flattened by a car. All the painstaking effort didn't add up to a hill o' beans if Dinah didn't have those damned fishnets, I thought...

   Granted, the fishnets returned, but it was only years after the creators in our wake proved that Birds of Prey, as a series, had 'legs',so to speak, thanks mostly to Gail Simone's dedication to what Chuck and Jordan had built.

   I'd only been to Heroes Con once, in 2000, and my favorite memories included meeting Nick Cardy, who was then visiting Artists Alley, hawking his excellent book, The Art of Nick Cardy. Also, I met Babyface Bob Layton and traded a BOP piece of original art for a Hercules page from a Marvel Comics Presents run (I thought I had all of Bob's Herc stories, but this one slipped by me!) Also, my-then studio mate, inker par excellence Ray Snyder bet me $10 to purchase an unopened wax pack of 1979 Incredible Hulk TV show trading cards, just to eat the 20-year- old gum! I went back and forth, wrestling over the thought of the coolness factor that I'd achieve (as we comic guys are arrested adolecents) or risk a trip to the hospital with food poisoning. After I played out the drama and angst, I balked, as I was enjoying myself too much to miss a day being sick. Maybe I'll do it next year, just to raise money next year for the local firefighters, which Shelton's been doing for ages. Wotta mix: Firefighters, Shelton Drum and comic creators who'll travel overseas to support both. Heroes aren't hard to find after all.