After a full day on the floor at this year’s Wizard World Chicago (which is actually held well away from Chicago in Rosemont, IL), I can’t help but think the "Chicago" aspect of the show’s title isn’t the only element that’s a bit misleading. This weekend, it’s far more accurate to say that it’s "Avatar World" and Wizard is just living in it.

Avatar Press Editor-in-Chief William Christensen and the rest of his team bet big at this year’s show, and their gamble seems to be paying off. In addition to bringing the show’s Guest of Honor, author Warren Ellis, across the pond for one of his rare stateside appearances, the sheer volume of the publisher’s real estate in the show’s program, floor space and overall marketing is impressive, to say the least. Heck, you can play along with this game at home, folks — just download a copy of the convention guidebook and take a look through it. The "exclusives" section alone seems like it would be more aptly named "Avatar Press Exclusives… and some other stuff."

While the Avatar push is great for the publisher (and after speaking with Christensen and Avatar’s head of marketing, David Marks, the return on investment has been positive thus far), one can’t help but wonder about the behind-the-scenes story here. After speaking with a few contacts in and around the planning of the show, the picture painted by these conversations is one of a Wizard World organization that recognized Ellis’ presence as the best weapon against yet another poorly attended convention in the Wizard World circuit. The fan-favorite writer’s attendance was in discussion as of late last year, in fact, and the terms of his presence at the show involved significant coverage of Ellis’ Avatar projects by Wizard Magazine and various other editorial elements of Wizard Entertainment in the months prior to finalizing the deal. This weekend’s show, it seems, is being considered a test of the company’s "new" approach toward conventions — and there’s a lot riding on how well it does.

Even so, the biggest threat to the show might not have been Wizard Entertainment’s widely reported personnel, financial and general creative woes, but rather the widespread problems currently plaguing the airline industry, with many publishers, creators and guests reporting cancelled and/or significantly delayed flights to and from Chicago airports. One of our own ComicMix crew found himself bounced back and forth between cancelled flights for much of the day Thursday, thanks to the ol’ "your flight is cancelled, better luck next time" routine from United Airlines — but United wasn’t the only culprit. A large number of Wizard’s own convention staff were scattered among several different airlines due to overbooked, cancelled and massively delayed flights.

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