Day Two of the show began on a somber note, as the passing of creator Michael Turner late the previous night was confirmed and marked by memories and moments of silence throughout the day. CBR has posted a touching message from Aspen Comics Editor-in-Chief Vince Hernandez on the death of his good friend and associate.

On a lighter note, I started my day sharing an elevator with Angus Scrimm, the "Tall Man" from the Phantasm horror films. Apparently, Wizard World wasn’t the only game in town this weekend, as the Flashback Weekend horror film convention was also in town for its annual get-together of fans and celebrities of the fright-film scene. This made for a particularly surreal moment later in the day when the beginning of the horror festival overlapped with the end of both a senior-age Christian meet-up and a young couple’s wedding. At one point during the day, the line that had developed for the elevators included the bridal party, a buxom, blood-covered nurse, a massive, costumed Jason Voorhees (complete with machete and severed, bloody head of Freddy Krueger) and a trio of seniors who seemed very concerned that no one else in the hallway was making a big deal about the nurse and her companion.

On the show floor, one of the fastest sellers was an Alex Ross-designed t-shirt modeled after his iconic image of Clark Kent ripping open his shirt to reveal the Superman costume underneath it. The popular graphic replaced Clark Kent with Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who was ripping open his shirt to reveal the familiar "O" campaign symbol.

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During a late-afternoon panel at Wizard World Chicago, Devil’s Due Publishing announced today that it would be producing a Vampire Hunter D miniseries (titled "American Wasteland") based on the popular anime/manga character. While the full creative team, length of the series and release date haven’t been finalized, DDP president Josh Blaylock will be serving as co-writer for the series, with new DDP staffer Jim Demonakos serving as editor.

I spoke with Blaylock about the project earlier today.

COMICMIX: So why did you target the Vampire Hunter D property?

JOSH BLAYLOCK: I think there’s something cool about him that transcends. It has a very hardcore fan following who are very faithful to the manga and the anime. In the ’80s there were only a few anime you could get ahold of, especially edgy animation. As a comic book fan, you craved that type of content but there was only so much you could get. There was Vampire Hunter D, Fist of the North Star… and D was this crazy, short cut-and-dry story that I got into way back when. It just seemed like it would be a lot of fun to do a Westernized take on him. I’m not talking about changing the look of the character drastically or anything like that, though.

CMix: What do you mean by "westernizing" the character?

JB: It has to do more with the art style more than anything else.

CMix: So will it be following the traditional format of manga with regard to reading direction and such?

JB: No, it will be done in the standard, Americanized style. I think it’s the kind of thing casual comic book fans who still follow manga titles still have a lot of interest in, because there’s a wider love for Vampire Hunter D than people seem to have for a lot of other manga titles. But we want to stay true to the character enough so that the hardcore fans will still still have an interest in the story, too.

CMix: what can you say about the story?

JB: The ink is just dry on this deal, but it’s along the lines of a typical D story: Lone wanderer winds up having to help some people, and so on. It’s very "Conan the Barbarian"… that sort of thing.

CMix: How closely are you going to work with Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi?

JB: Well, with Digital Manga Productions, we had been talking to them about doing some things for a while, and that was one of the properties we thought would be cool to do something with. I just threw the idea at them, and expected the creator to be a lot more protective of it, but he was all about it and wanted to go forward with it. Apparently, he loves to see the character played with and to see new things happen to him.

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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