Chicago Comic Con: A Tale of Two Cons (Part Two)
When I last left you, gentile reader, my malaise for the Chicago Comic had permeated my very being. The deep sadness that seeped under my skin upon seeing my “home show” turn into a visceral flea market truly left me bitter after day one. But, I went to bed, telling myself “tomorrow is another day…”. I awoke with a rekindled spirit of optimism. I mean, yes, the major players of the comic book publishing industry weren’t gonna be there. The panels announced for Saturday were even less interesting than they were for Friday. And on top of all that, they’d announced at the end of Friday that former Illinois Governor, turned convicted fellon, Rod Blagojevich, would be on the show floor signed autographs for $50 a pop. But, I told myself… “It’s a new day. And you should be happy.” Thus, I slapped a smile on my face and I exited my car to boldly walk into the 2010 Chicago Comic Con once more.
Yup. That smile lasted until I took the escalator down to the main floor, with my group in tow. With us, both my wife and my Unshaven Cohort, Matt’s wife, Amy, joined us for our Saturday adventure. The girls, who needed passes, waited through a semi-long line in order to drop $30 on day passes. They were of course penalized for not purchasing their tickets online. For shame. Now, as we’d covered before, I’ve long been a goer to this show. In the past, with the purchase of a pass came a bag of schwag. Generally filled with a heroclix figure or two, a limited edition comic, advertisements and postcards of show vendors, and a few freebie books and posters. This year? Our wives returned to us with nothing more than alternatively colored cheap wristbands. Since we didn’t to leave our loves behind, we stood with them in a long snaked line, trying to get into the show. We were told “people were cutting” and apparently some skipped in without bands the day prior. In order to combat this, they simply slowed the line down to an inhuman crawl, and allowed us time to mill about like bank customers on payday… in an endless sea of costume cladded fans, and folks all confused at the speed at which the line was moving. “What are we all waiting for? Tickets to see Shatner?” (more…)
As has been unofficially discussed on the net, Warner Premiere continues to exploit DCE’s major heroes. The details on the next release were officially unveiled today in the following press release.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has kicked off a 12-month marketing, promotions, publicity and media campaign to honor and promote the studio’s legacy and library. The celebration will include the release of more than 300 films on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, showcasing a remarkable, rich and unparalleled heritage of great movies, Academy Award®-winners and box office smashes featuring a cast of the greatest movie stars and directors from yesterday and today. 
Today and tomorrow, you and your loved ones can have a mighty good time at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s annual festival! This year’s festivities include an amazing array of panels and programs to tickle the fancy of plenty of comic, sci-fi, and cartoon fans alike. With a gaggle of exhibitors, and professionals there to sign all your ebay-able wares, there’s plenty for you to do! Highlights include:
Six more windows to close… at this rate, I’ll be down to only two hundred open windows by the end of the year. Sigh…
The world of 
is a duplicitous one, with schemes within schemes, most of which take far too long to play out. When the BBC series was renewed for a third season, they were given a ten episode order and they decided to change things up while introducing new threats, leaving things more muddled than necessary.
So your parents loved Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man but don’t think comics themselves have anything to offer? Your friends loved V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight and are curious to read comics now but aren’t sure where to start? This is the show to help them all out.
, 
), and others still to come.
All eyes are on what J.J. Abrams and his team have done to reinvigorate public interest in 
. The reason the franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry, needs any attention at all is the result of inept studio focus during the 1990s and beyond. To Paramount’s management at the time, [[[Star Trek]]] was a cash cow to be milked dry as often and in as many ways as possible. Any care about creativity was a lucky happenstance, not by design. Therefore, they let [[[Star Trek: Voyager]]] limp along on their UPN network only to be followed by the even limper [[[Star Trek; Enterprise]]]. The film series, featuring [[[The Next Generation]]] characters, kept hitting the reset button until [[[Nemesis]]], which had a disinterested director foisted upon the series at a time it really needed to improve its game given the critical drubbing the television version of the franchise was receiving.
