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2008 Comic Book News Archives

June 30, 2008: Wizard World Chicago Report

After the last several years of attending Wizard World as both a member of the Press and an "artist" (for some crazed reason, Internet press is placed in "Artist Alley" where typically we're surrounded by, well, artists) I decided this year to go incognito. This was the first year in the past three years that fellow Superman Homepage Associate Editor Neal Bailey didn't man a Superman Homepage table while I ran around covering convention news.

Some of you know that, at conventions, we're not the Superman Homepage, we're the SuperFan Homepage. Many of you already know the lurid tale of scandal and deceit that resulted in the Superman Homepage being unable to hold ourselves out at conventions as what we are, namely the Superman Homepage. Well that's not exactly what happened. It was more like DC asked us not to and we said OK. Our ever-thinking Chief, Steve Younis, had the bright idea to use an alternate URL and an alternate name for the site at conventions -- namely the SuperFan Homepage. Basically we traded an "M" for an "F" -- it's actually a lot like switching the signs on a restroom door.

Anyway, since we didn't have a table this year, and I didn't have Neal this year, and I would only be available for one day, I decided to make this year's Wizard World into a "me" day. There were very few Superman things going on during the weekend. I decided to forego the panels. There wasn't anything Superman specific with only two panels related indirectly to the Superman Family: the DC Nation panel on Friday and the Crisis panel on Saturday. And the biggest Superman related news to come out of those panels so far as been the announcement of the new creative team on "Supergirl". I decided the panels would be attended and covered ad nauseum by the bigger, more generic focused comic book websites. And guess what? They were and we've reported on their coverage of the panels elsewhere.

What I do come to you with are pictures many of whom were taken by my friend and acting Superman Homepage photog, Anthony Lujan. There were some gorgeous DC Direct items on display with a Superman theme, both action figures and statues. DC Direct is this year commemorating its 10th anniversary. They created convention exclusives for the event and I got to see the Batman exclusive which was gorgeous with a rubberized -- not plastic or fabric but nonetheless sturdy -- cape.

For Superman fans, DC Direct didn't have a ton of things to see but the items that were there were truly spectacular.

There were action figures from All Star Superman, the Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely series. The figures on display were Superman and Lois Lane as Superwoman. As you can see, they look quite true to the mark.

One of the coolest display items at the convention was a poster-size rendition of the previously seen ad for "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds". The poster was on a heavy mylar-type paper and was not for sale -- it was part of the DC booth's display. But seeing it blown up to poster size certainly confirmed to me that DC would be insane not to release this image as a poster. And notwithstanding "Countdown to Final Crisis", DC isn't insane so hopefully we'll see that announcement in an upcoming solicitation.

Finally, Superman-wise, it's the amazingly detailed and quite beautiful Superman versus Darkseid statue. This is one of the best Superman statues I've seen from DC Direct -- Supes is airborne, and Darkseid and Superman are both holding their own as they battle over an Apokolyptan firepit.

The remaining Superman items were all related not to Supes himself but to his cousin, Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl. Seen for the first time in the recent product solicitations is the beautiful Supergirl doll coming from the 13" collection. Kara comes with Streaky the Supercat. As I hope the photos attest, this doll is much prettier in person than it was in the washed out photograph DC Direct used in the previews.

There was also a Supergirl action figure rendered in the style of Alex Ross's "Justice" series. One of my favorite things from that series was Ross's choice of which Supergirl costume to use. It's my favorite of Kara's costumes over the years and the action figure looks hot.

Leaving DC Direct for a moment but staying with Superman and Supergirl, TONNERDirect had displays of several of their licensed DCU character dolls which included Superman, Supergirl, and Krypto the Superdog. In fact, I bought a Krypto recently online and he's a great display piece -- though I was slightly bummed when Tonner handed me a 10% off coupon at the booth that I could've used to get Krypto had I waited for the show. Sigh. While they had a Lois Lane advertised on their website, the TONNER reps at the convention told me Lois sold out faster than a speeding bullet so there was no display.

There were quite a few other items on display that weren't necessarily directly related to Supes but had enough of a connection that I thought you would enjoy photos. The coming bust of Mary Marvel is lovely. The upcoming JSA action figures -- especially Starman -- are stunningly detailed.

This was the first time in as many years as I've been attending Wizard World Chicago that Noel Neill didn't attend the convention. In past years, as if to overemphasize how slight she is, she's usually placed next to Lou Ferrigno. Ferrigno did attend this year. Neill sadly skipped out and I missed seeing her. But her absence was quite understandable as she'd just spent the weekend before at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, the city further from Chicago than any other city in Illinois.

Not actively playing panel-attending reporter at the convention gave me a rare opportunity to play consumer. I picked up the Wizard World Chicago exclusive Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman glass tumbler which the Superman Homepage showed in a related news item a few days ago. The exclusive to Chicago's Wizard World tumbler is but the start of a series of DC tumblers being made by PopFun in collaboration with Warner Brothers consumer products. If the Wizard exclusive is any indication, these glasses are about the same size (slightly smaller) and the glass as thick as the tumbler sized heavy glasses of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Batgirl sold about a decade ago at the old still-missed Warner Brothers Studio Stores.

I also considered picking up -- and in fact it's possible that perhaps I would indeed decide to have done so though who'd ever acknowledge such a thing in such a public forum -- some DVDs of shows not available on DVD in America. Quite frankly, if I or anyone else did decide to buy such unauthorized DVDs, DC and Warners are the only ones to blame because it is legal issues -- not marketing issues -- that are keeping these particular sets from happening. I'm of course talking about the live-action "Batman" TV show and the Filmation Superboy cartoons that ran on CBS in the late 1960s.

The reason we haven't seen the "Batman" series released on DVD is because Fox owns the episodes of the series while Warners obviously owns the characters. Neither company can come to any agreement on how to split the profits. Warners and Fox are both being childish and short-sighted. Something in royalties is certainly better than nothing in royalties, isn't it?

I also considered picking up "Superboy" because I've quite frankly grown tired of waiting on this ridiculous never-ending Superman/Superboy lawsuit that Warners should have settled with the heirs of Jerry Siegel years ago. Again I see this as another case where Warners' short-sighted greed is allowing a legal issue to interfere with the market. Copyright law is about protecting creators' rights in the marketplace -- it is not about keeping items out of the marketplace. It is meant to facilitate commerce and, in these two cases, Warners is using the law to do just the opposite. OK, someone give me a hand jumping off this soapox.

Finally, on our way out of the convention, we ran into Godzilla and I just had to have my picture taken with old radioactive breath. Here lizard, lizard, lizard. And my friend Anthony needed a picture of some magician guy who apparently works for the competition at Marvel.

Interestingly, Anthony and I had a rather detailed conversation about Michael Turner at the convention -- including about his public fight with cancer -- so I was sad and surprised to read that, later that very night, Turner passed away. I respectfully dedicate this report to his memory.

Barry

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June 30, 2008: Wizard World Chicago Report

2008 Comic News

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