There seemed to be something missing from this year's Wizard World Chicago, held at the Rosemont Convention Center, August 9-12. It wasn't the audience: there was a healthy crowd each day, with long lines to get into the more popular panels, and they were spending freely. But the show lacked the sense some other conventions have that lots of important things are happening or at least being announced or premiered. This year's show was a mere two weeks after Comic-con International in San Diego, and its (significantly more male) constituency is far more interested in periodical superhero comics than anything else. So the big announcements weren't so much grand publishing plans or new initiatives as little tweaks, like Alex Ross's unnamed Captain America project, the Ultimates team of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch reuniting on Fantastic Four, and three new superhero-based titles in DC's Johnny DC line for younger readers: Art Baltazar's Tiny Titans, the Sholly Fisch-written Super Friends and Mike Kunkel's Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!
The bulk of the show floor was dealer booths, many attempting to blow out back issues from the past 15 years' worth of boom-and-bust cycles in the direct market: $1 apiece, two for $1, three for $1. Quite a few booths had a wide selection of new and older trade paperback comics collections, almost always at a discount, but the dealers that only discounted them 20% weren't seeing much action; the discounts that drew the most shoppers were 35% and up. Several booths featured paperbacks (mostly Marvel books from the last few years) for 50% off or even more; certain titles—like the first two volumes of Ultimate Spider-Man and the controversially discounted Cowboys and Aliens—could be picked up anywhere for a song.
What the show's attendees were most excited about by far wasn't a publishing project at all: it was a sneak preview of the Batman movie-in-progress, The Dark Knight. (DC also announced an untitled direct-to-video anime-style project that will be released alongside The Dark Knight). There were pavilions for Sony PlayStation and Mattel, and a sizable Artists' Alley area at the back of the room. Aside from Top Shelf's booth, though, there was practically no art-comics presence and only the faintest suggestion of manga. Other than DC and Marvel, not many publishers had more than a small booth at this year's show, and those who were there mostly looked like they were still recuperating from Comic-con. After a few years of languishing in the bigger convention's shadow, next year's Chicago show has been moved up to June 26-29, four weeks before Comic-con; it should be interesting to see if publishers start making more big announcements in the Windy City.
