I made it home from Wizard World Chicago in one piece.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been an issue, except for the fact that I did a 23-hour roadtrip to
get there. It went like this: Get up at 5am. Shower. Pack last minute essentials. Fill self
to brim with caffeinated beverages hot and cold. Pee. Get in car and drive 4 hours nonstop to
Chicago, only obeying the speed limit in Indiana where the cops are nazis and I’ve been ticketed
before. Arrive at Wizard World Chicago armed with 200 free copies of Vögelein #2, fliers,
stickers and posters. Give away hundreds of copies of the comic. Talk to every retailer that
carries Independent comics. Grovel before the feet of Terry Moore, Mark Crilley, Steve
Leiber, Ted Nafieh, Jill Thompson, and Mark Smylie, Chris Staros and James Kochalka . Snag freebie
comics from Paul Sizer. Try my
damndest not to drool like a knockneed schoolgirl over Carla Speed McNeil’s original art. Buy copy of, and last page of, Talisman TPB.
Go out to dinner via the eL with Pam
Bliss, Rachel Hartman,Speed and CatBoy,Layla Lawlor, and three other people
whose names I promptly forgot after being introduced — it was that kind of night . We were led
through the wilds of Chicago by the intrepid Tim Broderick,
who directed us to a faaabulous Thai restaurant. Get back in car at 11pm. Fill self to brim with
caffeinated beverages hot and cold. Pee. Drive like hell, ignoring Indiana speed limits. Arrive
in caffeinated stupor at 4am.

I had a great freaking time. Next year, however, a booth — and a hotel room — is positively in
order.

I really had no idea what a real comicon was like. I had nothing to compare it to — I’d only
been to the Detroit Shows before. Motor City ComicCon is … nice and all, but, well, it just
can’t compare to the kind of media orgy that WWC stages. Maybe I can even do SDCC next year.
Wahoo.