Friday, June 25, 2010

2010 Wizard World Philly Wrap Up





















With the Mucus Tick madness enveloping my life alongside 4 other projects, I bet you thought I forgot about our Wizard World Philly coverage? NEVERRR!! This years show went by like the wait for Iron Man 2. There's a level of anticipation leading up to it and then..poof..its done. I picked a Saturday visit this time around, learning my lesson from a depressingly vacant show last year when we hit it on a Friday. Half the guests hadn't even shown up yet when we walked those isles! Unfortunately, they pulled a switch on me this year and programmed toy events for Friday!! Going Saturday meant none of that was there and I'd even missed the one figure left behind by our buds at Mattel. FAIL. Ah well. At least Shocker Toys showed up with plasticy goodness for me to drool over and the promise of a Barry Tick action figure to come. Regardless, we had a hall filled to the brim with people in costume (for better or for worse), famed comic artists selling prints and sketching away, miles of comic long boxes, giant walls of action figures and celebs signing autographs every 10 feet. The dealers have adopted Mattel as their star player this year and filled their booths with Justice League Unlimited single, tripple and 6 packs as well as DC Universe Classics both on card and loose. Every booth seemed to also carry at least 3 Masters of the Universe Classics figures. There were a few Marvel Universe figures scattered here and there, but they were the newest waves only and the stray SDCC exclusive left over. It's clear who the scalpers are watching.


























My mission at these shows, beyond taking lots of pictures, is to fill holes in my collections and score a new print or two from my favorite comic artists. I came up empty in my search for a JLU Silver Banshee or Deadman 6 packs and wasn't happy with the He-Man prices, so I scored an Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies cover artist) print of a little boy Wolverine, post dirty deed and resigned to watch Lori stalk the comic dealers for her prey. I'm forced to watch this from a distance as Lori gets INTENSE when she's on the hunt, so we stay clear of her tribal ways and cheered as she returned with a killer deal on X-Men #4!! The score was so impressive, we caught the attention of the amazing artist Greg Horn who compared shopping lists with our girl; his taped into a Disney Princess notebook while Lori's charted with meticulous care including pie charts and price fluctuation graphs. I told you she's intense.

























We decided to head out in search of lunch when Cherie, who is whiter than hospital sheets, was mistaken for a vampire and attacked by dual Blades. She is well versed in drunken Kung Fu, so she dispatched the Wesley Snipes stunt doubles with relative ease. Word of her beat down spread quickly and as we made a B line for Quick Check, our path was barred by War Machine and Black Widow who, in a show of Marvel Solidarity, shot Cherie and Lori dead. Though slightly deterred by gaping bullet holes, we still managed to grab sandwiches and the ladies ate well as they bled to death. You can't keep a good geek down, and our ladies were back on the floor within a half hour, now disembodied but looking for more fun among the costumed comic fans. We made the mistake of swinging by the Philly Ghostbusters table, not even thinking that they might be startled by the drippy ectoplasm Lori and Cherie were trailing behind them. Lori faked out the troop by flashing her X-Men #4 and high tailing it for the Bruce Campbell signing line, but even Cherie's ghostly long legs couldn't earn her a pass. The Philly GB let loose with their proton packs and within minutes, she was sucked up in a trap and shoved into a duffel bag with 25 cent copies of Heroes Reborn and a jumbo bag of peanut MnM's.






















We are still negotiating her release.




























Thanks to Lori and Cherie for hijinks with costumed peoples and dying with dignity. Special thanks to Eileen Cleary for additional photography. Biggest thanks to the Wizard World staff for access and an extremely fun day, even with the homicide.

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