Who Knows WHAT You'll Find at Wizard World Chicago?



$100 of fun from a cool booth at Wizard World Chicago

Only one of the delights of Wizard World Chicago is its ongoing tradition as a great place to pick up an incredible variety of pop-culture items at bargain prices. Following preview night, I pause to evaluate a stack of miscellany at can't-pass-em-up rates and a small pile of cool paperbacks. And the point is that I didn't attend the show in order to buy these specific books and comics; I came with the attitude of "hey, let's see what I find." And, as a result, found Stuff! For example, that Essential Hulk was in a 3 for $10 box - and will be passed on to someone deserving (perhaps to a child of my acquaintance; it could end up as an incredibly cool coloring book). I think the three pulps were at that same price. I probably don't need those specific pulps, but at that price, what the heck? And I'll hit that booth several times more before the end of the show - because I'm sure I missed things. (At these prices, for example, I may invoke my role as a grandmother to provide reading choices for young 'uns.)

$40 in neat paperbacks

As to the cool paperbacks, I'd had no idea that Roy Huggins was a novelist - and the one I bought is turning out to be fun. (Huggins, of course, went on to a career in Hollywood, writing and producing some of my favorite entertainment, from Maverick to Rockford Files.) And another is a book by another pop-culture creator, Marion Hargrove; a check of my files [once I got back to the hotel room] revealed that I do have a hardcover of the paperback I bought last night - but with no dj, and the pb cover is charming. Hey, a Mark Gatiss Doctor Who novel I don't have! And the pb of a minor Thorne Smith novel looked to be in great shape, yadda, yadda. I can hardly wait to get back to the show this morning.