First ever Fan Fest Chicago hit the streets this weekend in Rosemont, IL and didn’t disappoint! Smaller event than the regular Wizard World Chicago but jammed packed with vendors, artists, writers and celebs – everything you would expect of a regular W2 convention – sans Bruce Campbell. No worries, we know he’s busy filming and give him a buy on this one! The convention was a great salute and so many people came to see the cosplay – but we all know they mainly showed for the comics, celebs and artists.
Plenty of cosplayers flaunted their best costumes and horror cosplays were pretty intense, especially with Disturbia posted up in the back – scare fest!!! Good costume representation from Marvel, DC and Anime – even had an Agent Carter present. Arghh, no steampunk costumes sighted… Many artists were on hand to talk art business, comics and the evolution of the comics to what they are today.
Artists of Interest:
Linda Lessmann Reinhold and husband Bill Reinhold. Linda (an incredible female role model in the comic universe) worked at Marvel as a colorist with Spider-man, Fantastic 4, Daredevil, Man-Thing – among others. She also worked at First Comics coloring American Flagg, Grimjack, The Badger and Corum. She and Bill then came back to Marvel after First Comics, to color such classics as The Punisher, Barbie, and Silver Surfer. Bill is working on many other diverse projects right now as well – SO amazing and dynamic!
Renee Witterstaetter is a writer, editor, publisher, colorist of The Avengers,, Spiderman, Captain America, among many. She also worked at DC on Superman and Silver Surfer and Conan The Barbarian. She worked music videos for Madonna, Seal, Ben Harper and Usher, as well as the feature movies “Rush Hour Two,” “Red Dragon ,” among others. She collaborates with many artists and currently is shown with renown artist Michael Golden, a frequent project collaborator with her.
The Zombie King was present! Award winning artist Arthur Suydam is a comics creator, writer and artist who worked at Marvel with zombies, Deadpool, Batman and Army of Darkness. Suydam was recently honored with: the Spike TV Scream Award, (best writer, best artist, best comic of the year). Cool dude!
Other interesting artists on site were world famous Neal Adams, ‘Albert the Alien’ Trevor Mueller, Gabriel Bautista, and Buzz! They were all friendly and eager to discuss art, drawing, color palettes and the most important thing that is near and dear to us – comics! This group of artist at Fan Fest Chicago made the convention and trip worth while! Another great success Wizard World! Can’t wait til August when the largest and best comicon in the midwest area happens – Wizard World Chicago!
Nice! Love the cosplays. Aside from Neal Adams, I wasn’t familiar with any of the other artists by name…but you just made me a new fan of several. This article allowed me to experience the hallways of the Fan Fest via your photos. Looks like folks had fun.