Comic fans of all ages visit Philadelphia for Wizard World ’07

It was a weekend filled with superheroesand celebrities, where sorcerers, magic andmayhem could be found, and imaginationsran wild.

Welcome to Wizard World ’07.This event is held only once a year in the

City of Brotherly Love. And, it invaded thePhiladelphia Convention Center during theweekend of June 15 to 17. The event, namedfor Wizard magazine, which focuses its cover-age on all things “geek,” is a weekend full ofcomics, art, collectibles and celebrities.

Wizard World is a special kind of conven-tion, one not aimed toward a specific crowd.Traditional comic book conventions attractmostly collectors and dealers who are lookingfor rare items, and “Star Trek” or “Star Wars”conventions bring fans of one space drama orthe other, but Wizard World offers more thansimilar conventions ever could.

At the event, comic creators and artistsjoined movie and TV stars in the “Artist Alley”and signing areas, while throughout the con-vention center, fans could scrounge throughthe thousands of comic bins and dealer tables,play card and board games, watch martial artsdemonstrations from the InternationalFighting League or even see light-saber bat-tles between members of the New York Jedi.

“I’ve been attending this event for aboutfive years now,” said award-winning cartoon-ist Brad Guigar. “Wizard World started as ageneral comic convention, and it has grownto this. It’s all good because the more peoplethey bring into to tent, the more books I cansell.”

Guigar, a Philadelphia native and graphicdesigner for the Philadelphia Daily News, wason hand to promote his comic strip “EvilInc.,” a comic about a corporation run bysupervillains. His strip appears daily in the“People Paper.”

Guigar also writes a weekly “Phables” fea-ture for the Daily News where he features sto-ries of the lives of Philadelphians. For“Phables,” Guigar recently won a “Best LocalColumn” award from the Philadelphia Societyof Professional Journalists, and this year thecolumn has been nominated for a Will Eisneraward for “Best Digital Comic.”

“I started doing a comic called ‘GreystoneInn,’ and it evolved into ‘Evil Inc.’ I was doingit on the side. The Daily News didn’t evenknow I was doing it,” he said. “Now, alongwith the day job [at the Philadelphia DailyNews], I work on it six days a week, but whoneeds sleep?”

For more information on Guigar’s work,visit his Web site at www.evil-comic.com.

Along with local artists like Guigar, celebri-ties like Hayden Panettiere of NBC’s TV show“Heroes” and Lou Ferrigno, who played TheHulk in a TV show named for the muscle-bound superhero, were also availablethroughout the weekend to meet fans.

But, in what might be the most noteworthyachievement of the event, fans dressed astheir favorite superheroes or villains wereapplauded for their costumes, and prizes wereawarded for the best getups. No one was leftout or ostracized. People weren’t poked fun atfor their devotion to the things they enjoy.

Instead, in this reporter’s experience, every-one at the show was very welcoming. I believethat, to many, having the ability to revelharmlessly in their own favorite fantasies,even if only for a few hours, is what makessomething like Wizard World so unique.

By Hayden Mitman

Trend Editor

Photos by Tyson Mitman/ Trend

Wizard World ’07

Above, at left, Lou Ferrigno, also known as The Hulk half of Bill Bixby’s David Banner character on the television series “The Incredible Hulk,” poses for a photo.Ferrigno was on hand to sign autographs for fans during Wizard World ’07, held June 15 to 17 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Above,at right, comic book and movie fans dress as their favorite characters during a comic-character costume contest held at Wizard World on June 16.

Above, at left, award-winning artist and creator of “Evil Inc.” Brad Guigar tells Trend editor Hayden Mitman about a recent banquet where Guigar receivedan award for a weekly feature that he does for the Philadelphia Daily News, entitled “Phables.” His column was awarded “Best Local Column” by thePhiladelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Above, at right, comic fans dressed as DC Comics’ Robin and the Green Lantern pose for photos duringWizard World’s comic character costume contest. Below, artist Eric Maruscak, of Pepper Art in New York, works on a chalk drawing of Marvel Comics’ SilverSurfer and the Fantastic Four that he drew on the convention center floor.

Photos by Hayden Mitman/ Trend