Back from Chicago with NEW PHOTOS!

I’m in the back seat of my Dad’s new Pontiac G6, 50 miles away from Des Moines, Iowa. It’s 6 p.m. We’re on our way back from the Chicago Comicon. Been in Chicago since Thursday night.

I’m so excited to see my family again. Every report from Adrianne was that Evey was getting better and better (she’s had a cold for a few days) and it sounds like they’re doing great. I miss both their cute faces.

While in Chicago, I pulled out a camera I haven’t used in a while. I plugged in the card and found some of the most gorgeous photos of Adrianne and Evey that I have taken so far. They’re included in this post.

It was so neat to find myself surprised by the presence of these photos… almost as if the two of them came up to Chicago to surprise me. It made me realize how much I missed them. And now, I’m only a few hours away from holding them both.

So, the Chicago Comicon. It was CRAZY. I called it a vacation, but in the back of my mind, I knew it was a working vacation. But then I got there and found out quickly that it was just WORK.

(Iowa is really beautiful, by the way.)

I contacted one of my freelance writing outlets, comicbookresources.com, about doing some work for them while I was in Chicago. Attend a couple panels, write up a few stories, email them in, offset some of the cost of the hotel room and sharpen the deadline writing chops a little.

Then Jonah (executive director of CBR) asked me if I was interested in doing more than just a few stories. He asked me if I’d like to lead the charge for CBR at Chicago. Turns out Jonah wasn’t going to be attending ChicagoCon at all, and needed someone there to lead the charge in attending panels, doing interviews, writing copy, directing freelancers, etc. So of course I took on the job. I called in four friends to assist me in getting stories and doing the reporter thing. And per Jonah’s request, I kept all the “big” stories with tight deadlines for myself. We submitted our first batch of material Thursday night. We’ve been almost non-stop since.

Each day I had three panels. The panels lasted an hour each. Immediately following the panel, I’d type up the all the key announcements, questions from the crowd, etc., and try to get them emailed in as fast as I could. Then I was grabbing flash drives from my crew in the meantime, giving their stories a quick read and submitting them as well.

All in all, I think we did a pretty darn good job. The guys are worn out… I think reporting stories was a little more involved then they originally thought. But also, they all proved to be really good writers. In fact, their stories were more often than not better than mine. I was on a tighter deadline, but still, I’m the one that’s been doing this for years. The newbies showed me some really good stuff.

22 miles to Des Moines.

The best panel I got in on was the “Dark Knight” panel. You had to acquire a wristband to gain entry, which was handed to me courtesy of my press pass. In attendance was Gary Oldman (“The Professional,” “Dracula”), Aaron Eckhart (“Thank You For Smoking,” “Erin Brokovich”) and Christian Bale (“Batman Begins,” “The Machinist”). You can read my story here.

OK, we’re pulling into Des Moines for an ice cream break. Marlan just learned that I saw Oldman in Chicago and they're freaking out about it. But hey, they rode the elevator up with Michael Madsen (“Reservoir Dogs”). That ain’t bad.