A several part series of the Saturday of 2009's Wizard World Philadelphia comicon.

Phillygirl and I arrived just after 9 to the Philly convention center, on a rainy morning. We got to wait outside the building but protected from rain until the doors opened at 10 AM. New this year: wristbands instead of badges. Thought it was cheapness, but hear it's because of bootleg badges past years.

First entering, I noticed the lack of the big Marvel and DC Booths. No free pins, posters, and signing schedules. I usually spend a lot of time checking the DC booth and meeting artists/writers, so that was a big change for me.

However, we were looking at the World War Z books and there was Max Brooks! I asked about 5 questions and he was chewing...but turned out to be so smart, funny and nice. When I said that as a librarian, I'd be useless after the zombie invasion, he said "we have a military to protect people like you!". He said the Zombie Survival Guide comic should be out this October.

We went to the 5-6 PM "Writing the Undead" panel with Max, Fred Van Lente, and John Russo I'll discuss later.

One other great thing about not having a mass of crowds is you get more facetime with bigger names. We met J.G. Jones (52 cover artist). He said he's writing and drawing a graphic novel...and he signed my two Batwoman 52 covers. He did say he had "moved on" from the canned All Star Batgirl project. boo. But nice guy all around.