Nostalgia convention Chicago collectibles dealer Nancy Warner staged the area's first comic and collectibles convention on July 22–23, 1972, calling it '''Nostalgia '72, Chicago Comic Con'''. as well as dealers from as far as Los Angeles,
Atlanta, but that show was cancelled.
Chicago Comicon In 1975, Warner approached local comic book store owner Joe Sarno and his associate
Mike Gold to produce the show. Their job was to overcome Chicago's reputation of being a sub-par convention city. Early in the process, George Hagenauer and comics retailer Larry Charet artist
Mike Grell, and illustrator Tim Conrad. The show featured a comic auction benefiting Chicago's Alternative Schools Network (later auctions benefited the Literacy Volunteers of Chicago). The first Chicago Comicon attracted 2,100 attendees. In 1977, the Chicago Comicon moved back to the Pick-Congress Hotel, on 520 S. Michigan Avenue (the location of the 1973 show), where it remained until 1983. (The Pick-Congress was renamed the Americana-Congress Hotel in 1982.) The producers added Bob Weinberg to help coordinate the 1977 show. The 1985 program booklet celebrated
Marvel Comics' 25th anniversary, followed by the 1987 program celebrating Chicago-based
First Comics' 5th anniversary, 1988's booklet marking
Eclipse Comics' 10th anniversary, and the 1989 program noted
Kitchen Sink Press' 20th anniversary. The 1988 show featured the inaugural presentation of the
Harvey Awards. One-day admission for the 1988 comicon was $6. The 1992 Chicago Comicon celebrated the "spirits of
independence" which features the popularly selling group of creators behind
Image Comics.
Rob Liefeld held a 24-hour autograph session from Friday morning to Saturday morning. The 1992 show featured 200 dealers, and attendees were charged $10 per person or $25 for a three-day pass. it also hosted the
Comics Arts Conference. By 1995, the comics industry was in a slump, and attendance at the show was decreasing. while the main show organizer was Moondog Comics owner Gary Colabuono. The 1995 Comicon featured a Stan Lee
roast, and again hosted the Comics Arts Conference. In 1996, the Chicago Comicon became the new home of the
Wizard World Fan Awards, which were presented at the show every year until their discontinuation in 2006. By the 1997 show, attendance was topping out at 5,000; Wizard's first order of business was to fire the previous convention organizers. With the 1998 show —out renamed
Wizard World Chicago — attendance jumped to 25,000, The 1999 show featured 750 exhibitors. By 2006, Wizard World Chicago had expanded to four days and boasted a weekend attendance of over 58,000 people. The 2009 show attracted 70,000 attendees, The 2011 show charged $35 for a one-day pass and $60 for a four-day pass at the door. The 2020 show, scheduled for August 20–23, was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The next show was scheduled for June 24–27, 2021. The convention was postponed to October 2021 due to COVID-19.
Fan Expo Chicago Wizard Entertainment's conventions were sold to
Informa's Fan Expo unit in August 2021, and rebranded accordingly beginning in 2022.
Dates and locations ==Criticism and competition==