Chicago Comics

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 14, 2005 11:54AM

Is it just us or is the comic book world becoming more Chicago-centric?

We started noticing the trend back in March with the release of Countdown to Infinite Crisis, DC’s harbinger of things to come in their Infinite Crisis miniseries that launched this week.* Some of the events in that book took place in none other than Chicago and suburban Highland Park.

Then we got ahold of a preview copy of The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles at Wizard World back in August. The series will tell the story of Dorothy—whose forgotten all about Oz—and Alice—who thinks her mental images of Wonderland were all just daydreams. Both are now college roommates here in Chicago. We bet they both live in the superdorm on State St. and go to Columbia. At this point, we’re not sure if the damn thing is ever going to come out, but the cover, at left, had us hooked immediately (ahem). Check that Emerald City version of the Sears Tower in the background.

All of which has us amped up for Hack/Slash: Stagefright, the show at National Pastime Theatre based on the comic book of the same name from Devil’s Due Publishing here in the city. Just in time for Halloween, the show brings to life the story of Cassie Hack, who survives an attack by a slasher called The Lunch Lady and then travels around the country killing other slashers. The production promises everything you’d expect from a slasher film: sweet fight scenes, scantily clad coeds, and splattering blood. Lots of splattering blood. So much so that the first few rows of the theater are guaranteed to get the Gallagher treatment. The show runs on Fridays and Saturdays through October 29th. Tickets are $15 and $10 for students.

* On a side note, if you haven’t been following DC Comics lately, now’s a good time to get back into ‘em. Between the Identity Crisis series last year and the four short-run pre-Crisis series this year (Superman: possessed! The Justice League: disbanded! Batman: Memento’ed!), the writing has been top-notch across the board.