By Zena Metal

Though most hardcore comic fans focused on Heroes Con this past weekend, the noticeably stripped-down Wizard World Philly convention still set the stage for some exciting previews, a little bit of unexpected drama and, since I was involved — some good, silly fun.

Going into WWP, I knew I was on a mission. There were promises to help out the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, I was asked to cover a few panels for another site, and almost immediately after I arrived on Saturday afternoon, me dear friends (and consiglieri of comics) Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner asked me to watch their booth while they partook in their own panel event.

“Here, have a cheesesteak,” said Jimmy, handing me a warm, salty-smelling small missile. Huh? Apparently, Jimmy mentioned in his Newsarama blog that he’d give a “free crappy sketch” to anyone who brought him the classic Philly munch-out food. The result? No less than 10 free heroes. While I thanked him for it, I knew I wouldn’t be wasting my calories on it when the delights of the Reading Terminal Market were mere feet away from the convention center.

Several Neil Gaiman-related items are currently up for bids on eBay, with the proceeds going to the CBLDF charity.

The image at right is of two unrelated comic book characters together — Hellboy, drawn by Mike Mignola, and Sandman, drawn by Neil Gaiman. The drawing will be up on eBay for the next 20 hours or so.

Another charity item on eBay ending in less than a day is a sketch by Fables artist Mark Buckingham of Gaiman playing drums (and the author points out that while he does play instruments, drums is not one of them).