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You cannot say that indicted former Illinois governor Rod Bagojevich is not a smart and pragmatic man.

Although recently convicted on a single count of federal corruption, Blago, as he is known to fans, had a mistrial on 23 others, so he’s still out and about. And what does a pol do while out on bail to feed the family?

He takes it to the people, and makes a little spending money by signing autographs at Wizard World Chicago/Chicago Comic-Con. Blago is well aware that cashing in on celebrity is the best followup to a political fall, and while thwarted in his attempt to appear on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me out of Here!, has been a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice. So he’s gone where all reality stars go.

Blagojevich will appear at a photo session at 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and then sign autographs from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

“I’m looking forward to meeting loyal supporters and other fans on Saturday,” said Blagojevich, whose many recent television appearances included a stint on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“Wizard World Chicago Comic Con is all about pop culture, and Rod Blagojevich is as relevant to today’s news as it gets,” said Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard Entertainment. “We think the court of public opinion will show him to be a popular figure at the show.”

20 COMMENTS

  1. $80.00/photo & $50.00/autograph might cause Rod to have a very lonely day, since CREATION & Froggy will be taking significant coin from the kids for all the other “stars” appearing. We’ll probably see Wizard’s Chicago-Con reduced to a few banquet rooms back at the old Ramada (Now Holiday Inn) on Mannheim Road in a year or two, if they don’t collapse sooner. I think Patrick Stewart’s spidey senses started tingling a couple weeks ago & told him to back out of this “Event”!

  2. “I’ve got this felony conviction thing and it’s fucking golden, and I’m just not giving it up for fucking nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”

  3. I see a golden opportunity for Bluewater here, to start a new line of flattering bio-comics featuring disgraced politicians.

    Except that Blagojevich will want to be paid up-front.

  4. Rod got booed big time. It was rather amusing.

    Also fun: trying to get a Stormtrooper to pose with somebody from the Nation of Islam while we were waiting in line to pay our parking.

    At what point do we stop calling Chicago Comic Con a comic book convention? The swap meet was in full force, but participation from the actual publishers and professionals was depressingly minimal. Maybe there was more going on in the panels, but the Rosemont Con always does a terrible job conveying the panel schedule.

    I don’t want to cheerlead for the death of Wizard’s Chicago Convention, but something needs to change. What we got this year was a sad, sad experience. It’s nothing like it was 10 years ago.

  5. I suspect he didn’t walk up and get a table last week. In order to have a table / booth / appearance he (or his staff) would have need to meet the required deadline for application. Thus, this may have been in the works for months in advance.

    Or… perhaps he did pull some strings, but I’d think due to current events that he would’ve ducked the appearance. Perhaps attending was a way of saying he’s doing okay to his supporters, because if he ditched his appearance it might create more bad news (not that I think Chicago-Con is newsworthy, but someone could’ve contacted the media, who knows).

    Does anyone have pictures?

  6. It was quite amusing and I couldn’t resist getting a photo of myself with Blago. I felt like the cop who had his picture taken with Dillinger. I didn’t see anyone actually pay for a picture (I sure as hell didn’t) or autograph as we worked the crowd.

  7. A big F U to Wizard World Chicago. Not that I needed another reason never to attend one of these pathetic Wizard shows, but they gave me one anyway.

    I can just picture the field day the local news in Chicago must have had with this. Ugh.

  8. Jimmie: Apparently Blago says representatives of Wizard approached him about appearing there last week. He thought on in for a few days before deciding it was “worth it” for him to attend.

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