FAN EXPO Chicago 2024
Actor Phil Morris, comic book artist and writer Bill Morrison, and director and artist Kevin Altieri joined me via Zoom to discuss their upcoming appearances at FAN EXPO Chicago.
Those interviews are below.
Phil Morris is an actor. With over 200 credits spanning on screen and voice over work, you've probably seen (or heard) him in something.
He is probably best known for his role as attorney Jackie Chiles in Seinfeld.
To listen to the interview with Phil Morris, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Bill Morrison is a comic book artist and writer, best known for his work with Matt Groening's Bongo Comics.
But even if you're not a comic book reader, you've probably seen Bill's work, as he's also done some promotional and production art for Matt Groening's different TV series.
To listen to the interview with Bill Morrison, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Kevin Altieri is a director and artist in the field of animation.
He's probably best known for his work on Batman: The Animated Series.
To listen to the interview with Kevin Altieri, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Phil Morris, Bill Morrison, and Kevin Altieri are just a few of the guests spanning TV shows, movies, comic books, and more who will be appearing at FAN EXPO Chicago 2024.
FAN EXPO Chicago will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. from Friday, August 16 through Sunday, August 18, 2023.
Tickets and more information are available on FAN EXPO Chicago's website.
Mike Reflects
The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was called in the runup to last year's FAN EXPO Chicago.
In fact, when that strike was called, I was in the process of coordinating an interview with a guest ahead of that show, much like these interviews conducted ahead of this year's show.
With so much initial uncertainty surrounding the strike rules, it put that interview request I was in the middle of on the backburner.
Even when everything settled down (to the greatest extent that anything could settle down) in that situation, it completely changed my entire coverage plan, both ahead of the show and on the floor.
Ultimately, I decided the best way to move forward at that time was, for the duration of the strike, to steer clear of discussing work with anyone, even those whose work isn't impacted by the strike.
With that, I also cut any questions that I thought could potentially lead to a slip up, where someone inadvertently mentioned something on the record that they weren't supposed to be discussing.
So along with talk of any work they've done, my usual questions like “What's the most unique thing you've signed?” also went out the window, lest anyone reflexively answer with the name of a project.
At the show especially, but also ahead of time, it meant my interviews were a lot shorter and a lot more generic.
Overall, it went well, but it wasn't the coverage I wanted (or planned) to do.
This year, with none of those same pitfalls, I'm glad to be back to doing these interviews as I like to do them, and I'm excited to do the same at the show itself.