As a Midwesterner, I have grown accustomed to cold weather over the last four decades of my life. Chicago is a perfectly lovely city but the cold here is different than a Detroit cold. It’s a cold that has a deep and personal hatred for outsiders who have the audacity to visit the city. I’m extremely curious why the convention organizers would choose to have a convention at the tail end of one of the coldest months of the year.
But that’s not what you’re here for! I have been to my first ever C2E2 and it could quite possibly be one of the best conventions in the Midwest.
When I attend comic cons over multiple days the first day is usually devoted to getting the lay of the land. Finding out where certain vendors are located, making mental notes of things to circle back and purchase later, stopping to have an $8 hotdog.
The first day of C2E2 was excellent. It was busy but not too crowded, all the other attendees were friendly and happy to be there, and I was always able to find a place to sit down when I needed to. There was a LOT of cosplay happening as well. I didn’t keep any kind of tally but I almost felt like attendees that didn’t dress up outnumbered by cosplayers.
Somehow I only managed to make one purchase for myself today. A friend had provided me with a laundry list of items to pick up for them so I treated it like a video game fetch quest and spent my first 15 minutes inside the convention center checking off the items needed. After that, I meandered over to Artists Alley to see what was up and managed to snag a book…with an autograph!
A couple of weeks back I reviewed the excellent Image book Tartarus by Johnnie Christmas and Jack T.Cole. It’s an amazing sci-fi story with incredible world-building and spectacular art. It’s a book that you definitely should not sleep on because it’s one of the more exciting sci-fi books I’ve read in a while. Christmas just so happened to be in attendance so I stopped by his table to snag a copy of the book and tell him how much I loved it.
That has to be one of the best parts of the con-going experience, getting to talk with creators who are out there making stuff people dig. Sure, social media has made the barrier between creator and fan almost nonexistent but getting a chance to tell someone you like what they’re doing IN PERSON…that’s pretty cool.
In the time it’s taken me to write this article I still haven’t completely warmed up. The Chicago weather is attempting to end me for having enjoyed the first day of C2E2 so much…and I’ll be doing it all over again tomorrow. Watch this space!
