C2E2 - Chicago Comic book and Entertainment Expo
As Im gearing up for my Disney trip I thought Id work on my Trip Report writing.
This Saturday my DF Steve and I decided to check out the Chicago Comic Book and Entertainment Expo also known as C2E2. Its been a little more than a month since my surgery so I figured it was time to get back out into the world. We bought our tickets ahead the night before to save time standing in a registration line. I had planned on being out the door by 9:00am since doors opened at 10 and we had about a 45 minute drive to McCormick Place in downtown Chicago.
Well nothing ever goes according to plan does it? I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ive been having a flair from the stress surgery put on my body. I woke up and felt pain in almost every joint in my body.
Normally I wouldnt even think twice about walking around a convention center for 8 hours in this kind of pain, but Id just spent $30 on my ticket and I wasn't about the let that go to waste. Plus I was super excited. I took a shower hoping the hot water will ease some of the pain and terrible stiffness in my joints. Afterwards, the stiffness eased up but I was still in a lot of pain so I take some pain killers, an anti-inflammatory and hit the road.
Steve and I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for the coffee and donuts and decide to eat in the car on the way down. Steve learned the hard way that eating a Bavarian Cream covered in powdered sugar is no easy task when driving.
His pants a shirt we're covered in powered sugar.
We pull into the parking garage at around 10:30 and find an awesome spot right in front of the elevators. SCORE! Good parking mojo.
Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper
We see other nerdy type looking people and decide to follow them. Trust me we can spot our own from a mile away.
We make it to the entrance hall and are directed the correct way to collect our badges. The line was not long at all. We only waited for 10 minutes tops. We are no strangers to the convention scene as we go to Anime Central in Rosemont, IL every year but this is out first Comicbook Con. Normally, if we havent bought our badge ahead of time, we get to the convention center an hour before registration starts and usually end up in line for another 45 minutes to an hour. I saw some really great costumes as soon as we got there. I love Cosplay and this convention did not disappoint.
Monarch Henchman from Venture Bros.
We had some time to kill before the first panel at 1pm we wanted to see, so we decided to mozy around the exhibit hall. Marvel Comics of course had a HUGE booth, as did Vertigo comics. Ive fallen in love with their Fables series which is about all the classic fairytale characters living in todays society. It is a mature comic and it is not for childrens eye despite what seems like a child friendly subject matter. Its an excellent comic book series by Bill Willingham and highly recommend it. Another really big booth in the exhibit hall was Ugly Dolls. Love Those Ugly Dolls but have resisted the urge to spend money on them.
More Stormtroopers and a Tuskian Raider
Steve and I snaked in and out of the rows of booth after booth trying not to blow my entire pay check. One of the first booth I came around that really got me excited was the International Quidditch Association. Yes, Quidditch, the same game that wizards play in the Harry Potter book series. Colleges all over the world adapted the game for Muggles and have a league and even hold a World Cup. The craze started sadly after I already graduated from college and could not jump on the bandwagon. I picked up a t-shirt to support the league and checked out the broom and Quidditch balls they had on display. Later on in the day at 2pm they were having a demostration match, which was one of the many reasons I came to the Con this year.
Me with a giant Ugly Doll
Me with an adorable Ninja. He gave me a high five as I was walking away. NINJA FIVE!
Another booth I came across sold paintings, original sketches, production cells, and litographs of not only comic art but other animation as well. They had a lot of really neat Disney stuff at this booth. Mostly everything was in the hundreds of dollars range. They did have a box of Disney Lithographs for $10 but didnt find anything I liked. I also found a box a Animation cells with the original backgrounds from the X-men cartoon series. These ranged from $200 to $350. Next to it was also Disney animation cells and character sketches signed by the artist in the same price range. I would love to collect this kind of stuff however as I learned, Its a tad out of my price range expensive.
Soon a Q&A panel with actors from the television series The Walking Dead was about to start so we made our way over to that. The actors Jon Bernthal, who plays Shane, and Laurie Holden, who plays Amy, we there. The panel was really great. The actors answered the audience memebers questions.
One girl came up to the mic had to be about 10 or 11 and she says You remember when you found the first zombie in the forest and he was eating a deer?
Jon Bernthal: Yes
Little Girl: That was gross right
Jon Bernthal: Yea that was really gross
Little Girl: I have another question, when you shot the zombie with the shot gun did you think more zombies were gonna come?
Then the actor went on to say how it probably wasnt a good idea that the character lets a shot off with the shot gun because that will just alert more zombies to where he and the other survivors are. But it reminded me of
this skit Chris Farley did on Saturday Night Live back in the early 90s.
We left the panel a few minutes early to see the one thing I was the most excited for: QUIDDITCH. On the first floor the International Quidditch Association was holding a demonstration match with the Illinois State University Red Birds again the Western Michigan University Wolverines. Heres some video I shot. I apologize for the fuzziness. I was trying to zoom in.
We only stayed for one match and its was really awesome. I really want to play Quidditch with my friends when it get warmer out. We did get to see the Seekers chasing the Snitch, which is actually a cross country runner dressed all in Gold and the Seekers have to grab a flag attached to him/her. The Snitch runs all over the campus (or in this case the convention center) and isnt limited to the confines of the field. We saw the Snitch running up the escalators with the Seekers close behind, as we made our way around.
After a rousing game of Quidditch, I really wanted to see a Q&A panel with some investigators from the television show Ghost Hunters on Syfy and the TAPS paranormal investigation team, with Steve Gonsalves. I love this show and I really enjoyed their stories of different investigations over the years. Once while investigating the Congress Theather here in Chicago, one of the investigators heard noises behind a door, instead of the sound coming from anything paranormal walked in on a homeless man doing drugs in a dark corner.
Steve from Ghost Hunters says ghosts never scare him but he's most afraid of spiders. These guys we're really funny. Even though Steve (my DF) didn't think he would like this panel he enjoyed himself.
Joker and Two-Face
I really wanted to find the TAPS booth, so we took another spin around the exhibit hall but could not locate it. Id walked alot that day and was getting very tired. We had seen basically everything we can to see and had a really great time, so we decided to call it a day. We had forgot a about our amazing parking space and was pleasantly surprise when we stepped off the elevator and the car was right in front of us.
I enjoyed it when Andre and I went. Mind you it was during the 'official opening' so the wait staff was still learning what to do. We almost accidentally received an extra appetizer and dessert while we were eating. I felt bad because it was the same guy both times and we were honest and told him 'No, that's not us'. When it happened the second time he was so apologetic but we thought it was cute and funny. I'm sure they've worked out those kinks but I really enjoyed my food there.
My mom and I came up with a great idea last night. 
Make sure you bring lots of tissues though, something tells me they may get teary eyed when they see you there and it clicks that you're getting married there. 
That's so sweet!! 
Have fun while you continue to make all these fun plans! 
