Well, here we are in Chicago, Illinois, home of great food, bad sports teams, and dead people who somehow still vote. It is the third annual C2E2 convention from Reed, held on the shores of Lake Michigan at McCormick Place. Unlike Wizard World in Rosemont, there's no tolls to get here and the bathrooms are generally cleaner. However, my car won't go faster than 96 MPH, so I had to stay out of the passing lane (thank you, I'll be here all week!). I went in with a wallet of twenties, comic books to sign, my netbook and my tablet (yeah, I dual wield). Want a worm's eye view of the con? Jump down here in the trenches, and I'll tell you all about it....
They seem to have found the right way to reach people. Lots of people in the Artist Alley made table, and several booths made back their costs. Some people were complaining that no one was buying their stuff, but it seemed like, if you had stuff that appealed to the demographic Reed targeted, you practically
ZIGGY SAYS THERE'S A 99% CHANCE THE ARTIST IS ON THIS SIDE OF THE ROOM -- The C2E2 app is actually quite nice, although there is something about it that would make it better.
The convention program and web site lists where the individual artists will be in Artist Alley, but the app doesn't (and the app auto updates every time you start it up). You tap the artist on the app, you get a bio, but no information where they will be on the AA grid. Just saying it would be nice, especially in the event that the artist has to switch locations for some reason.
THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE HASN'T GOTTEN HERE YET -- Can someone explain to me why we can get 14Kbps from Mars but I can't get a handshake from the convention floor?!?
YOU BRING DA NOISE, I'LL BRING DA FUNK – This year, instead of the Rock Band stage (I guess those Venture Brothers
I also noticed that there wasn't a stage set up in the main attendee congregation area for filkers and geek-centric comedy troops to play. Just noticing.
OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD...WELL, MAYBE NOT – Joe McPhee is a great guy who runs Chicago-based Xigency Studios, a small indie studio trying to keep on keeping on in the increasingly constrictive comic book world. While talking with him, I asked if his group was going to be at Wizard World Chicago, and he said he wasn't sure.
No small presser sells that much during a convention. And ask anyone who has ever had a table next to a major draw. Lots of foot traffic, but everyone pretty much ignores you in favor of the person they are there to see, so it actually hurts your sales.
MAKING AN APPOINTMENT TO SEE THE DOCTOR – The first year of C2E2, there was a Doctor Who panel that showed not only the first Matt Smith episode (running later than night on BBC America), but the second episode before it even ran in the UK. The hall was jampacked and enthusiastic. But for some reason, C2E2 hasn't done anything Who-centric since. Given that Chicago is one of the hotbeds of Who fandom, and probably the biggest in the US, you'd think it would be a no-brainer. Unless that first year ruined that thought forever.
For a while, you had people trying different things with the cosplay such as the Summer Fun Stormtrooper that pops up once in a while. Now, the pendulum is swinging the other way with a significant number of costumes that are barely costumes.
Now, this does not apply to some costumes where all you need to do is rummage in your closet and you can produce something (blue jean shorts, red suspenders, yellow T-shirt == Misty from Pokemon, appearing as House M.D. like one guy did). A couple of guys ran the floor in normal clothes but with boxes on their heads. The boxes were styled like the robot dancer from LMAO's “Party Rock Athem” video. One woman was undercover Black Widow from Iron Man 2 – if you didn't notice her clipboard said, “Stark Enterprises,” you would have just thought she was sharply dressed. Another woman had sort of a Witchblade costume – arm and face coverings of aluminum foil, but wearing a silver club
Quite a few costumes anthropomorphized. There were at least three people cosplaying as the TARDIS, not wearing a police box, but wearing blue clothing with a light on top of their heads. Daleks, My Little Ponies, quite a bit of this.
I like getting the unusual pictures of cosplayers. I got an Ambush Bug, the Drizzle and Mr. Mister, Sho 'Nuff from Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon, and Linguini from Rattatouie.
DRAWING INSPIRATION – One of the things being talked about on the Internet was the Gary Friedrich ruling and if it would put a freeze on convention sketches for fear of some publisher putting the screws to the artists. This is not an unreasonable fear – a couple of years ago at Wizard World Chicago, an artist set up his table with a ton of sketch cards. Within an hour, convention security informed him that the rights holders were saying he couldn't sell them and he had to take them down, basically killing his chances of making table that weekend (that's one I know of, I suspect it happens a bit more often than that). This would effectively be the first major con since the ruling, so what would happen?
Conclusion? Pretty much business as usual.
ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE – The convention area didn't take up the entire floor, there was plenty of room curtained off.
Getting around the outer perimeter on Saturday, it was jam packed, probably the worst I've seen since the last time I tried navigating the aisles at ACen. People couldn't really move. It's the first time I've seen Chicago pedestrians move slower than rush hour traffic. It wasn't helped by the occasional cosplayer getting their picture taken, and the position of them and the photographer completely blocked the aisle (please take that to a more open area). Plenty of people at the con with crutches or wheelchairs, and I couldn't imagine them ever getting through (and, in fact, saw a couple of them having to hold still for people blocking them). After about five minutes and only making it down one intersection, I was ready to start throwing elbows. Other aisles were far
In the interest of being fair, Reed did put a wide open space between down the middle of the Artist Alley area. It was the easiest place to score cosplay pics. Although a couple did say they usually had better luck getting their pictures taken if they were with other cosplayers, not a lot of solo action. I kept expecting to hear people calling out, “LOOKING FOR GROUP!”
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY – Several libraries and literacy groups were there to drum up support, and they came up with
LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING – One of the things I was aiming for was to get as many signatures as possible on my first twelve issues of Power Girl. I already had Amanda Conner sign the first ten with variants and Adam Hughes sign his covers. Paul Mounts and Jimmy Palmiotti were going to be there, and I wanted to get them done.
Mounts looked in surprise as I pulled the books out of their bag and boards. On the upper right corner of the bag, I will put a little 2X4 label that has any pertinent information about the book (title, which series, printing, publisher, synopsis, anything else special like signed or first appearances or whatever). Apparently, I'm the only person who does this.
From a company that lets Keith Giffen write the Justice League?
He shrugged at that.
I firmly believe that, had the editor been female, she would have read the book, and not only have instantly approved the book, but would have been calling people saying, “You want to revisit some bad memories?”
GIVE THE PUBLIC WHAT THEY WANT – For the last couple of years, I have been recruiting people to write CBS and request a bobblehead of DeNozzo from NCIS (that way, when you smack it in the back of the head....).
A seller there had an Abby bobblehead.
Okay, time to refocus efforts.....
COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS – Comic writer Russell Lissau was there for Reading With Pictures, a group working to expand awareness of comics and graphic novels among parents, schools, and libraries. Lissau was at Wizard World Chicago last year just as APE's miniseries Strawberry Shortcake (the first issue had a scartch and sniff cover) was starting. Lissau was there with his
There's another Strawberry Shortcake mini coming later this year. Lissau said the origin of how he got into it was interesting. APE contacted him about writing, but Lissau not only had no ideas, he was pretty much through with Strawberry Shortcake. So he asked his daughter, “They want me to write more, I have no ideas, can you come up with a story?”
His daughter immediately starting coming up with an idea where Strawberry loses her recipe book and needs her friends help to run the shop. And they could also include recipes for snacks in the issue as well. And she started coming up with how the plot would go.
I said, This sounds like the female version of Axe Cop.
His daughter pegged it. APE was thinking about including recipes in the books as well, and they loved the whole thing, and Lissau and his daughter are working on it again. Awwwwww....
A QUICK MESSAGE TO THE MAKERS OF 5 HOUR ENERGY – It was very nice of you to offer me free bottles of your product. But after all that walking this weekend, I'd rather have aspirin instead of caffiene.
AND SPEAKING OF CAFFIENATED DRINKS – Right outside the convention hall was a Starbucks. On Saturday night, I figured I needed a little pick me up and went to get an iced chai latte.
2) They ran out of supplies, leaving only coffee and tea drinks and nothing else.
DIVERSITY IS KEY -- Joe Robinson Currie, the longtime head of Strictly Underground, was there, splitting his time between helping his buddies at Xigency and helping his buddies at Pyroglyphic. Currie and I have known each other since about 1997 (I think, I'm not sure). We talked about how his miniseries, Prodigy, is going to finish and the start of his new series Punx Of Rage. Both issues will be available at Wizard World Chicago, and I told him I couldn't wait to pick them up.
JUST BUY THE FILKIN' THING – One of the things I was looking forward to was stopping by the Panels On Pages booth and grabbing a copy of the album Wiztory – Rock To Reinstate Gareb Shamus As The One True CEO Of Wizard Entertainment. I knew the proceeds from the sale were no longer going to Hero Initiative, and wanted to see who was getting the support.
I get there and ask about the album. They show me a bunch of burned discs. Turns out the album had been available as a free download on the POP site all this time and the requested donation was $5 for the CBLDF, one of my favorites. They gave me a disc and a large print of the “album cover”, with the understanding that I, on my honor, had to stop by the CBLDF booth and give them a fiver. I made a beeline for it, and got a button from them, which I returned to the POP booth with and showed them to validate their faith in me.
THIS IS IT! THE CROSSOVER YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! -- Yeah, Star Trek meets Doctor Who is nice. But when can I see Doctor Who meets Buckaroo Banzai? And what would Banzai's sonic screwdriver look like? I mean, you know he'd build one after seeing it.
And I'll let everyone know if I hear anything from First or Valiant, I promise.