Date: April 26-28, 2013
Location: West Building, McCormick Place, Chicago, Il
Attendance: Not known at this time.
I took 143 Photos of pro's, cosplayers and other odds and ends.
I had gone to the first C2E2 back in 2010 and decided to go back with some friends to see how the convention has changed. The convention did move to the west building which was closer to public transportation. The audience did increase quite a bit, but I don't have any official numbers yet.
Within the audience there was a lot more cosplay going on and a surprising amount of it was superhero related. There was more space and multiple floors being used. Just outside of the showroom floor there was a DJ playing very loud music, which you could visibly see that not everybody was enjoying. Inside there was carpet on for the exhibitors but none for the artist alley or where people had to line up for autographs.
Due to the recent Boston bombing security was high but unobtrusive. There were signs on where to text if you saw something suspicious and many others reported bomb sniffing dogs were around the convention, but I did not not personally see them. The floor had enough space between aisles for people to move freely and even browse if they wanted to. There was a real mix of exhibitors there from publishers, comic dealers and other nerd items for sale.
I attended 3 panels on Friday. The first one was:
Integrating
Comics into the Common Core (48:57, 44.8mb)
Moderating the panel was Josh Elders who is involved with Reading with
Pictures.com On the panel was Carol Tilley from University of Illinois
and Jim McClain. Josh talked about Reading with Pictures and how it's
purpose is to make graphic novel text books that could be used in class.
He showed examples already done, one part by Roger Landridge of Muppets
fame. Jim McClain is a math teacher who often heard that GNs could teach
any subject except math. Challenge accepted he said. He produced a comic
book at his expense that had a team with math names and type powers and
they get into problems that require math to resolve. He was selling the
print edition at his booth, but a digital version is on Comixology. The
book is called Solution Squad. Carol Tilley talked about her role as a
teacher for Librarians trying to expand the use of Graphic Novels in
classrooms and libraries. Questions were asked and answered towards the
end of the panel. There was about 50 people in attendance.
My next panel was the Silver
Age Trivia Challenge! (45:51, 41.9mb)
Mr. Silver Age Craig Shutt moderates an Silver Age Trivia Challenge
between Mark Waid and 5 fans. The fans are:Mike Chary, Jason Fliegel,
Mike Sangiacomo, Jim Caldwell and Doug Tonks. The microphone is by the 5
fans so you can hear them deliberate their answers. A mix of Marvel and
DC questions were asked about a wide area of topics, from identifying
the villain by their first line if dialogue in a comic to whether a DC
story was true, imaginary, a dream or a hoax. Do you know who Sif's
brother is? Who is the first super villain Daredevil
fought? Who was the first DC Silver Age Superhero to debut in their own
ongoing title? Or What does Superman have to write on the blackboard
when he's called into court? The answers are revealed along with
other brain devouring bits of Silver Age comic trivia. This 'panel' was
held on the Variant Stage area of the convention. So there is some
background floor noise while the panel was going on.
The last panel from Friday was Digital
First Comics: The New Trend (56:57, 52.1mb)
On the panel are John D. Roberts co-founder of Comixology, writer Mark
Waid, artists Peter Krouse, James Tynnion IV, and Rilley Brown. They
talk about the new trend which is comics appearing digitally first, be
it for free or for sale, then in print if the creators want to. Waid
talked about seeing the print costs of monthly comics while working at
Boom! and deciding to sell his print collection and start up Thrillbent,
his online comics website. He and the artists talk about doing comics in
a landscape format and also using the web's
technology to change how they tell stories. Particularly they mentioned
horror comics can be done better as there are more chances to surprise
people. John D. Roberts talked about Comixology's new indy/self
publishers portal where people can submit their own comics to be
published on Comixology. They showed a number of books that are already
on available for purchase on their site now. Waid also announced that
Thrillbent is starting a kids comic section on his site, with the comics
being done by the Aw Yeah Comics group (Franco Aureliani,
Art Baltazar, and Marc Hammond). There was about 40 people in attendance
for the panel.
Between panels I did get a chance to walk the entire convention floor but not to stop and look at much. I did buy a a couple of books here and there. Friday night I took the shuttle bus back to my hotel and it was a good experience. I noticed they were giving away free DC comics on the shuttle.
Saturday:
I wasn't sure what to do with my morning as there wasn't any panels that jumped out as really interesting in the program. I ran into Heidi McDonald who told me she was going to be on a panel and I decided to follow her there and cover it.
The panel was Comix
Chix with Kate Kotler - LIVE (1:00:42, 55.5mb)
Moderated by Katie Kotler, on the panel was artist Amy Reader, Game
Developer Jen Aprahamian, editor & blogger Heidi McDonald, blogger Jill
Pantozzi, artist Jenny Frison, and actress & entrepreneur Ashley
Eckstein. The group first talked about getting into comics and
eventually the controversies involving women in comics particularly in
fandom and the way women are portrayed in comics and games. A point hit
on at the end was the lack information on the demographic of those
purchasing their comics. Those within the comic industry mentioned that
their editors have told them they don't know who is buying their comics
today, they only know what sold well recently. The audience also asked
questions as well. At the end of the panel a girl in the audience had
held up the program guide which had a drawing of a woman in a cleavage
showing outfit on the back cover. She had drawn a T-shirt on her with
marker, which everybody loved. There was about 45 people in the
audience.
I came in midway for Ghost Busters: Chicago division and was a bit surprised to find out the Ghost Busters cosplayers also into real world ghost hunting and detection technology. They had talked about certain buildings in Chicago that are said to be haunted due to a large number of people dying there.
Immediately after that panel was I
Have No Sewing Machine, but I Must Cosplay! (1:02:44, 57.4mb)
On the panel was Chris Troy (cosplayer), Meryle Idzerda and Lyndsey
Cepak (both costume makers). They had talked about not being ashamed
about buying or having a costume made for you. They said cosplaying is
about having fun and not to let other peoples opinions about the
"proper" way to cosplay get in the way of that. They gave lots of advise
on where to get costumes or parts of costumes, the pitfalls of buying
costumes and places where there are great do it yourself tutorials. They
also went into the types of materials to use that look
good, are light and easy to work with. Lyndsay also advised when
starting to cosplay to do something simple and progress from there (if you
want to). She told a horror story of trying to do a full Iron Man
costume saying how much time and money she spent on it and eventually
had to give up on it. The group also answered questions and gave tips to
the cosplayers in the audience. This panel should have been held in much
bigger room as the amount of people turned away was equal to the size of
those who filled up the room. Several people elected to stand or sit on
the floor in a corner for the whole panel.
My last panel on Saturday was The
CHEW Panel (1:00:58, 55.8mb)
John Layman and Rob Guillory started the panel by announcing the TV
deal is dead, knowing that's what everybody wants to know. He explained
what happened with it and why he thinks Chew won't be done as a Live
Action TV series. They spend the hour answering questions from the
audience and explaining what they plan on doing with Chew outside of
comics. John goes into how Chew started and the how he ended up hiring
Rob to draw it. John revealed when the series is going to end and at
least 1 character who will live to the end. The group talked about funny
comic industry in jokes that's within the series. Rob also talks a bit
about his history working in the comic industry prior to Chew. The two
also answered questions from the audience. This was held in a huge room
and it filled up with hundreds of people with most seats being taken.
I spent some time in the press lounge on Saturday and found it was nice, with actual computers set up for you to use, free chips and even a Cat5 cable for an internet connection hanging out. It was on the first floor off to the side, away from the noise of the convention which made it a peaceful place to work. I again took the shuttle bus back to my hotel, but I instead got off at the first stop, which was Graham Crackers Comic shop. I browsed around for a bit, asked the friendly counter employee instructions to get to a Carson's restaurant on Ontario street and made the walk up.
Sunday:
I got to the convention bright and early to get to the first panel.
Derf
Backderk on My Friend Dahmer (54:03, 49.4mb)
Derf Backderf talked about his Graphic Novel My Friend Dahmer. He
explained he was a friend and a fan of Dahmer in high school in the
1970s. He showed lots of pictures of Dahmer back then. He talked about
the strange antics that Dahmer in high school that was (then) funny to
him and his friends. He also talked about how the media, from the top to
the bottom of the respectability scale were leaving messages on his
answering machine and were parked outside his home and banging on his
door at 6AM to get an interview. Backderf talked also about the history
of the book and how he spent 20 years researching the book, from talking
to his old high school classmates to going back to his high school and
getting into Dahmer's old house. Derf answered questions from the
audience. The last bit of the panel got cut off due to space on the
recorder. The only thing I believe is missing is the last question and
answer about libraries and Graphic Novels, which Derf gives his love to
Libraries for their job in promoting comics and think they are a big
reason for the growth of the industry. This panel was so captivating I
forgot to count how many were in the audience and take a picture of Derf.
Immediately after the panel was Exorcising
the Spectore of the Fake Geek Girl: Discussing Geek Culture,
Gate-Keeping and Sexism (1:01:30, 56.3mb)
Sponsored by ChicagoNerds.com, Michi Trota, Dawn Xiana Moon,
Laura Koroski, Jen DollFace, Erin Tipton and Karlyn Meyer talk
about the supposed fake geek girl and why people are so focused on the
topic as of late. The group talks about "Gate Keeping", the process
where other geeks try to determine who can and can't call themselves a
geek. The group had asked the women in the audience how many had "geek
credentials" questioned and almost all of them raised their hands. They
also talked about it not just happening by men to women, but how other
women did it too (with one of the panelists admitting having done it in
the past). They also went into how really attractive people go through
this as well. This panel was also held in a room that was too small for
the amount of people that wanted to attend and like the cosplay panel
Saturday as many people were turned away as got into the room.
After this panel was over I spent the day browsing, occasionally buying books. I did talk to some in artists alley and found a lot of those in artists alley said it was their first time being at the convention, but most were happy with the show. 2 said the show was really good, 1 said it was better than last year, 1 said it was "awesome", 1 said he sold more books than he thought. The rest just said they were happy. One guest of the show mentioned that the con worked him pretty hard on Saturday but it was slower on Sunday.
I also talked to some back issue dealers and got the impression they did not have as good a show. Only 1 said they did a bit better than last year. 1 did not know how he did as he bought more space this year. Everybody else said they did about the same or worse. One dealer who was selling a mix of comics and original art said he did terrible and will not be back.
Friends of mine who were there to buy statues said dealers were not budging on prices. Some pricing the statues higher regular ebay going rates and directing them to buy the statue on ebay. This appears to be a common issue with this con. Chicago regulars are used to going to the Wizard World con held a much cheaper convention all about 45 minutes outside of Chicago where discounting and selling play a huge part of the convention. C2E2 is being held right in downtown Chicago and is in one of the nicest convention halls in North America. Table prices are much higher for the exhibitors and dealers aren't willing to discount quite so much, unless they are dumping TPBs. If local Chicago buyers don't like the prices, they can wait until Wizards show in the summer and possibly find a cheaper price for the item.
Among the positive things this convention has going for it was plenty of water jugs around. There were a variety of food vendors spread around the convention centre. They also created a kick ass iphone app for the convention which was extremely helpful to me in planning out what panels I wanted to attend and gave me a access to a handy map so I could find where the rooms are. I hope other conventions use it as a template and build one for themselves. Also awesome was the free wifi. It wasn't always available everywhere at the convention, but I found on the 4th floor in the panel rooms it was available and again in the first floor press room. The volunteers were also very friendly and helpful when I spoke to them. The convention did have a coat check by the shuttle buses which I made use of on Sunday.
Also really good was the Shuttle buses. They aren't quite up to San Diego level yet, but were a lot better than NYCC. It's the 2nd best Shuttle experience I had. Only 1 odd kicker was every time I took the shuttle bus back to my hotel the driver took a different route, or did stops out of order. I was on Shuttle route 1 and it usually went up South Michigan Drive and on Friday the first stop was right in front of my hotel (Hilton Chicago, also beside the Essex hotel). Saturday it went up the main freeway, then crossed over to what should be the first stop at Graham Crackers comic shop. Then on Sunday it went up South Michigan again but drove by my hotel and stopped at Graham Crackers, then stopped at my hotel. Still the wait for the buses were not that long and the drivers were very friendly. The seats were quite comfortable too.
Probably my biggest disappointment of the convention was the lack of comic book creator focused panels. There were only 4 of them and 2 of them were held later on in the afternoon when most people were heading out for dinner (1 at 4:30pm, another at 7pm). The 1 daytime panel I missed was Brian Wood's, but that was being live streamed and will likely be on Youtube soon if it's not there already. Most of the comic book related panels were publishers promoting their upcoming books. I generally don't cover those as the information is likely to be out in previews soon and it's not very educational.
While I did have a good time at the con I plan on exploring other conventions being held around the same time next year. These are conventions I've long wanted to attend like Wonder Con or Emerald City Comic Con. I will likely attend this con again in another few years to see how things have progressed. I will say this con is worth it for a fan to check out at least once.
Regards,
