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cosplay General Media and Entertainment

C2E2 Way Aftershocks

C2E2 2013 will be for me perhaps best remembered for passing a certain personal milestone in my cosplay experiences. But first about the con itself!

This is my 4th C2E2 and all I can say is that it just gets better and better, bigger and bigger. Chicago’s McCormick Place is a great place to have a convention, and C2E2 is doing it quite well despite the ever growing number of people attending the 3 day event.

For me the main focus was getting to the J. Michael Straczynski panels which were great. And I got the bonus of a Joe’s Comics t-shirt and an autographed copy of the premiere Ten Grand comic! Further bonus points were racked up getting to see Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan. So my C2E2 nerdgasm was in full effect.

The Mach 5, GO! GO! GO!

Friday got off to a good start, finally meeting in the flesh @ButterflySamurai and gushing a bit about how the Black Cosplayers discussion thread on Cosplay.com was an early inspiration for my forays into cosplay. A bit later I ran into Hentai Girl who I met a while back at Otakon. I pretty much ran into most of the people I know from attending cons over the years, so I felt pretty lucky!

Saturday started busy. I knew I was going to get to McCormick late because I was attending my son’s Project Syncere presentation earlier in the day. This also meant that there was a good chance that the close lot would fill up, which would mean quite a hike in Uhura’s go-go boots. To avoid this, I got a ride to the con from my wife. Stepping out of the van at the center, I felt like a kid being dropped off by his mom. LOL

On the way in, it turned out that I was right behind a representative from the Anovos booth who asked me to stop by. Anovos makes some beautiful, high quality, Star Trek uniforms, including the classic mini-dress like the one I was wearing. So I stopped by the booth to talk a while and ogle some of their work close up. A bit pricey, but oh so beautiful!

Saturday was a lot more crowded than Friday. And more crowded than I remembered for the same day last year. So I was sure that the huge line I was in to get an autographed copy of Ten Grand would outlast the number of copies. While this was going on, the streams between work and cosplay finally crossed.

I knew a group of my coworkers were coming to C2E2 and I was planning to meet up with them. Of course I did not tell them ahead of time that I was cosplaying Uhura, only that I’d be in Starfleet uniform. LOL So when they finally found me in that line after a few minutes of phone tag, they were suitably surprised and impressed by my handiwork! (“Oh hell no!” He exclaimed.)

This proved to be a major milestone for me, as I’d never revealed anything about my crossplays to anyone I worked with in the past. It’s not the sort of thing you can just tell people about because, and here’s my vanity, whatever image they make up in their minds will not be anywhere near as good as the real thing. I feel like this is something I have to show people in person. Now I think I know a little bit how it feels for LGBTQ people to come out. In any case, there’s no going back now!

I spent the rest of Saturday hanging out with them taking pictures of cosplayers and watching the cosplay contest on the main stage. A little boy cosplaying Optimus Prime brought the house down when he transformed into a semi right on stage. Other notable cosplays included a Bane with kids in a stroller, a woman as the Up house, and a huge Mechazord from Power Rangers. BTW, one of the panels I stumbled into of Friday featured Jason David Frank, the Green Ranger. He was totally awesome!

Sunday, Kids Day at C2E2, brought some more surprises. I had planned to bring my two youngest children who I thought would enjoy the cosplays, and artists panels. My youngest daughter wasn’t interested, but to my surprise and joy, my wife accepted an invite in her place. I had really wanted to show her how a well run professional media con looked, but she’s not really a fan of anything at C2E2, so I never thought she’d come. It would turn out to be a great day.

First, I’d never seen Sunday at C2E2 so crowded. I’d expected lots of kids, but not a crowd rivaling the opening Friday. But there it was, the next generation of fans crowded all around us!

And once more, providence was smiling upon us. While we couldn’t get into the Geek Girl panel, we did get into a comics writing panel which just happened to be in the same room as the R. L. Stine panel that followed it. R.L. Stine is the coolest old dude you’d ever imagine. I’m no kid, but I will be reading Goose Bumps now!

Our day ended with the Lion Forge panel. On Friday I had met a friend of a friend who was working at Lion Forge, so I thought it would be fun to learn some more about this new publisher. The titles and creative talent were all very interesting and I’m planning to follow them and see what develops. But the day could not have ended any better than when my son won the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet they were giving away in the raffle!

So it was a great C2E2. I took tons of cosplay pics and had the pleasure of showing off one of my favorite costumes to my coworkers (and my friend next door, lol). Will I be going next year? Oh hell yes!

Categories
Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay

C2E2 2011 Day One

I just returned home from C2E2 and it’s probably a good sign that I’m hungry for more, quite literally. I’m waiting for a pizza to come as I write this. But seriously, I had fun. I got a good number of cosplay pics, though still not as much as you’d see at ACen or most anime cons. Still, I’m enjoying the comic con side of life quite a bit.

The center of a comic con like C2E2 is definitely the exhibit hall with the dealers and artist alley. Panels are not as big a component, but that’s cool. I’m taking advantage of that focus shift to spend more time talking to the artists and dealers, and of course buying stuff too! I had some great chats about the future of digital comics with the guys at comiXology and Dark Horse. And I met the author of Girls with Slingshots, Danielle Corsetto and got an autographed copy of volume one of her web comic. I also got this cool strip Scrabble poster for my wife, a huge Scrabble fan!

As for cosplay, I went casual, donning my Star Trek: TNG uniform. I snapped as many pics as I could manage without tying up traffic and I think I got a lot of good costumes. Still, I’d love to see even more cosplay, but I’m sure I’ll see that tomorrow. Friday is always less dense just because a lot of people have work and school.

Well gotta get that pizza now!

Categories
Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay Media and Entertainment

C2E2 And The Con Dreams Begin!

The second Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) begins on Friday! I’m looking forward to an even bigger con than the inaugural event last year. This year I got  a 3 day pass and am really looking forward to seeing the second of the Evangelion reboot movies, 1.11 and 2.22.

I don’t cosplay for C2E2 because I don’t really have anything that would fit the event. Super Heroes aren’t really my thing, though Star Wars and Star Trek costumes are pretty common at comic cons too. Maybe I’ll through on my Next Generation uniform just for lulz. McCormic Place Convention Center is pretty close to where I live, so no hotel costs to pay makes C2E2 pretty cheap for me. Still, I think it triggered a pre-convention dream last night. In this dream I’m at a con sharing a room with some friends, but somewhere along the way I’ve lost all of my luggage. I have absolutely no memory of how it could have happened.

I was pretty distressed about the situation in the dream. Not so much about the lost stuff as much about having no memory of it. Once I woke up and realized it was only a dream, I felt much better. It was only when I started to think about blogging about C2E2 that I realized that the dream was probably related to it. Since I don’t need a hotel for C2E2, that explains the lack of luggage and not having a memory of it. I love staying at con hotels, so breaking that pattern probably triggered the dream on some level.

As always, I’ll take as many pictures as I can of cosplayers! Last year I got a pic of some cute kids cosplaying from Avatar: The Last Airbender (the awesome Nicktoons original, not the horrid movie) and Time Out Chicago Kids used it in last month’s magazine! My first printed media photo credit! I’m sure that this year will bring out even more awesome cosplay!

Avatar Kids Take Two!