It’s been awhile since I have gotten the chance to hit up one of the local conventions, 2 years since the last C2E2, and a few more till San Diego Comic-Con. But things worked out this year and I was able to head down to Chicago to check out one day of C2E2 on Saturday, April 26.

You can check out our photo gallery from the convention here below, including several of cosplayers, as well as cover of some of the panels, including the 20th anniversary of the film, The Crow.

The first thing that hit me as we arrived at the convention center is the fact that this Con has really grown in the past few years, and that meant being moved to the other side of the convention center. It may not be anywhere close to the scale of SDCC, but I have admit that it’s giving Wizard World a run for its money, although it has been a few years since my last visit as well, and hopefully I will check it out in August.

There wasn’t any one studio or exhibitor that had a bigger area than others, they all seemed to take up the same amount of space. You had plenty to choose from, you had comic studios (of course), plenty of shops, and even a few video games exhibits as well, the bigger ones being Twitch and League of Legends (which was pretty packed the whole day). You had a big section of autograph and photo ops to choose from, with a few surprises at the lack of people waiting in a few lines. I had plans to visit a few people, but I was actually pretty good about budgeting myself and ended up leaving with $6 left of my $60 that I walked in. There was also a nice Artist Alley section, where you could buy prints/sketches or get a few of your comic books signed by the artist, and it was a nice mix of some of the bigger artists mixed in with the smaller indy artists. I got my picture taken with Allison Scagliotti (from Warehouse 13), bought a really cool Pokemon/How to Train Your Dragon mash-up shirt with Toothless in a Poke-ball, and the rest going towards food, cause it was a long day.

I did end up making it to a few panels, Your Opinion Sucks! Rotten Tomatoes Critics vs Fans and The Crow 20th Anniversary Panel. The Rotten Tomatoes panel, was a chance for fans to state their case for certain movies on why they deserved to be rotten/fresh, and the critics gave their thoughts/opinions, and even a little audience participation with our handy two-sided fans. Some interesting choices for movies, but it was an entertaining discussion either way. And the other panel was about the 20th Anniversary of The Crow, with the film’s stars Ernie Hudson (Sgt. Albrecht), Tony Todd (Grange), and Michael Massee (Funboys) giving us a little insight about the making of the movie, and the effect that it had on the industry after the accident on the set that ended lead star Brandon Lee’s life. It was sort of brought up, but the crowd was respectable enough to not dig any deeper into it. The panel consisted mostly of fan Q&A, with the highlight being a fan asking about the sequel we are wondering about, Congo 2.

And as far as the cosplay went, there were a few themes that seem to pop up a bit, and the biggest was the role reversal of characters, female Mario and Luigi with male Princess Peach, just to give an example. A few Game of Thrones characters, and plenty of Frozen, and even a few groups dressed up as Bob’s Burgers, although each were missing one person from the group. And while there was also no shortage of Deadpools in the crowd, I will say that the Star Wars presence was a little less than what I was expecting.

At the end of the day I was tired, and although I would have loved to come back on Sunday for the Warehouse 13 panel and meet up with a few people I missed on Saturday, I think one day was enough for me. I need to slowly get back into convention shape, getting my body used to lots of walking/standing and waiting in lines.

Image Gallery [Click thumbnails for larger, full view.]

[All photos by Seandps for Geeks Of Doom.]