One would think that your girlfriend leaving town would be a perfect opportunity to go and party, especially when there is a burlesque show going on ten minutes from your house. Is that what I did? Of course not! I went to Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo! Which was far more interesting than any naked ladies bouncing their boobies around. Wait a second, did I seriously just say that? Dammit!

I thought Moon Knight was a little taller, but, his costume looks awesome

The weekend started Friday, but unfortunately I didn’t get there in time to catch the cast of Kick-Ass doing any signings. I was surprised at the amount of comic book related things going on, because I thought it was going to be more similar to Wizard World, which also has videogames, Star Wars, everything nerdy. Not that I was disappointed or anything, just surprised how much it catered to the comic book crowd. I only stayed a couple of hours, just to get my bearings of the building, so that when I came back on subsequent days, I could get to the panels more easily.

Here I am with Black Cat and, uh…ya know, that superlady who dressed like Captain America in a short skirt with cleavage? This one’s for you, honey!

I got there much earlier, around 11:30AM, and the first panel I went to was hosted by Marvel, titled “Women of Marvel”. It was more about the staff at Marvel who happen to be women working in a male dominated industry. Rather than discussing things like what it means to be a successful writer vs. successful female writer, it turned into questions about what comics you can get your girlfriend to read. No discredit to the panel, of course, they were answering everything, but the questions being asked seemed to be a little less hard-hitting than I expected.

Two out of three looking at the camera ain’t bad!

Shortly after that panel ended, I went to a panel discussing what 2010 has in store for Star Wars. It was mostly about the animated Clone Wars series, which I tried to watch but wanted to rip my eyeballs out. They also mentioned the Star Wars Adidas, some of which looked badass, as well as videogames. They did show a clip of a documentary coming out about the special effects of Star Wars that involved the Wampa falling over repeatedly, which was funny.

The left side of the stage looked similar, so feel free to use Photoshop to get the idea

My favorite panel of the whole weekend was on Saturday, and it was the “Physics of Superheroes”, which, as it sounds, is about physics….and superheroes. The best way of explaining that is to try to picture the biggest comic book nerd you can. Got it? Okay, now think of the biggest physics geek you can. Got that too? Now make them do each other, and the result is James Kakalios, author of “The Physics of Superheroes”. The panel was a lot of fun, watching someone getting more and more frustratedly excited over comics and physics.

The best part was the littlest girl in the front who hated wearing that huge mask

I waited for maybe a little too long in line to get the autographs of Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango from SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters”. Did I mention the autographs were for Allison Paige? That’s right, even when she is six hours away I am doing dumb things to make her happy, or at least, make her less mad. What’s funny is I actually told Steve about how I met him at the Holyoke Mall a couple of years ago, and didn’t have to wait in line. Maybe I was the only one who thought it was funny though. Later that night they also hosted a Q & A session. I asked why in the first season, they are rarely finding evidence, maybe only once every three or four episodes, and now in Season 6, they seem to find stuff every episode. Steve answered by saying that regardless of how many episodes there are, they go on a lot of investigations and ultimately it is up to the producers what investigations are aired, and they get better ratings when evidence is found. I ended up leaving around 9;30PM.

Just a candid picture of me hanging out with my buds

Sunday I got a later start and ended up missing two panels I wanted to see. Luckily I was able to make it to the Flash and Green Lantern Q & A, because I have been meaning to get into both of these series. Turns out that if you don’t know much about Flash and Green lantern, and you go to see a Q & A about them, you won’t know what everyone is talking about! So it really just made me want to read their series more.

Supergirl actually draws her power from a weird heart-shaped tanned birthmark thing on her midsection

The last panel I attended was again hosted by Marvel and was about the X-Men titles. I really had no idea how far the realm of mutants spread, and there were a whole bunch of series ending, beginning, and relaunching, which I will be on the lookout for. The main title, Uncanny X-Men, had the most questions, and no matter what the question was, it seemed the answer was “Just read Second Coming”. I would say at least 60% of answers from the panel resulted in saying “Just read Second Coming”. And guess what? I will!

My purchases at C2E2. I know, Daredevil’s boobs look HUGE!

Thus brought a close to C2E2, which was actually my very first comic convention. i have been to horror conventions before, but this convention was so comics focused, I left wanting to read everything I could get my hands on. Huge thanks to the folks at Chicago Comics for getting me in, I made sure that once I left C2E2 I went right to the store to spend money. What it always impressive to me, is that even though the attendance numbers weren’t quite what were anticipated, anytime you can get almost 30,000 people together who have a passion for one thing, it’s impressive. Everyone was so genuinely excited about everything going on, I don’t think I saw one rude person or person without a smile on their face, all the way from the attendees to the guests of honor. I look forward to C2E2 next year, and hopefully can sneak into San Diego Comic Con!

Chicago Comics
Physics of Superheroes on Amazon