A Letter From The Editor: C2E2 Edition

Greetings and salutations all!

Happy Monday! I hope it’s been a productive day for you all. I’m coming off a pretty adventurous weekend and thankful I had an extra day to recover. This weekend, Maria and I traveled to the Windy City to partake in the latest edition of C2E2. C2E2 always seems to be our first comic con of the year, and as a result, it always gives us a unique perspective of the event. By the time the convention rolls around, we’re usually 5-6 months out from attending our last event and it can go one of two ways. It’s either wildly immersive and incredibly fun, or it’s a massive meh overall. There’s never an in-between.

We live in Michigan and every year we take the four-and-a-half-hour drive to McCormick place because flying just feels lazy. Most times though, we end up missing a fairly large chunk of the first day as we don’t typically arrive until 3 – 4 PM. By then, the show has already been running for several hours and getting ready to wind down… In hindsight, maybe flying wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Friday flies by like a blur, and just as quickly as we arrive at the convention center the day ends and we start planning out day 2. Saturday at C2E2 (well any con really), is often the busiest day, as most people are off from work, and it’s usually always the day the costume contest occurs on. This is usually our favorite day because most times it presents the best opportunity to gather content. This year, felt more like a meh year, but mostly because we’re getting older and many of the featured guests and panels are highlighting fandoms that we either aren’t into or haven’t caught up with. It’s a weird thing getting older as a nerd.

But that’s the beauty of a convention like C2E2. Even though we didn’t know a large contingent of the fandoms being catered to, there were still a bunch of things we did get. There was a 30th-anniversary panel celebrating Boy Meets World (ohhhh Topanga…), the voice of Naruto Maile Flanigan was in attendance, and a Smallville reunion spread out over the weekend. In addition to the celebrity guests, there were also a ton of indie comic publishers and artists showcasing their latest projects for all in attendance. Most are mainstays at this convention but we also noticed a few fresh faces, like our friends over at First Form Collectibles.

Overall, I’d like to say this year was a “meh” version of C2E2. There was tons of stellar cosplay, and lots of sights to take in, and the guest list was diverse albeit, not as expansive as in previous years. There was a massive lack of actual comic studios, event exclusives, and engaging panels that knocked this year down a grade in my book. I’d like to think that the show happening on the same weekend as Wrestlemania, may have hindered the availability of some guests. I’m looking forward to hitting my next big show, Motor City Comic Con in May.

C2E2 remains one of my favorite cons, and I look forward to a bounce-back show when it returns April 26th – 28th 2024.