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What a crazy busy weekend that was! On Friday, I met up with the Columbia Whovians and we headed into day one at C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. We rode a CTA bus to McCormick Place together as a group, picked up our coveted 3-Day badges, walked in, and immediately lost each other.
I have gone to Wizard World Chicago a few times.  That’s the old comic book convention in town.  This was my first time at C2E2. It was huge. It was everything a comic book convention should be. There were people in costumes (cosplayers) everywhere, tons of merchandise tables catering to your every geeky whim, and even an area set up to get tattoos, though I cannot for the life of me figure out how this last part was a good idea. The thought of getting freshly inked and then repeatedly bumping into people makes me cringe just a bit.

Saturday, I spent the morning helping my friend Becca (of Becca’s Bombshells) run her table in artist alley. I’ve always wanted to have a table at a con.  Maybe if I can get my stuff together, I will do it next year. It was super fun and also mildly intimidating working next to Becca. She took a bunch of commissions and churned them out pretty quickly–and beautifully. Later on in the day, my wife and daughter met up with us and I was able to walk around with them for their first trip to a con. I won’t lie, this was a pretty big deal for me.

My daughter had a couple of goals in mind: tracking down every My Little Pony cosplayers at the convention, and to see the full size Dalek (I take great pride in my getting my family to like Doctor Who). We made the rounds and eventually made our way to wait in line to meet Ron Perlman, of Sons of Anarchy and Hellboy fame. My daughter, who is often quite shy, actually high-fived Ron Perlman. We told him how crazy it was, because she had turned down every other high-five all day. He simply said, “That’s because she knows I love her.” That’s right, Ron Perlman loves my daughter.

I don’t know how I feel about this.

After this, we made the rounds again and met Lee Arenberg, Once Upon a Time’s Grumpy and Seinfeld’s Mike. I got to have one of my favorite artists, Ben Templesmith, sign a book with my sonic screwdriver pen (I know!). I met back up with Becca to wrap up the day and help her pack up, while my family went to ogle costumes from the Hunger Games before being ushered out the front door in a sea of cosplayers.

I forgot to mention that Friday was also the opening for the Interdisciplinary Arts MFA thesis show. The show is really amazing. The third years did a really great job. It’s up now and you all should definitely go check it out.