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This year the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) arrived a month early but, so far as we fans were concerned, not a moment too soon! In my humble opinion, this is the best comic fan expo the Windy City has to offer and one that my entire family pines for. That’s not surprising as it caters to all facets of fandom; comics, horror, science fiction, and so much more! It also attracts some amazing cosplay and I was so happy that my daughter, Jade, was there all weekend to assist with picture taking. Despite thousands of people showing up, it’s organized so well that it runs like a well-oiled machine which means less griping and more shopping. In previous years I’ve always attended Saturdays only but 2016 would have me showing up on it’s opening Friday evening. Ideally, you should devote multiple days to C2E2 as each day has its pros and cons (which I’ll delve more into later). I wasn’t sure what to expect when we arrived at the McCormick Place at 3:30pm and eagerly made our way inside.

STAR WARS (though always popular in the geek realm) was really riding high this year due to the $uccess of The Force Awakens. As soon as we made it to the expo we encountered the 501^st Legion, an international group of fans who wear screen accurate STAR WARS costumes. Here they had their own section complete with a really cool tauntaun bust. Members were there to answer any questions while also illustrating how STAR WARS fandom is a family affair (so writes the man with a son named Luke and daughter named Leia). In this world it’s not unusual to see dads dressed as storm troopers, moms as Jedis, and the kids prancing around as Jawas. They also had full-sized LEGO versions of Keylo Ren, Rey and BB-8.

Since this wasn’t our first C2E2 experience we knew that the wisest thing to do was get our passes well in advance and to pre-pay for parking. This way we didn’t waste any time getting inside the immense main hall. The one big advantage of doing Friday was that there a lot less people and it’s easier to navigate. Of course that’s a Catch-22 since less people also means less cosplay and many celebrities don’t show up till Saturday anyway.

Of course comic books were in no short supply…

But comics were only a percentage of what this room had to offer…

Eventually we needed to give our tired legs a break so we sat a table (another luxury you’re hard-pressed to find on a Saturday) and ate a dinner I packed (another smart C2E2 tip). The reason we made a point of showing up on Friday was due to the presence of the talented two sisters from The Hillywood Show; Hilly and Hannah Hindi. They had their own panel scheduled this night and there was no way we were going to miss it! But before that, we wanted to meet them!

Coming Up…The Hillywood Show’s C2E2 Panel & the Power of Parody!

Dave Fuentes