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Ah the smell of comic books was in the air the weekend of April 13-15 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.  The C2E2 convention was back in town, and I was so absolutely excited you would have thought that I was packing up and heading down to Disney World for a weekend.

C2E2 is a nerd’s Disney.  Instead of Donald and Goofy walking around we have Commander Shepherd, Cassie Hack, and the cast of Adventure Time.  Instead of rides, we have celebrity meet and greets, and instead of the high cost Disney food, we have…ok well some things are the same no matter where you go.

However, since last years compendium, I’ve learned quite a few tricks of the convention trade that I’m going to share with you so that when your next convention comes along, you’ll already have your survival badge.

Convention Tips and Tricks:

• Bring your own bag – sure, this sounds like a burden, but you’ll thank me when you have it.  Make sure it has comfortable, and well padded straps on top of plenty of space.  You will buy things…oh yes, you will buy far too many things.
• Pack your own water – again, doesn’t sound like it’s needed, but you will be so excited to have your own drink as opposed to the drinks they have there, especially if you are not a pop drinker.
• Pack a snack – Conventions can kind of be like nerd anorexia.  You flat out forget to eat!  My personal snack of choice is the PowerBar.  This will be your Lembas bread for the next few days, keep it secret…keep it safe.
• Make friends with booth holders – they are super cool, they want to chat with you, and you’ll make future friends for other conventions.
• Panels are a great break – I think that panels are overlooked in this hectic weekend, but they are so awesome! There are so many great ones, and it’s a great rest from the hectic con floor.
• DO YOUR MAJOR SHOPPING SUNDAY!  Dealers will drop their prices like MAD on Sunday, especially on Silver Age comics…trust me.

OK, enough with the lecture, let’s get to the floor.

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So Friday was my day to walk the floor and soak the sights and sounds of the convention floor in.  In fact, I was so awesome, that I went ahead and taped my entire walk of the convention floor for you all.  Let it be known that on Friday, general public wasn’t let in until 1pm, so you’ll never see a convention floor this empty ever again.

Just as I was getting my bearings, and finally figuring out where every booth was, the general public was unleashed onto the convention, and I found myself bumping straight into the coolest modeling booth ever.

Round 2 Modeling:

And for a closer look at some of their killer models, check out this video.

I was so excited to find these guys there and talk modeling!  As all you hip MRR readers know, Doc-Oz and I have recently found our love for incredible modeling, and that was actually one of the big items I was looking for at C2E2.  Sadly, there just wasn’t a market for models here, and the Round 2 booth was not selling any of the models that they produced…but they were giving some away for free!

I got the mummy!!

The rest of the weekend was so active and hectic it was an absolute blur!  Don’t worry, I’m going to break it down for you.

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Panels:

I hit some incredible panels over the course of my time at C2E2.  There were great comic creator panels, documentary panels, as well as some “cult celebrity” panels as well.

I was giddy with stupidity when I was able to hit the panel for Jhonen Vasquez.  Oh, you aren’t familiar with his work?  Let me just give you a quick taste…

He’s also done quite a few comics as well, and I’m a huge fan!  So I was happy that I was able to get the first 20 minute of his panel on video…for you!

The audio isn’t the best, but I only had my iPhone to tape.

I also hit a sketch comedy panel called The Nerdologues, which was all nerd based sketch humor.  The top two sketches that they brought to the table were:

1. A game show called “Nerd rage”.  The host of the show says incorrect statements about nerdy things to try and get his contestants to experience “nerd rage”.  If a contestant succumbs to his nerd rage, they are disqualified.  It was funny too because, even though the audience knew that this was a sketch, when the phrase “X-3 was the best of the X-Men movies” was uttered, I heard a collective gasp of potential nerd rage build.

2. A sketch where a run-in with an ex-girlfriend is portrayed as a battle from Final Fantasy.  Not only was this poignant and hilarious because it happened to me about an hour before I saw this, but it was also just the most hilarious observation I’d heard in a while.

I was also able to hit up the Roman Dirge panel.  I was super thrilled about this because I have been a fan of his for almost 10 years.  I actually used to email him when he would put his AOL email in the back of his books.  Super nice guy, with some seriously demented artwork.

NOTE: Lenore: The Little Dead Girl is now releasing four times a year!  Hooray!

This panel was not only great because of Roman…but because the creepiest kid ever attended and asked the weirdest questions of all time.

He was dressed like a Matt Smith Doctor Who, fez and all, and decided to “drop knowledge” about things, that were terrifying.

When he asked Roman what Invader Zim failed, and Roman responded the standard response of indifferences and what not, this was this kid’s rebuttal.

Yeah, like, I heard that it was because you couldn’t get some jokes you guys wanted in the show, so to get back at them your flashed images of dead babies in an episode.

THAT WAS HIS ACTUAL RESPONSE!  He then went on to clarify:

I’m not sure of the exact episode, or what the frame rate was…but I mean that’s what I heard.

Roman just stared at this kid, awestruck at this question.  His next was a good one as well.  Where people were flinging questions about inspiration and art style.  This kid focused on something…unique.

It was in reference to a character named Taxidermy:

His question was this:

What does Taxidermy smell like?

I’m just going to leave that there for your to ponder.  God I wish I had a picture of that kid.

Going Cardboard

This panel was probably my favorite.  There were no speakers.  There were no jokes.  There was only boardgames.

This documentary Going Cardboard was being aired, and boy was it awesome.  It interviewed board game creators, reviewers, and players on the joys and hardships of board games.

This being a brand new interest of mine, I was captivated by what these people had to say, and…well…just watch the trailer:

This not only educated me on how many amazing board games are out there…but also informed me of a new convention I was unaware of…Essen.

Swing over to their website and support this movie, and buy more boardgames!

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Cosplay

I took it upon myself this year to break away from my standard position of interviewer and observer, and jump into the deep end with my very first cosplay…Marty McFly.

The response was outstanding!  Everyone was so nice, and as I walked around the convention floor I would hear people shout “Anybody home McFly?” and “You gotta run Marty, you’re OUTATIME!”

But my favorite was my run in with the MIB:

I wish I would have gotten this on video, but I’ll try to sum it up for you here.  I was standing in artist alley when a man dressed in black with sunglasses walked up to me and simply asked me if I knew where Doc Brown’s whereabouts were.

Me being a goofball, played along, and said that I wasn’t sure, but I think he’s in the past.  In the 1800s.

The MIB paused as he contemplated my answers, then asked me about my run in with the Libyans.  This guy was really playing up the character with a stern face…it got me a little nervous so I gave him an answer that was…sufficient.  He quickly pulled out his mind eraser and told me to look at the red light.  After the flash he said this:

Doc Brown did not invent time travel.  You have never traveled in time, you’ll take your girlfriend to the lake over the weekend with no recollection of this encounter.

Then, cool as a cucumber, the guy walks away never to be seen again.  It. was. amazing.

Otherwise I saw some amazing cosplay (check gallery below).

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All in all C2E2 still holds the candle as my favorite convention to date.  They have it all!  Games, cosplay, comics, celebrities…you can’t miss with this convention, and it is quickly edging out Wizard World as the best convention in the city.  I wish it was next year already so I could go again!