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McCormick Place is sooooo big….one feels like a tiny ant crawling over a marble floor as you trudge from massive hall to massive hall. We turned on our GPS yesterday and logged more than 2 miles in no time. Today’s distance was probably more like 5 or 6 miles as we took it easy.

C2E2 is definitely in a crucial year. The first two years underperformed, but advance ticket sales are way up this year, so maybe this will be the time that the show draws the massive crowds that everyone thinks are possible. Saturday is going to be the big day.

The publisher tally is modest: DC, Marvel, Archaia, Top Cow, Avatar, Top Shelf, and a few others and startups like Valiant and First.

On the other hand, Artist Alley is immense: this part of the show floor alone is bigger than most local shows. Reportedly there are 400 artists in AA this year….there is something for EVERYONE and if you have money for a sketch or a sketchbook you should come away very very happy.

There’s also a tattoo section where people are getting inked.

People with big lines today: Jhonen Vasquez, Geoff Johns, and Chris Hardwick.

1 COMMENT

  1. There are a few amazing things about C2E2, especially compared to the other big local show that happens in late summer.

    The first is that panel content is really excellent. Not every panel is a home run, but the options run the gamut from literary and academic interests to indy publishing and webcomics to giant corporate love-fests. I’m glad I have all those options set before me.

    The second thing that amazes me is that ReedPop seems to run a pretty tight ship from an organizational standpoint. There are maps all over the place and water coolers abound. The facility is amazingly comfortable and kept at a reasonable temperature, which you can’t fully appreciate until you’ve been to Rosemont in August.

    Finally, this really seems to be a con that manages to draw from the full well of pop culture diversity. There’s something cool at every booth and there really doesn’t seem to be any neglected facet of fandom. This isn’t a glorified autograph show that happens to have a giant comic book artist’s alley.

    Really the only complaint I have so far this year is that a couple of the panels I wanted to attend were scheduled opposite one another.