Posted in: Comics | Tagged: c2e2, Comics, cosplay, david walker, entertainment

One Chunk's Journey At C2E2

Peter G wrote for Bleeding Cool from C2E2…

Climb Every Staircase

The show layout underwent a bit of a change from last year. Last year, the family lounge and fan communities were in the room on the first level before you get to the ticket counters. This year, that was where the ticket booths were, so it was the first thing you could visit.

Show floor was the same place as last year, and the floor above had the family and fan community rooms. I don't know if they were there last year, but C2E2 also had changing booths set up so the cosplayers could switch between their costumes and their civvies instead of, say, riding the train or walking through the rain dressed like Gandalf. The fan room also had a bunch of pillows arranged as a crash pad in the middle of the room.

Missing In Action

If you were hoping to show your stuff around to get a gig, you didn't have many opportunities. Not a lot of editors for Marvel, if any — I couldn't identify any. DC, as usual, wasn't on the floor at all. BOOM! and IDW didn't show. Image had a booth, but it was either talent or sales staff, no one from editorial. Dark Horse didn't have a booth. No Lion Forge. Locals were represented by Top Cow/Big Dog Ink, Devil's Due, Althita Comics, and others. But there was a distinct lack of publisher presence there this year.

It's Better To Travel

It was great to see Carrie Goldman again. Goldman a Chicagoan behind the Antibullying Coalition, which seeks to help educate people about bullying and give them the tools they need to defeat it. She has partnered with several conventions, including Reed's New York ComiCon, and usually attendance is huge. Last year was the first appearance in Chicago, and the attendance was somewhere in the range of Yoko Ono doing a Paris Hilton revue.

This year, she was going to be giving multiple workshops over the course of the weekend. Attendance was kind of light for those, too. But don't despair. C2E2 had the bright idea to put the ABC on the convention floor itself, right off the main entrance — unless you turned hard right or left, you couldn't miss it. And she said the amount of attention her organization got was HUGE. People kept stopping by to write messages of hope, tell their own stories, and burn their bridges to a haunted past. It's like a restaurant — location, location, location.

And don't forget to check them out at www.antibullyingcoalition.com

Things That Go Bump In The Night

It was one of the most heartbreaking stories at the start of C2E2. The publishers of the Kickstarter project A Piggy's Tale came in on Friday morning to find their displays knocked over.

When I saw the article on BC that Friday after the retailer breakfast, my jaw dropped. Not only for the assholery of picking on someone like that (dealers have a strict code of honor as far as dicking with each others' displays), but C2E2 does exceptionally well with security for a convention as big as they are in the heart of Chicago. Two years ago, the Marvel booth had blow-ups of their upcoming comic covers velcroed to the outer wall of their display. One dipshit decided he wanted the Guardians Of The Galaxy cover with Rocket Raccoon and grabbed it. By the time he reached the intersection, cops descended on him like metalheads attacking Justin Bieber. I hoped things would get straightened out, because that would be a serious black eye for Reed.

I swung by the booth on Sunday just before the show closed, and got good news. As far as anyone could determine, it was a simple accident, nothing malicious. The floor was still being set up, and it appeared a pallet jack accidentally hit the table and knocked everything around. The folks from A Piggy's Tale were satisfied, so the case is pretty much closed.

He Remembered It So We Could Too

When C2E2 says to check the guest list frequently, they aren't kidding.

As I went around taking cosplay photos, I ran across a cosplayer dressed in a white shirt, black jacket, jeans, glasses, and a loose red tie. I immediately recognized that was the Nostalgia Critic, a great hilarious movie critique show on YouTube. As I snapped the picture, she mentioned that Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic and star of one of the most epic quit videos ever, was there.

Thus began a quest to locate him. He was a table or two away from Sgt. Slaughter. He had DVD's and several of the cast there as well, signing autographs and hamming it up for pictures (one woman brought a Teddy Ruxspin doll for him to sign). I had only discovered his show a few months ago and have been binge watching it since, so I was really excited to meet him.

I figured, if anyone would have interesting stories to tell, it would be Walker. And boy, did he ever. I zeroed in on one of my favorite episodes, where he goofed on Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. The scene where he appeared in a black Ranger costume and did a series of goofy moves from the Charleston to DXing his opponent reduces me to hysterics every time I see it. The costume wasn't exactly his, he just bought it off eBay. Unfortunately, the day they were shooting it, it was super hot. The helmet also had a problem with a piece of foam over the mouthpiece, making it harder to breathe. Between the temperature that day and the foam (it turns out Walker is asthmatic), it was a very risky and dangerous shoot, but he pulled though it okay.

Walker gets a lot of great people coming up to him at conventions, but I asked him if he had any Spinal Tap stories. That weekend, he had two interesting fan encounters. One was a guy who came up and didn't bother saying or buying anything, he just swooped between the cast and told his friend to take the picture. Walker said there was plenty of time, and they guy whispered to him, "I really have to take a shit. Please take the picture."

The other was a guy dressed in a chicken costume who pantomimed everything when talking to Walker. The guy came up the next day without the costume and said he was just trying to make an impression. The consensus was, "Mission accomplished." I'm glad to be a fan of theirs.

New Kid On The Block

Cons like to have an area with a background featuring their logo for people to get their pictures taken in front of. As I mentioned, C2E2 had changing booths for cosplayers set up in one of the lounges, and right outside of it was an area where pro photographers would snap you.

One of the photogs was a guy named David Crewe (www.davidjcrewe.com). He's an artist, musician, and photographer from Canada who has been living in the US for a number of years now. He's done the cosplay photography for San Diego for the past couple of years. Both he and the hospitality booth were sponsored by Pixler and Autodesk. They asked him if he wanted to come to the Windy City for C2E2. Welcome, Mr. Crewe. Just remember that Mike Ditka is the Joseph Smith of Chicago, and you'll get along fine.

Elf, Look At Me, I'm A Lot Like You

Apparently, Sylvester McCoy spent a bit of time wandering the aisles and just jawing with other fans as he went. Great guy.

Cosplay Confidential

I'm thinking I'm going to need to expand my categories for my highly unscientific poll of most popular character at the con. There was a huge jump in crossplayers, including a guy who was a little taller than me, a lot heavier than me, full on Thor beard, and dressed as Misty from Pokemon. I've refused to cosplay because I'm a chunk, sixty pounds overweight. Now? I kept thinking, Well, that's my only drawback, maybe I can get away with it.

There was no real clear winner among the guys that I could see, but the runaway winner for the gals was Agent Peggy Carter. Putting up impressive numbers were the Sailor Scouts (there were more Jupiter cosplayers than all the others combined, and as she was my favorite character, I was quite happy with that). There were a couple of little girls, single digit age range, dressed as Moon or Chibiusa, and all I could think was this was a safe convention for that (don't even THINK of taking your kids to ACen, in costume or without, unless you are hanging around them like a guardian spirit). There was also Ariel in various outfits and forms, including a Slave Girl set-up.

Might also need a "group" entry. There were a lot of family groups cosplaying as the cast of Gravity Falls (I would have missed a couple of them if I hadn't taken a casual look and thought, "That looks like a sweater Mabel would wear"). There were also quite a few Five Nights At Freddy's groups, and one whole set of Spaceballs characters.

I haven't seen furries at a general comic show since Wizard World a couple of years ago (and given the heat of Chicago summers, that's never a good idea). Lots of furries representing there. Genuine furries, not Arianna Grande fans. Didn't recognize any of the fursonas, though, which at least means the troublemakers stayed away.

I did notice that there seemed to be more cosplayers of general animation and shows than superheroes. It's probably the most diverse line-up of cosplay I've seen in all my years.

Aren't Imports From Asia Supposed To Be Cheaper

Speaking of cosplayers, I ran into Dustin Guest, an actor and swell guy who was my costar when I shot a no-budget movie years ago. He always has interesting costumes, and this year, he was Star-Lord (or Peter Quill, if you don't recognize the name) from the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. The costume was really accurate, including the actual Sony Walkman tape player that was seen in the movie.

I commented that that couldn't have been easy to get, and he affirmed that. That particular model is going for $400 easy on eBay. His? He got from Singapore, $150.

To The Rights, To The Rights, To The Rights

You never really know, if you are doing fan stuff, if the rights holders are going to look the other way or force you to stop. I've seen people forced to take their sketch cards down because a certain comic company didn't want them doing that, even as every other table in the alley was selling prints. I've had commissions refused because artists were worried about trouble. You really don't know what's going to happen.

Well, man must adapt, and it seems a lot of vendors had done so. A lot of booths had keychains and other baubles that were made from actual original comics — they would, say, take an image of Twilight Sparkle from the My Little Pony comic, place it on a holder, encase it in glass, and bingo! A bauble that doesn't violate any rights and is the textbook definition of a transformative work.

I wouldn't mention it. Except there were a LOT of booths pulling this gambit. Something must have happened in the past year for this to have sprung up and become relatively common. Anyone thinking of doing fan projects? I quote one of my favorite lines from Phantom 2040 — if you can't be sure, be careful. It's a jungle out there.

The Periodical Table

A new magazine has launched, and had a big rollout at C2E2. It's called Cosplay Culture, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. The staff seemed quite nice, and they said they wanted to cover ALL aspects of cosplay, not just sexy cosplay (you know, the current favorite). They will have interviews with the big names on the circuit, tutorials for crafting props or applying make-up, pictorials, and so on. You know your subculture is expanding when you get a dedicated print magazine. They have two issues out so far, and I picked them both up. You can learn more about them at cosplayculturemagazine.com

War Is Hell

On Friday, I finished up my report on the Diamond breakfast and hit the floor. Almost as soon as I got in, I was made by Onrie Kompan. Kompan is known primarily for Y Soon Shin, a historical comic about warlord that has been moving towards its conclusion for several years now. The books sell well, and the conclusion is in sight.

Kompan, however, is behind the eight ball at the moment. The funding for the end of his series fell through. He has decided to launch a Kickstarter to finish the tale, one that started that Friday and will last until May 24th. If you want to know more, you can check it out at www.yisoonshin.com and get the detes.

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