Adventures at C2E2

The weekend of April 13 - 15 marked the 2012 edition of Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, also known as C2E2. This event, organized by the same individuals that put on New York Comic Con and PAX, is a convention spanning the latest and greatest from the worlds of comics, movies, television, toys, anime, manga and video games.

I was lucky enough to go to the event on a press pass and after getting some much needed sleep I've put this post together for you guys to enjoy. :)


So due to work and horrible Chicago rush hour traffic I didn't get to McCormick Place until after registration had already closed. The only real thing that I missed on Friday was apparently a surprise Shia LaBeouf and I'm more than okay with that.

Anyway I got to press registration on Saturday morning and made my way to the show floor.


For those of you that have never been to a convention here's a general breakdown. You have the show room floor which is typically your biggest space.


Once you're there you can find pretty much anything under the sun to spend money on.


Check out official booths for some of your favs.


Wait in line to meet your favs ...and wait ....and wait.


And of course, panels!

But we'll get to those in a minute.

Back to happenings on the floor, quite a few costumes and props from Captain America (and some props from Thor) were prominently displayed. Everything pictured was auctioned off on Saturday Night. I did not attend the auction as it was up against some panels, however I was told that one of the Captain America outfits went for $200,000.


And of course costumes, costumes, costumes.










The local news even sent a correspondent out dressed as Batman to cover the event.




The first panel that I went to was John Barrowman. The room was packed (supposedly people had been lining up outside the theatre from around 6:00 AM when the convention didn't open until 10:00 AM and John's panel wasn't until 11:30 AM). There weren't any seats for press so I wasn't terribly close for this but I tried to make it work.


John came on stage, carrying a banana, as they played a track of him singing "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers.



His panel was overall fantastic and very entertaining. He talked a lot about growing up in Chicagoland as well as his upcoming projects - his book, Hallow Earth will be releasing in the US sometime in the fall and he's currently working on a Torchwood book with his sister that they feel would make a great movie as well and the Gilded Lilys pilot that he shot for ABC.



He was also incredibly good looking.

One of the first questions was which Broadway standard best sums up Torchwood and would he sing a few bars.


His favorite superhero is Captain America.


Another question asked was, "Do you have any of your action figures and do you ever play with yourself?"





To wrap things up John answered some rapid fire questions where he was supposed to keep answers brief (he didn't, thankfully). The first question which is cut off was "Winter in Chicago or winter in Cardiff"


The next panel that I went to was Nikita. Originally, Maggie Q was supposed to be there however due to some last minute changes in the filming schedule she was unable to attend so Shane West and series creator Craig Silverstein were there instead.



Shane actually had come directly from set having finished shooting at 5:30 AM. From there he hopped on a plane and went to C2E2 and flew back to Toronto that day to do more work on the show.





One of the first questions asked was about Nikita's current status and if they were going to get a third season. The official word won't happen until May, however, they are very optimistic and have already planned out the third season.




An upcoming tidbit for the show is that Birkhoff will actually be able to shoot in about two episodes.




I had to post this one simply because it's so derpy.


To be perfectly honest, I don't watch Nikita (there wasn't enough Stanford early on and I just abandoned it but I've heard good things so will probably marathon it on Netflix over the summer) and the questions weren't particularly good so I don't have a lot of notes and I secretly wished someone said something about A Walk to Remember. Basically just sit back and enjoy your pretty.




Next up was Chad Michael Murray who was there talking about his graphic novel Everlast.





For those of you that don't know what Everlast is the description is as follows - A pre-apocalyptic tale, Everlast follows Derek Everlast, a man whose destiny in life is guiding others to a place of rebirth for mankind called Haven. Following an instinct called the Nudge, bestowed on him by a higher power, Derek is guided to the next chosen human destined to survive, a little girl named Melissa. In a harrowing adventure, he must deliver her safely to Haven before the End of Days. Everlast tells a story of choice, love, friendship, and, most of all, survival. Will you be chosen?






Originally Chad wanted to do Everlast as a screenplay but a friend told him it would be a good graphic novel. He still would ideally like to bring it to film or television one day and when asked about casting he said he would 100% not want to act in it and his dream cast in his head would be Johnny Depp as Derek Everlast with the supporting cast including Morgan Freeman, an Interview with the Vampire era Brad Pitt, and he didn't have any particular actress in mind for the female lead.




One Tree Hill of course came up and Chad said he didn't really have any feelings about the show going off the air since he had already said his goodbyes to it but it was nice getting to see everyone and return briefly.



This was literally his face at the first One Tree Hill question.


Other upcoming projects includes Scruples, an ABC pilot where he plays a womanizing photographer, and The Haunting in Georgia in which his character is a prison guard and he put on fifteen pounds of muscle for the role.





The final panel that I attended on Saturday was the one for StarKid. I'll only touch upon it briefly as most of this was covered in a post here yesterday. The highlight of the panel was by far Sean Astin dressed as The Scarecrow pretending to be Dylan Saunders.






Despite making friends with the StarKids, I'm not entirely sure that Sean grasped that he was Batman Scarecrow and not Wizard of Oz Scarecrow as he randomly started singing "If I Only Had a Brain" and made a few Wizard of Oz references. However, true to Hobbit form, he was completely barefoot the whole panel and even after as he posed for pictures with people in the hall.

This video is for you superdogbiter

Some more pictures from the panel.




Joe mentioned that it was very hard to sing in the Batman mask because of the way that it pressed down on his nose and overall it was difficult to work around. He said he now understands why Christian Bale does the ridiculous voice and mouth movements as Batman.




Forgive the shaky cam, I wasn't entirely sure I didn't hallucinate this whole panel until I got back in my hotel room and saw that other people were talking about it on Twitter.





And one more of Sean as a parting gift.


The John Cusack panel was without a doubt the biggest event that happened on Sunday. The room was packed. The first 1,000 attendees were given a mini poster for The Raven and before the Q&A session started they played the trailer for The Raven as well as a small clip from the movie.







Someone asked if John would ever be in a superhero movie to which he said it's at the point now where in Hollywood you're asked to do the small indie arthouse movie or to put on the tights and he hasn't gotten the tights offer yet but you never know. He doesn't have a particular superhero that he would like to portray but would be open to anything as long as the character was interesting. Someone suggested an older Peter Parker to which he laughed and said the ship had long since sailed for that one.





The following person started off his question by saying that all of John's characters were really similar (and depressing). The continuation and answer follow -


Overall John was really charming, funny and engaging. There were a lot of requests for autographs, pictures, hugs and kisses during the panel and he was friendly and accommodating to pretty much everyone only saying no to a kiss but giving the woman a hug instead. The only question he didn't answer was one about his personal life because he likes to stay private.





John gets asked a question by Batman.








It's Kevin Brown a.k.a. Dot Com from 30 Rock!

He was in character at his booth which was covered in banners saying Dot Com for President. He was conducting interviews mentioning that he was running for President but never mentioned President of what. You could buy buttons, t-shirts, etc. that said Dot Com for President and they said that the money would go towards his campaign or the money for the strip club whichever happens first.

He was very funny and great in person and more than happy to pose with my ONTD sign. :)

As a bonus parting gift enjoy some creepy stalker shots of signings.





Source: Me and my camera