Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! This weekend my wife Anne and I attended the latest edition of the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition (“C2E2″), a three-day extravaganza of comic books, actors, creators, toys, props, publishers, freebies, plush dolls, variant covers, anime we don’t recognize, and walking and walking and walking and walking. We missed the inaugural 2010 gala and presciently skipped the February 2020 pre-shutdown soiree, but more often than not, whenever they send out the call to convene, we’re happy to answer…

…although we dragged our feet on committing to this year’s edition as we waited for them to invite actors that we hadn’t already met and who’ve performed in shows and/or movies we really enjoyed. Less than a month before showtime, we were finally feeling it and bought tickets. But we planned for a less epic adventure than usual. It was still fun! We have fewer anecdotes than usual, though. On the bright side, that means less typing for me and a shorter read for You, The Viewers At Home! (Not counting the next several paragraphs.)

Usually we plan for C2E2 as a full two-day getaway, but life kept throwing obstacles in front of us. The showrunners’ decision to schedule it during prime spring-break season made it impossible for Anne to take Friday off in advance. Her employers give priority vacation-day selection to employees who request a full week off, then grant one-day requests like hers if any slots are left. That’s in addition to our own self-imposed boundaries — i.e., we almost never do Sundays at any con if we can avoid it. On top of all that, the very week of the show, my chronic back pain picked this week to recur (of course it did! of all possible weeks for it to happen), from which I was still recovering when the weekend arrived. The unkind aging process has already compromised our comic-con stamina more and more with each passing year, but these infrequent flare-ups are even less helpful.

But wait! There’s more! We also had to put on our adulting hats and at least try to find ways to trim our fun-time costs. Chances are we’re living in the same economy you are, so hopefully you get why we have to be choosier with our geek indulgences. Well, at least, we ought to be choosier, here in the current moment when a three-hour drive from Indianapolis to Chicago takes a bit more gas money than it did last year. We could treat ourselves a little, but we had to mitigate expenses here and there. I like to call it the Goldens’ Secret Plan to Fight Inflation.

So we only made hotel reservations for Friday. We bought Saturday-only tickets for the show rather than full weekend passes. And we drove home Saturday night, praying I wouldn’t pass out at the wheel. At a show as enormous as C2E2, it’s impossible to do all the things in a single Saturday, especially at our age and mobility level. We tried to make the most of the time and energy levels allotted.

Saturday morning we arrived at McCormick Place at 8:15, parked in Lot A on level 5, stopped briefly at the security checkpoint as usual because of all the buttons on my comic-con bag, grabbed our badges at Will Call, joined the line, waited and waited and waited, and followed the crowd allowed onto the show floor at 9:55, five minutes before the published non-VIP showtime. We headed directly to the autograph booth of the elder statesman in our lead photo — Emmy Award Winner Martin Sheen…which he won, incredibly, not for The West Wing but for a guest-starring role on Murphy Brown. Also, fun trivia: Sheen has been never been nominated for an Academy Award despite appearing in some sixty thousand dramas or so.

We waited patiently for his arrival, which the C2E2 app listed as 11:00. We chatted a little with the family in front of us, who thought we seemed familiar somehow. Eventually Dad remembered: they were behind us in the Carrie Fisher line at Indiana Comic Con 2015. We’ve told that all-time favorite story to more than a few people in con lines throughout the years since, but they were there when it all went down. It’s cool to meet fellow survivors of that hours-long experience, and it’s cool to be remembered, even if I look a little different now that all the glitter’s finally washed off my face and forehead.

The erstwhile President Jed Bartlet arrived at 10:55, greeted the line and without preamble led us and anyone within earshot in singing a spirited rendition of “America the Beautiful”. We understand he’s done this at another con or two, and did the same at the 2:00 West Wing panel. I’ve only seen one partial video of the moment, but I’m unsure whether that link will work for everyone. If it does, the back of Anne’s head is briefly visible at far right at the 20-second mark. The recording starts right after Sheen, in bombastic full swing, walked around the booth corner to keep singing at next-door neighbor Dule Hill, who gave him such a Charlie Young look from his table.

We were near the front of the general-admission line, and didn’t wait much longer because the table handler was gracious about alternating between the VIP and GA lines. He signed my copy of Apocalypse Now Redux while I babbled on about comparing his journey in that film to his journey in The Way, the 2011 film that he and his son Emilio Estevez (who directed and had a small role in it) showed up to promote at the Heartland FIlm Festival in 2011, the first time we ever saw him in person. He was quite gracious and talkative with one and all.

Our photo op with Sheen and Hill (see above!) was scheduled at 1:00, though our turn didn’t come till after 1:30 — neither unusual nor terrible by typical comic-con standards. We sported our new “Jazz Hands Enthusiast” T-shirts, a nifty Christmas idea courtesy of Anne’s brother and his wife, who are both awesome. Hill quickly joined the short list of actors we’ve met who know the name “Fosse” and was kind enough to explain jazz hands to Sheen — pretty much like you’d expect Charlie might’ve done for President Bartlet.

We only had one other photo op scheduled for the day: Krysten Ritter! TV’s Jessica Jones herself will be returning soon in the new season of Daredevil: Born Again (though she’s only in the last three episodes), but you may also have seen her in other shows such as Veronica Mars, as the flighty daughter of Steve Guttenberg’s mayor; Breaking Bad, as Jesse’s doomed girlfriend Jane; or in the final season of Gilmore Girls as Rory’s friend Olivia.

As it happens, Anne and I just finished binging Gilmore Girls last weekend — including the miniseries, for better or worse — so the timing was pretty nifty. Ritter now makes two folks we’ve met so far from the show, after seeing Sean Gunn up in Michigan back in 2015.

In between actor-based events came my favorite part of every C2E2, the requisite run through Artists Alley. Normally I’ll insist on two such runs, but time was limited and the flesh was weak. This year I braked for the following folks:

Not pictured: Kyle Starks! We’d already met him at C2E2 2019 and Dragon Con 2023, and I couldn’t attend his recent appearance at one of our local comic shops, but I had to stop by when I noticed he was selling one of his works I’d missed. I’d already bought and enjoyed Assassination Nation, Pine and Merrimac (which broke my heart), Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, Peacemaker Tries Hard! (which to me was even funnier than the HBO show), Marvel Unleashed (among his few Safe-For-Work works), and I might be forgetting others. He’s also begun making and selling stickers at his various con appearances, many based on figures well-known to us Gen-X-ers. A discussion about which stickers have or haven’t sold well led to him and Anne chatting at length about Mama’s Family, which is definitely not something that’s ever happened for her at a con before.

(For those keeping track at home, that’s a total of six comics creators with beards…and, curiously, no women? Somehow? Dang. Mea culpa.)

Otherwise…that’s very nearly everything we did. We grabbed lunch from a food-court stand called Midwest Melts, which kept the turkey paninis coming pretty steadily but for some reason left anyone who ordered brisket or grilled-cheese sandwiches waiting a good 15-20 minutes or more. Acting on a tip from a fellow Facebook fan, we tracked down The Colorful Geek, whose wares included What We Do in the Shadows stickers, among other shows. We walked maybe half the aisles in the exhibit halls before deciding we’d gotten our money’s worth, aesthetically speaking.

By 4:15 we were exhausted and satisfied, happy with our acquisitions and ready to go. Sadly, we couldn’t work any panels into our itinerary, mostly due to conflicts with our photo-op schedule and our plan to hit Sheen’s autograph line first. Also, after 4:15 the Saturday panel lineup was just plain weak, far as our interests were concerned. Alas, it happens.

Before leaving we stopped for one last snack at an ice cream booth up front, which was apparently storing its multi-gallon products in a fridge instead of a freezer. Not until our server was mid-scoop did we notice the ice cream was already thawing.

…so I’d call that our worst purchase of the day. Fortunately I came away with new reading matter and nifty stickers that’ll outlast that parting annoyance.

By 5:00 we were on the road just in time to get stuck in the middle of heavy I-90 traffic coming out of Chicago’s “No Kings” protest at Grant Park, which had been scheduled to end at 4. Nary a king interfered with our Chicago experience, but it was an interesting opportunity to meet a President.

The End.

Thanks for reading! Lord willing, see you next con…possibly as early as this coming May! We came in well under budget for this show, so now I can buy new shoes in time for the next one…

[For the record, all time stamps in this entry are Central Daylight Time. Anne and I live in the Eastern time zone, but we’re well aware when we’ve switched from one Midwest state to another, unlike some past fictional White House Cabinet members we could mention.]