This year my wife and I are gearing up to attend our third consecutive C2E2 comic-book-‘n’-entertainment convention up in Chicago, happening April 26th-28th, 2013. We missed the inaugural year in 2010 due to a schedule conflict, but I’ve made a point of prioritizing it on my calendar ever since. I rather like the idea of someone attempting a Midwest version of the San Diego Comic Con.
Most people in our hobbies are familiar with the longer-running Wizard World Chicago con, whose present incarnation emphasizes its celebrity autograph show while casually including some comics on the side. Though C2E2’s 2013 guest list implies that their entertainment-guest budget has been exponentially increased, they nonetheless attract a much wider lineup of comic-book writers, artists, and fans as well. C2E2 has one major advantage in my book: the major comic companies — Marvel, DC, Dark Horse — have sided with C2E2 over WWC, appearing each year at the former while having sadly eschewed the latter for years.
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C2E2 is nowhere near the size of San Diego, but obviously dreams of being such someday. It presently uses only one section of Chicago’s enormous McCormick Place convention center, which has plenty more room to offer if Reed Exhibitions decided they needed some value-added sprawling space. 2012 attendance was pegged at 41,000, up from 32,000 in 2011 and well above its 2010 debut of 27,500. San Diego could still beat up C2E2 and steal its lunch money, but I’m eager to see it keep growing.
The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online at the time, but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.
(Not that it was all about costumes. Your humble author and his even humbler wife were each allowed a moment to strike our own poses courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.)
While plumbing the deepest, darkest regions of our pantry for quick supper ideas tonight, my wife discovered an ancient artifact not seen by mortals for uncountable years: a mysterious can of applesauce that expired April 7, 2011.
Tonight’s new episode of Revolution, “Ghosts”, divides its time between two primary threads, each about former partnerships torn asunder but looking for common ground to reunite, and finding it in the form of evil armed henchmen. Nothing mends fences like common foes.
In the wake of recent conflicting headlines regarding the revolving-door employment status of its longtime participants, ABC’s The View announced a new initiative to move forward into a bold new era by hiring Internet sensation 
We saw the White House blow up in Independence Day. We saw it blow up again in 2012. As I type this it’s being blown up yet again in theaters in Olympus Has Fallen. Add your own memories here of the White House’s repetitive history of exploding again and again and again at the movies, whether at the hands of terrorists, invaders, or bad weather.
Tonight on Revolution: EXPLOSIONS! GUNFIRE! MAJOR DEATH! BAZOOKAS! PUNCHING! Behold the end results of a three-month retooling hiatus.
As unimpressed as I was with the trailer, The Croods turned out to be an unexpected delight, with a sincere message for parents who want to protect their children from the world, but struggle with the knowledge that someday that job won’t be theirs anymore. (Says the nervous guy counting down the days until his son begins college.)
As of this weekend, I can now say I’ve seen every full-length motion picture directed to date by Christoper Nolan. In December 2012 his debut, Following, earned a Criterion Collection re-release. Shot in 1998 in 16mm black-and-white, it was minimally restored for this edition, with the original aspect ratio and much of the old-media grittiness retained for historical verisimilitude. Its seventy speedy minutes contain an amateur no-star cast (as well as crowds of unwitting “extras” captured on the fly) and were shot for just five thousand dollars, a bargain compared to other self-financed B&W debut films from the same decade (e.g., Kevin Smith’s Clerks, Robert Rodriguez’ El Mariachi). With such budgetary constraints and no established names involved in the creative process, a casual browser would expect Following to feel like a young-adult vanity project fit only for YouTube.
