Chicago Gets Its Con
Chicago Gets Its Con
Feb 02I must say, as a former Chicagoan who was proud to call the Chicagoland area his home for most of his life, I’m tickled pink by news of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, or “C2E2,” which is a slightly wanky abbreviation, but you can’t have everything.
I cut my nerd teeth on Chicago conventions, whether it be the waning days of the classic Chicago Comicon which Wizard then bought out and ran into the ground, or the one-off Trek conventions at locations throughout the region, where we’d gather in a sweaty hotel ballroom to hear Patrick Stewart crack wise.
Chicago deserves a world-class comic book and pop culture expo, on the level of San Diego or the NYCC, and Wizard has never been it. Frankly, neither was the Chicago Comicon, but that was a different era, and it served that era well.
Notice I said “Chicago deserves,” not “the Chicagoland area, as represented by Rosemont, which is conveniently located near O’Hare International Airport and not much else outside of shitty hotel lobby restaurants and second-rate pizza joints.” As a local, it never bothered me much that the Comicon and Wizard shows set up camp in Rosemont, but I can imagine that anyone traveling into the city for the show would find themselves pretty pissed off and bored by the location.
McCormick Place is the IDEAL location for a Chicago show; April could very well be a beautiful month in the city, and at McCormick Place, you’re a short cab or train ride from the heart of downtown or the most vibrant neighborhoods the city has to offer. I can only imagine the fantastic parties that Chicago Comics and Quimby’s will be sponsoring in ’10; I bet they weren’t quite as fun when you had to haul some disgruntled creator back and forth to Rosemont down the Kennedy expressway.
Anyway, this is great news. I doubt I’ll make it out for year one, as we’re planning a big boffo Chicago trip to potentially take place this spring, but I look forward to attending as soon as possible. Go Bears.
