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Date: 2025-06-07 15:00:36+00:00
All the geeks of Illinois and other gathered April 11-13, 2025 to attend the Chicago (C) Comic (2) and Entertainment (E) Expo (2). At this fan convention attendees met their heroes from voice actors, writers, illustrators and other industry professionals to cosplayers dressed up as their literal heroes. Between autographs and photo-ops badge holders waded through the sea of vendors selling licensed merchandise, books and original artwork, played an array of video games, crafted in various workshops, ate and drank, and received consultations on their work. With over three days of activity and excitement, here are some of the highlights that you may have missed.
C2E2 took place over the long weekend, with registration on April 10 and programming on April 11-13 at McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, IL. Over the days hundreds of fans funnelled in through the grand concourse entrance under the massive C2E2 banner.
Fans lined up to take a photo in front of the large C2E2 letters all weekend. The line ran the length of McCormick Place’s second floor grand concourse for most of the hours of the three days. While no special photographer was there to take guest’s pictures, everyone in line was kind enough to take the photo of those before them.
Nationally booked DJ Nick Duvé brought the music to C2E2 for the third year in a row in collaboration with The Show Before the Show. Duvé kept the crowd hype in the grand concourse at McCormick place as C2E2 fans passed through security, navigated to their panels, took photos, had cosplay meetups, and entered the expo floor.
McCormick Place has two large expo floors. While one floor at C2E2 remained empty, only facilitating lines for security, the other was chalk full of vendors, workshops, play areas, tattooers, food, autographs, and photo-ops with various celebrity guests. Featured C2E2 celebs included Sam Heughan, Patton Oswalt, John Boyega, Elijah Wood, and Sean Astin. Spotlight exhibitors like AMC and Pro Wrestling Tees had special booths selling C2E2 exclusive products.
At the center of the expo floor was a large patch of turf creating an eating, drinking, and play area called The Yard. Sponsored by Revolution Brewing, this oasis was a break in the center of the chaos. The Yard was moderated and hosted giveaways and small activities like drawing.
Live Action Role Playing, otherwise known as LARPING, is a form of roleplay where people act out their characters from fictional worlds. Often LARPING takes on the form of battles with many large LARP events featuring large battle scenes. At C2E2, interested players could grab foam swords and cardboard shields from the LARPING Area and battle opponents at no extra cost.
Gotta collect them all! At a long standing table, card game collectors searched through binders of hundreds of game cards buying, selling, and trading. Multiple tables throughout the expo hall allowed for collectors to buy, sell and trade items from cards to video games to comic books.
Posters and figures weren’t the only things people were walking away with at C2E2, on the expo floor flash tattoos were done at the Tattoo Pavilion. Multiple shops, only divided by low black curtains, offered tattoos and showcased their artists’ portfolios on the curtains and in binders on their tables.
Chicago is a hotspot for colleges.DePaul’s Esports departments brought their alumni game designer Billy Basso to provide a gaming experience on some competitive games.
Columbia Chicago’s illustration students commanded their own booth among the vendors selling their artwork on posters, stickers, and tote bags as well as some Columbia merchandise. They gave out free stickers as well as a run down of what they do as illustration students.
Image Comics hosted a panel announcing their newest Radiant Black comics under Massive-Verse, showcasing cover designs and storylines with audio recordings from celebrity voice actors. Near the end of the panel Massive-Verse writer and former DC comics writer Kyle Higgins brought in special guest DC Illustrator Dan Mora to announce their collaboration of the new comic “Immortal Legend Batman.” The team showcased the Batman cover as well as an illustrated schematic of Batman and Robin’s new suit designs.
Comics, books, and writing are a big part of C2E2. Alongside having a section on the expo floor for book companies and publishers, Sourcebooks, a partnering publishing company based in Illinois, hosted two panels with their industry experts. The first panel introduced attendees to the steps they could take to get into the corporate publishing industry. The second panel highlighted Sourcebooks’ top upcoming romance, horror, and sci-fi releases. Aspiring authors and publishers left the convention more in-the-know than when they entered.
In the name of celebrating the newest season of Netflix’s Black Mirror, Twisted Comics founder Neil Gibson hosted a panel diving into his license of Black Mirror and how he’s approaching turning the hit tv show into a comic book series. Gibson shared his experience and some exclusive in progress sketches and colors.
Svengoolie (Rich Koz) has been in the TV industry since 1970 taking a humorous approach to horror movie commentary on his show “Svengoolie” on MeTv. In a panel moderated by John Siuntres, recording live for the “Word Balloon” podcast, Koz walked the packed audience through his long running career.
Cyanide & Happiness, a comic and animated collection of dark humour had its heyday in the 2010s but it hasn’t gone anywhere. ExplosmEntertainment tabled at C2E2 selling their games and books and also participated in C2E2 after dark hosting a live drawing session taking suggestions from the audience like an improv group.
They say save the best for last, and that was definitely true for C2E2’s after dark 18+ comedy show. The last comedian on stage, Jeff Quintana, plays the character of motivational speaker getting active with the audience taking on multiple bits utilizing music and props. Hosted by Dade County Comedy and moderated by Rual Hernandez, this session of Comedy at the Con kept spirits high throughout the closing hour of the convention
Don’t miss out, you can save the date for C2E2’s return March 27-29, 2026.
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