C2E2

I went to C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo) this past week, and enjoyed it very much. Chicago in general is one of my favorites cities. It has that "big city" feel, but without all the filth and harsh/unfriendly bustle that usually comes with. The whole place is very clean, and people are generally really nice.

This is only the fifth year for C2E2, but they could have fooled me. It was very effectively run, and almost everything made sense from a logistical standpoint. I was impressed. It's pretty damn big too. One of the things that I always lament about smaller conventions is that you see pretty much everything on the floor in one day. This definitely wasn't the case for C2E2. The building where its held is freaking huge. There was never a moment when I felt cramped or forced to move in a certain direction, despite over 50,000 people attending. The whole space wasn't even taken up in that section of the complex. A café raised above everything on a pseudo-second floor also helped separate those that just wanted to sit down for a minute, as well as scope out the entire floor from above.

The floor was split (very effectively) into sections. People selling original/licensed artwork were in one place, people selling more conventional things (e.g. comics, figures, etc.) were in another, Photo Ops/autographs were in another, and Panels were in a totally separate section of the complex. That was probably one of my favorite parts. You didn't have to shove past people simply walking around in order to reach a panel. Anyone in that section of the complex was there to hear or see somebody. It was great.

Though I was a few minutes late, I did manage to catch Stan Lee's panel on Sunday. Having never heard him speak live before, I wasn't sure how he would be in real life. Would his celebrity persona turn out to just be an act? How would the man who created and crafted so many brilliant comic book ideas and narratives be in real life? Thankfully, I was utterly convinced that he's the real deal. He spoke very candidly about his experiences, and seemed genuinely happy to field all questions. Even though I'm sure he's been answering the same ones for over fifty years, his energy and personality really made it seem like it the first time they had been asked. Just a really nice guy. It was great to finally get to see him in person. Everything I've read that he's written only makes me want to seek out more. I can easily see why the 1960s were one of the best decades ever for comics. And I was impressed at how lively and aware he was, despite being over 90 years old. It was such a cool experience!

Anyway, I spent a ton of money on stuff, and wished that I had unlimited funds for even more stuff. I saw a lot of really great artwork and new ideas all vying to make it to the forefront. There were lots of panels and people that were worth checking out, with all kinds of topics. And there was a ton of cool cosplaying going on. My favorite was probably the G1 Transformers group (I love that someone loved Shrapnel enough to cosplay as him), but there were a ton of really impressive ones besides those. All in all, I will definitely go back next year if I'm able.

Driving around Chicago was a lot of fun too. Lots of stuff to see and do. If it had been a little warmer, the beach would have just been icing on the cake.

Thanks, C2E2!

DC Silver Age Heroes

You are hilarious.

I have attended a few comic conventions in the recent past, and have enjoyed myself quite a bit. I stare in awe at the classic Silver Age and super-rare Golden Age comics on the shelves of dealers. I also stare in awe at those price tags. Even if I had the money, I don't know if I would spend it on that. I like reading comics. I like the stories, artwork, and all that.

Unfortunately for me, as I was growing up, the comics on the shelves of most places that sold them were from the 1990s. At the time, I was a child and thought that's how all comics were. Lots of blood, grim combat with little dialogue spoken aloud, lots of pouches and enormous guns. I watched Batman: The Animated Series and the other DC animated stuff at the time religiously. I also watched some Marvel cartoons (i.e. X-Men, Spider-Man) and enjoyed them very much.

I knew as a child that comics had been around for a long time, but I never really thought about the stories or where characters came from. They were always there, right? In reading Spider-Man, I didn't actually know who Gwen Stacy was, but I had a comic where the Green Goblin talked about her dying. Whatever, it didn't really matter to me. I never asked myself, "Who is Gwen Stacy?" I will add that I was an idiot for not asking questions like these.

The Green Goblin is the Green Goblin, how can there be more than one? Bruce Wayne was always Batman, no one else was ever Batman. How could they be when Bruce Wayne is Batman? Robin died!? No way, he's right here! That must be a lie.

Jump to the present. Obviously I know a bit more, but comics have such a rich history. It's an extremely long process to catch up. And often huge characters and events are cast aside through the course. It's a never-ending process, but I am loving it. The internet also makes it easier to discover and research things. And I'm still just talking mainstream DC and Marvel right now. There's so much I don't even know about still.

So at these conventions, aside from all the crazy-expensive comics, figures, posters, etc., I see these huge boxes filled with "DC SHOWCASE PRESENTS" books. They each have a mainstream DC character on them, multiple volumes for some characters. I find out they're mostly Silver Age stories. The only prior reason stopping me from checking out older stories (as much as I wanted to) was that there was no way to find them other than getting actual issues ($$$) or just reading summaries online, which is not the same. But here come these magnificent volumes, and since it's a convention, everybody has them, and they're trying to get rid of them. Brand new for $5 each. Damn. So I pick up a lot. And I have been reading them ever since.

It doesn't bother me that they're in black and white. And to be honest, there were periods where coloring practices actually detracted from the line work. The stories, for the most part, are engaging, hilarious, and overall pretty awesome. And since they're books, I don't have to worry about them falling apart or anything like that. There's about twenty issues in each volume (in chronological order, to boot). Fifty books? You've got 1,000 issues right there.

The stories. Man, the stories. There are ridiculous villains, heroes, events, situations, the whole package. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny. I'm not saying it's funny because they're bad. They're really damn good. It's just such a different time. If stuff like this came out now, I don't know how long it would survive. But at the time, that was the norm for hero stuff, and the humor in them has circled around to being what we consider funny again. I can't recommend checking them out enough. Heroes I never even knew anything about other than names and basic ability (e.g. The Elongated Man, The Atom, Martian Manhunter, etc.) have such a good history. I am mad at myself for not looking for these sooner.

Marvel also has their "MARVEL ESSENTIALS" line, which is exactly the same thing, except there's a lot lot lot more of them, and they go all the way into the 1990s, whereas the DC ones tend to stop near the mid to late-1970s with the later volumes.