Comic Con Chicago 2014: Matt Smith, Norman Reedus, William Shattner

My geographical position put me in a place where I could go to a fantastic event in Chicago, Comic Con (actually in Rosemont, Il, right outside Chicago). Comic Con is a huge deal for fans of many major Sci-Fi television shows and movies, also artists all over the world.  Many celebrities are on hand for autographs and pictures. It was an  amazing experience.

First of all anyone can attend with the purchase of a ticket. This Comic Con was $60 a ticket for entry,  $50 on Sunday because it's a shorter day. Prices vary for different Comic Cons and it also depends on who hosts it. Wizard World hosted the one I attended in Chicago.  Then you pay extra for any celeb photo ops or signatures that you collect. I purchased a VIP ticket that included entry for all four days and a signature and Photo op with Matt Smith and a panel discussion with Matt Smith and Karen Gillian from Dr. Who. It was an amazing panel. Fans could stand up and ask questions to the two of them. They were incredible.

The worst part is the lines. The VIP package helped reduce this a lot. There were lines for all the autographs, some were extremely long, some were pretty short. Some of the celebrities were really cool. They were fist pumping people as they walked to and from their appointments and/or the bathroom. They can't possibly talk to everyone, they get paid to do this, and they are, after all, just people. This being said when you get their autograph you have about six seconds, some people get this stretched out by giving them a gift, or saying something to them that is provocative, but still it will be over pretty quickly. There are lots of people vying for their attention.

I got an autograph and photo op with Matt Smith. Despite the VIP package I still probably spent about two hours in line total. The picture moved really fast once it was started, the autograph line, not as much. People were giving him gifts and chatting with him as much as they could. He was very friendly and I don't think I would be as patient as some of these celebs, these people were drooling and going nuts on them.

The best part was the costumes people dressed in, some where super incredible. Especially the ones people created for their children. The little girl in the Dalek, (from Dr. Who) was especially amazing. There were power rangers, superheroes, zombies, and anything you could possibly think of that was cartoon, Sci-Fi, or superhero related. The superhero costumes were the most predominate. The X-Men were the most obvious, but there were also a lot of wonder women and supermen and of course every color of power ranger imaginable. 

 My niece was excited because she saw celebrities from the Walking Dead.  There were a lot of them there. I have never seen this show, so I didn't know who these people were, in fact Michael Rooker drove past me in a golf cart and the only reason I took his picture was because this man I was talking to started freaking out about it.  So I got out my phone and snapped a couple of pictures of him.  I also saw two others, but the pictures came out kind of blurry. My niece got her picture taken with Norman Reedus, and he was so nice to her. He told her she was adorable and she had the best time meeting him. 

Then later on that same day we ran into William Shattner. That was super cool. He was walking to his autograph booth, so I snapped a couple of pictures of him as well. My mom is a Star Trek fan and always has been, so the second it was downloaded to Facebook she made it into her profile picture :). I kept joking to my sister that we shouldn't be standing around the Star Trek areas with my R2D2 tank top and R2D2 popcorn container. (Yes, I brought R2 with me, it seemed cruel to leave him at home.)

The artists were a really cool part of this event as well. Many of them will autograph the prints you purchase and they are more than happy to talk to you about their artwork. My niece got to meet one of the artist who draws The Walking Dead, I'm not real crazy about Zombies but his work is so interesting I couldn't look away. He had Norman Rockwell style zombies drawn. He was also Norman Reedus' neighbor. I think that's what had drawn (Mind the pun) my niece in to talk to him. He actually drew her a picture of Norman Reedus and signed it. His name was Arthur Suydam and he was facinating to talk to and just generally a nice guy.  She was a very happy 13 year old after getting a picture drawn and talking to this man. 

 My advice, bring lots of cash. Most all the vendors take credit and debit cards, but cash is easier. Make sure you know what you are buying. A lot of the stuff can be found online a lot cheaper.  The stuff you want is the artwork, comic books, original stuff that is hard to find.


Dress up in your favorite superhero and get going!


 Some things to check out:

http://www.wizardworld.com/
http://www.arthursuydam.com/