Gamers, Artists, and Geeks Galore: Photo Recap: C2E2 2024

ChiIL Mama's Chi, IL Picks List:

Adventures at C2E2 

All Photos by Dugan Kenaz-Mara Unless Otherwise Noted

Guest Review and Photo Feature

by Dugan Kenaz-Mara

Dugan Kenaz-Mara and his count puppet. Photo by D'Arcy Mies

We love attending C2E2 and it has been a lovely experience year after year. This year the show floor featured a ton of exciting areas, including backdrops for cosplay photoshoots, a setup for painting miniatures, and loads of games. Whether you prefer to play on a tabletop, an arcade machine, a computer, or in real life, there was an option for you. 

My favorite part of C2E2 this year was walking through Artist Alley and seeing the artists working in person. Many of the artist booths were set up in a way that it was easy to see how they made their pieces in their individual styles. In fact, as I explored I discovered artists using nearly every medium I could think of including the normal pens, pencils, and markers, as well as watercolors, crayons, and even ink with a toothbrush! Almost every one of them was happy to let me take photos of them and their art, which just adds to the great sense of community this convention provides. 

No matter who you are it is super easy to fit in here. Casual attendees, talented cosplayers, and special guests can all be found mingling together. They even have an area designated as an LGBT friendly space. Everyone was incredibly kind and many cosplayers were more than happy to pose for a photo. Lots of celebrities from all corners of pop culture. Just walking through the show floor without even attending a photo-op or signing I happened to see the McElroy Brothers and Svengoolie. 

The convention has many exciting panels including some from local Chicago friends like Otherworld Theater and Rough Magic Games. I even got to help Rough Magic with their show floor space for part of the day, introducing people to one-page role-playing games. If that sounds interesting to you, I recommend playing one yourself. Google Honey Heist for a free easy game you can play with friends or family at home!

Dugan Kenaz-Mara is a designer, photographer, educator,  and recent graduate of Northwestern University.

Check out more of our favorite photos in the slideshow HERE.

Dugan Kenaz-Mara. Photo by D'Arcy Mies 

Netflix: Family Shows That Show All Sorts of Families #StreamTeam #Netflix

What family archetype are you? Are you multi culti, a blended family comedy, a drama, or family of super heroes? Are you an unconventional family headed by a same sex couple or grandparents? Here at ChiIL Mama, we embrace all family types because variety rocks and love comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. 

This month our Netflix Stream Team Theme is: Family Is What You Make It

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own. ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama next month, for more Netflix fun in Chi, IL and beyond!

Here's my family gettin' our geek on at C2E2 Comic Con in Chicago, where we were jazzed to see Netflix' original series, Daredevil has been renewed. 

We adore families that play together! Check out some of these cosplay fams, rockin' the pop culture at C2E2. Some families you choose, and some you are born into. If your family digs movies and TV shows like we do, check out Netflix. They're a big source for family fun on your schedule!

Maybe your family style changes from day to day. Even though we look like a "traditional" old school nuclear family with 2 married parents, an older boy and a younger girl, we're still a uniquely quirky modern family. My family appears geeky when we have press credentials to cover big comic cons like C2E2, Wizard World and Anime Fest. We seem sporty when we're cheering the kids on in gymnastics and ultimate frisbee where my daughter and son both placed 2nd in state respectively. We may look artsy at theatre openings and gallery shows, and urban while exploring our sweet home, Chicago. We're the traveling type when on the road, and we're a rock family when it comes to covering music festivals and shows. 



And of course our family wouldn't be complete without including all the 4 legged "children"--3 guinea pigs and 2 large dogs, not to mention the 3 tanks of fish.





Living in a large, urban metropolis, my kids have a number of classmates and friends with 2 moms. And even growing up in the suburbs of Ohio, I knew a family with a gay father who divorced his wife to be with another man. Which reminds me of Grace and Frankie, a new Netflix original comedy along those lines. Have you caught it yet? Check it out.

Brand NEW-- Grace and Frankie just premiered earlier this month.

• Grace and Frankie, Netflix's new funny and fearless original comedy featuring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, is a perfect example of how today’s families can shift, rearrange and blend in unexpected ways. When Grace and Frankie’s husbands leave them after 20 years of marriage—to be with each other—the women find themselves facing a change that they never expected, but they shift their perspective to get through it together with the support of their new blended family and, of course, a sense of humor.  show's premiere on May 8.

• What is it about your modern family that you wouldn’t trade for anything in the world? Explore the things that make other families unique by watching one of the titles in our list below -- whether it’s the Gilmore Girls’ dynamic mother-daughter duo or puppet brother in Crash & Bernstein. Then, ask your kids what it is that makes your family special. After all, family is what you make it.

Here are some sweet recommendations for shows with unique family dynamics via our friends at Netflix. 

• 1. Lily's Driftwood Bay
• 2. The Tigger Movie
• 3. Guess How Much I Love You: S1E5 Big Like You
• 4. Angelina Ballerina: Superstar Sisters

• 1. Crash & Bernstein
• 2. Life with Boys
• 3. Spy Kids
• 4. Russell Madness (Available 5/10)

• 1. Raising Hope
• 2. The Fosters
• 3. Gilmore Girls
• 4. Life Unexpected

•  1. All Hail King Julien (new episodes 4/3)
• 2. Littlest Pet Shop: Season 3 (4/21)
• 3. Lalaloopsy: Festival of Sugary Sweets (5/2)
• 4. Puss in Boots (new episodes 5/8)
• 5. H20 Mermaid Adventures (5/22)
• 6. Richie Rich: Season 2 (5/22)
• 7. Mako Mermaids: Season 3 (5/29)

Disclosure: ChiIL Mama is a proud member of the Netflix Stream Team. We've been compensated for sharing monthly posts with our readers.  As always, all opinions are our own. ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama next month, for more Netflix fun in Chi, IL and beyond!

Check out more of our favorite original C2E2 photos below:

Family is what you make it, indeed!

Wizard World App Released Today-For Druids With Droids

Wizard World Unveils Mobile App In Time For Chicago Comic Con

  Breaking News Today--Schedules, Profiles, News, Photos, Maps, Notifications And More Just A Tap Away

Now druids and droids can work in harmony!   So make sure your super hero spandex has a smart phone pocket.   ChiIL Live Shows/ChiIL Mama will be there again this year, to bring you loads of photo filled coverage. 

Just in time for its longest-running and most-attended show, Wizard World today unveiled the “Official Wizard World Comic Con App,” a must-have for attendees to get the most out of events before, during and after each show, beginning with Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, August 9-12 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill.  

The free app is available for smartphones running on iOS or Android, in the App Store (Apple) and Google Play. The Official Wizard World Comic Con App serves as a robust event guide for convention attendees, as well as a way for fans to connect with each other and learn about what's new with Wizard World year round.  Some of the standout features include:

• Event schedule, with days, times and details of programming, photo ops, VIP events and more.  Attendees can mark their favorites and share with friends on Facebook and Twitter
• Push notifications of programming updates and contests
• Celebrity and artist profiles
• Convention Map
• Handy ticketing function for upgrades and upcoming events
• Exhibitor specials and profiles
• Photos and videos updated from the show floor
• News and info from Wizard World's Twitter, Facebook and Blogs

Features will be added as the app grows, and fans are encouraged to let Wizard World know which they enjoy most and which new ones would be helpful. “The app is a great way for attendees to keep up with all the fun activities going on at Wizard World shows and to be a part of our shows year round,” said John Macaluso, Wizard World CEO.  “We think it's a good start and we look forward to feedback from attendees and other fans as to how to make it serve them even better.” About Wizard World: Wizard World produces Comic Cons and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate graphic novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, toys and social networking. The events often feature celebrities from movies and TV, artists and writers, and events such as premieres, gaming tournaments, panels, and costume contests. 

The full event schedule can be found at www.wizardworld.com. 


***** SAVE THE 2012 DATES *****
August 9-12, 2012 – Wizard World Chicago Comic Con September 29-30, 2012 – Wizard World Ohio Comic Con October 26-28, 2012 – Wizard World Austin Comic Con November 30 - December 2, 2012 – Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con TBD, 2013 – Wizard World Toronto Comic Con May 30 - June 2, 2013 – Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con

ABC Wednesday & Weirded Out Wednesday--L is for......

LOL and do a double take!
   L is for Local art, Little creepy babies, and Look out attachment parenting--it's Rosemary's baby for the new millennium. 

Just in time for Halloween....today's photos are doing double duty as our L for the ABC Wednesday meme and our first contribution to Mom-Mom-Mom's new Weirded Out Wednesday feature.   We spotted these creepy babies in Chicago at Wizard World's Comic-Con out in Rosemont.  We are a bit inundated with event business cards and I can't find theirs at the moment, but I will post the website info if it materializes.   If anyone knows, please feel free to add it to our comments section.   Googling creepy Chicago babies got me nowhere, and the card is MIA.


Halloween is one of our all time favorite holidays of the year.    But what's scarier than gory costumes to me is the imminent advance of the avalanche of Christmas.   We bought a rapidly selling out Blackhawks ornament yesterday, and attended a preview of holiday offerings at a local toy store.    We are already getting Christmas e-mail and it's just October 5th!


So, slow down and enjoy the changing colors of the midwestern foliage.    Make some apple cider.   Scare up a fun costume for Halloween.   Read some ghost stories.    And check out some fun posts over at Weirded Out and ABC Wednesday.