Captain's Blog, Star Date: whateverthefuck: 2014

Hello everyone! Below you will find any and all pictures that we took during the event! Aside from sharing pictures with one another, I was wondering how everyone felt about the con this year? I am some what of a veteran (14 years) when it comes to Wizard World and C2E2, so maybe I feel different than most, but I think the recent popularity of our nerdy niche has some what tarnished my experience. Over all I feel like this is the best comic con that Chicago has had in probably the past five years. C2E2 even got Marvel back on board this year which is a huge step in the right direction, in my opinion. If they got DC and Adult Swim back in there, I'd fall in love all over again just like I did my first few years of going. I guess my issues stem from that all too familiar main stream vibe I've been picking up on the past couple of years. I used to be able to find all sorts of strange retro toys, posters and comics back in the day. Now everything is marketed to all the newbies coming in to the con because of their interest in all of the comic book movies that have come out over the years. I have no problem with new people coming to the con. I embrace my fellow nerds. There is nothing better than meeting new people who love all of the same crazy bullshit you do. However, I think its a huge mistake to only cater to the new wave of people coming in. Merch booths literally had identical items, so much so that I was even getting confused as to whether or not I had been there already. The t-shirts used to be epic. I used to buy at least 5 awesome t-shirts from the Graffiti booth that USED to be there, and I only walked away with one this year from a completely different vendor! Its just the same overly commercialized crap at every corner, and people were eating it right up. It kinda crushed my little girl feelings for a minute. I had hundreds of dollars burning a hole in my pocket because I save up for this event. It was just waiting to be spent on any Mass Effect, Fallout, Batman, and Star Trek stuff. I found ONE action figure of Mordin Solus and purchased him immediately. That was the end of my spending spree. Sigh. I also feel like Yaya Han and her Heroes of Cosplay show on Sci-fi did nothing for the con, or our over all community, either. In my opinion its just some over dramatic bullshit and it paints our world in a way that is not very honest. Its just another way to whore out a community and make money until the trend they caused ends up crashing and people move on to whatever the next big thing is. Then, at least, we will have our world back in the hands of the people who care about it. Let me know how you guys feel in the comments section. I am curious to know if I am the only one that feels this way.

And, now for the fun part! Please feel free to do whatever with these pictures if you find yourself. I will even send you a nice copy via email if you want me to, that way its not all grainy!