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.
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