"Won't you please come to Chicago..."

UPDATED!  I'll continue to add stuff below as I become aware of it.

As many are aware, the big comics event for this upcoming weekend (as opposed to every other weekend from the end of March through sometime in June) is C2E2, the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo.  I'm excited to be attending, so if anybody reading this is going to be there and wants to meet up (or try to bump into me by chance), feel free to let me know; my email address is over there in the sidebar.  As for the event itself, and those surrounding it, here are some of the highlights, most of which I'm hoping to attend or check out:

Panels:

Vertigo Editorial Presentation - Friday 3:15-4:15.  A whole bunch of Vertigo editors and creators. Might be interesting.

Avatar Press - Friday 5:15-6:15. In case you always wanted to meet Brian Pulido.  Maybe worth going to hear some announcements?

Pantheon - Friday 5:30-6:30.  Chip Kidd, Chris Ware, and Dash Shaw talk about their upcoming Pantheon releases, I guess.  Hopefully some other stuff too.  I'll definitely try to make this one.

Chicago Gays in Comics - Friday 6:45-7:45.  I'm not familiar with the creators/commentators on this panel, but it might be an interesting discussion.

Mike Mignola Spotlight - Friday 6:45-7:45.  Hey, Mignola's cool, right?

Webcomics Town Hall - Friday 7:15-8:15.  Lots of good talent on this panel, including Erika Moen, Lucy Knisley, Danielle Corsetto, David Malki, and somebody or other related to Zuda.  Good times, I bet.

Old Media, New Media, Comics Media - Friday, 7:45-8:45.  Heidi MacDonald leads this one, with panelists Noah Berlatsky, Johanna Draper Carlson, Brigid Alverson, Ron Richards, and Lucas Siegel.  I'll go just to see if Noah can piss everyone else off.

Boom! Studios and Boom! Kids - Saturday, 11:00-12:00.  I've been enjoying a lot of Boom!'s recent output, so this might be an interesting one for announcements and such.

The AV Club Presents The Middle East and the City Streets: Superheroes in the Modern World - Saturday, 11:15-12:15.  I don't know about this one, but I do like most of the AV Club writers.  Their comics coverage is one of the few places where they don't do an especially good job though, so hearing them discuss whatever this is might just be awkward.

Del Rey Books - Saturday, 11:15-12:15.  Twitter has been afire with speculation about Del Rey's flagging interest in manga lately, so this might be an interesting thing for pestering their representative with questions along those lines.

Oni Press Panelmonium - Saturday, 1:30-2:30.  Try to get a glimpse of the final volume of Scott Pilgrim, or the movie!  And maybe other stuff too.

Jeff Smith Spotlight - Saturday, 1:45-2:45.  If Mike Mignola is worth watching, so is Mr. Bone.

Archaia All Access - Saturday, 1:45-2:45.  Archaia has been putting out some really interesting books, so this might be an interesting one for meeting creators and/or hearing announcements.

The Graphic Art of Chicago's Transit and Utility Posters of the 1920's - Saturday, 4:00-5:00.  Not really a comics-related thing, but it could be a good highbrow respite from everything else going on.

Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art, and Culture - Saturday, 5:15-6:15.  This could be a cool discussion; I might be able to actually learn something!

Comics with Comixology - Sunday, 11:15-12:15.  I'm probably not going to be able to make it on Sunday, but I would go to this if I was.  There's supposed to be some big announcement, and they did give away an Ipod Touch at their Wizard panel last year, so there's your impetus to attend...

Meet the Locals - Sunday, 12:15-1:15.  I would love to go to this one too, just so I can be excited about living near some creators that I like (assuming any of them will attend).

SMILE...LIVE! - Sunday, 2:00-2:30.  I'm also sorry to miss this, which is a sort of stage adaptation of (portions of?) Raina Telgemeier's Smile.  I bet it will be fun.

The full list of panels can be seen here, in case I missed anything.

Related Events:


Green Lantern C2E2 pre-party - Challengers Comics, 8:00 pm Thursday
Mark Waid Smells Evil Party - Challengers Comics, 8:00 pm Friday.  I don't know if I'll make either of these, but I do like the guys at Challengers, so we'll see what happens.

Top Shelf Swedish Invasion Party - The Double Door, 8:00 pm Saturday.  Several artists in attendance, along with the Top Shelf crew, plus music, burlesque, and hopefully good times.

Creators and their comics:

Ryan Kelly is debuting a new self-published series called Funrama Presents: The Mutant Punks, and it looks really cool.

I'll be looking out for some of Top Shelf's new books, including Super Spy volume 2: The Lost Dossiers and James Kochalka's Superfuckers collection.


Oni has a new Jamie S. Rich/Joelle Jones book called Spell Checkers.


Jeff Smith will have the second collection of Rasl, for those who aren't buying the single issues.


Other artists I'll be looking to meet, and maybe score a Groo sketch from: Eric Canete, Hilary Barta, Cliff Chiang, Guy Davis, Colleen Doran, Ryan Dunlavey, Tom Fowler, Jim Mahfood, Ben Templesmith, and probably some others.  UPDATED to add: David Lloyd, Kevin Colden, Brian Hurtt.

If there's anything I didn't mention (maybe some of the "educational" panels, which could be interesting), or something you're planning to attend or watch out for, feel free to let me know.  It should be an exciting weekend!