Get immersed in the recent C2E2 2025 in Chicago with our full recap of the weekend, our Main Stage panel videos, best cosplay photos, and more. And if you want to do it all again next year, we've got the dates for C2E2 2026, too.

Do you want to know what the best comic con is? As in, the best convention for comic book fans in particular? I think I've got the answer: it's Chicago's very own C2E2. 

Now, I know many might suggest the cultural institution that is San Diego's Comic-Con International or North America's biggest in New York Comic Con to claim that title. We all know SDCC and, to a lesser degree, the larger economic wheel it spins in Southern California, and we all know NYCC (Heck, we're owned by the same company!). But as SDCC and NYCC have gotten bigger and bigger over the years, transforming more and more into a bonafide Hollywood publicity event each summer, it's moved away from the 'comic' part of their titles. As the scale of those shows has ballooned, so has the price of attendance. To be clear, I'm not necessarily bemoaning that - it is what it is. But I think as a human being who happens to attend comic cons for a living, latter-day SDCC has made me hungry for a bit of 'soul' in the convention experience - if such a thing was possible to find. 

I've found that soul at C2E2 2025, and it has warmed my cold hater heart. 

First time, best time at Chicago's C2E2 2025

While I would describe myself as a 'hater,' my father would say that I'm just "critical" when it comes to public spaces. There is a tiny Fran Lebowitz inside my brain who comes out when I attend conventions. This incisive critic controlling me at comic cons like a psionic Remy from Ratatouille leads me to think things like, "Are these Artist Alley aisles up to Fire Code?," to, "They need to install acoustic panels in this atrium because it's way too loud with all these people in here," and "The lack of outdoor space in this facility should be considered a violation of the Geneva Conventions." I just have a lot of thoughts and feelings about how comic cons should be life-affirming experiences, not stressful ones. 

However, all of that melted away while I walked the show floor at C2E2 this year, taking in the largest Artist Alley in North America with a whopping 545 creators in attendance. While the aisles were nice and wide, and they were also bustling with fans of all ages and backgrounds. You generally don't have to look far to find joy at any comic con, but at C2E2, it seemed to hover all around us on the show floor. Fans were just happy - and I could tell that for many of them, C2E2 was a special destination. Nobody was pushing or being rude, no children were screaming or crying from being overstimulated, and no one was trying to cut each other in line.

Folks would go out of their way to excitedly compliment each other on their cosplays, while tiny kids dressed as Miles Morales clung to their fathers' heads in a perfect Spider-Man pose as they rode on their shoulders through the show floor. There was a reverence to the experience of being at C2E2, among other C2E2 attendees, that struck me as incredibly wholesome. 

I brought this up with Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps writer Morgan Hampton when I spoke to him at his table in Artist Alley. Both of us live in LA and have been on the WonderCon, LA Comic Con, and San Diego Comic-Con circuits before, and we agreed that there was something special about C2E2's energy. Hampton pointed out that at this show, as opposed to the Southern California area conventions, fans were already familiar with his work as a writer, instead of just the characters he's worked on. C2E2 fans approached Hampton's table with copies of his books to get signed, evidencing how C2E2's fans are big readers of comics. 

This goes to show how C2E2 is a destination for comics fans in the Midwest: they comb through their comic book collections to take out books by creators who are going to be at the convention, so they can get them signed. While I've done the same at shows like WonderCon, I'll also say that I've always felt in the minority, and the Artist Alley at WonderCon doesn't get nearly as much people traffic as C2E2. Here at C2E2, bringing your own comics to get signed is a cultural norm. On the flip side (and I apologize for this), I wasn't seeing jaded flippers toting around shortboxes of comics to get signed through the lanes in Artist Alley the way I do at SDCC and New York Comic Con. 

With all of this in mind, C2E2 brings an immense level of talent to Chicago and the Midwest that is arguably on par with SDCC, all at a much more accessible price. Badges don't sell out in 90 minutes, nor do you have to pay hundreds of dollars to go all three days of the convention. 3-day badges for C2E2 this year sold for $135, while a 4-day badge (plus Preview Night) costs $361 before fees for SDCC, and NYCC 2024 was around $240.

I used to tell fellow LA people who couldn't get badges for SDCC to just go to WonderCon, but now I'm going to start recommending C2E2 instead. There's a homegrown spirit to this convention that I've been charmed by this weekend. Somehow, I feel confident that C2E2 will retain its genuine core even as it has had it just had its highest attended year yet.

Did you miss a C2E2 Main Stage panel? Don't worry, we're filming it all thanks to our partners at CGC x JSA -  our official authenticator & grading partner. Here is the C2E2 2025 panel list and release schedule.