Actually, I would love to do that, if you ever came to a Chicago-area con. :)

I'd love to do an interview with the perspective of the talent side, if you're interested. I want to respect your anonymity, so how we do it would be up to you. I'm happy to submit questions in advance, redact any personally identifiable information, and provide an advance copy for review before publishing.

Let me know what you think.

Would anyone be interested in a series on comic cons? What they're like, how you go, what to do, which ones to check out, a Haters Guide, etc?

Sampling Error 2020!

You have handsome friends.

That's Amy, a friend of mine from college. It was her birthday this weekend, so I took her to meet Chris Evans. 😁

That being said, if RDJ ever shows at one of these, I'm reverse mortgaging my condo and camping out a week ahead of time. 😂

ACE was very structured compared to a lot of cons. You show up at your time, up to 30m early, and get in line, then you wait. Honestly, I didn't wait more than an hour for anyone all weekend.

At less structured cons, it can be a shit show. I waited three hours for Charlie Cox (Daredevil) at Wizard World. However, for most guests, it's between 30-60m.

I'd say 90% of the talent's time is autos and photos. You go, say hi, tell them you love their work, they sign, you move on. For photos, I was in and out in under ten seconds. Unless it's someone like Chloe Bennett or Ricky Whittle, who love to chat with fans, the whole interaction is less than a minute, unless there isn't a big line. I talked to Zachary Levi for probably ten minutes at C2E2, did the same with Wil Wheaton, because there wasn't anyone else there.

Thoughts on ACE - it's the future of comic cons. Not everyone will be able to get the talent they do, but everyone is going to have to step up their game to compete. It's not enough to get a few retreads that have been doing the con circuit forever - if you've got a big superhero movie coming out, or come out recently, cash the fuck in and do a con. With the prices big name talent is charging, these guys can make serious bank just by showing up for two days, doing photos and autos, and getting out of town.

Everyone was REALLY tall. And now, as promised, photos!

A big Thanos-sized thumbs up with Karen Gillan! I also got her auto for a big Whovian friend of mine.


I may have given Tom Hiddleston back the Tesseract. Whoops. Also, people are weirdly obsessed with how Tom smells. Answer: sandalwood.


Magic Fingers with Elizabeth Olsen!


Chris Evans touched me. If you also touch me, it's like Chris Evans touched you. Also, I told him I was Team Iron Man. He said "Well, nobody's perfect."

So ACE is in the books, concluding my 2018 Con season. C2E2, Heroes and Villains, Wizard World, San Diego, and now ACE. What a rush.

Some thoughts on ACE, and photos ITR.

So I've been doing ACE Midwest this week here in Chicago. Some highlights so far:

- Lee Pace is super nice, and is really laid back. This is his first con and he asked me what people usually write on their 8x10s. I told him stuff like "Be awesome!", so he wrote "Be good." I also told him that I was disappointed he didn't have any pictures of him as Joe McMillan from Halt And Catch Fire, and he laughed and said Joe would have loved that (which is very true). Also, he said he couldn't say anything about Captain Marvel and got really serious about it, and started looking around as if he was checking for snipers, which I totally believe Marvel now has.
- Karen Gillan is very tall. Also, very thirsty, since right before we did our photo together she basically shotgunned a bottle of water.
- Matt Smith was obviously jetlagged on Friday, and it was hilarious. I was asking him questions about whether he's coming back to Chicago for Star Wars Celebration next year ("We'll see!") and if he could say anything about his character ("We'll see!").
- People have been obsessing over what Tom Hiddleston smells like. It's sandalwood, people. Let's move on with our lives.
- Elizabeth Olsen is nice if a little distant.
- Zazie Beetz had the most awesome head wrap on today.
- During a panel with Chris Evans, Lee Pace, and Karen Gillan, a young woman came up to talk about her struggles with anxiety. Karen talked about how she had read about it in psychology journals and encouraged the young woman to confront her anxieties, Lee called her brave and courageous, and Chris talked about his own struggles and how he got help for it. The entire audience cheered for the question asker, and it was a really beautiful moment.

Tomorrow is the Main Event for me - Tom Hiddleston autograph, and an autograph and photo with Captain America himself, Chris Evans

Oh, and I have Tom Hiddleston's fingerprints on my Tesseract. Make of that what you will.