Wizard World Comic Con has returned to Chicago once again, promising a horde of new celebrities, apparel, and more fans than ever. While it did start out slow  on its first day, the convention has a lot of potential and looks to improve throughout its four-day span. Then again, maybe I’m just being optimistic because one of my favorite actors, Jeremy Renner, will be appearing on Sunday.

If it wasn’t for Renner, I wouldn’t have found myself as excited for the convention as I was last year. This year’s lineup looks weak in comparison to the programming  and special guests of Wizard World 2014. Don’t get me wrong though, I really enjoyed the first day of the convention- it just hasn’t been all I’ve hyped it up to be yet. Plus, it is hard to make an accurate judgment at the moment due to the fact that not much happens on the first day of a convention.

The panels that were offered today, while few, did sound interesting, but unfortunately I could only make it to one: “Advanced Costuming and Armor.” With panelists/professional cosplayers Toby Markham, Ken Kooi, and Thomas Spanos, fans were able to get advice and tips on creating high quality costumes. Other panels of the day included discussions on careers in video gaming, Chicago ghost lore, geek speed dating, along with several more.

Possibly the most promising part of the con was the show floor. Hundreds of vendors selling comics, clothing, art, and numerous additional items lined the convention hall. I took this first day as an opportunity to scope everything out rather than frivolously spend money as I have in the past. Trust me, nothing is worse than seeing a piece of merchandise that you so badly desire and then realizing that you’ve spent all your money on random knickknacks.

The best part of the show floor, however, was not all of the cool stuff available for purchase, but the fellow con-goers. Everyone was so polite, just like nearly every other person I’ve talked to at previous cons. One lady even asked my younger sister if they could take a picture together because they were wearing similar outfits. The sense of community between con-goers is so strong and amazing, and in the end I feel like that’s what makes conventions so successful.

If you’re interested in joining the convention community, you can start this weekend. Although the four-day tickets are sold out, you can purchase a single  day ticket for Wizard World through this link. Hope to see you there!

Yesterday may have been the official start of Wizard World Chicago, but it seemed like the convention truly began today. With about twice as many attendees, three times as many panels, and an additional two hours of open show floor compared to Thursday, the con has met my high expectations once again. To be honest, with Thursday’s turnout I was a little nervous that I had over-hyped the convention and would go home disappointed, but after today my fears are gone.

The day started off on a high note. As soon as we made it to the con, my sister and I attended two back-to-back panels, the first one being a trivia competition and the second a special effects makeup discussion with contestants  of the SyFy series “Face Off.”

Both were fun, but the latter was definitely the better of the two. In it, audience members were encouraged to ask the professional makeup artists questions about their experiences on the show or for tips on how to succeed in the industry. It was informative, funny, and just a generally pleasant panel. I was able to record the main panelist, Tate Steinsiek, answering a fan’s inquiry as to what his favorite challenge on the show was. You can watch it for yourself here, just make sure that your volume is turned up- Steinsiek is a crowd-pleaser.

Once the panels we wanted to see had finished, my sister and I wandered around the show floor for a few hours. There were comic books galore, tattoo artists from the show “Epic Ink” giving con-goers geeky body art, and rows and rows of artists selling prints. There was even a booth that would let you hug a puppy if you donated a few dollars to an animal shelter!  It was a nerd’s paradise.

After I purchased yet another graphic novel at one of the booths, my sister and I thought it would be best to escape the temptation that accompanies the show floor. We decided to scope out the autograph area in hopes of sighting a celebrity. Unfortunately, a lot of the special guests for conventions only come on weekends, so there weren’t too many celebs to stare at from a distance.

The lack of celebrities today was fine by me, though, because I was able to meet one that I was hoping to: Barry Bostwick, the actor who played Brad Majors in the “Rocky Horror Picture Show. “ His autograph line wasn’t very long, so he took a few minutes to have a small conversation with each fan before the convention closed for the day. Ours somehow ended up with us talking about swim team. Apparently he was a breaststroker. Who knew?

After of Friday, it didn’t seem like the convention could get any better. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Saturdays of conventions have been known to be the busiest, but nothing could have prepared me for the crowd that we saw on day three of Wizard World. The entire con was packed, especially toward the entrance and in rooms for panels. Many people look at this negatively, but for me, the crowds only add to the experience. Seeing so many people who have similar interests is strangely heartwarming to me. Maybe it’s because I feel like I belong, maybe it’s because the crowd ups the excitement. I don’t know.

Then again, I didn’t have to deal with the plethora of people brushing against or running into me. Most con-goers actually tried to avoid contact due to the fact that I was covered in body paint. Others rushed toward us in hopes of taking a picture either of or with me. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I was cosplaying.

I did cosplay on Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday I decided to go all out as Jasper from the new Cartoon Network show, “Steven Universe .” My sister was also dressed up as another character from the show. I made a lot of our costumes over the summer and thought that they turned out pretty well for someone who doesn’t even know how to sew.

While I was proud of how they came out, our cosplays looked like child’s play compared to some of the others that I saw throughout the weekend. The best of the best were displayed at the Wizard World Costume Contest that night. In previous years, I had always missed any cosplay championships that conventions hosted – not because I couldn’t make it, but because there were so many people attending that there was never enough room. I remember showing up an hour early to wait in line to see one costume contest earlier this year and being turned down because it was already packed. Con-goers don’t play around when it comes to cosplay.

I had wanted to attend a cosplay contest ever since I started going to conventions, which was three years ago, and was never able to. So, for this convention I had my schedule meticulously planned so that I wouldn’t miss it. There was only one panel that I really wanted to make it to on Saturday, “Tea Time with Deadpool,” a forty-five minute long show about the Merc with a mouth. After that panel was scheduled to finish, I would have nearly an hour and a half before the Pre-Show Concert for the costume contest would start. I was so ready.

Unfortunately, I didn’t plan well enough. The Deadpool panel was packed by the time I got there. Resolved, I vowed to myself that just because I missed one panel that I wanted to attend, I absolutely would not miss the cosplay contest. So, I decided to head over to the room where the contest would be held over two hours in advance. Since I was there so early, that meant that I would have to sit through other panels that were being hosted in the room before the contest started.

I was okay with that, though. I’m always looking for new fandoms to get into, movies and shows to watch, books to read, etcetera.  The first panel that was going on when I got to the room was a showing of the first episode of “Minority Report,” a new show that will be premiering on Sept. 21 on FOX. I felt like such a hipster getting the first look at an otherwise unseen show. So if it becomes popular, just remember that I saw it before it was cool! Seriously though, it was a pretty good show and it is probably going to be added to my “to watch” list.

Following the “Minority Report” panel was the “Evil Dead I & II Reunion and Q&A Hosted by Bruce Campbell .” To be honest, I had only slightly heard of “Evil Dead.” I knew it was a cult classic horror film, I knew that it was probably inappropriate, and I knew that there was a guy who had a chainsaw  on his hand. Surprisingly, I came out of the panel with a very strong desire to learn everything I could about the series.

Bruce Campbell, who I learned played the guy with the chainsaw hand, better known as Ash, hosted the panel. He was hilarious. He had no reservations, insulting fans, his fellow cast, and himself. The cast recounted the terrible conditions during filming, including, but not limited to extreme heat, horrific makeup accidents, inadvertently being thrown into objects and/or stabbed, and excessive re-shoots. He even tipped the panel’s translator. The panel was really interesting and the comedy made it even better.

Campbell also released never-before-seen footage of a new show titled “Ash vs. Evil Dead” which will be premiering this Halloween on Starz. It will center on his character from the original movie and how the evil spirits that he escaped from several years ago have found him once again. After watching the footage, I was so intrigued that I read everything I could online about the movie. My mom’s a little iffy about whether I’m allowed to watch the movie or not, but maybe I’ll be able to do a review of the show when it comes out.

After that panel was finished, the long-awaited Costume Contest began. Actually, the pre-show concert for the contest began. The band Critical Hit along with Jason Hayes, a composer for the video game “World of Warcraft” were the performers. The symphonic rock band played covers of geeky tunes ranging from the Pokémon theme song to Zelda’s Lullaby. While the band was performing, Rob Prior, and ambidextrous artist, painted a picture of Yoda in the background.  You can see glimpses of Prior painting to the music in the few videos that I took during the concert here.

Once the concert had ended, the contest began. There were several categories that a participant could win in- Best Hero, Best Heroine, Best Male Villain, Best Female Villain, Best Group/Partner, and Best in Show. The winners would receive a 3D-printed sculpture of themselves along with a few other prizes. With around a hundred entries, the entire thing took about two hours. There were so many spectacular entries, the judges- one of them being the Green Power Ranger- really had their work cut out for them. The winner ended up being a handmade cosplay of a Skeksis from the movie “The Dark Crystal.” My personal favorites included a Doctor Octopus, who ended up winning for Best Male Villain, Zoidberg from “Futurama,” and the Infinity Gauntlet from the Marvel Universe.

Not every cosplayer competed in the competition, even though many probably could have with the quality of costumes that they were wearing. Here’s a gallery of my favorite cosplays throughout the weekend. And yes, I shamelessly put in a picture or two of myself.

For such a short day, the last day of the convention was packed with an unexpectedly large amount of high-caliber programming . As soon as the con opened up to the public, people began lining up for the day’s panels. The ones that were scheduled to attract the most fans included “Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey with Arthur Darvill,” “Michael Rooker vs. the Audience,” and “Taking Aim: Jeremy Renner,” to name a few.

All of the above-mentioned panels were planned to be held in the same room, which was coincidentally the same room that the Cosplay Contest was shown the night before. I had missed the Deadpool program that I wanted to attend on Saturday, so I was set on making it to all of these. My mom and sister were on board as well, so we set off as early as possible to get a good spot in line.

When we reached the room where the main panels were being held, we found that the line was already snaking its way down the hall and around the corner. And, as we got in line, we overheard the people in front of us lamenting over the fact that Arthur Darvill, the actor from BBC’s Doctor Who ,” who was supposed to front the first panel, couldn’t make it.

So, even though the first panel- which was scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. – had been cancelled, people were still waiting in line for the following program with Michael Rooker, which was set to start an hour later. To give a sense of how crowded it was, even though I arrived two hours early for the panel, I was around the hundredth person in line.

My mom volunteered to hold my spot in line for a while to let my sister and I go off and explore the show floor even more. My sister declined, so I set off on my own to go make sure that I had done everything I had hoped to over the weekend. I really only had one thing left that I really wanted to do- explore the second floor.

The majority of the convention was fun for all ages, but the second floor had something that the faint of heart wouldn’t enjoy- zombies. There was a shooting range with zombie targets, random people dressed as the undead scaring people, and something like a haunted house. I had done the shooting range before, so I decided to try the haunted house this year.

It definitely was not your typical haunted house. Each person who went through received a laser gun and would be able to shoot zombies. There was a mix of both dummies and living actors, so it was hard to tell where any jump scares could come from. If a con-goer hit one of the lights that were placed on a zombie’s head, the dummy would deactivate or the actor would fall down. I’m going to be honest, I was terrified at first, but I came out feeling confident that I would survive the inevitable zombie apocalypse when it arrives!

After I had brushed up on my zombie-killing skills, I headed back over to wait more with my mom. We still had another hour or so, but it was nice just to sit down and take a break. I even got to finish one graphic novel that I had bought: “Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe .” It was a great read, but very depressing as one can probably tell by the title.

Michael Rooker’s panel began a little bit behind schedule, but that was no matter, as my family had gotten the best seats possible apart from those who got the VIP ticket seats.  Rooker was hilarious.  He recounted his time on “The Walking Dead” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” in a comical way that never actually answered any of the fans’ questions. When one of the volunteers reminded him that there were five minutes left, he jokingly flicked off the poor guy and then ran into the audience to do a speed round. I was able to get some of his best moments on video, which you can see right here.

Once Rooker’s panel had ended, one about the show “Gotham” started. I initially got into the show when it premiered last year, but I didn’t get the chance to get caught up on it. To make sure I didn’t hear any big spoilers, my mom offered to hold my seat and let me run around the show floor some more. She also let me buy a ticket for a photo op with Rooker, scheduled to start after Renner’s panel. I was on cloud nine.

I returned from the photo op ticket booth just in time for Renner’s panel to start. The whole thing was really adorable to watch, mostly because this was Renner’s first convention and it was very obvious that he loved every moment of it. He also answered a few questions from little kids from the audience while trying to restrain his giggles. It was one of the best things that I ever witnessed. It was fascinating to see his outlook on his own movies and get a little inside information on the next movie that he will be in, “Captain America: Civil War.” Here are some of the questions that he answered.

With two hours left in the convention after Renner’s panel concluded, my sister and I rushed over to wait in the photo ops line to meet Rooker. We both love “Guardians of the Galaxy” and our dad is the biggest “Walking Dead” fan, so this was a big moment for us. In photo ops, the general rule is that you aren’t allowed to start a conversation with the celebrity, as the goal is to go as fast as possible to fit every fan in the time schedule. Therefore, a lot of photo ops, while still amazing, are not personal or unique.

My sister and I decided to do something memorable, then, in order to turn this photo into an experience. When we got to the front of the line, we greeted Rooker by asking him to put me in a headlock for the picture while my sister posed as though she were laughing at the predicament I was in. He loved it. The photographer was laughing, the other people in line were laughing, and Rooker was cracking up. He stopped me after the photo op to say that our picture would be a great one and then gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

I couldn’t think of a better way to end such a perfect convention if I tried.