2010 CECE- The Chicagoland Entertainment Collector's Expo

I trekked out to the annual CECE show today and was pleasantly surprised by the experience as non-sport trading cards is a little bit out of my realm, but not entirely. I do, however, own complete sets of The Sopranos and the 24 series and collect specific genres of comic books. Additionally I am a huge fan of movies, Americana, and pop culture so in reality I found myself more in a comfort zone than I originally would have thought.

The venue was held at an area Holiday Inn and was larger and well attended than I would have thought. The organizers should be commended for assembling such a diverse array of comic book and sketch artists, actors and actresses. Dealers of non-sport trading cards had unopened boxes AND complete sets of every imaginable release from Alias to Zoro.

One of the highlights for me was meeting some of the many women of 007 James Bond, including Caroline Muro (The Spy Who Loved Me), Martine Beswick (From Russia With Love) and Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger).

Several other recognizable celebrities were in attendance including Richard Kiel (Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, Happy Gilmore), Erin Moran (Happy Days), Bonnie Piesse (Beru- Whiteson-Star Wars Episodes II and III), Felix Silla (Twiki- Buck Rogers, Cousin It- Addams Family) Tanya Roberst (Charlie's Angels, That 70's Show Beastmaster and Sheena) and many more.

The lineup of comic book and sketch card artists was too extensive to list in its entirity. Some of the highlights included Ken Kelly, Mark McHaley, Dave Dorman, Chris Achilleos, Larry Elmore, Tony Miello, and Manny Mederos. Some people know artists like you and I know starting line ups and team rosters. I am NOT one of those people but I did recognize several base on the comic books at their tables. Here are some of the sketch cards I picked up from Trevor Mueller (Harley Quinn and The Joker), Jay Shimko (Al Capone), and Russell Lissau (Batman), Tony Miello (Dark Knight Joker), and Manny Mederos (Batman).

You can see a gallery from the show floor here which includes Doug Cataldo (my radio co-host) and his charity auction win- a Larry The Soup Nazi" Thomas signed soup ladle :)