August 16, 2026 By Randall A. Golden in Conventions & Events Tags: Chicago, comic cons, conventions, cosplay, costumes, entertainment, Fan Expo Chicago, photography, photos, The Boys

It’s that time again! This weekend my wife Anne and I attended the fifth edition of Fan Expo Chicago at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in the suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. In 2022 they arose from the ashes of the late Wizard World Chicago, which we attended eleven times, and have expended tremendous efforts to maintain the previous showrunners’ geek-marketed traditions to keep luring in longtime fans and newcomers alike.

As is the MCC procedure, let’s start with mandatory cosplay photos! The humble duo here at MCC enjoys the panoply of costumes, and appreciates the makers and wearers who enliven every comic-con with their talents and their exaltation of various fandoms. We regret we can only represent a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the total cosplay wonderment that was on display this weekend, especially from cons like this where we spent far more time waiting in lengthy lines that ate up precious time we could’ve spent taking more pics. We’re just an aging couple doing what we can for happy sharing fun.

We actually took enough pics to spread across two entries. This shorter gallery features every cosplayer we photographed during our two least accommodating days. We spent most of Friday either trapped in lines or waiting to be trapped in them. (Long story. We’ll definitely come back to that in Part 3.) And on Sunday we left Rosemont and headed home around 11:40. (The short story there: we’d finished our entire to-do list and were beyond exhausted.) The other gallery will be slightly longer! Enjoy in the meantime! Corrections, elucidations, and plugs welcome!

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 2: Slightly More Cosplay!
Part 3: Celebrities and Catastrophes
Part 4: Comics!
Part 5: [coming soon]