C2E2 Starts…Tomorrow!
It’s that time of year! Chicago’s ‘premier’ convention begins tomorrow with a Lord of the Rings cast reunion and continues with plenty of gusto through Sunday, April 13th. We’re excited […]
Gallery: Don’t Miss It! Chicago Botanic Garden’s India Blooms Enters Final Weekend
Midwesterners talk about the weather a lot. We try to avoid it, but with the way things have been this past week, let’s face it: March isn’t the time for […]
Review: The How, When, and Why of Rail Lines, A History of the Railroad in 100 Maps, by Jeremy Black
The 1897 image on pages 110 through11 of Jeremy Black’s A History of the Railroad in 100 Maps is a striking bird’s-eye view of Chicago, looking across downtown to the […]
Review: “Dark Omen Indigo,”Postmortem, by Courtney Lund O’Neil
Brushes with fame create anecdotes; brushes with infamy leave a scar. Such is the case with author Courtney Lund O’Neil’s mother Kimberly Byers-Lund, and by extension O’Neil herself. In her […]
Review: Winning through Infrastructure—Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago’s Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent by John William Nelson
The key moment in John William Nelson’s important, original, and eye-opening history of the place that became the city of Chicago—Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago’s Portage, and the Transformation of […]
Calling All Comic Fans and Marvel Mavens—Fan Expo Chicago Starts Today!
It’s that time of year again! Convention season kicks off with C2E2 but of course doesn’t stop there. Fan Expo Chicago kicks off in just a few hours over in […]
Gallery: Friday Cosplay at C2E2 2024
People love to complain. This year, the main complaint about C2E2 was its lineup. And whether or not it’s to your liking, our opinion is there’s always something interesting to […]
Review: 100 Things to Do in Illinois Before You Die, by Melanie Holmes
Everyone knows they’ll die, but few people believe it. For the sole species aware of its mortality, personal nonexistence is inconceivable. Many have come near death. A number of folks […]
Review: Maps and Martyrs, Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas, by Mirela Altic
A strikingly drawn and boldly colored map, attributed to the Jesuit priest and explorer Jean de Brebeuf, is the image used on the cover of Mirela Altic’s Encounters in the […]
Review: An Artist/Photographer Analyzes the Wanderlust of Stray Shopping Carts
The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification By Julian Montague Second edition, 2023, University of Chicago Press Julian Montague published his first edition of The […]
Saturday Panel Catchup: Fan Expo Chicago 2023
There were so many great celebs lined up on Saturday’s panel schedule we figured we’d have to do nothing but sit in panels all day long and only leave when […]
Friday Panel Catchup at Fan Expo Chicago 2023
Friday was the first full day of Fan Expo Chicago 2023 and with that comes lots and lots of celebrity guest appearances in panels. This year, things are a little […]