Chicago's C2E2 2025 was three days of comics, community, celebrities, and pizza (Pequod's, if you want to know). Read our full recap of the weekend, watch all of the Main Stage panel videos, see all the best cosplay photos, and more. And if you want to do it all again next year, we've got the dates for C2E2 2026, too.

TJ Klune is a prolific, award-winning fantasy writer, with around 30 novels published since 2011. His latest was 2024's Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the hotly anticipated sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea. And although Book #3 in Klune's Cerulean Chronicles is not yet announced (although some graphic novel spinoff ideas were seeded!), Klune did reveal some details about his next book at this year's C2e2 during his author spotlight panel.

Klune shared that he was very invested in the newest work, spending most of his Chicago weekend in his hotel room feverishly writing. During a discussion on process with sci-fi novelist John Scalzi, Klune shared that the outlines for his next novel mirror the famously memeified post-it notes of Charlie Day's "Pepe Silvia" investigations on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. No word on whether the spiraling conspiracy board rivals The House in the Cerulean Sea's reported 100,000 word outline (as Scalzi noted, "That's a book!").

Well known for his rapid, beloved output, Klune received a round of applause for sharing that he was taking a break from his regular release cadence, and that no new book will be published in the Fall of 2025. Instead, Klune told the Chicago crowd he's planning for an April 2026 release, a full year from now.

Although Klune was sparse on plot details of the new work, he did share one juicy anecdote. Upon completion of a read, Klune's editor called the author to tell him, "This is the most painful thing I've ever read."

The bad news is we'll have to wait another year to see exactly what makes this novel so painful. The good news is we can practice steeling our resolve (or at least preparing our tear ducts) in that time!

Did you miss a C2E2 Main Stage panel? Don't worry, we're filming it all thanks to our partners at CGC x JSA -  our official authenticator & grading partner. Here is the C2E2 2025 panel list and release schedule.