Late last year I decided I needed to take my first real vacation in a few years and of course the first place I thought of was a comic convention. And so I began looking around for a place to head to and Dan’s description of last year’s Emerald City Comicon made it sound like a great place to be, plus the list of artists and exhibitors coming were fantastic…so I decided that was the def. the place to be. And I thought I’d share my thoughts and experiences on the con.
Day One
Even though the con didn’t actually begin until 2pm I decided to head over there a bit early to pick up my badge and make it easier to get in…and I was a bit disappointed that I had to wait till noon before they even started handing out badges and was told I should be there by 11am so I wasn’t stuck at the back of the line. So I came back around 11:15 and was packed into a tight line with other folks (Dan has some great images of the con that I’m borrowing since I couldn’t carry books and camera around…well not well at least)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmorrill/7031146217/
and then packed into another line to wait for the doors to open (yes there were really that many people waiting to get in)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmorrill/6885060860/
And then the doors officially opened and it was a mad rush inside. I had to take a moment just to get my bearings and figure out where to go first….
I had a list after all of artists/writers/actors that I wanted to meet, yes a list! It made it easier to figure out what stuff to pack to get signed, get sketches, what stuff I needed to pick up, or if I just wanted to stop by and talk to them and meet them in person. There were so many of my favorite webcomics artists around and they were so spread out that I ended up just going in circles the first day…it made things more interesting after all. In an hour I had visited the Blind Ferret Booth (Least I Could Do and Looking for Group) to get a signed book; Something Positive (one of my favorite webcomics) to get a free sketch and see Randy’s beard in person (its as awesome as the pictures show); Dylan Meconis who was just nominated for an Eisner (congrats!) and does some fantastic art; the awesome and talented Erika Moen (if you’ve never read Dar go and read it now) and so many more. I also went through artist alley and met Nate Powell of Any Empire and Swallow me Whole fame to get my books signed and he was just about the nicest guy that you could hope to meet.
I then made my way down to the actors section in an attempt to meet Will Wheaton, but he was a bit late showing up for his signing and I wanted to make sure I had a chance to get to the Oni Booth at 4pm to meet Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim.) And I want to give the staff at the Oni booth a huge round of applause for being absolutely fantastic folks and making the signing easy for everyone. I got there a bit early and they informed the line wouldn’t start for a bit longer but they had set up their booth so that it was easy to browse around while waiting, and when I missed that the line had started the quickly let me know so I wouldn’t get stuck too far back. They also realized that the line would be rather long and let folks know that Bryan would only be signing six items and not doing any custom sketches so that everyone would have a chance to get through and that violators would have to leave. It sounds a bit harsh, but honestly it made getting people through easy (wait till day two to hit about some of the other lines.) I did get seven items signed, but I asked first and was told it would be ok. Also the next day I happened to run into a few of them at the shop where I was grabbing breakfast and the leader of the group (Cory I believe) remembered me and asked if I got everything signed. That right there is the sign of an absolutely fantastic vendor and one I’ll gladly come and visit again.
The second half of the day went by quickly as I went back to my hotel room to switch out books, grab a bit more cash, and went back through the center again. This time I hit the TopatoCo booth and met Chris Bladwin the creator of “Little Dee” (which if you haven’t read is fantastic and “Space Trawler” is great as well), Brad Guigar of “Evil Inc.” another great comic, and Dave Kellett of Sheldon and Drive fame. They were great to talk to and easy to get stuff signed from. Met others as well. Also hit up the Archia booth who had David Petersen of Mouse Guard fame there signing. Another great booth to visit and they had some nice deals going on, buy one get one, which allowed me to pick up a couple more books. Also met artists of Johnny Wanderer, one of my favorite duos in the comics world today, and got a nice sketch done by Yuko.
Somewhere in here I also stopped by and met Dan and Tammy in person for the first time, which was awesome because they both made me feel like I was talking to old friends and made me feel welcome.
And then I declared the day close…mostly cause by that point I had walked 5 miles and I was starving.
(I do want to give a shout out to the Roosevelt, the hotel that I stayed at. They had exceptional customer service and would def. stay there again)
