I'm not exactly a hardcore conventioneer. Most of my experience comes from repeat visits to San Francisco's long-running Alternative Press Expo (which I'll be attending again this year!), a sort of haven from the costumes and dealers that tend to overrun your average con. APE makes the artists and publishers the central focus, rather than the crate-digging and bargain hunting. But at some point, I guess I have to dip my toe into the waters of mainstream comic conventiondom. So why not start with the Emerald City Comic Con, a mere 10 minute drive form my apartment?
Upon arriving, it seemed that the choice of venue might have been overkill. The entire convention as tucked neatly into a third of the available floor space at the Qwest Field event center. The con itself was actually a good size, but it was dwarfed by the massive empty space off to the side.
The floor was split into several areas, with artist's alley wrapping around two sides, a gaming area along another edge, and dealers and exhibitors filling out the middle (with an emphasis on dealers). There was a certainly a lot of eye candy from the moment we arrived, with tons of toys and posters and other collectibles covering much of the convention floor. A lot of the booths were not necessarily comic-related, or combined comics merchandise with assorted other pop culture items (like
Lost figurines, old sci-fi DVDs, and even a booth covered in vintage Pez dispensers.
There were tons of costumed attendees as well, and a lot of storm troopers. Appropriate enough, seeing how
Peter Mayhew (of Chewbacca fame) was a featured guest. In fact, one of the first things we saw upon arriving was a Storm Trooper conversing with Cobra Commander, both voices muffled by their face masks. There was a pretty inventive Ghost Rider costume, involving a mane of shaggy hair dyed various shades of yellow and orange. I somehow missed getting a picture of that one. And of course, there were the obligatory
booth babes, though not in huge numbers (thankfully).
One of the coolest tables was the Denny Middle School Cartoonist's table, which featured the work of various teenaged artists. I didn't get the full story on this one, but it looks like the product of a class or club devoted to the art of cartooning. Many of the students were present at the booth, drawing and sketching and offering up a variety of minicomics for sale. It was nice to see some aspiring cartoonists given an opportunity to show off their work, and hopefully get some encouragement and support.
On a negative note, I have to mention that the choice to keep only one concession stand open in the hall was a poor one. The line-up for $6 hot dogs was probably at least 15-20 minutes long, and there was a second concession booth upstairs near the panel stage that could have easily been utilized.
Aside from that one minor irritant, it was actually a pretty fun con. It seems like it's been growing steadily over the last couple of years, attracting some high profile guests in a variety of genres. Maybe some day they'll be able to fill that big empty space in the even center.
