With Emerald City Comic Con now a week ago in the rear view mirror: How did it go?
Extremely well.
Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC) continues to grow just as it’s host city does. The convention now taking over the convention center, parts of the Sheraton and a few buildings across the road. It even has it’s own mobile app.
This year the ID badges were mailed out. A week before the con some of us worried but a day later the badges arrived. Minus the lanyards. This was easily fixable since I have several lanyards left over from previous conventions and I mixed and matched a SDCC plastic holder with my Browncoat lanyard.
I decided to leave earlier this year and took the morning non-stop out of Boston which worked out and aside from some turbulence, it landed on time and so did my cosplay pieces via USPS. I’ve found getting to the host city a day early and leaving a day late let’s you acclimate better in the end.
Unlike SDCC, I decided to go as Firefly’s Jayne Cobb this year and that meant only a few changes: different gun+pants and hat.
One swing through Etsy for the gun from QEProps and thankfully my mother can knit and thus we get:

The pirate cosplayers showed up just in time and hence we use the line from Serenity: Let’s be bad guys. I may tweak the costume a bit: gloves and a different belt maybe. The gun thankfully fit in the Mal Reynolds holster and not in the Blackhawk Omega VI Universal Holster I had bought. It still works. Even got a good compliment from a Colonial Marine cosplayer about the use of the Public Relations shirt.
Total cost: Not nearly expensive as Mal Reynolds due to no boots or jacket.
This year I focused on the writing panels and was happy to find several panels each day. So much so, leaving Room 309 or 2AB wasn’t needed. This also meant less pictures as you can see from my Flickr page.
A separate post of writing links will be going up soon.
The downside to trying to shove so many panels into rooms was the attendance in tiny 309 meant people queued up while 2AB/3AB were too big until someone closed half the room.
The idea of having the University Bookstore in 310 for signings was great idea in theory.
The slight problem: the authors were all the way and hell an’gone in TCCC 3.
If the authors and the University Bookstore were together in the same row it would’ve worked.
I came prepared to get John Scalzi signature. Bought The Human Division paperback. The people in front of me weren’t so lucky.
The EMP Museum table was great to see.
Their TARDIS photo op was a great idea.
I feel they or anyone else with an iconic prop could take it to the next level like the 501st Legion does and get quality Doctor Who cosplayers with Daleks or some sort of different prop with a backdrop and bang instead memorable moment for the kids.
And find another spot, if TCCC 3 is going to be as cramped next year then put the photo op booths closer to the con or devote an entire largish room to photo ops. If Seattle Space Needle can take a photo of you and give you a card to find it on line then so can we.
The writing panels ranged from legal advice to freelancing to producing a book on a budget. For the most part the panels and their speakers stayed on topic.
Except for the times a moderator didn’t arrive and the speakers needed to be bearded back to the topic.
One of the many reasons I like ECCC is the fact the crowd situation hasn’t reached SDCC levels of hilarity. The amount of people sitting around and not getting asked not to loiter was nice to see.
Unfortunately, the lack of benches and in areas along with the 6th Floor tables and chairs disappearing was missed.
The t-shirts for this year went fast, any Seattle themed shirt was close to being sold out. SDCC embraced pre-ording shirts last year and besides the queue to get them, the pre-ordering worked. Hopefully, ECCC will do pre-order next year. It would solve so many problems.
The photograph backgrounds continued to be the high point. The official ECCC photographer was a welcomed sight.
I decided to hit up The Terminator Q&A with Michael Bein with my brother at Cinearama and found the movie theater and it’s chocolate popcorn to be highly enjoyable. The use of moderator and the trailers for Bein’s new grindhouse movies he producing with his wife less so. The movie was 30 years old and at least a half dozen people saw it when it came out.
Overall, the con was highly enjoyable and I’ll be coming back next year.
Now, I just need to figure out if I want to add another costume to the ensemble. I’m thinking Ten or Four or Captain Jack.
Spent the next few days in Seattle. It was fun going from West Seattle to Bainbridge Island to the Chihuly Museum.
Photos will be posted to the Flickr account in a week or so…