Derek’s Emerald City Comic-Con 2019 Recap: Friday
Following a quick shower this morning, I balled up yesterday’s pair of SAXX underwear and threw it at a dead-asleep Mikaela as hard as I could, whisper-yelling (in an attempt to not wake up the rest of the house) BAKKUUUGGAAAAN BRAAAWL as I did so.
With an opening like that, I knew that it was going to be a great day. If you’re interested in knowing how Thursday went, you can read back on its recap here.
We ate a quick breakfast of coffee and Cliff bars (I’m very surprised at how little we’ve actually needed to spend on food a this point) before checking out of our AirBnb and heading to our residence for the next two nights. Courtney’s Aunt and Uncle have a wonderful apartment in downtown Seattle that they’ve graciously let us all stay at on a few occasions. The apartment is a short Lyft to the convention centre (which saves us a ton on parking), and because we’re not paying for a hotel or an Airbnb for the entire trip, it makes the whole experience far, far less stressful for us financially (which is often a big worry for me). We’re super, super grateful for this!
After migrating all of our belongings (and vehicles) to our new home for the weekend, we decided that that the a cliff bars weren’t actually going to cut it, and walked a couple of blocks to a neat little French bakery that offered up some amazing looking pastries, and absolutely delicious French-style sandwiches. The staff at the bakery were some of the happiest and cheeriest people that I think I’ve ever seen, and this quiet meal was a great way to start the morning.
Finally, it was time to hit the convention floor. Emerald City seems to open up a little later than a lot of other conventions, with a 10AM start time on each day, and without the show floor secretly opening up an hour before the posted time, which seems to be a frequent occurrence at Sam Diego Comic-Con. I’m thankful for this slightly later start, as most groups naturally take time to get ready, and this means that even when sleeping in until seven or eight we can make it to the convention centre with time to spare!
Along with the different entrance procedures that I mentioned in yesterday’s post, security also appears to be a much higher priority for Emerald City this year. In previous years I remember simply walking in without anyone really searching me, but this year every patron had their bags searched, and was subject to a metal detector screening. Coming from Canada it always feels a little odd to see this level of security at events, but I’m also absolutely thankful for any precautions that are taken during crazy times like these.
Jake and Courtney went off to the main expo hall, while Mikaela wanted to head outside to grab some photos of the incredible cosplay on display in the courtyard outside. Naturally, Marvel cosplay is still king, and within moments we had seen numerous Avengers, and several Captain Marvels. Umbrella Academy fans were also out in full force following the release of the Netflix series just last month, and it’s also conventions like these where the masses of anime cosplayers in incredible outfits remind me that I need to start watching more (any) anime.
After some time in the courtyard, Mikaela and I decided to head back into the expo hall. The novel-obsessed Mikaela made the HarperCollins booth her first stop once again, as today the secret word “Donut” was offered up a free, signed copy of the book Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. Sadly, copies had already been given out by the time we arrived. We spent some more time walking through the expo hall and gawking at all of the things we wanted to buy (including a new Singer sewing machine, as Mikaela has been heavily interested in sewing over the past few months) before Mikaela and I split up to visit separate panels. Mikaela planned to attend a panel about cosplay photography, while I planned to attend a podcasting workshop to see what sort of tips I could pick up on in regards to growing a new (well, or tenured) show. I was pretty down, defeated, and disheartened when Geekscape Games ended with its 179th episode a few months ago, but after sulking about its end for a time, I’m slowly working my way into starting up a new show. Look for more details in the coming weeks.
The podcasting panel was put together by the hosts of the award-winning Out of the Fridge podcast (Alison Poppy, Kelly Okler, and Andrew Chard), and was designed to offer oodles of advice to podcasters both just trying to figure things or those with a ton of experience. The group talked about their own podcast history, recording equipment like sound boards and microphones (and some of the differences of using dynamic vs. condenser microphones, for example), software, recording techniques for both local and remote podcasts, editing process including some of the benefits of recording multi-channel vs. single channel, and also offered a lengthy Q&A session that I very much appreciated. The panel was packed with people, to the point where dozens of people were lined up along the walls and window sills of the room.
The group asked for a show of hands of those who had a podcast already, and about a dozen people raised their hands in the air. They then asked how many people wanted to start a podcast, and the 100+ people that remained all shot their arms up. Right from the get go, the panelists noted that the very best advice that they could possibly give is to just try it, and to not worry about mistakes, and that especially at the beginning you will make a lot of them. They brought up the classic quote that a true master has failed more times than most will typically try, and reiterated that unlike what the American school system teaches us, failure is not the end.
I absolutely left the podcast workshop with a better understanding of functions like compressors, noise gates, and the like, which I think is helpful since I’ve turned them on and used them while editing in the past without really having any understanding of what they’re actually for. It was also interesting to hear that the typical editing process that we used for Geekscape Games sounds pretty similar to the techniques that the group uses for their podcast, Out of the Fridge. All of the equipment talk definitely got me hankering for some new tools of the trade, as I can be a pretty particular about quality and often would rather simply not do something than have it be less than stellar. That said, I do feel like Geekscape Games often sounded pretty damned decent, so I think that I’d better work with perfecting my process with the tools that I already have, rather than just being envious of the ones that I don’t.
The group also offered some advice on networking and ways to grow your show and audience without being overly pushy. In my last four years of podcasting, trying to grow the audience consistently felt like one of the hardest pieces of the entire pie, and it’s a piece that we never really figured out.
In any case, as someone in the planning stages of starting up a niche new show (again, details in the coming weeks), I could use all of the help that I can get. These tips, tricks, and the passion felt in the room absolutely upped my desire to make this new show a priority.
Following the panel, I met back up with Courtney, Jake, and Mikaela, and we decided to walk a few blocks away from the convention centre in order to grab a late lunch. We ended up at Din Tai Fung, an absolutely delicious dumpling restaurant semi-hidden on the top floor of the perpetually under construction Pacific Place mall. Here we gorged on dumplings, pork buns, fried rice, wonderful spicy wontons, and more, and as we’ve been craving this place since Courtney introduced us to it back at PAX last Summer, we were absolutely freaking satisfied.
Somehow we skipped our food induced comas and made our way back to the convention centre. We had just a little bit of time to kill before Jake and I needed to get in line for the premiere screening of four of the six Alien 40th anniversary shorts that will begin to release online at the end of the month.
Prior to the screening, we spent a bit of time walking a small chunk of Artist’s Alley, and I definitely need to echo last year’s amazement at the sheer size of the area. The entire sixth floor of the massive Washington State Convention Centre was filled with aisles and aisles of amazing artists, and walking this floor at times felt even busier than the main expo hall. It was only Friday afternoon, and so many of these booths had sold out signs on many of their prints, which I think goes to show just how much of a celebration of artists this convention really is. Around 100,000 people are set to attend over the course of the weekend, a massive convention that isn’t filled with movie and television announcements or giant video game companies, but simply a celebration of every fandom imaginable. ECCC simply has a more humble, organic feel than I’ve felt at any other comic book convention I’ve attended, and it’s absolutely wonderful.
The Alien shorts were awesome. It’s hard to talk about them too much without giving a lot away, as each one is, well, pretty short. The production values were far, far better than I imagined they would be. Each one told a pretty neat story that just had me aching for more, and I’m beyond excited to check out the final two shorts when they launch online next month. It’s hard to pick a favourite short, but without giving anything away, Alone definitely had the most interesting concept. All attendees of the screening also earned a well-designed, convention exclusive 40th anniversary poster, which I wasn’t aware of prior to, and was pretty excited for once I found out.
The convention closed down before the screening was over, so once it ended we took a Lyft back to our residence, stared in awe at the incredibly beautiful view from its giant windows, and eventually made it down to the complexes hot tub to relax and hang out after a long day of walking around. Then we ordered Buffalo Wild Wings, which I’ve been pretty much obsessed with ever since I first heard about it on Chris Jericho’s podcast — it’s freaking wonderful.
Tomorrow brings a preview screening of the new AMC series NOS4ATU based on the novel by Joe Hill, the always convention highlight ECCC Western Championships Of Cosplay, and so, so much more.
https://youtu.be/egOLt5-LOnQ
Thanks for reading about today’s journey, and I’ll be back with more tomorrow!
