Derek’s Emerald City Comic-Con Recap – Friday

Emerald City Comic Con might just be my favourite convention.

Sure, I haven’t quite been to enough to call it conclusive (just 5 San Diego’s, numerous Fan Expo Vancouver’s, two previous visits to Emerald City, a pop into PAX West, and a Comikaze), but I’ll be damned if Reedpop hasn’t put on the most well organized, best laid-out convention around.

My first trip to Emerald City was with my family way back when I was in high school (I was just invited to my 10 year reunion, so I need to get thin and successful real fast). It was my first convention ever – I was absolutely fascinated with everything that was on offer, and by all of the incredible people I’d be able to see or meet. I was big into Hellboy at the time, and I thought that picking up a numbered, convention exclusive Hellboy drinking Starbucks print, and having it signed by Mike Mignola on the spot was the coolest thing I’d ever do. Turns out I’ve done a ton of cool shit since then, but that print is definitely still framed and in my house today as a full grown adult.

I don’t remember all that much about that first trip down to Seattle. I believe the convention was just on Friday and Saturday at the time (it’s since expanded to four days), but I’d never been to an event like it, and it’s incredible to see just how much the show floor, the caliber of entertainment, and pop culture celebration as a whole has grown in the past decade.

This year’s trip began with a damned early start, and the first multi-hour bus ride of my life. Thursday at Emerald City was a no-go, as I had to work (doing stuff nothing like this, unfortunately) and Mikaela was stuck in school. As it turns out, school also runs on Fridays, so while I ended up with the day off, Mikaela won’t be joining me until later tonight. It also means that she had to drive me a half hour to the bus station (I didn’t want to miss out on another day of the convention if it wasn’t necessary) at 5:00 am! Thanks, Mikaela!

The bus ride itself was fairly uneventful. I caught up on the Raw and Smackdown that I didn’t have time to watch this week (in preparation for recording Geekscape’s Double Count Out Podcast tomorrow morning), and was also able to finish the first Witcher audiobook, Blood of Elves (I’ve been on a bit of a Witcher kick the past few weeks, which you can hear all about on the last and next Geekscape Games Podcast). All of the passenger’s had to get out of the bus at the USA/Canada border in order to have their passports looked at (along with filling out a custom’s form), and while I’ve never had an issue with a border guard (pretty much say that you’re going to a comic book convention and they’ll no longer see you as a threat), today’s guard seemed pretty intimidating and I was pretty sure I was going to get interrogated. One of the folks in line ahead of me checked one of the boxes incorrectly on his customs form, and the guard proceeded to as “Why are you lying to me?” repeatedly. Once it was my turn, I let him know that I was headed to Seattle for a comic book convention, to which he responded “You see Black Panther yet?”. We chatted about the movie for a couple of moments and then he let me through.

A couple of hours into the bus ride (which, after wrestling, gave me a great opportunity to gander at the Washington countryside, which looks a lot like the British Columbia countryside) I began to realize that while there was slightly more leg room over a standard coach flight, it was certainly no more comfortable. After ignoring the discomfort for a time, and feeling the pain in my ass build and build and built, the last hour of the journey had me shifting slightly approximately every 10 seconds, while trying not to disturb the sleeping lady occupying the seat beside me, who currently had her face buried into the seat in front of her, which couldn’t have been very comfortable either.

Eventually, the ride ended. I was somewhere in downtown Seattle, two kilometres from the Convention Center, and I was hungry AF (nothing was open when I went to the bus station, so I’d now been awake for over six hours without food or beverage). I needed to find some food as soon as possible, and there was only one kind of food I desired: after a horrendously limited release last Fall, McDonald’s this week rolled 20 million packets of its legendary Szechuan Sauce to all of its stores in the United States.

It turns out that there’s a McDonald’s just a couple of blocks away from the convention centre, and when I arrived  I was surprised to see that it wasn’t even all that busy. This may have been my first time in a US McDonald’s, and I definitely observed a few major differences compared to the locations above the border. First, the menu had way more choices, and everything was way way cheaper. Second, the staff was far friendlier than any McDonald’s that I’ve ever been to in Canada. Third, I could not for the life of me find any ketchup, and the line became pretty long so I couldn’t ask for any and ended up eating dry-ass fries. Fourth, the fries did not taste as good by a long shot – I don’t know if they were just old or what, but they were barely salted and left a lot to be desired… even for McDonald’s.

Lastly, they had Szechuan Sauce. I received two packets of the limited edition nectar with my order of Chicken McNuggets, though I consumed only one just in case this location was sold out by the time Mikaela arrived. I have to say… it was pretty fucking delicious. It was kind of tangy and salty, all at the same time. As someone who hasn’t (as far as I know) consumed any variety of Szechuan sauce before, I really didn’t know what to expect. All I know now is that I want more.

It was definitely worth the three plus hour bus ride down to Seattle just to receive two packets of Szechuan sauce.

Oh right! I came for a convention!

While in the McDonald’s I used the Emerald City Comic-Con app to take a look at the schedule for the day, and mark off a few items that I may have been interested in. I have to say that the ECCC app has been super impressive thus far – it includes a food guide, full panel and guest guide, makes it super easy to mark off panels or events that tickle your fancy, and you can even set reminders beforehand so you have ample time to get to where you need to go. Throughout the day I received push notifications letting me know that certain panels were now full or standing room only, that signings had been filled, lines had been capped, and the like. This just added to the organized vibe that I was getting from the convention, and something similar could do absolute wonders for an event like SDCC.

I finally made it to the convention centre, and was surprised to see how much ECCC had grown since my last visit just a few years ago. There are now events in three separate buildings, and on every floor of the convention centre itself. The autograph / photo op area is not even near the main convention centre floor (not even in the same building, in fact), which was definitely a surprise to me (I have to imagine that a lot of photo ops are “oh shit, it’s X, let’s go!” moments).

My first stop was the Convention Horror Stories panel, where Katie Cook (Star Wars ABC-3P0, Nothing Special) and Jim Zub (Avengers, Dungeons & Dragons) talked about the craziest moments (and mostly craziest fans) that they’ve experienced in all of their years on the convention circuit. Cook talked about meeting (and blowing the meeting) Jeff Bone for the first time and then never talking to him again out of embarrassment (Smith’s Bone was a huge inspiration to her), along with the first Furry she ever met, who brought an overstuffed books of thoughts on My Little Pony, detailing just how each character should act, along with ideas for future stories. He also asked her for a dirty commission… which she didn’t do.

Zub had a hilarious tale about a Winter Soldier fan in Tokyo who screamed and wailed and fell to the floor when she saw the Winter Soldier commission that he did for her, along with an inspiring aside about just how fortunate they are to be in the line of work that they’re in.

The panel itself was gut-wrenchingly hilarious. It was by far the funniest panel I’ve ever been to (at any convention), and as this seems to be an ECCC tradition, I’d definitely try to make it in next year (it became standing room only pretty quickly, so get there early). Seriously, those stories just sound lame when I try to synopsize them, but watching the duo act out these moments had me laughing harder than I’ve laughed in some time.

Once the panel ended, I decided to walk the show floor for a bit, before checking out voice actor / writer / director / Solid Snake David Hayter at SyfyWire’s neat (and streaming) stage setup, where constant 15-45 minute interviews with actors, writers, artists, and creators were taking place all day.

Walking this floor felt fantastic. The Washington State Convention Centre has numerous levels, split here for gaming, community meet ups and events, artist’s alley, the main show floor, and even a beer garden, and this means that each area of the main show floor feels very focussed. Because of the huge square footage of the location, it’s easy to walk around for hours looking at all of the content (and shit to buy), but you also have an opportunity to take your time – each aisle felt large enough that you could look at what a booth had to offer without blocking the pathway for someone else (something I’ve never felt at SDCC).

I spent a considerable time in the board game area of the floor – Skybound Games was showing off Grimm Forest, and it looked like a freaking blast. There were a ton of local game creators showing off their wares as well. I could definitely see myself going home with a few new board games once Mikaela can check them out as well, but today I just watched from a distance and noted a few booths that I wanted to check out again. Speaking of Skybound, their booth was also showing off mobile hit Summoners War, as Skybound and GAMEVIL have just announced a partnership to expand the series beyond just a mobile game, and… holy crap that game looks cool. I definitely downloaded it as soon as my phone hit wifi, though I haven’t had an opportunity to play just yet.

I spun a prize wheel at Warner Bros.’ tiny is-this-even-a-real-booth booth in an attempt to win a neat Tomb Raider bag (I didn’t… dang), and then decided to head back to the Syfy Wire area to ensure that I had a good seat for freaking David Hayter. Prior to Hayter’s interview, I saw a more-interesting-than-expected interview with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic artist Andy Price, Stormlight Archive author Brandon Sanderson, and even Adventure Time‘s Finn himself, Jeremy Shada (along with Marceline actress too). It seemed like most of the seats were taken up by Adventure Time fans, as the seats cleared pretty quickly following Shada’s session. This was fine with me, as it made for prime seating for Hayter’s interview.

Hayter chatted about Metal Gear, of course. Noting that he had finished every title in the series that he’d worked on aside from possibly Portable Ops. He spoke of his Black Widow script many, many years ago, and a few of the ways he didn’t think his origin script would work all of these years later. Over the 30 minute period we heard a ton of Solid Snake snippets, and I have to say that I was in (Outer) freaking heaven. Hearing Hayter talk about how much fun it was to create this character and work on this series, and just how special he knew the series would be from the start was truly a joy to listen to. I’ve been a fan of Hayter’s work since I was a small child, and sitting ten feet away from him while he talked about working on Metal Gear, X-Men, Watchmen, an upcoming project with John Carpenter, and more, was beyond a dream come true.

Once the interview ended, I perused a few more booths and decided it was time to head over to my accommodation for the weekend in order to get to work (on this, mostly). On my way out, I ended up at a Nintendo booth that showcased a huge blow up Kirby, along with staff offering demos of upcoming Switch title Kirby Star Allies. The game felt like classic Kirby, but with an always active 4-player multiplayer feel (or CPU players, if you don’t have friends) and the 10+ minute demo absolutely has me rearing to play the full game. It looks and feels like classic Kirby, but with a ton of new mechanics, too. Instead of simply sucking up your enemies to gain their powers, you can ‘heart’ the enemies to make them your friends! Then they’ll help you through the levels (again, either as a CPU character or real life friends), and as each enemy has different abilities, you can also mix powers to better take care of your actual opponents. The game comes out on March 16th, so you still have almost two weeks to find some friends to play with!

A few years ago my dad and I ended up in some seedy motel way, way out of town when we came for ECCC (after our original hotel was cancelled for whatever reason), and the weekend consisted of a 40+ minute drive to the convention centre each morning, expensive parking, and barely sleeping through the night due to the constant barking dogs and yelling humans seemingly just outside out door.

This year, Mikaela and I ended up in a nice one bedroom AirBnb less than a 10 minute walk from the convention centre. We parked in an underground spot today, and we’ll drive out on Sunday, and other than that we’ll be walking to the convention centre in less than ten minutes. It’s a huge weight off of our shoulders to know that we’re a quick stroll away if we forget anything or need to drop anything off. Much of the time at events like this I won’t really buy anything (not for a lack of wanting to) because I won’t be able to drop anything off for up to a dozen hours, and carrying expensive, often damageable goods through an overcrowded convention floor sounds infinitely stressful.

We’re staying in an old (like probably 100+ year) apartment building, and it seems pretty neat so far. There was chocolate on the table, beer in the fridge (with a distinct note to help ourselves), and a some great, huge windows with a ton of natural lighting.

Mikaela eventually showed up, put on some makeup, and we took a quick Lyft to Skybound Entertainment’s 15th Anniversary Party at a neat venue called 1927 Events. There we had some tasty (TASTY) food, some The Walking Dead themed cocktails, played in the photo booth, and checked out the unreal augmented reality wine labels (via app Living Wine Labels) present on the special Walking Dead wine that was featured. A huge thanks to Skybound for hosting us!

Overall, it was a great first day at Emerald City Comic Con, and I can’t wait for tomorrow (when Mikaela will actually be able to see the convention, and we’ll see ECCC’s always amazing cosplay competition). Check back tomorrow for a (hopefully shorter) Saturday recap!