Derek’s Emerald City Comic-Con Recap – Sunday
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened? That’s what I was trying to tell myself as Mikaela and I woke up this morning. It felt as though we’d only just arrived in Seattle, and like Emerald City Comic-Con had only just begun – when in actuality, it was just a matter of hours before we’d be making the drive back to Vancouver and back to our real lives (and bills and jobs).
We prettied ourselves up for the day and then packed up what felt like a million bags. As we left our AirBnb for the last time (we brought our bags down to the car and left it parked there until we were ready to leave the collection, thankfully our host was cool with this), I realized just how much we’d lucked out on the location. Sure, it was a little outside of what we were comfortable spending (or what we could comfortably afford), but it took so much weight off of our shoulders to be a miniscule five minute walk away from the convention centre, rather than having to drive into the city each day to search for expensive, needle-in-a-haystack parking. Being so close to the convention centre simply allowed us more time at the convention itself, which (aside from the Szechuan sauce) was the whole reason we were there, of course.
After grabbing some tasty sandwiches from a local cafe, we (finally) made our way up to Artist’s Alley. The area has its own freaking floor at ECCC, and I honestly have never seen another Artist’s Alley that comes even close in size. It was freaking massive, spanning two and a half giant rooms. Almost every booth was packed with people, and we spent almost two hours just looking at all of the amazing art on display. It wasn’t long before Mikaela found numerous prints that she absolutely fell in love with, and after we browsed the entire Artist’s Alley Floor, we went back to buy some. Up to this point, aside from food we hadn’t actually purchased anything at the convention… today would definitely be different.
Following Artist’s Alley, Mikaela spent some time seeking out some standout cosplayers. She’s already posted a number of these images to the GeekscapeForever Instagram account, but a gallery of all of the images taken (along with Mikaela’s thoughts on the convention as a whole) should pop up within the next couple of days. There was an unbelievable amount of intensely high-quality cosplay at ECCC, and I still think that (as I mentioned yesterday) the Western Championships of Cosplay competition was one of the coolest things I’ve seen at any convention – the sheer amount of time that these artists put into their work is beyond mind-blowing.
The hours were flying by at this point – we waited in a huge line to grab some delicious pizza from the convention centre cafeteria, and then proceeded to spend more (and more) money on the show floor. Mikaela ended up buying the Planned Parenthood benefit book from A Wave Blue World (which I mentioned yesterday), a comic by a local artist that had some gorgeous watercolour-style artwork, several miniature pop-art style prints, a cool print of a narwhal (her favourite animal) and an 11×17 print from what turned out to be a Vancouver-local artist. I’ve been pretty successful at not buying anything (or is it just not being able to afford anything) at the last batch of conventions that I’ve visited – I’m not sure if it was just Mikaela egging me on or if my willpower simply disappeared today (or if not having to carry things back across several flights like at SDCC was just super attractive), but after wanting to pick up Skybound’s Superfight for years, and being so impressed with demo we’d received of The Grimm Forest board game… I ended up walking away with both of them (and I can’t freaking wait to give them a try).
From there, we did a bit more wandering and a little more cosplay watching, and before we knew it it was (sadly) time to make our way back to the car. Time flies when you’re having fun is a statement that is at its truest at comic book conventions. No lie.
I made us stop pretty quickly so I could taste that sweet, sweet Szechuan sauce one last time, and the rest of the drive back to Vancouver was pretty uneventful. We spent much of the ride gushing about how much fun we’d had, how organized the entire convention felt (like really freaking organized and smooth) and just how much we’re looking forward to the next one. Of course, just before heading over the border we made a quick stop at Buffalo Wild Wings (which is way tastier than anything we have up in Canada), before waiting in the border line for almost an hour.
We finally arrived home, walked in the door, threw our junk on the ground, and instantly went to bed (at like 9PM). We were beat, and Mikaela had school in the morning. Our trip to ECCC was finished.
The trip itself couldn’t have happened at a better time either. Mikaela has been doing some damned intense schooling over the past couple of months, and my day job has been extra busy (and extra stressful) for some time as well. It’d been quite some time since we’d been able to just spend a decent amount of quality time together, and the trip to Seattle for Emeral City Comic-Con gave us just that. As busy and intense as these events can be, it felt relaxing and refreshing for us to be able to share that intensity together. Thanks for that, Emerald City!
That’s another one in the books… and now it’s just four months until San Diego. Time to start getting ready!
Thanks for tagging along, look for more coverage (and cosplay) in the coming days, and let us know what you’d like to see more of at our next convention!
