Mikaela’s Emerald City Comic-Con 2019 Recap: Friday

I finished off day one (read about it here) with a full tummy and a playthrough of a couple of sweet tabletop games. As I crawled into bed and waited for Derek to finish being so responsible and editing all of the Geekscape things, I decided to crack open my new graphic novel Rosalynd and give it a go. To my surprise I devoured it. The art style is incredible, and if I knew more about that sort of thing I could probably describe it, but I don’t, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. The story also captured me immediately and I was drawn right in. After a long day and a good dose of exhaustion I literally could not put it down and finished it in one sitting. I am currently sitting here contemplating just how to adjust my budget so I can go and pick up the Stephan Franck books that I had already decided I wouldn’t be interested in.

After finishing my book I promptly passed the eff out. I woke up this morning to Derek returning from the shower, throwing his underwear at me, and yelling BAKUGAN BRAWL!!! When I read this back that kinda makes him sounds like a total dick, but actually it was pretty hilarious and on point considering BAKUGAN BRAWL has pretty much been our mantra for the last two days.

We slowly organized ourselves to leave the Airbnb (and its sweet old man pug) to head over to Courtney’s Aunt’s place, who is so graciously putting us up for the rest of the weekend in the loveliest apartment. Walking into this new place to stay was a breath of fresh air and a reminder of how incredibly fortunate we are to be doing what we are doing. Sometimes the universe really does deliver in amazing ways, and I need a little reminder to look around and appreciate what’s being handed to me. The craziest thing about this whole process was the amount of chill embodied by Derek. Anyone who has done anything with Derek will know that ‘early is on time, and on time is late’, so when he was in no rush to be anywhere on time I quickly came to the conclusion that some sort of body snatching situation has happened… the jury is still out.

On our way out to the con we quickly realized that actually we were starving. So we popped around the corner to a little French cafe. This actually turned out to be super delicious — I had some sort of flakey pastry filled with spinach and tomatoes and olives… basically just a whole pile of yumminess! And the woman in there serving us was so incredibly happy, warm and lovely. She was a positive ray of sunshine and a perfect start to the day!

Upon arriving to ECCC you have to take a bunch of escalators to get to the main show floor on the 4th floor. Before we made it that far I got distracted by a sewing machine display! Singer is sponsoring the cosplay competition on Saturday night and has a few machines on display out side of the cosplay repair room. I’ve recently gotten into quilting and embroidery, and so this piqued my interest! I few weeks ago I made a WWE pillow for Derek’s birthday present and spent at least 15 hours on just the embroidery part (totes worth it though, It turned out great, he was surprised, and and I’m super proud of it!). That being said it, was quite amazing to me to watch a machine embroidering detailed pictures in such a short period of time and without needing to be controlled by a person at all! They also had this amazing foot that literally does the gathering for you!!??! Which after gathering a whole bunch of fabric to create the pink Eleven dress from Stranger Things, I have a whole new appreciation for!

As we got closer to the action I realized that today was going to be a busier day, and I was excited. Every time we go to a convention the thing I am most stoked on is all the amazing cosplay. I love taking photos and talking to people about their outfits. Yesterday felt like just a little taster of what was to come today and I was so stoked for it. However today as I walked around seeing so many people’s incredible costumes I recognized myself becoming increasingly anxious about the thought of interacting with people. I am a (probably not unusual) combination of outgoing and incredibly shy. Usually it takes me a few tries to get into the swing of approaching people for their photos, but today I just couldn’t get over my anxiety and never really found my stride. I still talked to people and took lots of cosplay photos, but it felt stressful and awkward and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I usually do. I’m really hoping that tomorrow will be a different story, but If not that’s ok, I’ll still do what I came here to do, but I really want to get that joyful spark out of it.

After wandering outside for a bit we decided to hit the show floor again. Word on the street was the Harper-Collins booth would be giving out a free book if you mentioned the secret password ‘doughnut’. So I approached the booth and asked one of the guys if they happened to have any doughnuts left, cause I heard you could get a doughnut there. To which he replied ‘Oh really? I didn’t know we had doughnuts! I must have missed them!’. I walked away feeling unsure if he knew what I was talking about, or if he thought I was legit asking for sugary treats, or if Derek was doing the whole thing to trick me for his own entertainment. Either way no free books were to be had today.

We then split up and I made my way over to a panel called ’Step Up Your Cosplay Photography’, featuring a few cosplay photographers and cosplayers from the Seattle area. It was interesting, and refreshing to be reminded that this is a hobby that anyone can get into at any time. They talked a lot about different ways to network with other cosplayers/photographers (mostly social media), as well as different strategies for optimizing photos (mostly scout out your location and do a little research about the character so you know how to pose), both parties need to set boundaries and expectations (around when photos will be delivered, posting to social media, poses you’re not comfortable with etc). The biggest take away was definitely communication, communication and more communication. Oh, also don’t be a jerk to people and they probably won’t be a jerk to you! Take away the cosplay framework and it was just generally good life advice!

Pretty quickly after the panel Derek, Courtney, Jake and I all met up, acknowledged that we were hitting a wall and decided to forage for food a couple blocks from the chaos of the convention. Last time we were in Seattle Courtney introduced us to Din Tai Fung, supplier of the most delicious soup dumplings, and we have been fantasizing about it ever since. So when we realized how attainable these dumplings were, we made it happen, and oh man it did not disappoint! If you ever get the chance I highly recommend visit this restaurant, and if you can bring a menu expert with you I definitely support that!

After refuelling I felt like I might be able to take on ECCC again and we headed back that way. Immediately I got distracted by so much cosplay. I took a picture of a wicked Darth Vader, and proceeded to make a real ass outta myself as I asked him for his instagram handle and misunderstood his Vader mask accent one million times before he gave up and handed me a card. It was awkward. I felt dumb. But really it is so hard to understand Vader!

When we finally got moving again we made our way back to Artist Alley and finally got to check out a good chunk of it. Oh man there are so many things I want! It is unbelievable how talented people are, and so cool that so many different types of art by so many different people are all crowded into one lil area, just so we get to enjoy the fruits of their labour! It always amazes me when you walk by a booth and see someone working on a commission, I don’t know how they do it with so many distractions around, and still manage to create such incredible beauty.

I grabbed a set of four beautiful greeting cards, and a postcard sized print of Rey from Star Wars done in a Alphonse Mucha style. There were so many other things that I wanted to bring home with me, but I am trying to restrain myself a wee bit… for now anyways!

At this point Derek and Jake had gone off to watch a bunch of Alien shorts, and Courtney and I were left to our own devices. Usually when walking around cons with Derek I am the chatty one, but it was a marvel to see Courtney connect with people at almost every booth we stopped at. She is a big fan of Studio Ghibli, and sports a couple of awesome Ghibli tattoos, which opened up a lot of conversations with people as it seems many artists like to do varied and beautiful Ghibli renditions. After this weekend I’ve decided I need to get it together and watch some of this business! I wanna find my favourite one so I can get all the cute arts!

We walked Artist Alley until the convention shut down for the day, then Courtney and I sat in the atrium and watched people wind down and head out while we waited for the boys. It was super nice to see all the cosplayers chatting and connecting as they no longer needed to pose for passers by and had time to compare notes on the day’s experiences.

After a quick and cheap Lyft back to the apartment we got to kick our feet up and relax for a little while before heading down to the sweet sweet hot tub and pool! This was quickly followed up by a delivery of Buffalo Wild Wings and my realization that I had run outta fun time and need to get cracking on my writing!

I am exhausted, and content. I am feeling super fortunate and so full of gratitude. I am very much looking forward to whatever tomorrow has to throw at us!

Be sure to look for a frequent stream of cosplay photos on our Instagram, @Geekscapeforever!