Emerald City Comicon 2012

Last year on a lark I went to the Emerald City Comicon in downtown Seattle. I'd been to "the" world famous Comicon event in San Diego the year prior and I guess I was just looking to experience some of the cosplay enthusiasm with a lot less of the headaches. For some reason standing on line for hours to see film doesn't phase me, but equal time to listen to folks talk about The Vampire Diaries is less appealing. Even if that show is one of my guilty TV pleasures. So I decided to give the Emerald City event another shot this year. Giving Saturday attendance a shot, up from last year's late Sunday attendance.

The Washington State Convention Center was swollen beyond recognition for the 10th anniversary of the annual event. To the extent I began wondering which Washington State residents were not in attendance. The line to buy a ticket off the street (yes, I planned poorly) were super long. Before committing myself to the queue I wandered off in search of a restroom. Apparently I must walk with authority because after finding one I started to notice that everyone around me was wearing an event badge. Didn't take long from that point to realize I was somehow within the "secure" area. Seems I had walked right past security. At this point in hindsight I should have resolved to mail the organizers my entrance fee and begun to enjoy myself. But instead I retreated to try and go pay. That turned out to be a mistake. Due to the Fire Marshall noticing how many people were around (and making them stop letting new folks in) and some confusing instructions about where to wait I didn't get back in for another hour or so. But at least I got a chuckle out of it when the guy behind me on line, yes the line outside in the rain next to the smoking section of the convention center, muttered, "You fuckers think just because a guy reads comics he can't start some shit?"

Eventually I did become a legit registrant and wandered around the tradeshow area. The selection of panel presentations looked particularly interesting this year but I didn't have the energy for them. All in all it was fun and I'm glad I stuck it out. I tried to capture a sense of the event through photos. Which I think was a reasonable success, though some are softer focused than I'd like - an issue I need to dig into more on tomorrow.

You can flip through the sideshow below or click in to be directed to the full sized layout. It's pretty fun to open up the full sized crowd photos - think of it as a sci-fi/comic-book version of Where's Waldo".

In conclusion - a big thanks to the organizers for making Seattle a spot to be reckoned with on the "Con" scene. As well as a hearty congratulations on their runaway success with respect to this event.