I don’t typically go to Emerald City Comic Con, but through the generosity of some lovely and wonderful people, I went this year for Saturday.  Highlights, getting to see my friend Rachel, and getting a copy of GI Joe #47 signed by Larry Hama for the Geek Husband What Rules.  Mr. Hama was very nice.  And very honest about whether or not he’d be able to get to my request to have him do a sketch of Snake Eyes before the end of the day, since I was only going to be there the one day.

Ok, so I got there and wow, overwhelming!  You walk in the door and it’s a crush of people and a riot of colors everywhere you look.  Cosplayers abound!  We Love Fine, Topatoco, Superhero Stuff, Image Comics, Dark Horse!  It’s slightly less overwhelming than PAX solely because the Expo floor doesn’t look and sound like a gunfight in a disco, but still, it’s pretty overwhelming.  I started off with a stop at the booth Kel McDonald shared with several other Portland area indie-comic artists.  I’m seriously bummed I couldn’t afford her book of porn, but I did pick up the first volume of Fame and Misfortune, which is amazing.  Seriously, I just picked it up to make sure I had the title right and wound up reading the whole thing cover to cover instead of writing this.  It’s awesome.  Review to come later.

After that I wandered around and my next purchase was three comics from Cellar Door Publishing:  I Am Spartacus, Shocking Gun Tales and Chance of a Lifetime (previews of all three books, and others, can be found here).  Expect reviews in the next week or so.  Then I found a booth guaranteed to be catnip to me:  Skullastic!  Seriously, they let you make your own SPIRAL NOTEBOOKS!!!  It’s a passion project of one of the founders to get kids interested in writing, so they make notebooks like “Buffy the Vampire Stapler” and a really nifty Jekyll and Hyde notebook that’s two half-width notepads, bound on both sides.  Super nice people!  I stopped and made a “Three Hole Punch” notebook.  They also donate their profits to local schools, so I love them more.

I wandered around a little more, constrained from buying ALL THE THINGS by the fact that we’re broke right now.  I collected a bunch of business cards and some preview comics.  I saw Chris Claremont, but did not spend the several hours that would have been necessary to get his signature.  I did, as I said, get Larry Hama’s signature for the Geek Husband What Rules, and I’m glad I did.  He adores Hama’s writing.  He has most of the original run of GI Joe and ‘Nam.

I also talked to Jake Richmond, who draws Modest Medusa, and Ben Hsu of Dubious Company.  Modest Medusa is an adorable webcomic about a young Medusa trying to survive in a hostile world.  Dubious company is an anime style webcomic about Pirates?  We had just seen them last week at the Honey Badger performance in Portland.  But it was nice to catch up and see some friendly faces.  I also ran into an old friend from Wenatchee, Chris McFann.  I picked up the convention preview copy of his two books, The Tragic Tale of Willow Lightwheel, and Moneyshot.  I gotta say, given the sample vignette from Moneyshot, I think that book is going to be the magic one.  Willow Lightwheel is cashing in on the

Steampunk thing, but I like Moneyshot better.  Just from the two or three pages in this sample book.  I can’t wait to read the rest of it.  The art is beautiful in both books.  And McFann finally got me the Nightcrawler sketch he’s been promising me for, like, 13 years.

I also spent some time hanging out with the lovely and talented Mr. Pete Venters, in the signing area near the Gathering Art Book exhibit.  We talked smack about the Geek Husband What Rules, and I also met the beautiful JhoiraArtificer, whom I had only spoken to on twitter for the longest time.    Then I wandered around and bought

the cutest piece of fan art from Lahela Schoessler, who has just recently moved up to Seattle.  After that I was about peopled out. I was grateful to those friends who had booths who let me hide in them from time to time.  But that many people in one spot does tend to make me a little twitchy.

On my way out, I stopped by Geek Chic’s display to say hi to my friend Jen, who is awesome!  And to arrange, hopefully soon, going out and drinking times.

Also, I spoke to some lovely people with a booth promoting their nine year old daughter’s comic (and I didn’t grab a copy, doh!) and the Girl Central Stations site, which promotes girl friendly and empowering products and media, as well as recommending products that don’t talk down to girls, or try to confine them with stereotypical gender roles.

So that was, in a nutshell, my ECCC experience.  I’ll post a separate entry with some of the cosplayers I took pictures of while I was t here.  So much cosplay!!!!!!

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Oh, and Honey Badger’s first two songs are available for download here, for free or pay what you want.  We’re also part of a larger compilation to benefit a local venue, with a song written by yours truly.  Check it out (we’re track 16).

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