Wen-Con 2017

Yesterday I was able to visit Wenatchee and attend Wen-Con for a few hours.  On Friday night I saw an advertisement in Leavenworth at the Krampus Kave, as my wife and I were spending the weekend nearby.

On Saturday morning, I arrived shortly after the doors opened at 10:00AM.  I enjoyed walking through the exhibition hall and visiting the vendors.  The floor was full of cos-players, and the exhibition hall included artists, game stores, comic shops, and a variety of other relevant pop-culture vendors.  My favorite was the film-accurate replica of the Back to the Future Delorean.  There was also a great Ghostbuster and a Star Wars Scout Trooper.  I enjoyed browsing the old miniatures and spent some time in the video gaming room.

It was a fun way to spend a few hours and I think Wen-Con had a great inaugural event to build upon for future years.

Emerald City Comicon 2017

On Sunday, my daughter and I took another trip into Seattle to attend Emerald City Comicon. This was our second time attending ECCC. This year it was held a month earlier and the signing booths and photo opportunities were moved to the Sheraton, allowing for more exhibits and artist alley space.

The biggest change from last year was that Rey from Star Wars was replaced by Eleven (from Stranger Things) as the most cosplayed character .  In fact, the highlight of the day was my daughter's photo with Millie Bobby Brown - Eleven from Stranger Things.

I caught a glance at a number of celebrities at the signing booths:

• Anna Silk (Bo from Lost Girl),
• Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher from ST:TNG),
• Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones... and Aquaman), and
• many others, such as Stan Lee, Evangeline Lilly, Alice Cooper, and even Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies....

I was standing right next to Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) - in his scooter - on the main floor.  Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk / Kingpin of Daredevil) passed right by me as he entered the photo area - it was fun to hear his interactions with his conventions escorts - very gentlemanly persona.

Emerald City Comicon 2016

Yesterday my daughter and I took a trip into Seattle to attend Emerald City Comicon.  It was our first visit and I can only compare it to other large conventions I have attended, such as PAX Prime or Gencon.  The vendor hall was huge and interesting, and it was certainly the convention with the highest percentage of people in costume.  I'm used to seeing Deadpool cosplay at conventions, but this time he was almost overtaken by Rey from Star Wars as the most cosplayed character.

Some other thoughts and highlights:

• We attended a panel hosted by Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: Rebels.  She was promoting her new book publishing company, Her Universe Press.  Afterwards, we waited in the autographing area to met Ashley, who is friendly and was interested that my daughter has been a huge fan of her character, Ahsoka, for many years.  She is one of the most authentic celebrities I've met - its obvious she loves her job, and Star Wars and its fans.
• In Artist Alley, my daughter was drawn to the booth of Camilla D'Errico, an artist from nearby Vancouver, B.C.  I'd describe her art as a mix of manga and fantasy - she has fun, colorful, and unique designs that are full of mood. We picked up a print of her work, Neo New York.  Camilla was easy to talk with and really engaged my daughter, which was great.
• There were a few limited gaming exhibits and I picked up some sheets of PennyGems from ImprobableObjects.  The founder demonstrated the product to me last year at ETX.  The PennyGems are stickers that you fix to both sides of a penny to create a high-quality gaming token.
• I caught a glance at a number of celebrities at the signing booths:
• Sean Patrick Astin (Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings),
• Norman Reedus (Darryl from The Walking Dead), and
• many others, such as the Foggy from Daredevil and even the Weasley twins from the Harry Potter movies!

While standing in line to meet Ashley Eikstein, we heard a huge cheer erupt throughout the hall. Puzzled, I shot a questioning glance at another person in line.  She just replied... "Nathan Fillion...".