Rose City Comic Con 2026 - My Experiences

SEPTEMBER 11 - 13, 2026

OREGON CONVENTION CENTER

777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd 

Portland, OR 97232

2026 marks the 11th year in a row where I have been honored to be able to cover RCCC as a member of the press. I want to thank Leftfield Media for this continued opportunity.

As per my usual, I intended to arrive at the convention center early enough to get underground parking. Unfortunately, when we arrived shortly after 12 noon, the parking had already been filled and I was forced to park 3 blocks away at a different parking structure.

The good part is that I paid about $10 less for parking. The bad news is that I understand that there was already a line for parking early on Friday morning when the event didn't open until 1pm. That just seems a little insane to me, but I guess you can't argue with the results of being able to park at the convention center where it is easier to get in and out of the event.

Speaking of entering the convention center, we followed the crowd to the entrance on MLK Jr Blvd. I had missed the part in the email that the best option to get to the press room to obtain our badges was the Holladay St entrance, and this confusion only worked to expand on my frustrations of not being able to part at the convention center.

From the entrance, I was told that the direct way to the press room was not available until 1pm. None of the crew for the event were able to figure out how to circumnavigate that impasse, but after a few minutes of stewing in my head, I came to realize the flaw in my predicament. We walked toward the Holladay entrance and from there proceeded to the press room to retrieve our badges. I fully accept the blame for my confusion and frustration over this. Once we were able to get our badges, frustrations deescalated so I could work to enjoy my time at comic con.

Proof of life

Something that my photographer decided to do last year was to buy some small ducks and hide them around the event for people to find. This was sparked by a tradition that we have previously experienced on cruises where people will hide rubber ducks (or similar items) around the ship for people to find. A fun little scavenger hunt. This year, he also brough some crows. He not only hid these around the event, but gave them to exhibitors and artists.

I typically like to use the south entrance over where the panel rooms are. This puts me over by the exhibitors area which I like to walk through on day 1 to get a good idea of what's available. The down side of using this entrance is that they don't make it open for anyone until about 10 minutes after the show has opened. To a degree, I understand the reasoning for this. They are allowing the people who queued over at the "main" entrance over by the Holladay St entrance the first chance to get in. While we were queued, there were more than a few people who were frustrated by this delay.

Another problem that I witnessed is that a person with a premium pass was denied entrance as well, even though the information for the badge types clearly states that this badge receives 30-minute early access to the Exhibit Hall all three days. I'm 100% confident that this was an oversight on behalf of the Convention Center staff who were monitoring the entrances.

Prior to the event, I was contacted by the manage for Friskies Cat-lectibles. We weren't able to nail down a specific time to go to their area to have a conversation, but we did check out the setup. There were quite a few people there every time we passed by.

In the past, I have mentioned how I generally appreciated the amount of seating spaces that were made available in the exhibit hall. This year seemed to not have that same level of seating, and this was bothersome as my body was giving me problems as we walked through the exhibitors area. We were able to find a seat over in the Cryptid Cantina area, but the picnic style benches were not the greatest and we were warned that getting up from them might be tricky because of weight distribution on the benches. We took the risk and rested for a few minutes so my body to recoup from the vicissitudes of the day. Full disclosure for those who haven't been a long time reader here, I am in my early 50's and not in the best shape. I have some physical limitations, but I am not to the point of being handicapped.

My wishlist for this event consisted primarily of action figures, some Funko Pops and trade paperbacks. In past years, there have been a couple of exhibitors that have had a variety of cheap TPBs to continue my love of collecting, then reading, then posting reviews here. Unfortunately, I was only able to find 1 exhibitor that had a selection of TPBs... but sadly none that I either needed or sparked my interest. I was able to find several vendors that sold Funko Pops and was able to add this great Megatron to my growing collection.

As much as I appreciate having publishers that RCCC, I didn't find a large variety of TPBs at either the Dark Horse or IDW booths. I miss having Oni Press in attendance so that I might pick-up some new Rick and Morty TPBs at the very least.

Another vendor I was hoping to see again this year was Free League Publishing, as I was hoping to get at least The One Ring core rulebook. Alas, they are also not in attendance this year. I did however find the Goodman Games booth, however it looked like they brough the same items they had from last year.

Day 2 started out better than day 1 did. We go there early enough for the underground parking ($25 this year), and was even able to park in my favorite spot. Unfortunately, one of the elevators was broke and it took us forever to get from the parking lot up to the event area. 

Another mistake on my end was not bringing my tablet with me so that I could spend some time writing this post while we spent time in the press room. With the way the following week went, I had to wait until Saturday (9/19) morning to begin writing. Fortunately, I was up early enough that I had my shared office all to myself. Well, me and out dog Smudge at least. :)

Quite a while ago, I found this video where Deborah Ann Woll introduces Jon Bernthal to Dungeons & Dragons. In all the years of being a role player, I don't think I've ever witnessed someone explain D&D better than Deborah did. This video inspired me and gave me a great admiration to her. While I was familiar with her roles in Daredevil and True Blood, I did not know how talented she was as a Dungeon Master.

A few weeks prior to RCCC, I decided that I wanted to meet Deborah and get her autograph as a DM. I acquired a copy of my favorite reference book from my days playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Deities & Demigods. This would be something that will live in my collection, and I think I'm going to actively acquire autographs from other DM's such as Ginny D, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Antonio Demico. Deborah would be the first in line.

I have an artist friend in Oklahoma (Sydney Walton) who I was able to purchase a couple of his Daredevil and Punisher covers from that had been signed by Charlie Cox and Jon Bernthal.

Daredvil signed by Charlie Cox	Punisher signed by Jon Bernthal

I wanted to add to the ongoing collection with a cover depicting Deborah Ann Woll as her Character Karen Page.

Unfortunately, the USPS had other plans. As the tracking shows, this was meant to originally be delivered on Friday.

But the fact remains that it wasn't delivered until the following Monday afternoon. Well after RCCC was over and my chance to have Deborah sign it was gone. I'll be keeping my eyes open for another chance to see her to I can get her autograph on the cover that Sydney did for me. He was also talking about possibly doing a Kingpin cover of Vincent D'Onofrio. I wouldn't mind adding that to my collection eventually.

The other goal that I had on my list for Saturday was to find a few of the Pinpalooza pins as a Christmas gift for a friend of mine. It took a while to finally find the specific artist areas, but mission accomplished nonetheless.

Another great year for Rose City Comic Con. I look forward to the possibility of being invited again for next year. I hope to be able to improve my physical condition by then.