September 13-15, 2019
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon
I have been attending this great event since its noble beginnings back in 2012 when it was in a small hall at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel and there were over 4,000 people trying to fit in the venue. I remember pulling up to the hotel and there was a large line waiting to get in.
Since 2015, I have been fortunate enough to be accepted as a member of the press for RCCC. I have watched as this con grew from those original four-thousand to now an expected 75k people attending over the 3-days. The official attendance numbers over the years are as follows:
- 2013 - 18,000
- 2014 - 25,000
- 2015 - 32,000
- 2016 - 42,000
- 2017 - 64,000 (first year as a 3-day event)
- 2018 - 58,000
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| Rita Upton of {Chrysalis Rising Photographic Studio} and myself waiting to get in on day 1. |
There have been a few changes this year over the previous. In the past 4 years I have been a member of the press, I have had the opportunity to get onto the show floor at least 30 minutes before it opened to the general public. This has always helped so that I can make some connections with artists and creators before it gets very busy. It's also helped to be able to get a lay-of-the-land without the thousands of other people. This year, we were told that we would only be allowed in during normal show hours. While this was a little upsetting, it didn't really mater to me until about 15 minutes after the show was to open when they finally let us in. While waiting, I had the chance to converse with a few other members of the press who also expressed their dislike for the change.
I would also like to point-out that when we received our badges, the experiences wasn't the same as years past. I remember speaking with Paula Brister directly before the event when I had questions. This year, my pre-show questions remained unanswered until I was face-to-face with Mikala Rempe (Senior Publicist, Linda Roth Associates). While she told me that the information about not being able to get into the show early was in one of her emails, I have scoured them and found nothing. This is the first time I could really feel that the event was less locally run and more corporately run.
But enough of that. Let's get into the show.
DAY 1-The layout of the event was the same as the past years, which works very well for a good flow for people. Considering that
Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, WA has boasted attendance numbers over 80k since 2015, I think that RCCC should seriously consider a larger venue within the next 5 years.
My first objective of day 1 was to get in line for "Weird Al" Yankovic. His first signing was to begin at 1:00pm or 1:15pm, and since we weren't let in until around 1:15pm, I felt the need to bypass everything to get to the media guest area, that was on the far side of the floor from where we were. Fortunately, I got a decent place in line and didn't have to wait for too long before Al showed-up. it was pretty great that
Funko even sent a small crew down to present Al with the same Funko Pop Vinyl that I was about to ask him to sign for me. They also took my photo, which I asked them to email me a copy, but haven't seen or received it yet.
Now I'm not sure who was in charge of getting the guests to where they need in a timely manner, but from what I saw and heard from over the weekend is that they were lacking. There were several people commenting how they were rushed through a photo op because of timing or that one of the guests didn't arrive to their signing until very late because of a panel running long. I would hope that in the future, whoever is responsible for scheduling guests and managing their time will give a 30 minute gap (at least) between obligations so that there's enough time to get from one side of the event to another. More on this issue when I cover day 2.
Since creating
Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer, I have always tried to include picking-up covers from contributing artists that are attending RCCC. This year was no different. My first visit was with one our newest contributors,
Don Nguyen. Check-out
Pablo the Gorilla.
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| Don Nguyen and I. |
It's always great to meet-up with the different artist who have helped me make #CBC4C possible, and I love meeting new artists. My next visit was with
Ron Randall. Please check-out
Trekker.
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| Ron Randall with his latest donation to #CBC4C. |
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After meeting with Ron, I worked on acquiring a few personal autographs for my collection. I had brought things for
Kelly Sue DeConnick,
Adam Kubert and
Terry and Rachel Dodson. Unfortunately, Kelly Sue and Adam weren't going to be at the show until Saturday and the Dodsons were only attending on Sunday. This makes me wish that this was published somewhere before the show. This would have saved me time packing books on Friday that I wouldn't be able to get signed until Saturday. More on this later.
One of my favorite things about going to RCCC is going to the
I Like Comic booth because they always bring a load of trades at cheap prices. This is when I get to load-up on more trade to be able to read and review; and usually many that I would not have thought to purchase previously so as to expand my horizons. Unfortunately, they didn't bring any this year. They brought boxes of their back issues and many of their graded comics. I can fully appreciate the reasoning behind this because they have higher prices... and we do live in a capitalist society... I had to walk away from the area disappointed.
Another item on my list that I must do every event is stop off at the
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund booth. As much as I appreciate and support what they do, I love the selection of signed trades they have to offer. And when I saw
The Walking Dead: Here's Negan signed by Charlie Adlard, I had to get a copy.
After checking-out a few other areas trying to find a good buy for trades, my body told me it was time to head home for the day. I stopped over at the RCCC merch area to pick-up some of the
Rick and Morty blank covers for #CBC4C.
DAY 2-Saturday's are always bigger at RCCC, and this day was no different. Even though we got up to the Convention Center plenty early, all the on-site parking had already been filled. We had to park over at the Moda Center, which is about a half mile away from the event... a walk that I was not planning on having this early in the day.
We were able to get in the press access area easily enough, and waited for the doors to open. My friend and I had guests to go get in line for, so we went our separate ways. He went to get ready for Billie Piper, while I went to queue for Wil Wheaton to get this Star Trek cover signed.
This is where the day started to go very negatively for me.
I found where Wil Wheaton's area was, and there was already a short line of about 12-15 people. For those who have attended comic cons in the past, you know that there is typically (what I have found common, at least) a taped path in a zig-zag formation to help form the queue. Even though it would seem common sense to follow the taped lines, there were some people in line behind me that thought the line was straight down the left side of the area. There wasn't a huge issue, it just made things a little frustrating when the line would occasionally progress forward.
Add to this frustration the fact that I was standing in line for over an hour, and at that point Wil was about 45 minutes late. This is when I learned from the henchman who was "working" the area that there would be no cash or credit sales at the table. The only way you could receive the autograph (that I had been waiting for) was to have pre-purchased. When I looked on my phone to make the purchase, it showed me that the only availability would have been in Group 3, and the time for that group was already 15 minutes past. On top of that, there is an 8% surcharge for purchasing online. The fact that I was only able to budget enough money for the actual autograph and now they were informing us about this kind of pissed me off, so I left the line. It didn't help that my good ankle was beginning to bother me from all the standing around for nothing. I would hope that for future events, changes like this would be posted where you could see them, preferably before getting in line.
After that fiasco, I needed to go sit for a while as the next item on my to-do list was getting autographs from Adam Kubert and Kelly Sue DeConnick, and they were both going to be at their respective areas at the same time. I also took some of this time to hit the
Oni Press area as I have been interested in getting the
Rick and Morty vs Dungeons and Dragons trade for a while. I also picked-up volume 1 of their regular series.
When I arrived at Adam Kubert's table, there was already a line waiting, and he wasn't scheduled to be there for another 10 minutes. So I queued. Again, I would like to point out that there are people in this world that don't understand the meaning of a line... and some that don't really care, it seems. In the time that it took for me to get in line and finally get to see Adam, there were more than one individual that was trying to circumvent the concept of a queue. My frustration was at a boiling point, but it is not my job, nor my responsibility, to teach people common courtesy in attending events of this nature. I abhor conflict, so I stew and write about it later.
In the line ahead of me was a man with a stroller. I thought nothing of it at first, except when I noticed he had 2 dogs in it. He also kept going through a large selection of comic he had, asking others in line if "he did the art for this". It was simple to see that this was not a fan of the work that Adam has put in over the past 30+ years, but rather someone looking to try and score some cash on his autograph.
When I got closer to the front of the line, that was when I overheard that Adam was charging $10 for autographs. This was counter to what I saw the day before at his table.
This changed things for me, but only a little since I had saved some extra money from not being able to get the autograph earlier from Wil Wheaton. When I got to Adam, I mentioned to him about my work with Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer, and he obviously wanted to help in some way. He asked if I was going to back on Sunday, but unfortunately that was not in the cards. He then offered a donation of some of the signed prints.
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| Original art donated by Mike Hatfield |
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| Signed prints donated by Adam Kubert. |
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After this great meeting with Adam, my next intention was to visit with Kelly Sue. I have been collecting her autograph on her works for years, beginning with her run on the
Dark Horse title
Ghost. This is what brought her to my attention, and when I get a chance to see her again, I take the opportunity. Unfortunately for me, when I arrived at her table, there was a line about an hour deep and my ankle was not going to allow me to stand for that. Fortunately, since she and her husband are both Portlanders, I knew that there would probably be a good chance of being able to see her again in the near future.
Before going back to sit and rest, I stopped by the
Hero Initiative booth. I always stop by to give me support for their cause. It it wasn't for them and the different 100 projects that they have done to raise money, I would not have been inspired to start Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer. After having my copy of the
Walking Dead 100 Project for so long, and not being able to add any new signatures to it for quite some time, I thought I would pick-up a new book to start again.
While I was giving my body some rest, I thought I would tweet a photo of the prints that Adam Kubert had donated to #CBC4C and thank him publicly.
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| My tweet. |
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| The response received from Adam. :) |
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Considering how poor the wifi signal is inside of the convention center, this made my day.
During the course of the remaining time at the event, my friends and I shared a wonderful experience from
Wild Bill's Soda. I had seen them at past events, but dismissed them for one reason or another. I'm glad we got this mug/cup, and look forward to drinking from it again at future events.
I ended up paying more attention to people talking about their experiences for the rest of the event; good and poor. I have also noticed that there were many people venting their frustrations online after the event. We live and learn, and I hope that we can work to make RCCC 2020 even better. I look forward to being there myself.
To those who read this post, I would welcome you to share your personal experiences in the comments section. If you can provide some constructive criticism for things that may not have gone well for you, perhaps the management of Rose City will take notice and work to make improvements where they can.
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