ECCC

This weekend was the 9th Emerald City Comicon. This was the fourth one I've been to, and probably my favorite so far. It was expanded to three days this year, but I only made it to Friday and Saturday. Not much was scheduled for Sunday, and by Saturday afternoon I had spent all of my budgeted con money.

Friday, I got off work early and lined up for doors.

Once in, I made a bee-line to the media guest area to get in another line for Wil Wheaton. Lines at comicon and PAX last year were far too long to wait in to meet Wheaton, but this year getting there early paid off as I was fourth in line for Wil.

Dude was super friendly, and excited to be there. He took a couple of minutes to talk to me and we even got an unfortunately blurry picture together. He's a genuine guy, and as nerd-famous as he is, he's really just another fanboy like the rest of us.

His autograph is full of awesome, too.

The other person I really wanted to me was Scott Kurtz of webcomic PVP. He started the whole webcomic thing back in the late 90s and has the longest running webcomic around. Yet again, a really genuine and nice person. He even remembered my name at a panel the next day. I thought that was classy.

Saturday I got to shake hands with Jeff Lemire, the writer/artist on Sweet Tooth, which is probably my favorite comic out today. Its about a little boy with antlers living in a post-apoc America. Fantastic stuff. He offered to do a Sweet Tooth sketch for me which was really rad.

Panels were a mixed bag this year. My only complaint about ECCC is that it's a little light on panels compared to something like PAX. Wil Wheaton's Awesome Hour was entertaining as usual. He told some great stories and I filmed the strangely awkward Q&A portion of the show (which I'll post up once I figure out how to get a video off of my Ipod Touch).

I popped into the Boondock Saints panel for a couple of minutes, but it wasn't very interesting. I liked the first movie, but I'm not a big enough fan to sit through a whole panel.

The Vertigo Comics panel was pretty good, although they seemed to only cover the Vertigo titles that I don't read. Some interesting stuff on the way this year though.

The webcomics panel was one of my favorites. Scott Kurtz and crew sat up on stage in suits, drinking the whole time, and cracking jokes. Really funny stuff.

The William Shatner panel was the biggest draw for the weekend. The line to get in was moving quickly so I popped in for a minute, but the dude was just rambling on about Mr Tambourine Man and Ben Folds, and it really wasn't my cup of tea. The Marvel Comics panel after that wasn't much better.

Nerdprov later on that afternoon was pretty cool. Its exactly what it sounds like. I really don't need to describe it much beyond that. Pirates vs. ninjas, Inception in three minutes, and a bad first date as a D&D game.

Last hurrah for me was the Rainn Wilson panel. That was almost as packed as the Shatner thing. He was there promoting his new indie film, "Super" about a guy who decides to become a superhero after his girlfriend leaves him. In the middle of the panel, local costumed crime fighter Phoenix Jones shows up. Rainn was super excited as he had been trying to get in contact with Jones for a couple of days. Turns out its tough to get a hold of superheroes. Who would have thought?

A great time. Now I just have to wait another six months for PAX.