Emerald City Comicon: Saturday Madness

ECCC 2008: The line for freebies!
Originally uploaded by Heidi Meeley

We got up at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning to get dressed and go to McDonalds, a carb loading convention ritual we have partook in for many years. As we walked out our hotel door, we were filled with panic to see a race of some kind going down the very street we needed to cross to get to said McDonalds. After much bickering and irritation, we decided to cross the street.

We snuck across during a lull in the race and headed down the street. We weren't 100% sure where we were going, so we were a bit stressed. Just then a lady in running clothes came up to us on the street in a panic. Her daughter was in her van, and they needed money for parking. She offered to send us $3 if we would help her, but we decided just to give her the money. She and her daughter said "thank you" very sweetly as we walked on, still lost.

In what Jim calls "good karma" we found the golden arches a block down and a block over. As we proceeded to carb load, we plannned our day. We knew we needed to finish setting up and we knew that he wanted to try and get some sketches while I had a couple of comics I wanted to buy.

We walked back to the hotel to grab the original art for Jim's booth and headed into the show. The line was incredibly long, but very organized, as folks waited patiently to get in. Having an "inside" line really helped here.

The show opened right on time, and the line for freebies swelled and grew. We were next to the freebie table, and I took a picture of the madness. The line you see went well around the corner. The only other line I saw that looked like that during the show was the one for Ed Brubaker. Kill Captain America, and your line will look like this!

I went over to the ECCC booth to try and get a copy of The Boys #18 special convention cover. I had to literally shove my body to the front, shove a $10 bill in the guy's hand and shove my way back out. It was chaos. On my way back to the table, I ran into show organizer Jim Demonakos, who said he only had a couple of hours of sleep the night before. He kept waking up thinking of things to do or that needed to be organized. Poor sweetie! The show went as smoothly as I have ever seen it.

My observation at this point of the show is that I can tell this isn't an intimate affair anymore. The aisles were packed with people, and I was told that Saturday sold out. I could barely get through to go to see my friend Brian at the Hero Initiative booth. It truly is a big show now, simply lacking in movie star power, which is fine with me!

Luckily for me, I ran into Laura from Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog and her wonderful sister Lisa. I was thrilled to see them, and was so impressed with how great Laura and Lisa look. When I was talking to them, I suggested that they come over to the booth, and they were happy with that. It became a home base of sorts for them, which I really enjoyed. Note to Laura: I would love to have you at the booth next year as a "booth babe". We would benefit from your assistance, and I enjoy the company!

As Laura and Lisa headed out to troll some folks, which I think is an amazing idea, I headed to artist alley. Much to my dismay, the creators I wanted to talk to were swamped. I wanted to get my copy of The Boys signed by Darick Robertson, but his line was crazy. Then I headed over to see Phil Jimenez, and he had another long line. My last attempt was by Ethan Van Sciver, and his long was prestigious as well. So much for that idea!

I ended up just wandering around for a bit, looking at stuff and checking in with Jim from time to time. I picked up Secret Invasion #2, Invicible Iron Man #1, the naughty Witchblade cover, and Countdown to Mystery #7, so that was good.

The day went so fast. I wanted to go to the DC Nation panel, but it was crowded, so I didn't try too hard. I mostly pestered Randy Kintz while he was there, as Jim was selling his stuff at the Space Goat booth. At one point, I think I was pretty rude about him coming to the booth to sign stuff for a couple of fans, but he was very good natured about it. Randy is one of those guys who is as likable as he is talented!

Hunger got the better of me, and I went downstairs and got a horrid piece of pizza. It was awful but it got my blood sugar high enough that I could walk upright and not feel like crap.

Lucky for me, my friend Brian called me and told me to hurry over to the Hero Initiative booth because Gail Simone was there. I got a bit nervous and hit her up about feminism in comics. What I wanted to talk about was how her success has made her a poster girl for women in comics and how the women bloggers who have taken a hardline position have affected things. Gail was very gracious and had some answers that I would like to keep to myself for the time being. I also gushed a bit about how much I loved her take on Wonder Woman and how fabulous Phil Jimenez is before skulking off in a bit of shame for my odd behavior.

Thank God for me that the man of the hour, Swinebread showed up at the booth not long after! I knew that life would be good then!