Sunday Fly-By to the Emerald City Comicon 2015--Obtaining Authors' Autographs

(Image:  Emerald City Comicon 2015 Banner)

Attending any comic book convention provides fans with a great opportunity to meet the artists, writers and celebrities they admire--and obtain their autographs.  

Prior to my one-day attendance, I poured over the Exhibitors and Artist Alley sections of the ECCC website and compared the list with the books I already own.  

Or, I at least tried to.

Anyway; when Alex and I met, I told him my initial goal was to get the five books I had in my backpack autographed by the writers currently attending.  Doing this in a walkabout fashion would also get us familiar with the convention layout.

The ECCC website provides a nice page of the show floor.  However, it's one thing to gaze at cut-away views and maps with numbered boxes and rectangles, and quite another to navigate the actual floor-space crowded with cosplayers and the casually-dressed.

Our recon took over three hours and we only covered the Show Floor (well, most of it on Level 4) and the Gaming Area on Level 2.  If we had three-day passes we'd be able to see the entire convention.  Maybe.

(Image:  One entrance to the Show Floor at the end of the day)

Here are some of the folks I met during our walkabout:

Rebecca Hicks, author of Little Vampires.  

(Image:  Rebecca Hicks, the only author I thought of taking a picture of at the start of a busy day)

I met her during last year's GeekGirlCon, where she advised me to get Brad Guigar's The Webcomics Handbook.  Which I did, along with How to Make Webcomics.

This of course, led me to meeting the "evil genius" behind Evil Inc, and Tales From The Con.  I had an enjoyable chat with Brad, who also gave me some great webcomic advice.  (Now all I have to do is follow it).  Brad was nice enough to sign my copy of How to Make Webcomics and directed us to his co-author pals:  Scott Kurtz, author of Player vs Player (PvP), Dave Kallett, creator of Sheldon and Kris Straub.

I told Scott and Dave how much I appreciated the information they provided in How to Make Webcomics book and have started following their webcomics.

With three out of four authors' autographs obtained, Alex and I set out on a quest to find the last person in the How to Make Webcomics quartet--Kris Straub.

But despite the helpful directions from Brad, Scott and Dave, Kris proved to be an elusive author.  Neither Alex & I aren't expert trackers, but we like to think we're capable of following simple instructions.  However, finding one author among hundreds, struggling through a stream of fellow fanboys and fangirls numbering in the tens of thousands, locating Kris was like searching for one particular Tribble among a pile of Tribbles.

If Alex & I had three-day passes, we could have found Kris.  Maybe.

Greg Rucka proved almost as evasive.  Fortunately, the young lady sitting at his booth assured Alex & I that Greg was present, but had stepped out.  When we returned, I had a nice talk with him about Queen & Country (Vol 1), which he signed.  I told Greg about the plot-twist in one story I really liked (sorry no spoilers!), and found out that a movie is still "in the works."

The last author I was able to meet was kindly Ron Randall, creator of Trekker, who signed my Omnibus Edition and talked about his other projects, like his Sketchbook. 

With three books (mostly) signed...

...I had only two autographs left to get:  Stan Lee's for my copy of How to Write Comics and J. Scott Campbell, artist for Danger Girl.

Oh, and remember my comment about trying to compare the convention exhibitor list with my books?

Well, when we came across Phil & Kaja's Studio Foglio/Girl Genius booth, I realized Myth Adventures at home.  I'm posting about this now so I have a better chance of remembering to bring my book next year.

Now getting back to Campbell and Lee:  These guys, of course, were Celebrity Guests.  This meant strict autograph and photo op schedule--and the corresponding long lines.  By the time Alex & I completed our autograph and shopping missions it was 4:30 PM, a short time after the last autograph session for Campbell & Lee.  Even this late in the day, the Celebrity Guest Area on Level 6 was still packed.  So we decided to call it a day.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself.

After meeting with the authors I wanted to meet and getting their autographs, Alex & I made our way to the parking garage, where I hid my signed books in my car.  We then had lunch at a nearby Jimmy Johns.

This turned out to be a great choice.  Not only did we get our sandwiches fast, but a family finished eating and we were able to take over the booth they vacated.  So we avoided the fate of most convention goers:  Waiting in  long lines and scarffing down food standing up, or sitting on the convention floor.

With our meal done and with less weight in my backpack, it was on to Phase-II of our cunning comicon plan:

Buy more stuff!

Stay tuned!