ECCC 2018 Friday Cosplay

This ECCC cosplay video by Chong Ahn is really good. Like almost Sneaky Zebra good. It's all the more impressive when you realize they edited and uploaded it in like 2 days.

I saw quite a few of these in person, I really wish I had gotten a picture with the Hulkster and Rowdy Roddy. As some of you are aware, ECCC is a 4 day event now. I had 2 passes for all 4 days but on Friday I couldn't find anyone to go with so I went by myself. It wasn't the first time I'd been to a comic book convention by myself but it was definitely the biggest convention I'd ever been to on my own. It was fun but it was also pretty hard on my wallet. For some reason when you have no one other than strangers to talk to you end up just shopping the entire time. The whole day I think I went to one pannel.

2018 Emerald City Comic Con: The Reviewing

So if you follow me on social media (or were the one friend that wasn't busy this weekend) you'll know that this last weekend was Emerald City Comic Con. I had a great time, right up to the point on Sunday when I threw my back out tying my shoe.

Last year was the big 15th Anniversary for ECCC, I felt like there was a lot of pressure to make it the biggest show ever. This seemed a bit more relaxed. You could tell the show floor was a bit less crowded, I don't think there were quite as many "big name" nerd celebrities and the schedule of events didn't feel as busy. I thought it all made for a better overall show. I made a bit of a rookie mistake by thinking my kids would be well behaved on Sunday and that we'd have a bit more time to do a few things I wanted to do... LOL. Even typing it out now I see how foolish that was. Really, that's my only regret. In a 4 day show I put off seeing and buying a couple things until the last day and then poof, it didn't happen and I'm all like "whaaaaa?"

I'll try and pictures from the show as soon as I can, so you know... 10-20 days?

Woo Woo Woo ECCC 2017

Welp, another year, another Emerald City Comicon in the books. Lots of fun was had and plenty of money was spent. I'm not 100% sure I'm ready to claim it as the best ECCC I've ever been too but I know I had as much fun at this one as I have at any of the other ones I've been to.

I'm one of those weird people that actually go to conventions for comics and and while the nerds on facebook did plenty of handwringing over the celebrity guests this year, you could not argue with the selection of comic book creators they had. This year they moved all the celebrity signings out of the convention center and to a nearby hotel. It opened up a lot of space in the convention center and made it way easier to move around. I heard some grumbling from the people who actually wanted to see the celebs but almost everyone agreed the effect it had on artist alley was super positive. I kinda screwed up a bit and didn't manage my time very well and I missed quite a few artists and didn't pick up as many sketchbooks and prints as I wanted. I still walked away with plenty of stuff and it's hard to complain about not blowing my budget entirely.

One of the things I did do this year is check out more panels. Outlander, Stranger Things, The Image Founders, Sean Gunn and Michael Rooker, Timothy Zahn, 10 minutes of boring ass Jeremy Renner, I saw them all. I can't remember going to an ECCC where I checked out this many panels. It was definitely a nice change of pace from just walking the show floor looking at pikachu shaped pillows or laser printed metal portraits of Jean Luc Picard.

The big highlight of this year was that I won this lottery thing where I got to go to a special signing with the founders of Image Comics (minus one Jim Lee). Yes, I understand that if you're not into comics that doesn't really sound as cool as it was but whatever, it was really cool. All the founders were super nice, I got to talk with each of them for just a couple seconds and I got this pretty awesome poster out of the deal. For a frame of reference the line to get just Todd McFarlane's autograph (he was only signing one day) was about 3-4 hours long. I got his and like 5 other super cool guys.

The whole thing got a little Troy Meets Levar Burton when I got to meet Rob Liefeld. Man when I was 14 I was such a huge Rob Liefeld fan, his art is the thing that made me want to start drawing comics way back when. I got a book signed, the poster thing and a picture with him. Plus a fistbump and a handshake, it was crazy. I'm just glad I wasn't a complete blubbering mess.

Anyhoo, that's about all of it. I'll try and get to a cosplay roundup next week. I took a few pictures but not enough for like a real gallery or anything, I'll probably just post a bunch of links to some good galleries. Next stop Rose City Comicon in September.

Hello ECCC

Welp, it's that time of year again. Tomorrow is the start of the 15th annual Emerald City Comicon. As you might have guess I'm looking forward to it greatly. I even took the day off to prepare for it. Sounds silly on its face but I've got stuff to do and it's hard to get stuff done with kids. Big important stuff like change the oil in my car and shave in a fresh mohawk for my Quentin Quire cosplay on Saturday.

This year I'm going to try and catch more panels, some celebrity some comic book industry related. When they expanded the convention to 4 days it really allows you to slow down and take in more scheduled stuff without losing time on the show floor. I've got a pretty big stack of comics I want to get signed so with any luck I'll get a good portion of those done tomorrow when there aren't as many people there.

I thought for a few seconds that this might be the year I finally jump into collecting some original art instead of just prints but man... Most every one I would really want a commission from would mean blowing my entire budget on one picture. We'll see, maybe I can just get a couple head sketches or something. Or you know, I'll just blow all my cash on churros and N64 games. We'll see!

2016 Emerald City Comicon: Amazing Cosplay part 2

Hey kids, here's part two of BeatDownBoogie's Emerald City Cosplay video. It's just as good as part 1 but with like different people dressed up in different costumes. Sometimes it's the same people but they're still in different costumes.

Hey, you know what sucks? Trying to put together a new look for the blog. I thought I had this cool template all picked out but when I tried to actually get it working there were a couple problems that I couldn't look past. Now I know I'm going to send all my spare time this week looking at templates and not actually finding anything I like. If I don't find anything by friday I swear I'm just going to use one of the lame blogger templates. Webdesign from 2008 is still cool, right?

2016 Emerald City Comicon: Amazing Cosplay

The fine folks at BeatDownBoogie have put together a pretty good Cosplay video for this year's ECCC. I can't believe how many of these I missed. There was a whole troop of Halo guys I didn't see at all. I remember them from last year and they were amazing. Maybe they were there when it was margarita time at Pacific Place.

I'm still undecided about dressing up next year. It was kind of fun putting together a costume but I didn't really like the idea that anyone was looking at me. It's kind of like you want someone to notice your costume but at the same time you don't really want someone judging your costume. I don't know, it's weird. I said on twitter that maybe I don't really like dressing up I just like bedazzling things.

2016 Emerald City Comicon: The Recap

Emerald City Comicon is like second Christmas for me. Except that it's twice as expensive and this year it was hot as balls. I actually got sunburned on my walk from work to the light rail station on Thursday. Sunburned! In April. Someone get Al Gore on that.

The convention this year was a blast. A lot of dorks on Facebook were concerned that new ownership for ECCC would mean all sorts of drastic changes but I barely noticed any. Little things get tweeked and moved around every year, frankly the changes from 2013 to 2014 were bigger than they were this year. They added a 4th day this year, which was fine. It was only a half day and since it was on a Thursday it was way less crowded. Next year I might try and take advantage of that and get more signatures and sketchbooks while moving around is a bit easier.

Nathan Fillion's panel was the only one I went too over the weekend. It was pretty fantastic. He was really funny and charming. Most of his time was spent answering questions from the audience and the audience actually brought their A game. Nothing worse than when the audience tries to make the panel all about them and sort of ruins everything in the process. Hopefully next year I'll hit up a few more panels.

I didn't meet or get as many signatures from comic book pros as I have in previous years but I had WAY better interactions. I don't know if it was the pros or if it was me. Either way I had a blast. I also had a lot of fun with the friends I went with. I think drinks at lunch really helps the convention going experience. Even if comics aren't your thing I definitely think it's worth the ticket just to people watch. Heck it's worth it just to meet new people. I didn't make any new friends or anything while I was there but I did talk with a bunch of people and everyone was super cool.

I'm already looking forward to next year. It's the first week of March instead of April so it's only 11 months away! Below is a bunch of links to some picture galleries. If you've got a few minutes to kill they're worth checking out.

Pictures I took of Cosplayers. I made it a point to take more/better pictures this year. I got about a dozen good pictures. That's not terrible, right? Next year I'll either have a new phone or a fancy camera (both are on the 2016 Christmas list) so I'll try and get a few more.

A quick recap of my haul. I was doing really good sticking to my budget this year until I took the family on Sunday and we blew a bunch of cash on T-shirts. Man, the t-shirt racket at ECCC is strong. I didn't even get one for myself it was just shirts for the family and it was still 65 bucks.

Pat Loika's gallery of ECCC Images. Pat Loika is a guy I follow on twitter, he takes great photos of any convention he goes to. He has a lot of pictures of the pros in artist alley, which is cool. Most people just take pictures of the cosplayers.

2016 Emerald City Comicon Costumes from Seattle Refined. A lot of people were bummed when the star of Supergirl, Melissa Benoist, had to cancel at the last minute but this cosplayer was the spiting image of her.

Social Scene: Snapshots from Emerald City Comicon. Dude, this guy's Thanos costume was insane. Even the people working at the con were doing double takes when he walked by. Amazing work.

ECCC 2016: Cosplay Gallery by ComicVine. Learned something new this weekend. My son has a big ol crush on the rabbit from Zootopia. He got so shy and clingy when he saw her. It was hilarious.

Pixlr's 2016 ECCC Gallery. The Pixlr people had a pretty nice booth set up by the entrance where you could get pictures taken in your cosplay. It looked really legit and they have a ton of really good pictures here. If they're there next year maybe I'll throw my son in there.

Sold Out!

Ugh, Emerald City Comicon starts on Thursday and holy crap, my butt's sweating just thinking about it. For whatever reason I decided to humor my son this year and wear my Han Solo costume, he really gets a blast out of dressing up and this year he's going as a Stormtrooper so he was REALLY pushing me to go as Han. Now my Han Solo costume is pretty janky so I decided to make a couple upgrades to it, with one condition. It all had to be done on the super cheap. I bought a new vest for 7.99 at Value Village and even that sort of broke my costume budget. It wasn't even a vest, it was a jacket that I ended up cutting the sleeves off of.

The final piece I needed to finish my new holster arrived via amazon today so I think I have everything I need. I just need a couple hours to put everything together. If everything looks as good as it does in my head I might dress up for a couple days, not just the day I take my son. I don't know man, I'm pretty nervous about looking ridiculous. Of course, it's ECCC for every great costume you have like a dozen people who look ridiculous but are having a hella good time looking ridiculous.

Posts are going to be pretty sparse this week. I'm going to try and put together a couple of posts Thursday and Friday night but we'll see. You can always follow me on instagram and twitter if you want @newbachu and @kevinnewburn, I'm going to try and have a bit more #content on my social media steez this year.

The Post Where I Complain About Emerald City Comicon Again

@emeraldcitycon What is this PAX?

— Kevin Newburn (@KevinNewburn) September 23, 2015

If you haven't heard 2016 Emerald City Comicon tickets went on sale on Wednesday. 4-day passes sold out in less than two hours and 3-day passes sold out in a little over 24 hours. That kinda sucks.

Now don't get me wrong, tickets to the event are still available. After the 3-Day passes sold out I bought tickets to each day individually but the difference between the 4 day pass and buying individual tickets was about $40 per person, since I'm going with friends and family it cost me an additional $80. The scuttlebutt on the internets is that the new owners of the convention, ReedPOP, significantly reduced the amount of passes available this year to drive people into the more expensive single day tickets. Considering 3-Day passes last year didn't sell out for about 8 weeks it's easy to imagine that is exactly what happened.

I didn't buy tickets right away because I assumed, like a moron, that I had a few weeks to gather my funds. I really didn't want to put tickets on the credit card and we're right in the middle of refinancing the house so I thought waiting until our new budget was set was the smart option. Oh well, live and learn right? I guess next year I'll have to set my alarm to buy tickets the second they're released.

I'm hoping this isn't a bad omen for ReedPOPs management of ECCC. It's quickly become one of my favorite events and I just want it to get bigger and better, not bigger and worse.

Hey, Another Cosplay Documentary

Respect Films has thrown their hat into the ring, the cosplay ring. That makes zero sense... I don't know it's another 3 minute documentary teaser on Cosplay and why people Cosplay. It seems like one of these comes out every month. I'm only posting this one because A. I don't have anything else to post and B. It looks like some of it takes place at ECCC. Yeah ECCC!

Did you hear that Emerald City Comicon is going to be 4 days next year? 4 days, that's kind of ridiculous. This last year by day 3 I was tired and completely burned out. I don't know if I can handle 4 days. Maybe I should train for it like people do with Tough Mudder. I can see it now "Kevin, have you been working out?"

"Yeah I'm training for Comicon... hey where are you going?"

Cosplay Boom: Halo

The fine folks over at Cosplay Boom put together this video of Halo cosplayers at Emerald City Comicon this year. Honestly I haven't cared about Halo since ODST but man these super nerds talking about how much the franchise means to them has got me itching to play. I'm pretty sure I still have an unopened copy of Halo 4 sitting around the house. Xbox live updates here we come!

2015 Emerald City Comicon Cosplay Rodeo!

via Cosplay Boom
Welcome to this years very un-official/official DevilDinosaur Emerald City Comicon Cosplay rodeo. It's a rodeo because I like typing rodeo more than I do roundup and really it's like the same thing anyway. I would HIGHLY encourage you to follow the links below each picture, many of these galleries are fantastic and. All the credit in the world goes out to the photographers and cosplayers this year.

A couple random notes: There were quite a few lady Thors this year, most of them were really elaborate and looked like a lot of work. Also a lot of Halo Spartans this year, in fact there were a lot of video game characters period. Halo, Borderlands, Destiny, League of Legends were all very well represented. The guy in the picture above dressed as one of the bugs from Starship Troopers was amazeballs.

My favorite two cosplayers were the Arkham City Scarecrow and Bombshell Black Canary (the last two pictures on the list). Both were just spot on recreations of really cool characters/outfits. My favorite group of cosplayers I saw was definitely the Princess Bride group. Their Fezzik and ROUS put them over the top, seriously they completely nailed it.

via KOMO News: Seattle Refined

via The Will Box

via Undiscovered Photography

via The Kaigan

via MafHoney

via Serpymatt

via Plainswalker Photography

via Seattle PI

D4n0w4r

via ZenithPrime

via Eurobeat Kasumi Photography

ECCC sure has a lot of guests canceling this year

Emerald City ComicCon (one week away, squee!) just announced that Jenna Coleman has had to cancel her appearance this year. That's like the 4th major cancellation they've had this year. Levar Burton, Morena Baccarin, Dante Basco (?), and Karen Allen have all had to cancel. Those are just the celebrity cancellations, JG Jones, Skottie Young, Josh Middelton, Fred Van Lente and a few other comic book professionals have had to cancel too. That kinda sucks.

For the most part ECCC has done a good job replacing the canceled guests. For instance Jewel Saite is going to be there in place of Morena Baccarin but you can understand that nerds would still be bummed. Now I can't even imagine the logistical nightmare booking a convention with 60,000 visitors so it's not like I fault the fine folks that run the convention. It is what it is. I guess for every cancellation that leads to more time and money devoted to other stuff, closed doors and open windows and all that.

Now If I could just get that jerk on eBay to cough up the $70 he owes me for the comics he bought I'd be sitting pretty for next Friday. Daddy's got sketchbooks to buy.

2014, Back to the Future

Based on just the overall number of posts, 2014 was actually the least productive year I've had blogging since I started. I think I did a lot more reviews and long form ramblings than I have in past years. So I guess it's a trade off. Less posts but they take like a minute and a half to read instead of 30 seconds. I guess that's progress? I don't know man, I'm barely awake this morning.

So, without any further pomp and circumstance, let's take a look at the most popular or memorable posts of 2014.

I forgot I even wrote this post on Fantasy GI Joe Draft Rankings. I think I had plans on making this a big series of rankings and never got around to it.

2014 showed us the some of the worst the internet has to offer in The Fappening and Gamergate. The ring of hackers trading on celebrity nudes had been rumored for years but it's one thing to hear about something it's another to actually see it. Anyone that has any sort of internet connected device should be terrified of the Fappening. Anyone can steal anything, it's horrifying.

As always, Cosplay posts get lots of hits. ZOMG Cosplay is Killing Conventions! and Emerald City Comicon 2014 Cosplay Showcase both got a lot of hits. Maybe in 2015 I'll double down on Cosplay. I can practically taste that $100 pay out from adsense.

Back in my 2013 wrap up I predicted that the new generation of consoles would roll out a bunch of titles that really blew away the launch ones and have me jonesing for a PS4 or Xbone. Man was I wrong. Sure, there are some nice looking new games out there but most stories revolved around nerfed graphic settings or buggy launches. Except for the WiiU. Have you played a WiiU? The new Mario Kart is the heezy for sheezy.

My High School Reunion: The Review. Sweet Christmas, when did I get so old?

Squirt Guns: The Review. I guess whenever I started reviewing squirt guns?

Anytime I can take a subject that's making some hay on the internet and turn it into a post about me I'll do it. Too much Puff not enough Power with these girls is a perfect example of this. Can't critique someone else's art without talking about my own!

2014 was a weird year to be a nerd. The #1 movie of the year stared Groot and Rocket Racoon so it's not like nerds had it rough or anything but there's still this undercurrent of exploitation you have to deal with. She Hulk is a Porn Star and you're a nerd pretty much sums that up. The guy that co-wrote the Batman trilogy just throws shade on a whole slew of nerds without realizing he moved into a glass house. It's like it's cool to be nerdy but only if you're the right kind of nerd.

The Belgians Booty Rock Dvořák's Sypmphony No. 9 was a very popular post for reasons. In fact there was a lot of ass shaking in 2014, like a lot.

I could have included any number of posts on comic book movie casting but this one on From Wonder Woman to Mockingbird was the big winner for the year. It's almost like if you post pictures of attractive ladies you get more hits. I know, I know that sounds crazy but you can't argue with science.

And now just for fun, here are the top 20 search keywords:

nicole scherzinger boobs
kate upton nude
diora baird nude
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diora baird
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lust of the dead
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jimmy fallon hair loss
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lfl
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deadpool cosplay

Nicole scherzinger boobs? Cosplay nip slip? Abbey Clancy ass? Jimmy Fallon hair loss? You're all a bunch of perverts aren't you?

Here's to a fantastic 2015, with your help maybe we'll find that nicole scherzinger sex tape everyone is looking for.

ZOMG Cosplay is Killing Conventions!

Earlier this week wife of comic book artist Dave Dorman, Denise Dorman talked with bleeding cool (ugh) about the current state of comic book conventions. In in she talks about how they took a bath on Wizard World Chicago and how conventions aren't worth it anymore. One of the reasons she gives (in her opinion) is the increase in the number of cosplayers and a decrease in the number of traditional comic book/sci-fi fans. It's one of those kinds of articles where the reaction to it was probably WAY bigger than the initial comments.

A few artists responded to the article by saying that they've noticed the same trend. People come to the convention not to spend money on sketches and prints but to participate in costume contests and get autographs with Misha Collins. I wish I could remember who it was but someone I follow on twitter said that over the last few years they have to careful which conventions they go to. Rob Liefeld specifically pointed out a couple conventions that are more comic book related where he said he does MUCH better business than the really big cons like San Diego where it's turned into a pop culture convention as opposed to a comic book convention. However, the overwhelming response was "put down the buggy whip old man, cosplay is awesome".

Now I'm no convention expert by any means. I've been to Emerald City twice. Everything I know about how conventions have changed over the last few years is from things I've read and observed on-line. You can't argue that cosplay hasn't exploded in the last 5 years or so. It used to be hard as hell to cull photos from the most recent conventions to fill out my cosplay posts. Now you have major blogs running weekly cosplay posts. Youtube, DeviantArt, tumblr, flickr, imgur any other image hosting site that ends with a "r", it's cosplay as far as the mouse can click.

This was supposed to be a short post and it's getting out of hand quickly...

Something I noticed at Emerald City last year that I believe is relevant to Dave and Denise Dorman's concerns: In artists alley last year the line to see Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Sex Criminals) was insanely long, same with J Scott Campbell's booth, or Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn). Scott Snyder (Batman) had like 3 different lines that lead to his booth with breaks in the middle so crowds could get through. Meanwhile I had to wait behind all of one guy to get Art Adams to sign one of my comics.

Jebus Kevin, that's just a bunch of names that mean nothing to me. Ok, how about this. Art Adams is a comic book professional with a storied carrier that dates back to the 1980s. His unique style was crazy influential to the way comic books looked in the 80s and 90s. His original art goes for thousands of dollars. One of the guys he clearly influenced was J Scott Campbell, who to reiterate was WAY more popular at ECCC than Art was.

The point is what's popular yesterday might not be as popular today. What's popular today probably won't be as popular tomorrow. There's a certain point where an artist, even one as skilled as Dave Dorman might not be able to justify setting up a booth at comic-con. That's not Yaya Han's fault.

No Compromises Links

Building a perfect, no-compromises aftermarket NES… for $500. I'm not sure if it's worth $500 (wait a minute, yeah I'm sure it's not) but that is one really pretty NES clone. Some day when I'm independently wealthy I'll have to pick up one of these. For the cabin of course. No more blowing RBI baseball for 20 minutes before getting it to work. Top loading baby!

The Organised Comic Con Scalpers Of Seattle. This is really a non story. ECCC sold out this year and like any sell out event there were scalpers. I guess this was news to some people but anyone that's ever been to a concert or a sporting event has had to deal with scalpers. They ask if you're selling or buying, you say no and you keep on walking. What's the big deal?

Of course I really put this here to complain about not showing up in the background of a single ECCC gallery this year. My son was dressed up as Robin and everything. The closest I got was this picture of the Rachel Nichols panel she posted to pinterest. I'm in the front row, about 3 seats too far to the right to be in the picture. Stupid non-wide angle lens camera.

‘Riker Googling’ Finally Exposes The Sexy Search History Of Star Trek’s Number One. I'm not a huge fan of parody twitter accounts, but this one is pretty funny, even if it is the same joke retold 100 different ways.

38 Maps They Didn’t Teach You At School. This is the most 'murica thing I think I've ever seen. I get it that college sports are at a high demand and as such they bring in a ton of money but think about this map for a minute. Almost every state pays basketball and football coaches more than the people that actually run the entire state. USA USA USA!

Gamer Girls Magazine is a master class in pandering. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that girls who play video games can't have nice asses and hang around the apartment all day in thongs. However, when your magazine highlighting said girls starts referring to their butt cheeks as gamer pads I'm pretty sure you haven't just crossed the line of good taste you've basically crossed it, burned it to the ground and spread it's ashes out at sea (like the line would have wanted).

Congrats Gamer Girl magazine, you've made LowRider magazine look like the New Yorker.

2014 Emerald City ComicCon Cosplay; Part 2

Hey kids, more Cosplay from 2014 ECCC! I figured the Winter Soldier and Black Widow here were relevant to this weekends box office. I'm getting pretty excited for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I've read enough positive reviews to make a point of seeing this one in the theater (unlike Thor 2). I probably won't get to it this weekend but hopefully next. Anyway, as with the last gallery comments and stories below the pics...



There were a lot of good Thors at ECCC this year. I never found a picture of the guy that was my favorite. He was a big enough to look like he could be Thor plus he had a real Norse looking beard. The guy dressed as the Tick was AMAZING. If he didn't steal that costume off the set of the TV show I would be shocked. There were a lot of Kriegers (Archer) at ECCC. Some with his cartoon bride and a couple with Pam. To bad I didn't see any Lanas or Charlenes, OUTLAW COUNTRY!

That guy in the Halo costume was super legit as were the two in the Judge Dredd costumes. Really crazy how professional those looked up close.