September 10-12, 2021
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon
Again, I have been fortunate enough to be gifted the opportunity to cover this wonderful event as a member of the press. That makes 7 of the 10 years that RCCC has run, I have been so fortunate.
This year, I am going to take an step away from how I usually present my experiences and try something a little different. I'm going to present what I thought was the
Good and the
Bad of this years event.
Good:
I was happy to see that thee mask policy was kept for this year, especially after dealing with my bout of Covid at the end of June. Thankfully, I am fully vaccinated and (as of this writing) have received all the available boosters); so my dealing with Covid was not that horrible. It was fortunate that I had already taken time off from work for the worst of it, and that my employer allowed me to work from home during the quarantine period. Having the masks, while somewhat irritating, made me feel safer.
When it was announced that Brian Michael Bendis was going to be attending this years event, I was ecstatic. His writing has inspired me and kept me reading certain Marvel titles. I figured that there would probably be a long line to get his signature, but it wasn't that bad and I was able to get a few blank covers signed for my non-profit;
Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer.
It felt like there were more people attending than in 2021, and I can understand the reasoning behind that. Even though there were more people, there was still very adequate flow in the aisles and I never felt like I was crowded.
The biggest issue I face when going to events is my back and knees hurting from walking around for so long, and not having anywhere to sit. This year, there was a book fair area that have tables and chairs setup, and I took full advantage of them. They were over by the celebrity photo area, so I got to do some great people watching while I was able to rest. When you read this LeftField Media, please take note that this should ALWAYS be an option.
I did also find some time to get some personal comics signed for my collection.
I love Skottie Young, and these were previously signed by him. Adding Brian Michael Bendis to these covers - PRICELESS.
As my loyal readers know, I am a big G.I. Joe Fan and I could not pass-up the opportunity to get Josh Blaylock to sign my issue #1. #YoJoe
The Amazing Spider-Man issues had already seen both Randy Emberlin and and Mark Bagley, so I couldn't pass-up the chance to add Aaron Lopresti to these.
These were previously signed by Gail Simone and Gary Martin respectively. Adding Aaron Lopresti to the front was icing on these cakes.
I will admit that I did not fancy myself as an autograph collector when I first started collecting comics (almost 40 years ago), but I feel I have done so over the past 10 - 20 years.
Not surprising, there was some great cosplay at this years event as well.
Bad:
I'm going to preface this by saying that none of this was anything I believe the event staff could have made any better; these are just things that I noticed that rubbed me the wrong way this year.
Parking: I prefer being able to park in the underground parking area of the convention center. Unfortunately, even though I arrived before the event started, all of this parking was full and we had to park over at the Moda Center.
I am coming close to 50 years old, and I am what Gabriel Iglesias would call "Fluffy". My back is not the greatest and my knees are not that great either. Over the past few years, this combination has limited my time at large events such as RCCC. Fortunately, I am on a pain regimen that helps with much of this, but not 100%. Having to walk that distance to get to the convention center, and then having to walk all the way around to the 1 area they were filtering people through didn't start my time there very well.
I realize that, even though my timing to arrive to the event was similar to events in the past, RCCC has grown in popularity so much that I will need to make adjustments to my timing for future events so that I can get the parking I desire.
Masks: While I did note that this event had a mask policy, there were a few people in the crowd that didn't seem to care once they got into the main hall. I'm not going to be "That Guy" who tries to police people to adhere to the policies of the event, but I will be the guy who will take a little bit of umbrage by those people who threw caution to the wind.
It is good fortune that these limited few individuals didn't cause an outbreak of Covid from this event.
And that's it everyone! The Good and the Bad. I enjoyed myself at this years event, and I am looking forward to attending next year. I hope I see you there!
