Rose City Comic Con 2024 - My Experiences

September 6-8, 2024
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon

2024 marks the 9th year in a row where I have been honored to be able to cover RCCC as a member of the press. I want to thank Leftfield Media for this continued opportunity.

Day 1-

We were able to arrive in time to get parked in the underground area of the convention center. As I believe I've noted in the past, this is my favorite parking areas... except for the cost. This year, parking was $20. Fortunately, I was able to find a good spot that was fairly close to the elevators.

Unfortunately, when we got to the elevators, staff informed us that they were only for staff of RCCC and we would need to walk around to the front of the convention center to enter.

This was unexpected and not a welcome change for my person. I have been dealing with serious health issues this year, and my back has not been 100% for years. Being told that we would have to walk the equivalent of about half a mile prior to the actual event was not something I was ready for.

I know that others faced this same issue, including those who have legitimate accessibility/mobility issues. From what has been posted on the Rose City Comic Con Facebook group, this was brought to the event team and was subsequently taken care of. I hope that for future events this does not again become an issue.

Once we got in, it was a bit of a challenge to find someone who could tell us where to go to pick-up our press badges. It turns out that we would need to go almost all the way back to where the elevators from the garage would have taken us. Combined with the garage elevator issue, this was a little irksome. Fortunately, once we got our badges, things began to get better.

We got into the main exhibit hall and started making our way through the various vendors. There were so many vendors selling anime/manga items, and those that have been reading about my experiences should know that this is not my thing. This made our early walk-through quick because I didn't feel the need to stop and look at these vendors wares. Even though this is not my ball of wax, I understand that there's more than enough other people out there who do enjoy it, so my dislike does not take anything away from them.

Going into this years event, I had a few priorities for what I was looking to purchase:

• Action Figures - G.I. Joe Classified, Super7 3.75", Star Wars Vintage Collection.
• Funko Pops to add to my growing collection.
• Trade Paperbacks - I recently cleared my To Be Read pile after I don't know how many years.

As always, I Like Comics had a great selection of trades at 50% off, so I was able to get some more Rick and Morty to add to my collection. There was another vendor who had their selection of trades for 50% off as well, but there weren't any that either called to me or I needed.

While there were several vendors who were offering Funko Pops, I only found 2 that I needed to add to my collection.

I saw some Facebook posts from a few individuals that had a special certificate from RCCC that labeled them as "OG". I think this was a great salute to those artists and exhibitors that have been around to support RCCC from the beginning.

With all the walking around, I found the need to take some breaks. Unfortunately, there wasn't as many options to sit and rest in the exhibit hall as there was last year. The only location I could find to sit was in the RCCC Jr. are, and the tables had signs that said "No food or drinks". That was equally unfortunate.

While going through the exhibitors area, I was asked by the gentleman who was manning the Convention Essentials booth if I needed to sit. At the time, I felt the need to muscle through because we had a goal to make it through the rest of the exhibitor area, so I said "Yes, but not at the moment" and thanked him. To whoever that was, I want to say thank you for noticing my situation and that I wasn't feeling well. My legs, back and feet were killing me at that moment. As of writing this, it's less than a week removed from the event and my feet are still killing me. I didn't think to purchase a new set of insoles for my shoes.

While heading towards the RCCC Jr. area in order to take a break from walking, we passed the booth of writer George Michail. My photographer (Scott) was wearing a Viking history shirt, so as we passed, George asked if we were interested in stories about Viking werewolves. This caught our attention and Scott said he'd probably be back later.

After taking a brief respite in the RCCC Jr. area, Scott decided to go back and learn more about these Viking werewolves. He returned later to give me the lowdown on the premise for the Cover of Darkness series that George had written and that he had 3 trades available that contained this story. Since the premise peaked my interest, and the price was reasonable, I gave the money to Scott to pick the trades up for me. I'm looking forward to reading them and providing the reviews of each here.

George Michail

Day 2-

We ran a bit late getting to the Convention Center for day 2 of RCCC, so we realized that the possibility of getting the underground parking was slim to none. We went to a parking area that Scott had noticed in back in January when he came for day 2 of Fan Expo Portland. Unfortunately, the area was private parking for a hotel, and even though they had 75 open spots available, none of them were for us. The up side is that were were able to find on street parking only a couple of blocks away, and it ended-up being cheaper that the on-site parking. We only had to pay $12. 

As every reader of this blog should know, TTRPG's run through my blood and have since I was 10 years old. Since I started getting into Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, I have always been looking for a variety of 3rd party sources for additional items to help spice-up the game. Since starting in a campaign a few years ago, our party has gotten into the idea of harvesting parts of slain monsters in order to either sell them or make them into items that we can use. Since the published material from Wizards of the Coast doesn't really go into that level of complexity, our Dungeon Master found a system that he thought was decent to use. While it's a decent system, I am always looking for something more.

And while strolling through the Artist's Alley, we stopped off at the booth of Katelyn McCaigue and took a look through her 2 volumes of The Complete McCaigue Creature Compendium. The first creature that I flipped to in volume 2 was sold me on these books: Weredragon. 

While walking through the exhibitor's side of the event, we were stopped with the offer of a free sample of a drink line from Gamer Supps. While initially I was hesitant about any samples (as I am diabetic), I was also thirsty and decided to take a chance. I wasn't disappointed. Every sample I tried was enjoyable, and I think my favorite is called Guacamole Gamer Fart 9000. While the name doesn't sound appealing, I was guaranteed that it contained no actual guacamole or gamer farts. It was tasty and refreshing and I'm glad I took the chance to give it a try.

After all was said and done for the weekend, I was exhausted, but I enjoyed myself. I'm thankful for being able to attend and I look forward to coming back again next year!

Legendsverse

I have been collecting action figures for years, and for years I have been looking for a way to keep track of my collection. I have also been looking for a place where I could get an idea on how much my collection is worth as well.

I've been using the CLZ apps for years to keep track of my books and comics, but they have yet to create an app for action figures. I know that they have been asked about creating one many times, but I believe the response has always been that it's not in the picture for their future.

A few weeks ago (as of this writing), Big Nerdy of the Nerdzoic YouTube channel posted a video that caught my attention.

This was my first introduction to Legendsverse. 

When I first took a tour of the website, there were a couple of action figure lines that I collected, and I loved the interface. It was an easy decision to sign up for a free account and begin adding figures from my collection. By the time I almost finished adding my G.I. Joe Classified figures, I had come to the limit of figures I could add under the free account. By that time, I already made my decision to upgrade to a full account, but I wanted to wait until a few more action figure lines were added to the system.

Then I received an email from the creator Alejandro and he offered a discounted lifetime membership. Between that and the offer that Big Nerdy had made in his video, I jumped at the opportunity to join to not only be able to use this great service, but watch it grow and see how far it goes.

For my fellow collectors, I highly recommend signing up for a lifetime membership. There is also a growing community where you can interact with your fellow collectors. Legendsverse is only going up, and with your help, it can evolve into the best site for action figure collector. I invite you to watch the video from Nerdzoic to get a better understanding of what capabilities the site has to offer.