Anime, Cosplay, LARP, and Gaming I hope this is an opportune time to offer up this quick blog post I just wrote about my experiences attending this year’s Emerald City Comic Con with my son, who’s 10 years old and loves cosplay and superheroes. It was both exhilarating and exhausting, but here’s how I would recommend you should plan your trip if you’re looking to go: Arrive early – the convention center was packed so even if it wasn’t Saturday morning, it might still be impossible to enter the building. Have a plan in advance for the lines. We were staying at the Hyatt, so I reserved a table at the Green Dragon restaurant. I was able to get my son in early, show him around, and help him pick out his cosplay gear. Then, after we ate, we went to the entrance, got our wristbands, and took our places in line for lunch (we had bought VIP tickets which entailed priority seating in a premium area) so he could get some chicken fingers. We were in line for nearly 3 hours at that time, and while it was exhausting, we did get a lot of great pictures at the autograph booths, where people are happy to stop and pose for pictures for an hour or so. Do some research and figure out where you want to go. Go to the Comic Book Store Booth map at the convention center before you go and plan out what you want to see. The list of panelists this year was extensive, so make sure to get in as early as possible because the lines were massive and the line for Friday was around 30 hours long. When we finally did get to the convention center, we picked out our favorite things and stuck to them – he was not allowed to leave my side after that, and I dragged him into as many booths as I could. I learned to go to where they’d be cosplaying and that’s where we went. There’s always a little bit of lag time between when they appear and the picture is taken, so if you think they’ll be there for awhile, go get the camera ready to shoot them. If you go in costume (even if you don’t plan to cosplay), make sure you have everything you need. I had a back pack and my son had a backpack, hat, and gloves. He took off the hat and gloves the second he got inside, and stuffed his hat in his backpack so he wouldn’t get separated from it. If you have any back pain or other physical limitations, be aware that some of the areas have stairs to navigate. Go to the Masquerade. We did not manage to make it there and I’m kicking myself for not thinking to look into which Masquerade event he might go to. It’s much more of a commitment than I anticipated, but it was totally worth it for us. Plan on leaving Sunday as early as possible. While the lines aren’t as bad as on Saturday, they can still be exhausting, especially on the other days. We didn’t make it out until 3 pm on Sunday. It’s actually a little nerve wracking to not know if you’ll have a chance to see everything, but you can get a pretty decent idea of what is being shown based on what you’ve been told. Don’t leave any of your goodies in your car – you won’t get them back. Don’t put any packages or bags in the luggage area – there will be signs to remind you. Take the backpack, hat and/or gloves and stick to them. I wore a pair of flats that day and it was hard not to slip on the stone and slate floors. I have tons more information about our trip, including pictures, but for now I think I’ll leave you with the pictures that I took on my phone as we went through the exhibit halls. If you’re coming from out of town and have time to spare and want to visit Emerald City Comic Con, I’d be happy to share more photos with you and have you comment on this post with tips for next year. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday! The Seattle Space Needle in the early morning light. Our lunch, waiting for the Cosplayers to return. The cosplay of Batman was awesome. The guy behind the mask and cape didn’t want a picture and was very camera shy. This man is a cosplay master, and I was happy to get to snap a picture of him and his son before he left. I had forgotten that we were right at the entrance, so it was quite a nice view. My son’s Cosplay was a very close replica, and was made by me from scratch. You might notice that my son was dressed in a very white outfit. The top is a blazer that has a built in, zip-up hoodie that is reversible. On one side it is blue, and on the other, it is black. The cuffs that we wore over the sleeves were designed to have the cutest little zips, and the cuffs on the pant legs are the same. The hat and gloves were a costume too, and while it was hot, it was a nice break from the sun and the wind. It was great to get these shots before he had to be back inside for the Cosplay Party. There were quite a few cosplayers there, but this couple took some of the best pictures. As I said, I had to drag my son out of their line, but my pictures never came out as well. Here’s another angle of the Masquerade. The lights were dimmed, and the stage was set for the finalists of the Masquerade. I’m glad that we made it to the Masquerade, which was more than my son was expecting. This is a little bit of the set up they had for the Cosplay Party. There were 4 masquerade costumes, and since we did not get the tickets at the beginning of the year, we had to wait in line for them. The room was dimly lit so they had many spotlights set up, but that helped with the picture taking a lot more than if we had gone on a bright day. I spent most of the time taking photos of my son so that I could learn more about using a camera, and you can see that he still needs to work on holding it properly. We did not make it to the Cosplay Party, but I saw the people that were in the photos ahead of us, and they weren’t too happy to get through the line quickly, so we’ll have to go back at some point to see the rest. If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment. We also wanted to go to the Seattle Pinball Museum when we were in town this year, and I hope that you visit that too. The museum is located at 2001 2nd Avenue S, in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, and is a block from the convention center. I bought my tickets online in advance, but there were two times when I went in, and the line wasn’t too long. There were a few people in line when I entered the museum, but the staff made sure to keep the line from moving too fast, so I was able to get more than my son wanted by the end of our trip. Here are a couple pictures of the museum, and if you have a favorite, I’d love to hear about it! I had a great time looking at the collection of pinball machines. My son is interested in learning more about pinball, but is a bit intimidated by how involved they are. He was very hesitant to touch any of the machines or have me demonstrate, so this museum was a bit of an eye opener for him. I’m happy to announce that I’ve decided to start up another blog! Thanks to the wonderful blogging community and Blogspot’s recent redesign and migration of so many of the popular blogging sites, my other sites are either down or under construction and I would like to start a new blog for myself that will give you all a better look at my art and the things I do. I hope you will follow along as I find a nice home for my blogging adventures. If you see something that strikes your fancy, please don’t hesitate to take a look. I’m doing all of this for your entertainment, but I hope that if you enjoy it, you’ll come back again and again! My favorite quote from a few years ago about this time of year: “I look forward to the solstice. It’s time to start getting outside, and to do things in nature. We’ve had a winter of snow and cold, but there’s also been more than enough sun and rain as well.” Here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve just experienced another winter with lots of