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FAN EXPO Portland was February 17-19. It was forming called Wizard World Comic Con, but they renamed it. The last con I went to before the pandemic was Wizard World Portland 2020, where I got to meet many Smallville cast members. I think this event was supposed to take place under its new name in 2022, but was canceled or delayed.

My attitude about cons has changed. I don’t have to go every day and I don’t have to remain at the con all day. This con I only attended the 1st 2 days. I did what I intended to do and left. I didn’t attempt to take many pics of cosplayers. I didn’t go to all the panels I considered. Most of this was because I was just tired. I haven’t been sleeping well lately.

The con was fun overall. There were a lot of little things that I think could be improved. I noted them all in the survey they sent out after the event ended. One thing was scheduling a lot of the better guests (either for panels, photo ops, or autograph sessions) at the same time on Saturday. It made for some hard decisions. There was a lot of Star Trek representation, which I liked. William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Anson Mount, and Ethan Peck. I saw them all except Shatner. Nothing against Shatner, but maybe I’ve had my fill of him for now. And he comes to Portland often.

On Friday the only thing I really did was get my picture taken with Ethan Peck and Anson Mount.

On Saturday I went to the TNG/Picard panel with Frakes, McFadden, and Spiner. Because of the weird location of the main stage, they entered through the audience. Frakes and McFadden walked right past me. I saw a panel with Katee Sackhoff, before getting my photo taken with Jonathan Frakes, seeing a Leah Thompson panel, and ending the day with a Strange New Worlds panel featuring Anson Mount and Ethan Peck.

Overall, a very chill but fun con experience. Looking forward to next year.

The second part of my vacation was Rose City Comic Con.  I think it had been a couple of years since my last RCCC. I’ve been a little burnt out on conventions lately.  They’re fun, but exhausting.  They can also be expensive. In spite of that I decided to make my return this year.

This year the con expanded to 3 days.  On the first day, Friday, I got there a little after noon. The con didn’t start until 1:00.  As soon as I walked into the building, I saw a my friend Joshua, so we hung out that day. I wasn’t expecting to hang out with anyone that day. I kinda like having the freedom to do my own thing at cons.  Josh was cool though, so not much was different than if I had been there alone. After I got my badge, we went to Brent Spiner’s panel. Afterwards, we walked around the exhibit floor  and I got to do one of my favorite con activities – taking pictures of cosplayers. After this we saw a panel on writing LGBT characters. I don’t think either of us found it too interesting, so we left early. We caught the end of a panel featuring 2 cast members from The Munsters and then we saw Kate Sackhoff’s panel.  I left after this because I was tired. I missed the Weird Al panel that was coming up next.

The next day traffic near the convention center was a mess. I didn’t leave as early as I should have and ended up spending an hour inching traffic before I eventually made it to a place I could park.  I got some more pictures of cosplayers.  I got all of my autograph and photo ops taken care of back to back to back.  First was a picture with Rose McIver, then Rose’s autograph, then a picture with Brent Spiner and John de Lancie together.  Originally I had planned on doing them over 2 days, but that changed when I found out Brent Spiner and John de Lancie were doing a photo together.  Rose McIver was so adorable.  I had no idea she was from New Zealand, so I was shocked when she asked me how I was doing with an accent. When I walked up to Spiner and de Lancie, they joked about my RCCC shirt asking what it was and were it is.  After the photo ops, I could just chill the rest of the day and the next day. No more lines.  I saw John de Lancie’s panel and Rose McIver’s panel before going home.

On the last day, traffic was much better. After roaming the floor for a little while, I think I spent the rest of the day in the main panel room. First was Ming Chen. Then Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie. After that was some stars and a producer from Z Nation. And finally William Shatner.  I got a bite to eat after that and went home.

I’m glad that I went back to RCCC this year.  It was a blast. This con has come a long way since first year when it was in that hotel and there wasn’t any air conditioning in the exhibit area.  Right now I have a desire to start going to cons again. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I had a great vacation and it was hard to go back to work Monday.

Lastly, I’m too tired to go through the trouble of posting pics from the con. You can find them on Facebook.

This past weekend was the 2nd annual Wizard World Portland Comic Con. It was bigger and better than the first one.

My biggest problem with this con was lack of organization. The lines were badly managed. The volunteers didn’t know information that needed to be known. They didn’t have information on the website that would have been helpful to attendees. I kept hearing about panels, but they weren’t listed on the website. I didn’t go to any panels because I didn’t know about them until after the fact. Maybe they were in the pamphlet that I saw a few people with, but I never got a pamphlet. The website said some people would appear on certain days, but not what time they would be doing what. I’ll do a better job of seeking this information out next year. Next year I’ll be getting a VIP pass.

I didn’t go on Friday even though I had a 3-day pass. None of the celebrities I wanted to see were scheduled to be there that day as far as I knew. Now I know that CM Punk had a panel that night. I would have loved to have seen that.

On Saturday, I got there about an hour before it opened. I had on a red and blue striped shirt that people said made me look like Freddy Kreuger. It wasn’t intentional. Robert Englund was one of the guests that weekend and I saw him signing autographs. The first thing I wanted to do was get Summer Glau’s autograph for my friend John and get a picture with her. It was hard to figure out what to do with the voucher I purchased in advance. I got sent to one place and then got sent back to where I started. When I got to meet her, she was super sweet. If you wanted a picture with her, it had to be taken with your own camera. Her fiancee took the picture. After he snapped the photo, he had this weird look on his face. My immediate thought was that the picture was going to be blurry and that I would be forever disappointed. Then he said, “I don’t know if it’s the camera or me, but this is a really good picture.” I glanced at it quickly and closed the viewer so I could get out of the way, but Summer said that she wanted to see it. I showed it to her and she also thought it was a good picture. I am pleased with it. I walked around the floor for a couple of hours after that.

Later that day I got to get Bruce Campbell’s autograph. I had planned out what I wanted to say to him, including asking him to record a bumper for Intro to Brisco. He was moving everyone through the line quickly. Before I could say anything, he started asking me questions about me and before I knew it, he was handing my autographed photo back to me. Before I left, I did mention the podcast though.

On Sunday, I got there early as well. I was really only there to get a photograph with William Shatner. I found out what time it was going to be and after looking around the floor I hung out around the area where I knew the line was going to be. I was one of the first people in line after the VIPs, so it didn’t take long. My time with Shatner was even shorter than my time with Bruce Campbell, but at least I got to speak to him.

I had a great time. I think the main reason I like going to cons is take pictures of people in their costumes. There were some good ones. Some people showed up in their underwear or in tights that didn’t leave much to the imagination. There was a Leeloo that I tried to get a pic with, but the person who took the pic didn’t know how to use my camera and I didn’t want to ask for another. Anyway, my first con of the year down. Who knows how many more to go.