Emerald City Comic Con or ECCC is a convention held in the beautiful city of Seattle every March. It’s a comic convention I truly believe every con enthusiast and casual con goer should attend at least once. Here’s why!
Location:
The location of this con is a huge selling point for myself as well as many others as it’s held in downtown Seattle, and walking distance to Pike Place. Why that’s important is food options. Anything you could want, you can find close by. Freeway Park is attached to the back of the convention center which houses tons of places for cosplayers to grab great photos without having to walk far. Along with that, just walking down the street from the con there are plenty of alleys and street art to also shoot at! I don’t recall if last year had hotels participating in hosting events from the con but this year badge pickup was a couple blocks from the convention center itself. It wasn’t convenient but it also wasn’t a big deal. Just mildly confusing as it’s in one of the 3 Hyatt hotels and signs were not very visible to tell you where to go.
Security:
Security at this con was upped quite a bit from last year. They barricaded around the premise quite a bit more this year. Every entrance had several lines for bag check and metal detectors. We never waited more that a few min to get in the doors as there were plenty of places to enter. Prop check tables were not labeled very well.
Vendor hall and artist alley:
Just like last year, the sheer size of both the vendor hall and artist alley was massive. I don’t think I made it all the way through the vendor hall! I was in there everyday and still didn’t see everything. The artist alley was also one I was unable to see everything at. One of my favorite things about how ECCC runs their artist alley is how they organize it and how inclusive it is. They have signs showing where writers are located, comic artists, ect. It makes it very easy to navigate and know what part of the floor to search if you’re looking for something specific. The vendor hall is my favorite of any con as they not only have booths that sell generic merch but they bring in big shops like Good Smile, Puglie, Monster energy, Jelly Belly ect. They also sprinkle in artists in the vendor hall which is a nice touch as it breaks up some of the larger merch booths. A few of the booths hosted demos of working with makeup, crafting supplies and game demos as well.
Cosplay:
Like last year, some of the best work was brought out. ECCC hosts one of the qualifiers for the Crown Championships of Cosplay. People from all over come to compete in this fantastic competition. It’s the one I look forward to seeing every year. If you missed it, no worries you can catch it on ECCC YouTube channel. Outside of the contest, the cosplay game in general for this con is just outstanding. From comics, to tv, to obscure games, cosplayers of all backgrounds bring their a game.
Guests:
I can’t even begin to talk about the guest roster for this convention. This year was dominated by Critical Role cast members, which you could tell people were so excited about. If you are a big comic artist nerd, this a great con to attend to meet some top industry artists like Matt Rosenburg, Gail Simone, and Rob Liefeld.
Overall this convention was fantastic. It’s a con I would definitely fly back to Seattle for. It’s a convention that has something for everyone!
