Toe's (and Mr. Bill's) First Comic Book Convention

Supporting Allred, Wagner, and Neilson

Over the weekend, we took Toe to the Rose City Comic Con (RCCC). Our friend Mikey, who grew up in town and played Heroclix with J ages ago, is one of the organizers. We have wanted to go in the past, but the timing has never worked out. This year, the stars aligned: we were healthy, J and I both had the day off, and we were all excited.

Comics are in our blood. I grew up reading Richie Rich and sort of soft "kiddie" stuff. J cut his teeth (and learned to read) on Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider Man. By the time I met J in the mid- 80's, he was immersed in the comic scene. He introduced me to Mage, Elfquest, Myth Adventures, and I was hooked. I'm not as avid a reader as J, but I have many, many that I love. Toe has been reading comics as long as he can remember. J buys comics monthly - some for him and some for Toe. Toe loves Teen Titans Go!, Scooby Do,  Itty Bitty Hellboy, Pet Avengers... and more. I get mine in trade paperback form, because the monthlies drive me nuts. Last week, as a gag gift, some friends gave J a notebook with comic panels in it. Toe started drawing immediately:

Toe's first foray into comic book writing - last week

A high speed police chase

So, we called our friend Mr. Bill, who reads comics and who loves to study humans, got in the car, and headed for Portland.

The RCCC was bigger than I had imagined and had a great balance of artists, celebrities, vendors, and other stuff. I was surprised by the number of cos-players (people in costume).  There were flocks of Wonder Women, a bevy of zombies, multiple Links (from Zelda), various Pokemon, superheroes galore, Star Trek officers, Star Wars characters. Costumed parents pushed strollers with kids in costume.

We went old-school with T-shirts supporting comic artists (and Mikey, who does Chronicles of the Nerds).

Some of my favorites: French-maid Deadpool, Lego Slave Princess Leia (seriously), a Wonder Woman with Walter Koening's signature across both breasts, and all of the Links.

A little nervous around French-maid Deadpool

We wanted a photo with Deadpool, but Toe was unsure. Deadpool was very friendly and chatted with Toe until he felt more comfortable.

Pokemon was Toe's "in"

J had a list of things to accomplish: comic artists' signatures to get, art he wanted to acquire. We started in Artists' Alley and found immediately that although Toe is not as steeped in comics as his father, he had a stake in the game too. He stopped at many booths to look at the Pokemon and Miyazaki artwork. He was allowed to spin the R/C Lego R2-D2's head. People found him to be charming and polite (he was on GREAT behavior).

While J and Mr. Bill worked Artists' Alley, Toe and I settled in at the U of O recruiting station where they had art supplies for future artists. I thought this was the coolest part of the convention. Toe and I were there for 45 minutes... This gave Toe time to draw and me time to people watch.

Toe's dragon. He gave the artwork to J, who put it in his folder of original art

Here are some more photos of the con:

It was so much fun sharing this experience with Mr. Bill!

Feel safe to wear what you want. NICE.

Wonder woman's entire outfit was made from duck tape

My favorite event was meeting Matt Wagner, creator of the Mage series. His was the first comic series J had me read when we were teenagers. He turned out to be a wonderful person - easy to talk to, interesting, with a good sense of humor. He drew a sketch for Toe while we looked at his art work. It was an honor to meet him and a delight to discover he was as nice as he is creative and talented.

After about two and a half hours I hit my saturation point. We could have spent more time, but we left while we were all in good moods and had some energy left. I like to leave on a good note.

We were serenaded by ukulele on our way up and back while we all chatted. J was adrenalized by the experience and had a hard time "coming down" at bed time. Toe is already asking when we can go to the next one. I'd call that a success.

Ukulele serenade on the journey