The Emerald City Comicon happens every year in Seattle, and this past weekend, nerds flocked to buy comic books, meet celebrities, and dress up in fancy costumes! As a large man who loves retro video games, I chose to dress up as E. Honda from the Street Fighter series (or as I was telling everyone, “E. Honda from Street Fighter II”). I went with two friends, one who documented our silliness, and one who dressed as Twisted Fate from League Of Legends, really just because he looks like the character.
I spent the weekend mocking him, and calling him names like “Captain Hook” or “Dustin Hoffman”. He just called me fat.
This article will eventually reveal my pics for the Top 5 Most Original Cosplays of 2016’s Emerald City Comicon, but first I’d like to offer some highlights of the event.
Celebrity panelists included Patrick Rothfuss (author of the Kingkiller Chronicles novels), Nolan North (Nathan Drake from Uncharted), Jason David Frank (the Green Ranger), Elden Henson (The Mighty Ducks, The Hunger Games, Daredevil), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter), Dante Basco (Rufio from Hook and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Sean Astin (Rudy… and Samwise Gamgee from Lord Of The Rings). The money panel was definitely Nathan Fillion from Firefly; it was the first (and possibly only) panel to go over capacity, and the crowd was treated to the charming smartass they all hoped he would be.
There was definitely a greater emphasis on comics at ECCC than there normally is at Fan Expo in Vancouver. I’m very picky when it comes to what comics I read/ enjoy, so I didn’t recognize many of the comic writers and artists on-hand, but the legends that I recognized were Jim Lee, Kurt Busiek, Neal Adams, Klaus Janson, and Tim Sale (who was not a fan of my Honda costume at all).
My big fan moment did happen in the comics area though, where I got to meet Claudio Sanchez, singer/ songwriter of prog rock band Coheed & Cambria. They’re one of my favorite bands. If you’ve never listened to them before, this is arguably their biggest hit:
Claudio and his wife Chondra run a comic book company called Evil Ink, and they publish comics about The Amory Wars, which is the epic sci-fi story that the Coheed & Cambria albums tell, among other things. They were lovely.
Click on thru to page two to continue the coverage…