Is it Labor Day already? Wow! Well, that can only mean one thing--and I don't mean putting away my white t-shirts. It's time for the Rose City Comic Con, which is now a three-day affair, from September 7th to the 9th, in my hometown of Portland, Oregon.
I came very close to being at this show from the very start--it began in 2012, and I first visited the very next year. The show has had enormous growth even in the few years since I've been attending, adding more guests and space over time. Just looking at the comic-centric guests left our contributing editor, James, green with envy. (He's trying to convince his workplace that he's just cosplaying as Bruce Banner.)
Here's a sampling of people who will be there:
- Aaron Duran
- Amy Chu
- Ben Dewey
- Brian Michael Bendis
- Chelsea Cain
- Chris Roberson
- Chris Sebela
- David Walker
- Donny Cates
- Gerry Conway
- Greg Rucka
- Jeff Parker
- Jim Stalin
- Jody Houser
- Josh Trujillo
- Katie Cook
- Kelly Sue DeConnick
- Mark Bagley
- Matt Bors
- Robert Wilson IV
- Ron Randall
- Stan Sakai
- Steve Lieber
- Tim Sale
- Zack Kaplan
And that's not even close to half of the people Panel Patter readers would recognize! I picked out these as examples of indie creators and mainstream stars, long-established legends and newer faces, political cartoonists to game illustrators. It's an amazing list of people and I seriously just scratched the surface.
That's before we get into the media guests, which if you're into that sort of thing, are really awesome as well: David Tennant and Catherine Tate, Felicia Day, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Michael Dorn, and Karl Urban, too? Yikes! What an amazing group!
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| Colleen Frakes from Rose City 2017 |
Of course, there's also the Artist Alley lineup, including some great people like:
- Adam Knave and DJ Kirkbride
- Barry Deutch and Becky Hawki
- Hopscotch Sunday
- Kel McDonald
- David Pepose
- MK Reed
- Malachai Ward
And in the Publisher side of things, we have Boom! making a return to Portland this year, along with stalwarts Oni, Dark Horse, IDW's Portland connection, and Image. Panel Pal Punks Silver Sprocket are also at the show, and naturally, Helioscope Studio has a bunch of their creators together for their home convention.
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| Boom! Studios at Rose City 2017 |
If you're also an Anime fan, this year, they've added Animebashi, which they've integrated into Rose City and are promising to be a hub for Japanese pop culture within the show. I'm not a huge anime person, but I think this is a great natural addition to the show--bringing something new for long-time attendees and a way to add new visitors to all areas of the show.
Lastly, there are the panels. I find Rose City's Panels to be excellent, and this year is no exception. Some of the panels include spotlights on Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola, Steve Ditko (RIP), Tim Sale, Jody Houser and the best panel of all time, Parker/Brothers (Jeff and David). There's also feature panels for Valiant, IDW, Oni's 20th anniversary, and at least one Image panel. I'm also interested in the panels about LGBTQ representation in anime and manga, adapting James Bond, Editing comics, and the Dark Horse Manga panel I never seem to be able to get to in time.
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| Casual Spidey, probably troll-Tweeting Jonah |
As I have time this week, I'll do some longer feature work, but I can't encourage you enough to come out if you're within a few hours drive of Portland. You'll meet a lot of great creators, both familiar and unfamiliar, get a chance to take a dive into a longbox or three (maybe you'll see my friend Aaron lurking about if you do!), and take in some panels, too. I hope to see you there!
