The Washington State Convention Center hosted the annual Emerald City Comicon Convention, or ECCC, March 30 to April 1. West Seattle and White Center talent represented, including, left, Katherine Molvik, sophomore, Madison Middle School, a cartoonist & Young Authors program member, & right, senior, Aja Reb, of White Center, of Chief Sealth to attend Cornish College of the Arts to learn animation. Also were folks from Rat City Rollergirls, and, pictured below, Dan Humphrey (The Quick) on a panel of cast & crew of the Web-TV series The Collectibles, many from our area. CLICK ON PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE
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Thousands of nerds, cartoonists, performers, comic fans in costumes, collectors, many who were a combination of some or all of these, streamed into the Washington State Convention Center from Friday, March 30 to Sunday, April 1 for the annual Emerald City Comicon Convention, or ECCC.
According to Wikipedia, this is the 12th annual ECCC, and 32,000 attended last year. This year, over 130 panels participated. One panel was comprised of cast & crew from the new web-TV series "The Collectibles" which the West Seattle Herald has been following.
The Rat City Rollergirls had a promotional booth at the ECCC.
Back this year was professional cartoonist and teacher Greg Hatcher and his current and past students of the West Seattle YMCA after-school cartooning program. The West Seattle Herald reported on their Comicon booth last year here. While he is a West Seattle YMCA employee, the classes are held, as are other after-school YMCA programs, at Madison Middle School. Some of his students do attend that school. Alumni of Hatcher's class, including Chief Sealth students and grads, were on hand.
Many Collectibles cast & crew are from, or live in, West Seattle and White Center. They showed their first three of 10 episodes. You can tune into their website to follow the show, and to donate to keep their dream alive for a second season.
OK, this is now a cliche, but the Collectibles are most easily (and often) described as "Super Heroes meets The Office". Costumed, angst ridden super heroes gossip by the water cooler as each jockeys to be top dog. While each claims a unique superhuman trait, they all seem best at one trait, the willingness to back-stab to get to the top, or at least, to not get fired by the boss of the "Posse", an annoying guy with a suit and tie.
One showbiz tidbit , cast member Wonder Russell (her real name) who portrays super hero "Shield Maiden" is the actual great-niece of iconic Hollywood starlet Jane Russell, Wonders father's father's sister. Wonder and Jane communicated regularly until Jane's passing last year at 89, and Wonder said Jane was a big part of her life growing up.
Media guests at ECCC included George Takei, best known for his founding role as Hikaru Sulu on the television series Star Trek. A gay activist for marriage equality, he attended at a fundraiser last weekend for Washington United for Marriage and met with West Seattle resident and King County Council member Joe McDermott, also a gay activist promoting Marriage Equality.
