Emerald City Comic Con 2021 Recap

Hey, this is Josh Keaton and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Unleash the Geek

in You. Hello and welcome to GeekCast Radio.

This is episode 292. I'm of course, Chief Joe

and Mike, and joining me for the first time is

Christopher Morton. Greetings and salutations,

great world of the interwebs. Yes, yes. Interwebs,

they are pretty sticky today, aren't they? I

blame Spider -Man. It's not you know just cuz

he has no way home doesn't mean he has to you

know stick his webs all over the internet. Oh

no no it's the into the spider verse that's what

made everything stick yeah well of course i mean

you know. If you're gonna go across it you might

as well go under it too. We're here to talk about

emerald city comic con in seattle washington

which is three hours north of me and. About the

same for you. Kind of, sort of, because we are,

even though we are not in the same room at this

time, we do live fairly close to each other,

sort of. So we're kind of neighbors. And yeah,

you attended from December 2nd to the 5th this

year. First of all, you've been to conventions

in the past and then COVID hit. So how was it

for you doing like virtual cons and that kind

of stuff versus going to the in -person cons?

First of all, not only did I visit, but I was

working there on a booth. I worked all weekend

from my entertainment, I tell you. But the yeah,

I was working in the booth. James Stark is the

artist that I was working for. He does more traditional

like venom. bean um ink sketches turtles stuff

like that really good i actually got a nice metal

piece from him it's godzilla king kong they're

fighting together against two big megazoids so

i'm gonna go up on my king kong wall you said

megazoids or megazords is this megazords i say

zoids but no zords zords zords i tell you So

the whole idea of going from the virtual cons

that Cindy tried to do and from the old style

cons, it was a big change. I did hit Road City

Comic Con a month ago, which was the first of

the big Northwest cons after the pandemic. Now,

even before that, during the late summer, there

was a Washington State Con out of a Washington

State Fairgrounds kind of southeast of Tacoma.

I did make it up there. for that one. It was,

it was good. It was for late summer before the

Delta variant hit. There were still a lot of

people there. The mass mandate was kind of down

at the time. A few people were in mass, but it

was spread out over the larger convention center,

but there wasn't a ton of people there. Rose

city had a lot more people there. The mass mandate

was still there for that one, but it wasn't a

mean statewide thing as much. Right. And it was

busy. That one was actually pretty steady. Didn't

have, I think they were running 60 % of volume

for ticket sales, but was beautiful about that

one. And it's what James really liked. Cause

I worked for James on that booth as well. It

was the fact people were spending money. They

were out in force with money in hand and they

wanted prints. They wanted to commission sketches.

And we had a lot of the artists we knew that

over the years come back. It was really good.

And they had a couple of guest stars that was

pretty special. It was really nice. Then comes

the big one of the Northwest. Now, behind Pac

West, or probably right there in volume, is Animal

City Comic Con. I started going to that way back

in the day when it first started. And I went

to it all the way up until about three years

before we had the COVID. I had to stop. It got

really big. This thing runs in two main convention

centers, plus the basement level of the Sheridan

Hotel. And it's six floors on the Washington,

on the TCC side is three and a half floors. And

it was just getting really huge. So I kind of

took a step back from that one. And uh so coming

back to our first year emerald city comic con

it's a four day event i didn't make it up thursday

because the working environment people have to

stay yeah my buddy from the podcast matt the

comic book guy we both work but we busted out

of here five am on friday we're up there to meet

uh james as he was working for friday Thursday

was really dead. Now, Thursday is normally a

typical day. You go to a comic con. It's the

walkthrough day, exclusive day. People come there

just to grab what they can for basic exclusives

and they're out the door. Usually not the ones

returning every day, but it's pretty straightforward.

Right. Friday, a lot of traffic, probably running

50 percent, maybe 40 percent of normal. Not a

lot of heavy hitters. A little bit of spenders

wasn't too bad. Then came Saturday. Saturday

was sold out. Probably 60 % to 65 % of the standard

of what the volume should have been. So they

held back on the ticket. So they sold out quickly.

But the people were fantastic. They were spending

money. Poor James. I ruined his hand by all the

commissions I had him do. Lots of being a couple

of Doc Ocks. Stuff like that. And pets. People

want their pets in like superhero poses. It was

crazy. Very unusual request. So he did a lot

of work on that now I did get away from some

of that which we'll talk a little bit about the

panels that were presented at Emerald City Comic

Con But the the downside draw to that with the

volume up on Saturday on that is we didn't have

a lot of guest stars This was probably the fewest

amount of big name celebrities The only really

big name one there that that grabs off of it.

Everyone knows is Hayden Christensen And he did

make the con. Everyone was kind of betting he

was going to bail on us. But LeVar Burton bailed

out about a month ago. They did pick up right

after LeVar left Tim Curry. And side tangent

here, I love Tim Curry. Don't get me wrong. I

love what he's done in the past. But I saw him

at Rose City last year or the year before COVID.

And the poor guy, he had a stroke. He is just

not in good health. And the whole aspect of his

family dragging them to these things. Now, if

he truly is wanting to see this fans, that's

great and awesome. But he didn't see anybody.

He couldn't see anyone. It was too risky. I really

can't move or talk anymore. And it's a little

crazy. It just seems like his family's dragging

them to these just to get a money grab on it.

I could be wrong. I could be a total jerk about

it. but this poor guy just does not seem to be

in it. And now getting like signature form, he

does, he can't sign them. So you, you give them

to quote unquote sign later, which I'm pretty

sure it is, is your caretakers are signing his

work. So it's not even him signing anymore. Um,

and of course the funniest thing was they put

them up there. Hey, Tim Curry is going to be

there. Tim Curry from home alone too. Wait, what?

Of all his works you pick that as the premier

thing for him to be known for walking into a

comic con I mean really for me, you know when

it comes to Tim Curry it is all about The three

musketeers in 1993 guess he played Cardinal Richelieu

with yeah, he for Sutherland and Charlie Sheen

and and and Oliver Platt being Athos Porthos

Naramis. That can be erased! Tim Curry kinda

was the villain of Home Alone 2. I mean, you

know, unless you really want to count the orange

troglodyte that makes a guest appearance in the

beginning of the movie. But that's sad to me

that it just seems like he's just, you know,

there because his caregivers or his family or

whomever, and I'm not making any suggestions.

I'm not saying anything, but if it's the same

case as what happened with Stan Lee, that is

just depressing. That's exactly where I was going

to leave that. It feels like that same circumstances.

He has a huge following. Personally, for me,

I love him from Clue. Clue's one of my all -time

favorite movies, hands down. And he's from that,

I mean, you could put Rocky Horror Picture Show,

and we can go on forever the list of credits

he has. But yeah, it just seems like it's more

of a money grab on their part for the great works

and what he's given to us in the geek community.

But besides all that we I mean we had other guest

stars. Let's say the Jim Lee was there John Cena

was there What every comic -con has their their

you know WWE stars that show up. So that was

pretty cool For you know, the the artists and

voicing with Janet Verney Gosh the artists alone

Amy Cho Meg Kirkpatrick was there. One of the

personal artists that I know. It's really cool.

Uh, DeSante Vesco was just from Avatar Airbender.

Yeah. Alex, uh, Keen, uh, and Rachel Bennett.

I'm going to, I'm going to highlight those two

because they do a web comic and, and the book

that indeed backed on Kickstarter called Beyond

the Western Deep. Phenomenal beautiful Anthro

webcomic Well -built world will define has two

books has a third book in the making and they

what was cool about is they made an 8 -bit video

game about their world and To get it is you buy

in an old Nintendo cartridge case that has a

code to the online code to download it so I bought

that and it was a great deal, but You get artists

that you really need to follow up on. They're

wonderful to meet. Of course, your friend, and

one that I've really enjoyed, and that is all

his books now, Tom Zoller, I hear? Who was there?

Tom Zoller, yeah, Tom Zoller. I went there, I

bought, I didn't have a... Morning label for

my niece. I bought a bought one for my niece

while I was there But I just in fact I just got

the announcement today that Cupid's arrow volume

one is shipped is on my way here. Yeah Yes, there

were plenty of artists and plenty of people that

were still there and I love the Emerald City

Comic Con website where they do list all of the

guests and they list them as you know guests

of honor which I am sorry. Look, I love Tim Curry.

It sucks if, you know, whatever he's going through

in his real life. I like Jim Lee. John Cena is

cool. But the fact that other, not other, but

featured guests that are not just guests of honor,

the fact that you have Dee Bradley Baker, Perry,

the fucking platypus is not a honored guest.

Like, come on. He's like one of the biggest voice

actors. around. You know, you got Amy Jo Johnson

from Power Rangers and Felicity and other things

here. Like we mentioned, Tom Zoller. Oh, wow.

Livio Ramandelli. Oh, that guy. I love that guy.

His Transformers stuff is amazing. Yeah, I got

to actually chat with him because the the artist

I worked with, James, who's really close friends

and actually studied underneath him back in the

days when he was studying art. down south in

Nevada, Arizona. So he gets to see the early

works of Transformers from the very guy who does

Transformers stuff. Yeah, that is very cool.

You also had Walter Jones, who was obviously

Zach on Power Rangers. He had two Power Rangers

guests and I love this and I can't believe they

did this. They even list the guests that cancelled

on the website. And I mean, other than Sam Maggs

and LeVar Burton, I don't know who the other

three are. So, you know, it is what it is. Uh,

how was the overall convention feel for you?

Like, did you feel like, cause for me, I don't

feel like COVID is, it's still here. We're still

in the thick of it. It's not, it's not gone.

with a transformer variant that's out now? Yes,

Omnikron. Oh, Lord. But it's one of those things

where I'm not a convention person. I never have

been. I'd rather sit here at my desk and record

a podcast for six hours giving my opinion of

reveals from the convention than actually being

at the convention because I don't do well in

crowds. But how was the, you know, you said Saturday

was kind of, you know, 60 % was of their normal

and, but how was it with people like in and around

the booths and other things? The booths around

were, were, were pretty close net. We weren't

too worried about the aspect. The guests have

been, we're just, they're all right with it.

Now they did have a lot of, um, mask patrol people.

who were very on top of making sure the masks

were on right. They had a policy of if you're

wearing a helmet, you still had to wear a mask

underneath the helmet. That was and they made

people pull up their helmets to show that they're

wearing their mask. Right. The feel of it was

pretty calm. I didn't see anyone stressed about

it. Hands were still being shook or even fist

bumped. I've saw people giving hugs because they

were excited about their fan base and the cosplay.

was off the chart here the uh so you know we're

all used to it's comic con runners we're all

used to the con fun so honestly we're we're we're

all used to you know someone's going to get ill

because of the conflict it's just a standard

fact of comic cons which is funny because the

conflict was almost ideal you know identical

to what covet now will give you was a couple

days of being filmed rotting in bed But the people

were fun with it. I mean they were in the mass.

I didn't hear any complaining They were still

pretty friendly. Everyone was upbeat I don't

think I hate anyone that was grumpy and meaning

the reason they had me in the booth is because

I'm the I'm the face man of the booth I'm the

one talks to people. Hey, what are you interested?

What do you like? Well, you know, what do you

buy? What are you wearing all that kind of scenario

because all the cosplayers? I'm I do the whole

four thing and no one was grumpy about everyone

was excited to be there and I was gonna point

out on Sunday That was the very unusual thing.

Sunday comes, it's a family day. Tickets, I believe,

did sell out. And people were spending a lot.

And not just for prints or for, you know, quick

sketches here and there. We had collectors spending.

James sold multiple of his pencil and inked pieces

that what we call his tier one book. The very

unique designs. Those guys were after those.

Like crazy. And it was incredible, the support

they were giving to everyone. And a big shout

out to our little mate next door to us, New Gal.

She goes by Sophie, and you'll find her on Instagram

as Mini Syrup. And she does a lot of anime D

&D characters. Her clientele is a little bit

different, especially with the anime work she

does, but she did very well as well. I mean,

it was just the people were friendly. They were

happy. And also at Comic -Con, it's great to

know other artists. It was good to get this connection

with Sophie, because we could go out afterwards.

We all hung out, and everyone was supporting

one another, watching our booths. Again, just...

positive environment that just got us so energized.

And even at the end, we're all sad to see it

end, even though we're really tired. Right. Yeah.

But very well, very well overall for the attitude

among people. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. I mean,

I'm as long as people are going by whatever rules

the con imposes on them. You know, as long as,

you know, we're doing everything we need to do

to keep everybody safe and all that. And if people

feel, you know, comfortable enough with fist

bumping or handshaking or hugging or whatever,

that's great. You know, I'm all for that, but

I'm also for whatever is going to keep everybody

safe because it's just not, it just doesn't.

Conventions don't like, even though I've, I don't

attend them, but I see people like you and other

people that I know and whatever else that go

to them. And I'm just like, Oh, I hope they're

going to be okay because I don't know, you know,

I, you know, no one knows, you know, we, we,

we, we lived in this whole year of having to

shelter in place and, and not, you know, whatever.

And, and I'm glad to see that the convention

people who run the shows. are taking everything

seriously, are doing the best that they can to,

you know, keep everybody safe and everybody's,

you know, the last thing we need is headlines.

You know, Thundercracker 2 variant is now out

because of people at insert con name here didn't

do what they were supposed to, you know what

I mean? Like, I don't want to see that. I don't

want to see more. Bad things happen. I want to

see more good things happen. And if, if it is

required for, you know, not required, but if

it's, if conventions are what people need to

do, if they, you know, if, if the person feels

safe enough to go and whatever, and they have

a blast and, and like you've already told us,

you know, everyone seemed to have a very, very

good time. And I am not like, I don't see conventions

being what they were anymore. I mean, I hope

they get back to something like what they were,

but, you know, I would rather go to. Six very

affordable conventions, whether it's a weekend

convention or whether it's just a day pass of

whatever convention it is. I'd rather go to six

different ones and meet six different famous

people or whatever. You know what I mean? I would

rather go to more of them than have to sink all

my money into... You know insert letter name

comic convention here cut you know what i mean

like that's the problem i have always had with

the conventions getting larger and larger and

larger and larger and larger every year is that.

It's just too much there's too much to do you

can't do it even if you had a job that page you

know exuberance amounts of money you still can't

sink a lot of that money into one single. Convention

unless that was going to be the only convention

you went to the entire Decade, you know, it is

definitely not cheap for the ones that do the

comic cons Now a lot of this is the this is the

end of them for the year. There are some of them

going to Chicago There's one more in Chicago.

It's more anime style. I'm not gonna be coming

up soon. I will point out one thing that Emerald

City was doing that was pretty good is Everyone

had to do there was an app or you had to bring

your vaccination card because the first thing

you do before the con is your vaccination review

where you get a little wristband that you had

to wear that shows that you are a vaccinated

person and you only can be in there if you're

vaccinated so you need to do by the app which

is the clear app or have your card with you to

get the wristband and then you can go in the

con they were a little lax about looking at the

cards because i don't think people were trained

to look at what a vaccination card looks like

Which is my more complaint is you're assuming

these people are medical professionals and they're

not they're just hired hands, right? They're

just yeah Yeah, so that is that can be a little

a little concerning but Sophie had a great experience

when I got there on Friday talking to her that

What she just got done with the New York City

anime con just a weekend before? When she got

on Thursday to Emerald City, of course, she's

making her rounds getting got our stuff got to

her booth And one of the four organizers comes

up to her and say, listen, we know because you're

recording where you're at for different cons.

We know you were in New York. New York has a

verified cases of the Omicron virus and Delta.

We have a rapid testing center here. We want

you to come down and get tested. So it was free.

Come on down. They had snacks and all this. So

they provided a rapid test on site. for those

working boosts that may have been certain if

they were coming from a con that got a positive

bunch of positives out of it. Right. Yeah. That

was very forward thinking on Emerald City Park.

I commend them for it. I also commend them for

the aisles widening. Wiles normally are about

seven, eight feet wide on a normal con, so it

was always really crowded. It was hard to see.

These were like four, 10 to 14 feet wide. You

really wide between the aisles of the booths

and that was wonderful Everyone was able to flow

they could stop they could talk. It was really

nice again another there would be actually Less

than the booth count to allow more space to for

people to walk by one another I like that. I

was like the fact is I have to point out is We

were on floor six of the Comic Con, which is

typically not where we would normally be. We'd

be on the main floor on four. Six would have

been more like the rooms and the meeting places

for the celebrities. Right. I love the fact that

Art of Sally was up there because we did have

friends down on the main floor. And at last minute,

they bought Funko Pop to the con and they had

this huge display that was just blasting music.

of like 80 cd shows and cartoons but it was just

so loud and every night our friends down there

were just completely irritated like seriously

we passed them turn it down a little bit we can't

even talk to the people in front of our booth

because they're blaring the music and it's just

echoing so loud and it was it was just very uncomfortable

for him so i'm afraid some people didn't have

the grace experience for the comic -con because

of that but We loved it on the sixth floor because

it was quiet. We also had great internet because

it was like five bars of miracle status for AT

&T. So credit cards were never a problem to run.

Right. Which is usually what happens is a problem.

You know, you're in a con with all the Wi -Fi

signals sucked out of the room. You're trying

to run credit cards. No, it was just went smooth.

It was so good on on Sunday that we had one of

our phones up there watching football. football

games. We had football running there and it was

just streamless. That's awesome. That is very,

very cool. So ECCC 2021 was, like I said, December

2nd through the 5th. ECCC will return next year,

August 10th. Or no, I'm sorry. I'm looking 21st.

Yeah. 18th through, I'm looking right at the

damn thing. 18th through the 21st of 2022. What

was, is there a specific moment that you had

that was your favorite? I would have to say for

me, it's the the cosplay. The absolutely love

of cosplay. The people are coming in. I was able

to get away to get panels. I love that too. Some

of the panels were amazing to get to. We'll start

with the cosplay alone. Of course you have your

Green Goblin. I posted some pictures on the Facebook.

We had a lot of different Marvel characters,

Team Rocket, Pokemon, but what kills me was some

of the nice oddball ones. Nightmare Before Christmas

had a big group of people. It was really neat

because they were dressed really well. Hazbin

Hotel from Bizpop had several people dressing

up and I keep chasing people down to try to get

me an Alistair. uh cosplayer the girls all excited

because i caught her like we're coming into the

con and then another one was interesting was

lore olympus lore olympus is a web comic from

uh web comics uh service that has a bunch of

different kind of american anime and all that

It's one of the side comics I read with Muted

and a few others I've read for a long time. I

was totally shocked to see just a group of people

cosplay as the gods from Lore Olympus. And not

only that, as they came into our role, like 12

fans like out of nowhere showed up all excited

to get pictures. And that was exciting to see

because it's not a huge webcomic. It's well known,

but those people's days were made because of

these cosplayers, cosplaying not in the normal,

you know, DC or Marvel villains or heroes, but

of a webcomic that was out there that there is

a fan base for. And it gives the same with the

Hasbin Hotel and Imps. That is exciting to see

that is. Amazing to see just that sheer excitement.

It's energy in the con Yeah, with and going likes

to the panels the panels again another piece

of the calm that are very important to the overall

structure and health of the people attending

because they it gives them a place that they

can retreat with other people of their like mine

Besides all the meetups that were in different

rooms. We're talking you name the the fandom.

There was a meetup of it somewhere Right, but

I caught a couple of panels Beyond the Stars,

World Building, and Science Fiction. A lot of

good writing panels. There was a good one, Asian

Culture and Fantasy, which was really good. One

I liked was Mechs, Con Artists, and Mages. We'll

see. Not your average fantasy novel. There was

a Coffee and Comics Master Class 101. There was

a multiple anime basic... Art comics and then

the first family of podcasting the McElroy's

were there and they were doing a bunch of show

they panels on how to podcast what the podcast

about I Kind of know them from circles, but I

don't know them directly I don't really listen

to their work, but they made a pretty good presentation

about podcasting which I appreciate It's good

about when you have artists and writers that

are young or even older that want to present

works that they have for creativity. Folks, this

is where you want to learn about that stuff and

this is where you want to present that stuff.

Go there, listen to some of the experts. Some

of these people are not super named artists or

writers that are out there that have been doing

it for like steaming king level. These are a

lot more presented people that are down to earth.

They're new artists or they've been family established

and they're just giving you some advice on how

to make your work better because everybody has

a piece of work that can be shared that's really

good and this is a good piece they'll learn a

little pieces of it and I have to admit like

seven years ago Emerald City Comic Con I was

with Keith Chamberlain from Indeed podcast we're

sitting in one of these classes and what really

made me appreciate the class was it was a writing

and art class on character development And the

guy gets up there, I wish I could remember his

name, and he goes, all right, all you writers,

raise your hand. Half the people raise their

hand. All right, put it down. All you artists,

raise your hand. And artists raise their hand.

Just good. Writers, artists, artists, writers.

You've already solved half your problem right

there. And it was an incredible panel. And from

there, it was just like, well, that's what we

need more of. You just need panels that help

promote that kind of positivity in the work that

people do. I was a little shocked. A couple of

panels I had didn't have moderators. They should

always have a moderator. I almost volunteered

to be a moderator. I'm like, yo, you need a moderator?

I'm a ham. I can do it. Yup. But it's great.

It was great pieces for that kind of puzzle.

And I'm looking forward to it. For the 18th to

21st next year, we're already getting a booth.

And please note, Two weeks after that, this is

the concerning part, is Pac West. They are cramming

these two like really close to one another. That's

going to be interesting if one of them doesn't

decide to move a week or two out because that's

two of the largest cons right back to back. Yeah.

And the thing with conventions is that generally

Let's just say and let's use the one of the biggest

ones in the country, which is San Diego. Generally

San Diego is like either the first or second.

It's usually, usually most of the time right

after the 4th of July or somewhere in between

the two weeks time span after 4th of July and

before August 1st, but it's San Diego Comic -Con

has always been a July. So if you're going to

have your other convention, whatever it is, you

know, it, we have all these conventions, whether

they're big, whether they're small and timing

is everything. Like you just said, because if

you only have like, like I said earlier, if you're

only able to put your money into going to one

convention. for that part of the year or whatever,

you have to pick which one you're going to go

to, either Emerald City or PacWest or San Diego

or whatever it is. And again, I mean, unless

you're like us and, you know, we live sort of

in the area, like you guys drove to Seattle.

I mean, to get like, it's a three hour drive,

folks. It's not like it's, you know. A 10 hour

drive or something like that. It's, it's fairly

close to where Christopher and I live. So it's

not like it's that big of a deal. However, everybody

else who has to fly in or has to do travel or

has to do this or has to do that. It just, that's

what eats up your budget of going to a convention

and you have to be careful, which means the conventions

have to be careful of when they schedule them

because of. You know overlap and backup and and

this that and the other thing and everything

else. It's just crazy Every city was more of

a last -minute decision. It was only a few months

ago when it popped into play Yeah, and we were

on the same weekend as LA Comic Con There was

this past weekend as well So coming out of the

comic con with them already having a 2022 date

set that's unusual because even for my San Diego

Comic Con doesn't have exact dates. All we know

is July 2022. Yeah, they have not posted anything

in there to Yeah, I'm not seeing anything yet.

That is stating dates for them. They're more

tentative. What are we going to be at? Nope.

And most of you walked out of this going No,

here's our dates. Again, I'm kind of wondering

if Pac West doesn't want or one of them want

to move. A month apart would be good, but see,

they don't want to move any forward because in

the beginning of September is Road City Comic

Con, and they don't want to travel on the roads.

They expect a lot of that Portland traffic to

come north. Yeah. So I think that's why they

set it a month apart, which is kind of what we're

at now. And it worked well because we saw the

volume of people. Yeah. But for both times. Yeah,

like you know if you're if you're attending if

you're able to attend conventions once a month

That's great. Like, you know, you can go like

I said earlier if I have Not that I'm ever gonna

have this but let's just say I have five thousand

dollars in my hand and Wait, what? Oh, hey buddy.

How you doing? Yeah. Yeah. No, I know But that's

my point. Let's just say I have an exuberant

amount of money in my hand, which I never do

because I'm poor and I'm supposed to live poor,

apparently. Uh, you know, let's just say I have

an exuberant amount of money in my hand. I can

then go to, like, if I have that much money,

I can then decide to go to San Diego if I want

to, because my buddy Doug is down there and he

usually ends up going to. San Diego, cause that's

been his tradition for 40 something years or

whatever it is. Or if I want to go to, let's

say a bot con or a TF con or something like,

but you, you have to spread the time out because

I don't want to. Like this past weekend or whenever

the hell date is this? Yeah, it's this. Yeah.

So this past weekend when, when Emerald city

was. Okay, let's say I went with you guys up

there and we obviously came back and whatever.

Next weekend, I don't want to go to another convention

next week. You know what I mean? I don't want

them. Like I said, a month apart is fine. That's

more than fine. If it's a full 30 days from each

convention or close to that sort of thing, great.

Just as we have con crud after the con kind of

thing, you can also have con burnout if there's

so much choice in, you know, in order to figure

out what you want to go to. And then of course,

you know, you get multiple conventions that have

multiple different guests. It'd be, it'd be an

easy, easy decision if. John Cena and Amy Jo

Johnson and Walter Jones III and Frank Welker

and Peter Cullen. If they were all going to all

the same conventions, it would be easy. You can

just pick when you want to go see them, but that's

not the case. They don't always do that because

again, you want different guests at different

cons. Yeah, it's crazy because the... Uh, Tom,

I was talking to Tom. He he's been on like two

months straight of cons. Yeah. Jumping con to

con to con to con. It's kind of crazy. I mean,

even James a little bit, you know, he's been

on the con run too, but what's crazy was really

nice about these two cons on the West coast.

I personally think it was Matt and I, who was,

you know, the big, lucky charm on these, but

the Denver St. Louis, um, we're duds. They. There

are very few people people weren't spending money

in fact word was a New York City Comic Con was

only like 40 % of normal traffic and Nobody spent

anything people lost a lot of money going to

those cons because try to hotel rooms and I'll

tell you what hotel rooms are expensive don't

yes Food food is what runs a lot of money of

these cons when you're trying to eat Trying to

find places to eat in especially in downtown

Seattle when there's very little right there

that you can get early morning or late night

because everything's closed. So, you know, it's

like 13, $14 a plate. It's these cons cost a

bit. And it was just sad to hear that all these

East Coast cons, they just didn't do that great

from the artists that I talked to. I'm sure some

did really well. But in the ones that I know

that affect me because I, you know, communicate

with them, they didn't do well. They weren't

big hitters. They hit really well here. in the

Northwest. So good job Pacific Northwest supporting

the artists that are creating this content to

keep us entertained to afford advance the all

our fandoms. Thank you for spending the money

and talking to us and letting them know, hey,

we want more. And that's exactly what we want.

They did it safe, they did it efficiently and

very much enjoyable. That is awesome. And that's

what we want to hear. We don't want to hear bad

con experiences, because if you have a bad con

experience, that's going to make you not want

to go to the con. So, you know, it is what it

is. Anything else you would like to say or promote

or any of that kind of stuff before I get us

out of here? I'll have to say just again, Sophie

Mini Syrup at Instagram. James Stark, which is

James Stardust At the Instagram you reach both

of them phenomenal artist Eddie all the but I'm

not really sure his Instagram is he works with

James Eddie would have been there but he's busy

with the He -Man revelations next chapter. He's

animation for that. So he's tied up I wish he

would have been at the con with us, but we'll

catch him next time For Indy Podcast, reach us

there at indypodcast .com. We are on hiatus right

now, but with the guys all now taking a break

and they're all focused back into what we want

to do. Well, Bobby's starting up our Geekcast

here soon. Awesome. Awesome. You can find us

at geekcastradio .com. Coming up next, I have

no idea what's going on here on Geekcast Radio,

folks. I just throw stuff at the microphone and

see what sticks. Hey, I don't want a sticky microphone.

Stop that. All right, unleash the geek in you

and we will catch you next time here on GeekCast

Radio.