I’m very nervous about conventions. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic, as much as folks are trying to pretend we aren’t, and the COVID death toll is still hovering around 500 people a day. Still, as the saying goes, needs must when the devil drives, and the devil sure does drive capitalism. My concern certainly wasn’t alleviated when this statement dropped at the end of June:
Health & Safety Announcement: Please take a moment to read a message from our VP of Events, Kristina Rogers pic.twitter.com/DDSDE8ZCey
— Emerald City Comic Con (@emeraldcitycon) June 29, 2022
I was fully prepared to miss the con on this decision, but thankfully, they did reverse it earlier this month. I reached out to ReedPop’s VP of Events , Kristina Rogers, who had the following to say on that:
Our original decision to drop everything at once was, in hindsight, just too bullish on my part and a mistake. I was anticipating a faster decrease in case rate across the summer based on trends. This didn’t happen thanks to the variants that cropped up throughout July.
Bringing back the mask requirement was a simple decision on our part: case rates were enough to warrant them (almost the same as our December event, which we also required masks for), our community was telling us they’d support it as well, and so we changed the policy.
I’m very pleased with the mask adoption throughout ECCC and our enforcement procedures onsite – we had show floor announcements, folks at entry points with masks on hand and then roving teams throughout to remind folks to keep them up.
I can confirm that mask rules were enforced throughout the event, and I was honestly very pleased to see designated Mask Stewards in bright, labeled shirts. They moved throughout the con with boxes of masks in hand, offering them up at entrance points as well as making sure that people on the show floor were wearing them. I did see a few individuals here and there who chose to flout the rules, but I also know there was a strident effort amongst staff to report and correct such incidents, which was very gratifying.
As for the convention itself? You know, it’s funny; just prior to the start of the pandemic I’d been feeling burnt out on cons. I’d done three to four a year, covering them for the site, and the ramp-up to a four-day weekend on my feet followed by a comedown period of a few weeks only to do it again was exhausting. The shows can really feel like they’re blending together when you’re doing that cycle and I was having trouble finding the enjoyment that I typically feel even at this, my hometown con.
Now I’m not going to sit here and say the pandemic has been a good thing, because it objectively has not, but I won’t lie; the couple of years off was beneficial in the scope of my relationship to con-going. Emerald City had been growing year over year, and it was evident in the way that the convention center itself could barely handle the strain, with booths crowded into walkways by escalators, panel rooms and signings overflowing into adjacent hotels. It felt like a metastasizing entity, if you’ll forgive the luridness of that description, and like such entities, it was draining to attend, even as I enjoyed it.
This year’s event was smaller, if not by much. There was a little extra room on the con floor, and a notable lack of publisher booths, but the entire show still felt full, if less crowded on the majority of days. It was gratifying and interesting to see the amount of smaller, independent retailers on display, and I picked up more than a few new indie comics, which I’ll take the time to go over and write up.
As ever, Artist Alley remained the highlight. ECCC has, for my money, the best Artist Alley I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting, and that’s down largely to the decision several years ago to move it to its own floor. It changes what Artist Alley means to con-goers because instead of a thing that can be easily wandered into, it becomes a destination unto its own, a place where attendees choose to be.
That creates an almost shocking buzz of energy—it turns out that when one puts a bunch of creative individuals in a room together with their peers, they get very excited about their shared interest! I spent most of my time in Artist Alley this weekend, and it was a joy to see creators running back and forth to each other’s tables, talking and laughing, even gushing about comics or art that they’d found and loved. No one loves comics like the people who make them, and that energy is palpable.
I suppose that makes it all the greater a shame that I still think it’s the wrong time to bring conventions back. I can’t recommend a convention to anyone given the current laissez-faire approach to disease by both federal and local governments. I enjoyed being at ECCC, I enjoyed working at ECCC, and I enjoyed seeing friends and peers who were also working there, but throughout the entire show I couldn’t shake the perspective that so many of us were there because we felt like we had to be, because the job demanded it, and because we all work in an industry that demands it. Every event is taking a risk that for me personally means isolating for a week afterward regardless of symptoms, just in the interest of safety and not wanting to spread something I may be carrying asymptomatically. It’s foolish and shortsighted to pursue these events in our current national state. It’s dangerous.
