Farewell to Oz: Adventures at the Emerald City Comic Con Part 4

When last we left our intrepid hero, it had been after a full day’s worth of wall-to-wall convention madness that was the Emerald City Comic Con on Saturday. Traditionally Sunday is meant to be a more sedate experience; there are usually less people so there’s a chance to get any last-minute business done before Reality decides to be a jerk and take us away from the warm sanctuary of the convention. Sundays at a convention are usually pretty quiet.

This Sunday was a madhouse. Easily as congested as Saturday, the traffic in some spaces (particularly between exhibitor halls) sometimes slowed to a crawl. The worrisome tickle in the back of my throat I’d experienced through most of Saturday was beginning to evolve into something more troublesome and my energy was at a slightly lower ebb than previous days, but I did have an enjoyable time regardless of my fatigued state and pressed on to the following panels:

Image Comics – We Believe In Storytelling was an enjoyable panel discussing the craft of comics. Creators like Charles Soule (Curse Words) Tini Howard (Hack/Slash: Resurrection), Jacob Sehman (No. 1 with a bullet), and Jim Zub (Wayward) talked about the nuts and bolts of comics storytelling, from creating compelling characters to working with artists to creating an overarching narrative tailored to the comics medium.

Next up was The Best Comics You Aren’t Reading (Yet!) – opened the floor to discussing comics beyond the Big Two and superheroes, and was an enjoyable discussion between the panelists and the audience regarding comics that people might otherwise miss in a shop festooned with the latest superhero slugfest. Books like Bingo Love and both volumes of the Beyond Anthologies were discussed, among others.

After those panels I took time to attend a demonstration by Arcturus of their upcoming virtual reality game The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plain, based off the works of author Brandon Sanderson. Set in Sanderson’s Cosmere universe players take the role of a young man named Kaladin, struggling to come to terms with newfound magical abilities while exploring a strange and fantastical landscape. Apart from a few minor mishaps where I got tangled up in the cord my natural catlike reflexes drew me up short, I found the experience to be fun. There’s something about being able to hurl opponents through the air like rag dolls with one hand while wielding a mace in the other that’s almighty satisfying. The Way of Kings was released on March 2nd and is available on Steam.

And just like that, the convention drew to a close. I gathered my swag, packed my bags, and bade the Emerald City a fond farewell. The convention was four days of beautiful madness, but alas all good things must come to an end. Having been away for a while I have to say the convention has expanded by leaps and bounds, but it remains a favorite experience regardless. If you have the chance to attend, by all means do so. It’s a magical experience.