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This year we decided to go to Rose City Comic-Con in Portland, OR because I thought it would be a lot of fun.

When we first got there we had to find parking and it was not easy. The parking garage at the Oregon Convention Center was full and so we were looking for something off-site. I didn’t know where the parking lots were and so we kept circling three different ones – which were pretty small. Finally, we were lucky and happened to pull into one as someone was leaving.

We got there about two in the afternoon and there wasn’t a lot of people at that point. They have people stationed outside – one searches any bags going into the conference center and the second one has a wand that they run over you. Even Darien had to have this done.

After you get inside it is pretty big and since this was our first time, so we found the closest entrance and went inside.

I think I missed the registration booth because it wasn’t obvious but we made it inside. I brought lanyard’s from home that we got from a birthday party at Big Al’s (a bowling alley) and that is what we used. When I was at one of the booth’s someone mentioned that you were supposed to get a lanyard as well as a program to let us know about all that was happening.

We didn’t get either and so we didn’t go to the weapon’s presentation that I wanted to on Friday because we couldn’t find it.

The doors we happened to walk into were at the back of the exhibit and that was where all the kid’s hands-on activities and the Leaky Con were, so that was great for us and then we always knew where to return to.

Costumes Were Amazing

There were elaborate costumes and that part was a lot of fun.

Here’s a couple of the costumes we saw (my phone died and I missed a whole bunch!):

There were so many different ideas and costumes. Darien was a little disappointed that he didn’t see The Flash only Jesse from Season 2. He thought he finally saw a woman dressed up as Flash but he wasn’t sure if she was the Flash or an evil Flash.

But whatever you could imagine there was: elves, Freddy Krueger, Star Wars Troopers, Pikachu, Spiderman, Bat-Man, Aquawoman, Aquaman, Wonderwoman. Some were dressed to the hilt while others had masks on or painted there face.

The guy who was controlling it stopped it so we could get a picture with it.We also saw this rolling around! Darien loved seeing this one too.

Then I saw Alf! OMG – talk about a blast from the past. I had to take a picture:

What I wasn’t expecting was the wide range of vendors. It was amazing to see all the different things offered for sale. Darien said he was expecting the entire conference center to be full of businesses that sold comic books.

That wasn’t it at all. There were so many talented people at the event. I think this was my favorite part.

There was a lot of artists. Darien spent some of his allowance money on prints of Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon.

He bought Toothless, the Light Fury and then he got the print with Hiccup and Toothless for free.

The artist was very talented. They can’t sell them all online due to licensing agreements but they can sell them in person. I was only curious if they could sell the sloth painting. I love sloths.

There were artists that did prints like these, plus we saw one person who had comic movie and TV series prints. Those were pretty awesome.

My Favorite Store – Wasteland Exports

I think the vendor below was one of my favorite. They got into the theme of an apocalyptic world store.

Even the drinks looked like they had dust on them.

Tons of Authors at Comic-Con

Another thing we ran into was tons of author’s. I had no idea we’d get to meet any but there were several.

We bought one of the books from a series, the author, EA Channon, signed it for Darien and then he took a photo with him.

Do you see the map in the back? The lady helping at the booth said that a fan made that for them. It is so awesome and creative.

The series is called Flesh of the Blood and you can find it on Amazon HERE.

And yes, we started reading it last night. The chapters are short so far and we haven’t go to the story quite yet, we’re meeting all the characters.

According to the author this has some Norris mythology sprinkled throughout the book and since we love our mythology and the Greek God’s – we thought this would be a good book for us.

Around the booth, there was a couple of elf’s and so I took my picture with one of them.

I loved her costume and thought she looked beautiful. Darien didn’t want to and so I did.

There was another author that I was interested in getting their books as well. His name is, Frank Morin. His books are fantasy and sound like the Spirit Animal series that is so popular. We haven’t read that series but I’d like to get this author’s books…plus he said two of them are on audiobooks! Yay.

The series is called, “The Petralist” and below is the first one in the series.

When were done with the Flesh of the Blood series we’ll take a look at this one.

Interactive Fun For Kids

There were quite a few booths in one section that had hands-on activities for the kids. Plus fun Lego builds!

Tracker Earth provided a rock wall for the kids to go on. I felt they did a great job of strapping them in to make sure that they were secure. Most places that we’ve gone to didn’t make it as tight as they did and I felt they knew more about getting them in the harness. Which is always a good thing for a parent!

This is one of the Lego builds. These were all freestyle. They also had a Tigger and quite a few more that I didn’t get pictures of. It is amazing what people can do with LEGO.

This section was the same area that the Leaky Con was in. It wasn’t as big as I thought it would be but it was a lot of fun walking through the vendors and seeing what people brought.

One booth had potions. The bottles looked very authentic and that they had been made at home, so I asked them. They were. The couple running the booth made everything in their home.

One of their potions was Unicorn Blood and he said it was hard to figure out the right ingredients to use because they wanted the liquid to swirl and not sink when you shake it. They couldn’t use glitter because it falls to the bottom so they use an edible metal liquid. They don’t recommend you actually use (or drink) the potions but none of them would harm you if you did.

New Hobby For Darien?

The company at this booth was all about showing you how to make masks. They create molds and then fill it with material that won’t harm the skin.

You can create molds to make anything: hands, faces, monsters, zombies, on-skin wounds and so much more.

They have kits you can buy and workshops you can attend. They’re not in my immediate area but there is a location a couple of hours away in Kent, WA.

Check out their Starter Kits.

Darien loves this kind of thing and I’m considering signing him up for a workshop or buying one of the kits.

Magic Wheelchairs For Kids

In the kid’s section we also saw a few Magic Wheelchair’s.

It was so cool. This guy in Oregon builds themed wheelchairs for children who use wheelchairs. We saw Toothless and a Star Troop Fighter (can’t think of the exact name of the one we saw).

I don’t know if the above is the exact one we saw but it was close. The attention to detail was amazing and it definitely made an impression with Darien.

I love how this guy is building wheelchairs that are fun and that the kids enjoy them.

Food At Comic-Con

I’m a very thrifty person – especially when it comes to eating out, so I packed snacks before we left, but we were there for a few hours and got hungry.

The food per person started at $10 and went up. I saw tacos, subs, and hot dogs. I’m sure there was more because we didn’t walk the entire conference. We were going to get a sub, but someone suggested a pizza place out in the conference hall that sold slices of pizza for $7.

I would NOT suggest them. The pizza and spaghetti that we got were cold and I’m not sure how long it had been sitting under the warming lights. If I did it again, I’d go to one of the inside vendors that took a little longer but their food was cooked when you order it – there was a hot dog place that looked good.

I think Darien got sick from the food. It was so gross!

The End Of Our Day

By the end of the day our feet were tired and I was ready to go home. I’m not sure that Darien was but we had been there close to five hours and there really isn’t anywhere to sit down.

I wanted to make sure that we got out of there and to the place we parked the car before it got dark outside.

Overall we enjoyed ourselves, bought a few souvenirs and might go with our friend’s on Sunday.

Have you ever been to Comic-Con? I’d love to hear what you thought about it.

-April & Darien

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