Rose City Comic-Con 2014 Review by Morgan Eckroth

By 8:15 AM Sunday morning I was walking out of my front door, clad in a skin tight Harley Quinn outfit, platinum blonde pigtailed wig, extreme fake eyelashes, and swinging a blood red and black taped baseball bat. I was Harley Quinn, Joker’s girlfriend and henchwoman.

And today?

Today was Comic-Con.

Before heading off to Portland my dad and I stopped by my boyfriend’s house and picked up him and our mutual best friend. Lake was cosplaying as Joker, wearing a bright purple suit, suspenders, green shirt, and white gloves. Joe was the 10th Doctor from Doctor Who, a dark suit, trench coat, red Converse, and a Sonic Screwdriver was his costume of choice. During the ride up we were all excited beyond words, this was going to be our first Comic-Con. When we got into Portland we started to look for other cosplayers and as we neared the convention center they began to pop up. First there was Link from Legend of Zelda walking down the street, then a herd of superheroes trying to cross at a crosswalk.

We pulled up to the convention center and began unloading quickly, excited to go inside and begin our day. As we walked into the convention center we were greeted by the sight of booths and cosplayers as far as the eye could see. Each booth was filled with books, posters, art, merchandise, costumes, and memorabilia. Starting writers and artists called us over to show their new graphic novels and comic books. Within 5 minutes of wandering the floor we found a Delorean, the original Batmobile, and a Tardis, all of which we HAD to get pictures with.

As more people arrived at Comic-Con we started to notice an increase of requests to have photos taken with us, we had families, singles, children, and teenagers constantly coming up to us and asking “Can we get a picture with Joker and Harley? With the Doctor? With all of you?” Pretty soon we were feeling like celebrities. The time and effort we’d put into making our costumes accurate was definitely paying off. It was amazing to be in an environment where cosplay was looked upon with respect and praise, the more extreme and/or accurate your costume was, the more people liked it. We spent around 6 hours that day wandering the convention floor, taking photos with people, and freaking out over all the nerd/geek materials that were around us.

One of the best parts of Comic-Con though was the kids there. It was awesome to see a dad dressed as a Jedi and his son as a Padawan, both reading and enjoying comic books in a booth. Or to see a mom being dragged around by her seven year old daughter who was dressed like Wonder-Woman. A feeling of welcoming and inclusion filled the entire convention, nothing was judged. We got this one weekend to dress and become someone else with people who did the same.
Comic-Con was an amazing experience and one I’m looking forward to have again soon. The art, culture, inspiration, and craziness of it all was an awesome thing, I think anyone could go and find at least a few things they like.

~ Morgan Eckroth (Lee's Comic-Cosmic Daughter)