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) 

Life is Great 2014!!!!!

Just a few memories from a great day! Thanks for making our lives great!

              

For more photos Click Here!

Life is Great 2014

It's September and that can only mean one thing for the Eckroth Family...The Annual Life is Great Party!!!!!

Here are a few hints for what we have planned for the day!  We hope you can make it even for a few minutes to say hi, play some games, and have a quick bite to eat. RSVP online or give us a call to let us know you are coming!

Eckroth's in Australia

Life is about how you trade your time for experiences. Recently I had the opportunity to visit Australia with my family and it was awesome. A great example of trading your time for high value life moments.

After a 30 hour trip from our front door, we arrived at an amazing resort island called Hamilton Island. It started with a young man letting us know we would be greeted by “nibblies” in our condo and quickly turned into an amazing stay that included a visit to the Great Barrier reef, snorkeling, scuba diving and para sailing. It was an incredible break from life.

After a week in Hamilton Island we found ourselves back in Sydney staying in the heart of the financial district and loving every minute of it. Besides the trip being a family vacation, I was also fortunate to be there representing the Rotary Club of Greater Corvallis at the Rotary International Convention...Thank you Rotary! The city, harbor (in which we got a very special on-water tour), and Opera House were amazing. We even saw a stage production of the Lion King!!  We had such a great time and have 1000+ pictures to relive it on a regular basis.

I want to send a very special thanks to my good friends, Mark and Louise Barnard (who came to Corvallis from Sydney).  Without their help and friendship –we would have been lost.

If you ever get the chance,– GO!  The people of Australia were friendly, the country was clean and we had the time of our life!

Thanks for reading!

~Lee