When Emerald City Comicon announced that it was merging with ReedPop, everyone who knows and loves the Seattle-based convention had the same question:
“Will ReedPop change Emerald City Comicon?”
I mean, after all, exhibitors and attendees alike have loved this show — run by Jim Demonakos and an amazing staff of dedicated comics-lovers — for years.
Ask anyone who has ever exhibited there. and they’ll tell you that they’ve never been treated better. Ask the attendees. They’ll tell you the show is a highlight in their year. This show was special. And there’s more than a few people who felt a little worried that this Good Thing had come to an end earlier this year when the merger was announced.
Scott, Cory and I wondered it on a recent episode of Surviving Creativity. We got both Jim and ReedPop VP Lance Festerman on the line to assuage our fears.
They told us that Emerald City was going to continue unchanged.
We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
So imagine my surprise — my downright elation — when I walked into the ReedPop-run Special Edition; NYC convention this weekend. This was the first Reed show since incorporating the Emerald City staff, and it was — for all intents and purposes — Emerald City East.
Better! It was like one of the old Emerald City shows. Remember being in the bottom of Mariner’s stadium? Remember those old comics-centric Seattle shows — those shows where the hardcore love of comics was as palpable as the smell of Silver Age quarter bins?
That’s what happened at Pier 94 in Manhattan last weekend.
Exhibitors got all the one-on-one attention, the shuttles to and from the show, the care, and the respect that they thought only happened once-a-year in Seattle.
ReedPop may not change Emerald City, but from what I saw this weekend, Emerald City is changing ReedPop.
And that’s good news for people like me who love those old-school comic-book comic conventions.
I asked the former-ECCC staffers who stopped by my booth in their new roles with ReedPop the same question: “With this show proving such a success, what are the chances for Special Edition: Chicago… Special Edition: Oakland… Special Edition: Boston… and so on?”
All I got were smiles.
Wide smiles.
There was a lot of that going around last weekend. The macronanoes feed on genuine emotion — which makes HoloClone Miss Match a particularly dangerous target.
Dr. Muskiday programmed her devotion himself. She may express love with overwhelming intensity, but there is no emotional uncertainty underneath it for the macronanoes to consume. His artificial love algorithm has created the perfect trap.
Unfortunately, that realization leaves Muskiday with something much harder to digest.
Evil Inc Erotica: The Doctor Is In
Last week’s Evil Inc Erotica release took us inside a fertility clinic where the bedside manner was professional, the treatment was unconventional, and the doctor had considerably more hands-on experience than anyone expected.
The new illustration introduced Dr. Deepwell, his nervous patient Natalie, and her increasingly concerned boyfriend, Todd. Then, the accompanying prose story explored the entire examination in all its medically dubious, tentacle-intensive detail.
It’s a monster-romance scenario with a clinical setting, a worried boyfriend, and a doctor who is extremely confident in his treatment plan.
Look for both the illustration and the complete prose story on Patreon.
Read it now!
Transcript
Panel 1:
The macronanoes swarm around Holoclone Miss Match
HoloClone Miss Match: Nooooo!
Panel 2:
The macronanoes hover around HoloClone Miss Match
Macronano 1: Wait!
Macronano 2: What’s happening?!
Macronano 3: There’s nothing here!
Panel 3:
HoloClone Miss Match: (smiling) Exactly.
Panel 4:
HoloClone Miss Match inhales all of the macronanos.
SFX: VWOORRSH!
Macronano 1: Cruel world! Cruel world!
Macronano 2: It’s a traaaaaaaaaaap
Panel 5:
HoloClone Miss Match: <burp> That’s one hell of a romance algorithm you wrote.
Panel 6:
Dr. Muskiday: (sadly) Yeah. Sometimes I’m too thorough for my own good.
