Celebs, books, comics and more in the Rose City

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A superhero, princess, and spiky-haired ninja walk into a coffee shop. It’s not the start of a joke, just a typical scene as attendees get their caffeine fix for three days of Rose City Comic Con in Portland. And I was lucky enough to be among them (sans costume) this past September 6–8 at the Oregon Convention Center. 

My wife and I are big fans of RCCC, and we’ve been going practically every year since getting married (not counting the COVID year). We usually get our 3-day tickets as soon as they go on sale, which means we have a general idea of what to expect, but plenty of details come to light in the months leading up to the event. 

The highest profile details are which celebrities make appearances at the con. Even though RCCC doesn’t have the name recognition of its San Diego cousin, it still gets awesome guests each year. This time, those included Charlie Cox (Daredevil, Stardust), Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka, Zombieland: Double Tap, RENT), and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).  

Meeting these guests one-on-one for photos or autographs costs extra, but a lot of them also have panels scheduled throughout the weekend that are open to anyone with a ticket. We went to several of these panels, where the celebrities shared fun stories like Charlie Cox getting spooked by Ian McKellan at a coffee shop or Doug Jones (Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) taking eight hours to get his prosthetics fitted while filming Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

But as fun as the celebrities are, that’s only scratching the surface of panels running through the weekend. Other rooms are set up to host a whole gamut of talks including writing, cosplay, movies, TV shows and comics (naturally). These feature published authors, award-winning cosplayers, comic artists and fellow geeks who just want to talk about their favorite parts of pop culture. 

My wife is an avid reader (60+ books and counting so far this year), so we made a point of visiting several of the literary panels. One focused on Max Brooks (author of The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, and others) while another featured five fantasy authors talking about the business of being a published author. As with the celebrity panels, these ones invited audience members to ask questions, which the panelists were happy to answer. And afterward, the authors also take time to sign peoples’ books and continue the conversation. This sense of community and excitement for pop culture is most pronounced during these panels, but really pervades the whole con. 

Speaking of community, that feeling of belonging is most present on the show floor in the heart of the convention center. This is where scores of exhibitors ranging from big publishers like Dark Horse and Oni Press to indie comics creators promote their latest creations. It’s broadly divided into the exhibitor space with bigger setups and artist alley, where smaller creators can reserve a table to meet fans and sell merch. The exhibitor hall is basically pop culture heaven—if you can think of it, you can find it here. That means comics, board games, books, clothes, accessories, figurines, collectibles and tons more. Artist alley’s collection from smaller creators tends to be a little smaller in scale—though not creativity. Here, you’ll find artists’ sketchbooks, prints, stickers, and even jewelry featuring pop culture heroes and original creations. 

And that’s not getting into other parts of the con, like a space dedicated to playing tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, a room where you can borrow from a huge collection of board games, a room of life-size Star Wars dioramas, a lounge for recharging, arcades with both retro consoles and traditional arcade games, and Rose City Jr.—a section set aside specifically for kids to let off steam with pop culture-themed activities. We didn’t get to all of these areas (and I imagine most people don’t), but it was fun to know that there was always something around the corner to introduce us to a new fandom.

With so much going on, you might wonder how we can keep it all straight. To that, I’d tell you that we didn’t—our RCCC app did. It let us access a map to see where everything was located, customize our schedule to avoid double-booking panels, and even join a QR code scavenger hunt that guided us to different areas of the con. If you decide to go next year (and if you’ve read this far, you should seriously consider it), you should think of the entry badge as your ticket to get into the con, and the app as your ticket to getting the most out of it. 

All that said, if you’re a fan of any part of pop culture—superheroes, books, anime, cosplay—and live in the PNW, Rose City Comic Con is a great way to get a taste of the con life. My experience is only representative of how much you can personalize it to your specific interests. If you’re in it for the celebrities, there are plenty of opportunities to meet and hear from them. If you want to hang out with fellow fans, there’s even more ways to bond over a shared love. And if you just want to stock up on a bunch of cool, geeky merch, this is the place where you can really find it all.