…except for however long it takes me to write this.

Emerald City Comicon, and Seattle in general, were pretty great.  Seattle wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I understand from a few informed sources that I didn’t exactly get the proper experience.  I was expecting something like Anchorage, which is completely integrated into an epic, unbelievable landscape.  The city feels like a frontier outpost that’s grown a bit over the years (which, I suppose, is exactly what it is.)  Seattle, on the other hand, seemed to me to be much more urban.  The Space Needle seems tiny when you come right up it (compared to its presence in the pop-culture landscape, in cityscapes, etc.)  It is, however, next to a ridiculously cool music theater/museum/experience that looks like it was designed by Frank Gehry – and probably was.

I spent most of my time either in the convention center for the con or bouncing from bar to bar in the neighborhood where my brother lives, Ballard.  Not to say it wasn’t fun, but I didn’t wade through any icy streams filled with salmon or hike up any mountains.   I did see the world’s first Starbucks, though.

Oh, I also didn’t ride the Super Train!  I was hoping to get some great coffee, listen to some nice jazz and just relax on my way into the city, but I couldn’t find the ST anywhere.  Maybe next trip.

Some fabulous moments at the con – meeting Brian Michael Bendis, CB Cebulski and Ed Brubaker and getting them all copies of Strongman, being approached by a number of great new connections (both editors/publishers and other creators), selling a bunch of books (more than doubling the number of Strongmen my publisher had expected to sell) and having the dude who gave me my pro badge say, “Oh, you’re Charles Soule?  I really enjoyed your book!”  Another fun moment was going to the comic shop near my little brother’s place to see if they had Strongman (an obsessive habit I’ve developed) and discovering that not only did they have it, but it had been “signed by the creator!”  Pretty exciting stuff.  (Allen Gladfelter, the book’s artist, had preceded me to the store by a day.)  I bought the copy for my little brother and headed out.  I felt weird telling the clerk that the other creator was the dude buying the book.

Anyway, I don’t have any cons planned until the big San Diego event in July, which is probably a good thing.  I have 27 to oversee and pitch, Strongman Vol. 2 to script (it’s got that detailed synopsis, but Allen can’t really draw from that) and networking, networking, networking to do.