after the nightfall
with the rain rattled rooftops
the darkness consumes
Tag: Seattle
Emerald City Comicon 2026
I went to Emerald City Comicon on Friday, March 6. I’ve been meaning to go for decades. There’s always something, some reason, some conflict. I finally felt compelled to go. It helped that I’d talked with several other folks, so had accountability partners, including my wife. I’m so glad I did. It was an awesome experience. Below are just a few thoughts on finally going.
Man, the cosplay! I love the passion of cosplayers. The artistry was so impressive. Understanding SO many references mad me feel that I was amongst “my people”. Recognizing so many characters and knowing their key lines made me able to validate others. Understanding the references just made it that much more wonderful for me. Valuing the same things is just so lovely.
Another thing I adored: the inclusivity. The boldly open affirmation of the LGBTQIA+ community delighted me, as did the way they embrace neurodiversity. Things like quiet rooms made the space safe.
The immensity, the scale of it all. My goodness, there was so much going on. So much space in use. So many people. It was perfect. All the vendors, and all the cool stuff was great, too. Floors of stuff.
I opted not to photograph much. Mostly just a few things that caught my eye. Nothing to share. It felt rather like a rather invasive thing to do. I’m probably overthinking that, but I REALLY wanted to be respectful. Maybe next year I’ll be more deliberate about photography.
My wife loves it as much as I did. She’s insisting that we go the full week next year. I’ll see if I can break away that long in 2027. And, who knows, maybe I’ll need to expand out to other cons.
Did any of you go? Or have you gone to a different Comicon? What did you think? What was your favorite part.
Tonight’s Haiku: December 8, 2025
the wind’s aggression
flinging branches to the earth
this winter’s darkness
Tonight’s Haiku
the bumblebee lives
underneath the same sunlight
as the hummingbird
Morning Haiku, May 15, 2025
cloudy morn
chatter from the crows
collaboration
An evening haiku
memories of dusk
treetops hidden by the night
silent memories
Today’s Haiku
a moment of rain
then the sun bursts forth
what does the future hold?
Tonight’s Haiku
sunlight descending
brightening western mountains
quiet witnesses
Some thoughts on cycling
Some of you may know that for a good chunk of my life, I was a rather militant cyclist. I lived downtown Seattle (properly, on Capitol Hill and First Hill) for the better part of a decade without owning a car. I really loved living life this way…mostly. After a few painful altercations with cars, though, I stepped away from this path. But bikes hold a dear place in my heart. So this cartoon resonates with me. I still ride, just not as much. And I’m a bit more humble of an environmentalist.
I hold some cycling aspirations. RAGBRAI, for instance, sounds like a blast! Part of me has long wanted to ride the STP (Seattle to Portland), but it seems, shall we say, antithetical to introverts. Of course, the same can be said for RAGBRAI.
This sentiment delights me (some people suppress their inner child; I got mine a bicycle). Are there any comics/graphics that speak loudly to you?
PS: here’s the link to the artist’s page. He doesn’t seem to have updated it since 2017, but there’s plenty of fun cycle-centric comics here.
Zines!
I really enjoyed Zines back in the 90s (their heyday). If your first thought is “what’s a Zine?”, check out this article.
My blogging colleague Bernie has started creating them again (inspired by Austin Kleon’s reboot of the genre). Take a look at Bernie’s blog post.
I had friends who invested a lot of time and effort into Zines. Sadly, I’ve lost touch with all of them. I do wonder what happened to them. It was all part of my life in downtown Seattle in the 90s. An amazing time, culturally. It was challenging in a good many ways, too. That Seattle is pretty much gone, though. Pretty much all the grittier apartments, for instance, are now condos occupied by wealthy tech workers. It’s a fascinating exploration of the City’s evolution.
Anyway, did you ever create zines? Care to share?