In another sign of CON-solidation, LeftField Media has added Portland’s Rose City Comic Con to their line-up of shows. RCCC began in 2011 under showrunners Ron and Paula Brister and drew 42,000 attendees last year. This year’s con takes place September 8-10 – its first year as a three day show. In past years, guests included a line-up of celebs and more than 100 comics guests.
I should note that I’m a consultant for LeftField, which is run by NYCC alums Greg Topalian and Peter Tatara. That disclosure out of the way, they’re an experienced con throwing team, and Portland is comics town so it seems like a solid team up. As I’ve been saying for a while, the con landscape is shaking out into the various fiefdoms of CCI, ReedPOP, Wizard, Informa, MAD Events and LeftField.
“We love our fans, and we love Portland! It’s this creative city and its people that inspired us to start Rose City Comic Con. Our constant and consistent goal is to bring a high quality, family-friendly event that will appeal to Portland each and every year,” said Ron Brister, Rose City Comic Con Founder. “Adding Greg and the LeftField team to the Rose City Comic Con team as partners will continue to allow RCCC to grow in many ways, including adding a day to our 2017 event, making RCCC a three day fan experience for the first time!”
“We are thrilled to join the Rose City Comic Con family,” said LeftField President Greg Topalian. “Ron and his team have created Portland’s leading pop culture event, and we’re excited by the opportunity to support Ron’s passion and vision for further growing RCCC for the incredible Portland community.”
RCCC joins Washington DC’s Awesome Con in LeftField’s comic-con portfolio. All the shows they put on currently:
- Awesome Con – Washington DC’s comic and pop culture expo
- Anime NYC – NYC’s Japanese pop culture convention powered by Crunchyroll
- Five Points Festival – A designer toy and comic convention curated by Clutter
- Play Fair – A play-focused festival for families made with the Toy Industry Association
- AXPONA – A hi-fi audio convention in partnership with JD Events
- The Classic Auto Show – LA’s classic and vintage auto show
Unsure what to think about this. There was a message on RCCC’s Facebook page from Ron Brister, the founder, assuring people that RCCC is still independently owned and operated, not going to change, and committed to featuring comics, artists, and local talent.
But that’s exactly what Jim Demonakos said about ECCC after the ReedPop takeover (minus the ‘owned’ part but including the ‘operated’ part), and last year the results were not pretty for that poor convention. The local flavor has been snuffed and it has felt more corporate and generic while at the same time, the resources they supposedly had access to via ReedPop never materialized. WA native cosplayer Ani-Mia was not invited back last year, and this year local nerd-rock band (and one of the founders of nerd-rock, arguably) Kirby Krackle is not appearing because ReedPop is apparently no longer allowing musicians to be in Artist Alley. (That said, they could have bought a small press table if they wanted to appear…but why bother.) 2016’s guest lineup was a complete embarrassment, and 2017’s, while much better than 2016, is not better than 2015’s and roughly on par with 2012’s. No studio panels, no major retailer exclusives (except for the disastrous Funko fiasco) or even add’l major retailer presence. Also, their website has become totally ugly and confusing.
When we went last year, it just felt like a shell of its former self. It would have been understandable if the changes would have been done at the expense of bringing up the panels, entertaiment guests, exhibitors, exclusives, etc to the next level…but they squashed what made it great while at the same time adding absolutely nothing to the show, except their logo all over everything. Oh, and upgrading the program book which is now bigger and shinier, I guess. :-\
I actually was optimistic at first about ECCC, since ReedPop is competent at running conventions…but I guess they just care about NYCC, C2E2, and getting their new conventions off the ground in China and India.
A couple differences that offer a glimmer of hope for RCCC…LeftField is not ReedPop, and this is a “financial partnership” rather than an “acquisition.” (Is there much of a difference, though?)
ECCC has been a yearly tradition for us, but if it’s like last year this will be our last. RCCC was going to be our replacement, but now…I guess we wait and see.
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