Another Emerald City Comicon has come and gone but this one was extra-special for an important reason – it was my first! I’m foreign to Seattle just like the horse of a different color isn’t native to Oz. Living here for just over a year, I’m mostly familiar with the wacky Seattle sights and ECCC weekend is no exception. Short of going to the convention center itself, behind the counter at Raygun Lounge might be one of the best places to experience the con. I was granted a front row seat for the nerdtastic conversation and costumery that punctuates any good Comicon.

Curious newcomers and returning friends descended on the Lounge Thursday evening for a multimedia trivia contest hosted by Raygun regular Andrew & his friends. Special guests from Comics Chat with Gat, the Nerdhole, and A Podcast For All Intents and Purposes took turns hosting rounds and stumping teams with obscure knowledge. Eight teams participated during the event and prizes were raffled off between rounds. After the dust settled our first place team was Alternative FAQs, second place went to Ronald Raygun Lounge and third place was claimed by Indiegogo presents Wendigo: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go: A Tale of Vertigo.

Friday night was a more low key gathering featuring a Queer Comics Mixer hosted by Northwest Press. Sharing the space with our monthly Hearthstone tournament, everyone enjoyed another exciting raffle of prizes and plenty of good times. The easy-going vibe from Friday night was a nice lull before the main event on Saturday – NW Nerd‘s annual costume contest! The Lounge was transformed into a cosplay runway where all the best ECCC costumes strutted their stuff for the masses. Prizes were awarded for a variety of categories pitting fantasy and sci-fi characters against each other for the top spot. Check out the highlights on the .

After a super hectic weekend of comics and community building I have to say ECCC is a blast – and I haven’t even been to the Con yet! I am already looking forward to our next big weekend celebrating Sakuracon April 14th-16th. Stay tuned to our events page for info about parties dedicated to anime and 20 successful years of this unique convention.

Whether you’re visiting from out of town or a local with or without PAX passes this year, we are always your Capitol Hill home away from home for all things nerd, geek and pop culture. We are an easy walk from the Convention Center, have great food and drinks in an all ages environment, and are hosting five days of special events just for you so come on up and see us while you’re in town.

Thursday, Sept 1

7:00 PM
Geek Out Trivia

The hosts of Nerdhole and A Podcast for All Intents and Purposes come together for one night a year to challenge you and yours to a trivia night like no other. Free entry, the geekiest questions the world has ever known and prizes galore await you!

Friday, Sept 2

8:00 PM
Game Jolt Indie Arcade

For one night only, those indie madmen, Game Jolt transform our space into a free arcade to demo, play and discuss this year’s newest, hottest, and indiest computer and console releases.

Saturday, Sept 3

Noon & 4:00 PM
Conspiracy Drafting

Come experience Magic’s latest sensation for yourself. $15 buy in. Pods of 8. Smart, competitive, friendly players

1:00 PM
Hearthstone ‘One Night in Karazhan’ Official Release Party!

Orcas Distributing presents and hosts Blizzard Entertainment’s Karazhan Release Party and PAX PRIME Tournament. Registration begins at 1:00PM, tournament proper at 2:00. Come see what all the excitement is about!

6:00 PM
Pink Party Prime Preparty

Though PAX’s gayest, queerest, afterparty, Pink Party Prime kicks off at Neumos at 9:00, we are the Pink Party’s only for you to prefunk, test your costume, win prizes (including tickets to to the event itself) and have a generally grand time in between events.

7:00 PM
PAX CRITTERCONCRAWL

Those fervent Critical Role fans, the critters, are in town for PAX and they’ve chosen us to be their official crawlspace. The last time they did this, a bunch of surprise special guests showed up. This time? Who knows. But it is PAX…

Sunday, September 4

Noon & 4pm
Conspiracy Drafting

Come experience Magic’s latest sensation for yourself. $15 buy in. Pods of 8. Smart, competitive, friendly players

6:00 PM
Mark Dago & the Red Bennies
High Score Tour

Nerdcore Superstars DJ Shanty, Lord British & Jade Knight join Mark Dago for the last leg of his legendary High Score Tour and you’ll be there to personally witness the mayhem!

Monday, September 5

6:00 PM
The Book of Starry Wisdom Release Party

Strix publisher and collection editor Simon Berman and illustrator Valerie Herron invite you to join them for the release of their latest kickstarted work, .

You can always learn more about these and all of our events on our Special Events Page. We look forward to seeing you while you’re here, whether it’s for a day or for a lifetime.

While there’s always a lot to talk about, (seriously, have you SEEN the new bathroom yet? Your eyes will be blinded by cleanliness), what we’re talking about today is — like it or not, ready or not — it’s December (yes, already).

And that means it’s time for our annual USED GAMES FOR NEW GAMES FOR FOSTER CHILDREN DRIVE wherein we ask you, the gaming community, to bring in your old games to us, so that we can turn them into store credit and use that credit to buy new games (kind of like making new cards in Hearthstone) that we donate to the Treehouse Wearhouse so that King County Foster Families can have free games for Christmas this year. It’s a great, completely free, way for you to share your passion and interests with some of our most deserving community members this holiday season so, please, by all means, bring in some used games for us to upcycle. You’ll be glad you did.

Stay tuned for posts about our new layout now that we’re Captiol Hill’s only game store/game lounge/art gallery(!), update on table reservations and space rental, and our new & improved December event schedule very soon. And if you just can’t wait, we’d love to see you. Come in anytime and we’ll bring you up to date. I’ll personally be at the counter all day this Friday and Sunday talking about things I can’t even imagine yet and happily answering all your questions.