Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con was an overwhelming joy for this budding fan

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hursday, Feb. 29, 10:15 a.m.: I have arrived at my first Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle.

I have acquired my press badge. I make my way through security. I have already made my first mistake.

10:20 a.m.: “You walked right by me,” my KUOW colleague Dyer Oxley texts me.

I may be a certifiable nerd — hello, public radio journalist — but I am out of my element here. Dyer is my guide on this day, the first of four days to enjoy ECCC 2024. Without Dyer, I will be lost, physically, mentally, emotionally.

We find each other, and I learn that ECCC is so ginormous (technical term) that it spans two buildings in the Seattle Convention Center. Here I thought the single, half-filled room on the other side of will-call was where all the action was. Nope.

10:30 a.m.: We find the action, five floors packed with vendors, artists, writers, panels, and more. I am now slightly overwhelmed. I ask myself how I got here.

To answer that question, take a trip with me back to 1997.

The Backstreet Boys are hot. The web address “www.google.com” has just been registered, though you may not have been paying attention. And “Batman & Robin” is on the big screen.

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The latter was notable — notably bad — for its over-the-top dialogue and appearances by Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze and Robert “Jeep” Swenson as Bane; yes, George Clooney was there, too, I just don’t want to talk about it. Five-year-old me had eyes for just one person on the screen: Poison Ivy, played well enough by Uma Thurman. (It wasn’t her fault the auction scene was so bad.)

Here’s this strong, independent woman (also: eco-terrorist) with great hair, a killer sense of style, and a helluva green thumb. Goals.

She made an impression on me.

Twenty-five years later, I would be paired with Seattle writer G. Willow Wilson for an episode of Seattle Now’s Casual Friday and learn she’d been tapped to write DC Comics’ first ongoing series dedicated to Poison Ivy.

I’ve been hooked since the series started in 2022. This year, it was time to take my fandom to the next level: my first Comic Con.

Back to the future: To honor the character who brought me to my first Con, I search for attendees dressed as Poison Ivy. I was not among them, as I didn’t feel spiritually prepared to enter the cosplay scene.

2 p.m. Sarah Moore came to the Con from Eastern Washington decked out in a green getup with fake ivy draped around her, a very old-school Poison Ivy costume. I spotted her bright red hair first.

Like me, Moore was drawn to the character as a child, enticed by her powers and “vibes” — vibes that Moore brought with her to the Con. This was only the second year Moore had attended ECCC, yet here she was in full costume. She was braver than I.

She may not have been quite as brave as Matthew Kendall, though. He came dressed in a green satin gown, wedge heels, fake ivy, and a red wig. This was not so much for himself as it was for his girlfriend Kasper Larson, dressed as Harley Quinn.

“I actually just got out of a toxic relationship, and then, found him,” Larson says of Kendall. “He literally was my Poison Ivy who saved me from that relationship.”

How wholesome is that?

And that’s the thing about Comic Con: The whole thing is dang wholesome (except, maybe, my side quest at about 3:15 p.m. when I battled — and was brutally defeated by — a Viking).

It’s an opportunity to celebrate the stories and characters who inspired us as kids and who helped bring us (me) to this packed conference center interviewing fellow nerds for a living.

Comic Con isn’t just about comic book heroes.

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The DC and Marvel superhero standards are mixed with many other characters and mediums, from Star Wars to another childhood favorite of mine, Warner Bros.’ "Pinky and the Brain."

Storyboard artist Keith Tucker worked on the show and other popular cartoons in the '80s and '90s, making his way to more than a few Comic Cons along the way, including ECCC. I asked him how many Cons he’s been to in his 40-year career.

“Ha!” he said in one of several exaggerated voices he pulls out as we chat. “I can’t tell you. I was going to conventions in the '60s when I was young.... I take the Fifth.”

Suffice to say, he was a true veteran of the scene, one who keeps coming back year after year to be with his community.

“People come up to me and tell me, ‘You drew my childhood,’” Tucker said. “It warms my heart.”

5:05 p.m.: My heart is warm, too. I’ve been on my own, away from my guide, Dyer, for about an hour. I am officially overwhelmed.

I step out into the cold Seattle evening, toting $45-worth of new graphic novels and another $8-worth of stickers in my new "Silence of the Lambs" tote bag. And though exhausted, I cannot wait for next year.