Scoop: When Comic Cons Collide

1. WIZARD WAR: The first Rose City Comic-Con was held last weekend, aiming to become a mainstream comics and pop-culture convention à la San Diego Comic-Con or Seattle’s Emerald City Comic-Con. Scoop visited on Sunday, Sept. 9, and found a packed house with a friendly, home-grown Portland atmosphere. But on Friday, Sept. 7, Wizard World, a comic-convention empire that runs huge Chicago and Philadelphia events, announced it would be holding a convention in Portland in February 2013. Wizard World has a reputation for using Walmart-style tactics that could push smaller competitors out of their hometowns. Rose City organizer Ron Brister told WW: “I don’t think it really has an impact on Rose City Comic-Con, since we’re at the other end of the convention season. However, their announcement regarding their date is a little bothersome to me as a fan of Emerald City Comic-Con [next weekend]. The last thing I would want is for people to spend themselves out before heading north to the greatest convention on the West Coast.”

1. SAD SONGS: Away from the citywide party of MusicfestNW, it was a bummer of a week for Portland music. On Sept. 7, Bill Martin, a pillar of the Portland roots-music scene, passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 65. A veteran fiddler and square-dance caller, Martin is credited with sparking an interest in American folk styles among the city’s younger musicians. “He was really responsible, I feel like, for breathing life into this new wave of old-time music in Portland,” says local caller Caroline Oakley, who, along with Martin, established the weekly Sunday square dance night at Northeast Portland’s Village Ballroom. >> Award-winning Ghanaian percussionist Obo Addy is in the final stages of his own fight with liver cancer. Addy, who moved to Portland in 1978, established the nonprofit Obo Addy Legacy Project in 1986, a cultural center serving the African diaspora. Donations to help with his medical bills can be made at indiegogo.com/OboAddy.

1. THAT’S ED-UTAINMENT: Nine months after relocating to Los Angeles, Aaron Ross—better known as Ed Forman, the bawdy host of the live comedy-variety program The Ed Forman Show with Me! Ed Forman!—is returning. Unlike performers who scurry home after a failed shot at the big time, Forman will be resurrecting The Ed Forman Show at Al Den’s in the Crystal Hotel for a three-shows-per-week run, beginning Oct. 4. The show is also expanding online, with each installment shot as a multi-camera television show. How Ed-citing!

1. TBA TBC: Willamette Week’s coverage of PICA’s Time-Based Art festival continues online. Follow our arts writers’ TBA diaries at wweek.com/tba2012. 

WWeek 2015