Rhode Island Comic Con (RICC), which takes place in Providence, Rhode Island, is one of the best conventions I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of conventions over the years. Thirty-four of them over the course of eight years, to be more specific. There's probably only one convention I've ever been to that could possibly top RICC, but we'll save that one for another day.
This year (2021), RICC took place from November 5th through November 7th. I went with a friend of mine, and it was fantastic! We stayed at the hotel attached to the convention center, the Omni Providence. It was a little pricy, but it was definitely worth it to be able to walk directly from the hotel, across a covered sky bridge and into the convention.
On the Friday of the convention, my friend and I were the first non-VIPs in the convention from the Omni bridge entrance. The Omni entrance was definitely less busy than the main entrance was, but you have to be staying in the Omni to use this entrance.
The first thing that we did when we entered the con was go to the info booth to pick up a program. The program had a map of the convention center in it, as well as a lot of other helpful information, and the people at the info booth were very knowledgeable. They were fantastic at letting us know where to go to find things, such as the panels we wanted to go to. They were even giving out free re-useable tote bags to everyone at the con who wanted one.
One of the best parts of the convention was the sheer amount of love that was showered onto cosplayers. Even with my super casual cosplay that I wore on the first day of the convention, compliments reigned in from everywhere. On Saturday and Sunday, in my more elaborate cosplays, people even asked for pictures of me, and sometimes even for pictures with me. Everyone from staff, to guests, to con-goers were extremely friendly.
The vendor hall/artist's alley was huge, and had such a variety of awesome stuff that I definitely spent way too much money there. Some of my favorite vendors/artists there were The Eggo Man, who sold some awesome artwork including some that you could buy in the form of keychains, (obviously I had to pick up some anime-themed stickers!), Crafty Queer Studio, who sold awesome LGBTQIA+ accessories, like buttons, bracelets and other cool stuff, (I bought some buttons from them), and Geek Boy Press, who sold some really cool art prints, among other stuff (I just had to buy their Eighth Doctor art print)!
There were even some really amazing cosplayers with tables set up, such as Cosplay Dad and Brandon The Shapeshifter!
Meeting guests for autographs and selfies was set up with a pretty smooth system. They had lines in front of their tables, one of which I believe was a VIP line, and the other for general admission. Autographs and selfies (as well as photo ops, which I'll get to later) were to be pre-paid for, which you could either do online, or at the Epic Photo Ops booth that was set up outside the guest area/vendor hall in the main building.
I pre-paid for one autograph/selfie combo from Bryce Papenbrook, a professional photo op with Justin Cook, and a professional photo op with Alan Ritchson. The guest list was absolutely huge, and filled with amazing people, so deciding exactly who to get autographs and photos from was tough when trying to stay within a budget, but what I did end up paying for was totally worth it!
When I met Bryce Papenbrook on the Friday of the convention, he was super upbeat, welcoming and friendly. He signed my Sword Art Online wall scroll for me, which admittedly, was a bit of a struggle given the table space and the size of the wall scroll, but he didn't complain. He talked to me about Sword Art Online and mentioned the upcoming movie while he signed my wall scroll, which he offered to personalize with my name (and I accepted). Then, we took a picture together, and when I tell you that you could tell he was smiling despite wearing a mask, I mean it. That man looked happy, and it made my day.
My friend and I met Justin Cook on Saturday. We went up to his table so that she could get an autograph from him. It took a lot of self-control not to get an autograph for myself as well, but just seeing their interaction with each other was really cool. That, and he even complimented me on my cosplay of Himiko Toga from My Hero Academia! My friend is a huge fan of Eijiro Kirishima from My Hero Academia, and Justin Cook voices him. She had him sign a figurine for her, and they talked about all the awesome Kirishima-themed stuff she had with her, including but not limited to, her Kirishima hoodie and Kirishima-themed nails that she had done.
Later that day, we went to the photo op with Justin Cook. This photo op went pretty smoothly. We were two people of the very small group that was in line. They moved us through at a reasonable pace, and we got to get an awesome picture with him! He remembered us from earlier in the day, too. Masks were required at the convention, but we were allowed to take them off for the photo op if we were comfortable.
We also went to the My Hero Academia voice actor panel. All of the voice actors from the show who attended the convention were there, and it was a Q&A-style panel. It was really enjoyable, and although I didn't ask a question myself, since I didn't really have one, it was really neat to hear all of their answers to people's questions! It was very well-organized, and I would love to go to a panel like that again.
On the final day of the convention, which was the Sunday of the convention, I went to a panel that was hosted by some Rhode Island authors. It was a panel about including diversity in writing, and as someone who strives to be an author, it was really informative. I got answers to all of the questions I had, and it's something that I feel I'll be able to use when writing the novel I'm working on. I loved the idea of having panels for writers at a comic con! You may be surprised at how many people love the non-fandom-specific panels that get hosted at some conventions. Personally, they're some of my favorite panels sometimes.
After the diversity in writing panel that I went to, it was time to get my photo taken with Alan Ritchson. The flow of photo ops at that particular time of day on Sunday was admittedly not the greatest, as there were huge crowds and it was hard for them to keep things moving along. This was likely because there were a lot of big-name guest photo ops going on at the time, so I really won't blame them for it too much. It was likely just a blip in scheduling that could have been worked out a little bit better.
When I finally got through the crowds of people that were waiting for photo ops and into my actual line for the photo, it all went much more smoothly. There were only about six or seven of us in line for the photo with Alan Ritchson, if I remember correctly, so it moved really efficiently from that point forward. Meeting Alan was great, as he was super friendly! He even complimented me on the hat I was wearing, which was a part of my Fourth Doctor (Doctor Who) cosplay.
The guests I met were some of the kindest people I've ever met at conventions, and I would love to be able to meet them again sometime. They were all fantastic people!
Other cosplayers were great to interact with, too. I even met a few who I've kept in touch with since the convention. I would return to Rhode Island Comic Con in a heartbeat, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's up for a big, welcoming convention community.
If you want to see more pictures that I took at RICC, check out my Instagram, @caitircosplay
-Written By Lexi
