ECC 2018

​Sasquatch Syndicate at Emerald City Comicon 2018 | Bigfoot Goes Mainstream in Seattle

Nothing quite prepares you for 95,000 people descending on your hometown in full cosplay. We're talking floor-to-ceiling stormtroopers, Groot impersonators who somehow managed to get their foam armor through a revolving door, and enough Marvel characters to stage a genuine Avengers assembly in the lobby. Emerald City Comicon 2018 was a spectacle unlike anything most people ever step into — and right in the thick of it, with a significantly improved booth and a whole lot of lessons learned from the year before, was the Sasquatch Syndicate.

We came back. And this time, we came prepared.

Our Washington State nonprofit had one mission in 2017: show up, learn the room, and figure out what Sasquatch Syndicate looks like inside a pop culture convention. Mission accomplished — and the education was invaluable. What we learned was simple: ECCC is a visual universe, and a podcast without a visual identity is a whisper in a very loud room. So for 2018 we fixed that.

The booth was better. Sharper. More intentional. And we brought a secret weapon: a full Bigfoot costume. An actual human being inside a full sasquatch suit, standing at the booth, greeting attendees, posing for photos, and stopping foot traffic cold. Because if there is one thing that will make 95,000 cosplayers stop mid-stride in a convention hall, it is a genuinely good Bigfoot costume operated with commitment and enthusiasm. It worked magnificently.

We also brought something we were genuinely excited about — early sketch concepts for a Sasquatch Syndicate cartoon and print direction. One of the big questions we wanted answered was whether the visual world we were imagining for the Syndicate resonated with a pop culture audience. So we put the sketches in front of people and asked for real, unfiltered feedback. Convention crowds do not sugarcoat. They tell you exactly what they think, within about four seconds, and that kind of raw audience response is worth more than a year of internal debate. The feedback was enormously helpful and pointed us in directions we hadn't fully considered.

The Booth That Stopped People in Their Tracks

From the moment the doors opened, the booth became a destination. The pro bono area of ECCC is a fantastic, community-driven corner of the convention floor where nonprofits and local organizations share space alongside some of the most dedicated fan communities on the planet. For Sasquatch Syndicate, it was the right stage — and in year two, we knew how to use it.

Chuck Geveshausen was in his element from the first hour. Chuck has this infectious energy when it comes to talking about Bigfoot — the kind of enthusiasm that makes a skeptic lean in and say "okay, tell me more." And tell them he did. Hundreds of people filtered through that booth over four days, and Chuck greeted every single one of them with the same fire he'd have had on day one. The Bigfoot suit didn't hurt either.

We have to give a massive shoutout to Josh — you know who you are — for helping us carve out the time to actually breathe, step out onto the floor, and experience the convention between shifts. Without Josh holding things down, we might never have made it past our own table. He made sure Chuck and the team got to enjoy the magic happening all around them, and that meant everything.

95,000 Fans and Most of Them Had an Opinion About Bigfoot

Here's what you need to understand about Comicon crowds: these are people who deeply, fiercely love things. They drive from Oregon and British Columbia and fly in from across the country and around the world because pop culture matters to them. So when they walked past a Bigfoot booth with an actual sasquatch standing in front of it, they didn't shrug and keep walking — they engaged.

We met eyewitnesses. Legitimate, emotional, credible people who pulled us aside and shared their encounters in hushed, serious tones. We met lifelong enthusiasts who recognized our material and lit up like it was Christmas morning. We did autograph signings, poster signings, and photo ops that drew genuine crowds. We talked shop with fans of every Bigfoot-related show on television — people who had spent years watching, theorizing, and believing.

The convention featured incredible celebrity guests throughout the weekend. David Tennant brought Doctor Who fans out in droves. Christopher Lloyd and Tom Wilson had Back to the Future fans lined up around the building. The energy across the entire floor was extraordinary — and the energy at our table was its own kind of electric.

The Moment That Changed Everything: Our International Visitors

This is the part of the weekend that will never be forgotten.

Emerald City Comicon draws an international crowd. Seattle is a hub city, a gateway to Asia-Pacific, home to massive tech companies with global workforces. So we had visitors from Japan, South Korea, and Canada stopping by the booth — and their reaction to the Bigfoot costume, to the research, to the concept of a real ongoing investigation into an unknown Pacific Northwest creature, was something none of us were prepared for.

Several visitors — particularly from Korea and Japan — approached with genuine curiosity and a single question: "Is this a comic? Is Bigfoot like... Godzilla?"

Once Chuck started walking them through the witness accounts, the history, the cultural significance of Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest — eyes went wide. Phones came out. Questions were flying. A few visitors who had wandered over for a quick look ended up staying for twenty, thirty minutes. One group from Japan was so enthusiastic that they extended an invitation — they wanted us to come to Japan, to attend and speak at a conference.

We were deeply honored. Genuinely. And we were devastated that our schedule was already locked. But the fact that a weekend at a Seattle comic convention could plant a Bigfoot seed in the minds of international visitors and potentially open doors to the Asia-Pacific community — that is the kind of thing that reminds you why this work matters.

A Hometown Weekend We Won't Forget
Seattle is our city. The Pacific Northwest is our backyard, our territory, the land where the legend lives. There was something profoundly right about being at Emerald City Comicon — in our own Washington State Convention Center — surrounded by the energy of people who love a great story, and telling them the greatest story our region has to offer.

Chuck Geveshausen poured his heart into every conversation at that booth. The Sasquatch Syndicate showed up as a proud Washington State nonprofit, with a better booth, a sasquatch in costume, and sketch concepts in hand — and walked away with new connections, new believers, real creative feedback, and a memory bank that will last a lifetime.
To the thousands of fans who stopped by — thank you. To the eyewitnesses who trusted us with your stories — we hear you and we believe you. To our international guests who discovered Bigfoot for the first time under the lights of a Seattle comic convention — welcome to the search.

And to Josh: thank you for making sure we actually got to live the moment, not just work through it.

​By Chanelle Elaine Chief Marketing Officer, Sasquatch Syndicate Inc.