We’ve all had to locate our salves in the last year in a half: places we could go to escape the (sometimes literal) fires blazing around us. For lots of us? The vast tunnels of pop culture have provided necessary relief, and this weekend, September 10–12, pop culture extravaganza Rose City Comic Con returns to the Oregon Convention Center to continue the work.

Since 2012, the festival has brought huge names to PDX and PDX names to a huge platform, for a weekend of panels, workshops, cosplay, and more. This year, it’s back in more or less full-force. Here are three events you won’t want to miss. (Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test is required for entry, and masks are required at all indoor events; see a full rundown of the convention’s COVID policies here.)

Live! With Ghosts-n-Heauxs

5–5:45 p.m. Fri, Sept 10, Room E145–146

One thing we've missed in the last however-many-months, if we may be so bold? Live podcasts. Luckily, the crew behind this paranormal Portland pod will scratch our itch on Friday evening at one of the con's first events. Ghosts-n-Heauxs is a self-described dive into "the paranormal, true crime, occult, and all things spooky," led by paranormal investigator hosts Danielle Borja and Nowal "Zee" Massari, and Friday's live show is sure to swing toward the macabre side of Comic Con content.

When You’re an Addams with Christina Ricci

12:45–1:45 p.m. Sat, Sept 11, Main Stage 

Timed, no doubt, to the (questionable!) upcoming Wednesday Addams Netflix series, the Wednesday of our millennial memories will hit the convention’s main stage on Saturday afternoon for an audience Q&A. In case you’ve forgotten, in addition to playing the teen goth icon in the ’90s live-action Addams Family flicks, Ricci played friend to a friendly ghost in Casper, opposite Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow, and opposite Charlize Theron in Monster. After a few quiet years, expect her career to ramp up again in December when she appears in the mega-anticipated Matrix Resurrections—if you’re lucky, maybe you can lodge a question about it on Saturday. She, like many of the con’s celebrity guests, will be around for pricy photo ops in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday: $60–70 a pop. 

Cover Art and Design with The Soto

Noon–1 p.m. Sun, Sept 12, Booth #665

One for the kids! All weekend, Rose City Comic Con will host a series of Rose City Jr. workshops, on everything from comics character design to world building to, indeed, cover art design. This workshop will be hosted by illustrator/character designer Darren Soto of Orange Tea Studios, and kids who attend might want to flex their new skills at a comic book cover contest (for students in grade school through college) later in the afternoon. 

Rose City Comic Con

Fri–Sun, Sept 10–12, Oregon Convention Center, $15–135