I had a better time than I expected at Wizard World’s first Anaheim Comic Con. Not surprisingly, it was similar to the last Wizard World Los Angeles, except without any comics publishers. (I guess they all went to C2E2.) Without Marvel, DC, etc., the con focused mostly on dealers, fan groups, artists and celebrities.
Read on: A Day at Anaheim Comic Con.
Flash Trio, originally uploaded by Kelson.
I spent most of Saturday at Wizard World’s Anaheim Comic-Con. I’m still working on my write-up, but you can see my photos of the con on Flickr.
The big convention this weekend is the inaugural C2E2 in Chicago. Buzz online has me almost wishing I was there, but I’m not really up for traveling after returning from WonderCon last week. Instead, I’m going to take in a local comic convention, the Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con, on Saturday.
DC’s C2E2 schedule is full, and Flash fans will want to keep an eye on several panels:
FRIDAY
DC NATION – 4:45-5:45 (Room E451)
SATURDAY
BRIGHTEST DAY – 1:45-2:45 (Room E451)
DC UNIVERSE EDITORIAL PRESENTATION – 3:15-4:15 (Room E451)
SUNDAY
DC NATION TOWN HALL MEETING – 11:15-12:15 (Room E351)
FLASH / GREEN LANTERN: REVELATIONS – 1:45-2:45 (Room E451)
Yes, an entire panel focused on Flash and Green Lantern!
Anaheim, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any DC presence beyond the writers and artists on the guest list.
Here are some more questions (and implied questions) pulled from search terms that have shown up in the site stats, all about conventions.
That depends on the convention. Some of the price variations I’ve seen include:
In most cases, you can go to the convention’s website and order a ticket online, or find a phone number to call. Regional cons will often sell tickets through nearby comic stores.
I’m guessing that this person meant Comic-Con International (San Diego), which has sold out of full-weekend, Saturday, and Friday passes for this year. You can still buy a Thursday or Sunday ticket. If you want to get a 4-day pass, or a pass for a day that’s sold out, don’t give up hope just yet.
But first: you can’t just buy a ticket second-hand because they’re linked to names, and you have to show ID when you pick up your badge. Maybe if your identical twin bought the ticket and is willing to lend you his or her driver’s license.
You can keep your eye open for promotions. Last year, as the con approached, there were companies that held contests or raffles where the prize was a ticket to the convention.
You can also wait until June. Last year, after the cancellation deadline, the con organizers counted up the number of tickets returned and started selling them online. To keep them from selling out all at once, they put them up in small lots in fixed-price sales on eBay. They’ve said that they plan to do something similar this year.
I’ve seen a lot of variations on this one, which is interesting because there hasn’t been a Wizard World Anaheim yet to review! The convention coming up in April is the first one.
It will probably be similar to the last few Wizard World Los Angeles cons, though the change in venue will almost certainly have an effect. WWLA itself changed drastically (I’m told) when it moved from the Long Beach Convention Center to the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the new con is going to be literally across the street from Disneyland. More importantly, Wizard World itself seems to be broadening its focus to general pop culture and celebrities even as it’s adding “Comic Con” to its name.
If you’re interested, here are my write-ups of some recent LA-area cons:
On a related note, I also saw this:
Sorry to break it to you, but he’s not going to be there. The same weekend, he’ll be at C2E2 in Chicago.
Update: I forgot to mention another weird one related to Anaheim: “WonderCon Anaheim.” I don’t know whether someone got the names mixed up (it does start with a W) or was looking for information on both conventions.
Well, I did attend three comic conventions in 2009…but not the three I was expecting! WizardWorld Los Angeles was canceled with just two months’ notice, but Long Beach Comic Con stepped in to fill the gap.
I’ll most likely be staying in California again next year, so here’s what next year’s convention season looks like for me:
April 2–4, 2010; San Francisco, California. Probably.
The last two years have been a lot of fun. It’s a lot like San Diego Comic-Con used to be before it exploded, actually. (It’s also a good excuse to travel and visit people in the Bay Area!) This one’s still up in the air for now, since they haven’t started selling tickets yet, but despite the distance, it still ends up being cheaper than San Diego.
» Wondercon 2009 report and photos.
» Update: WonderCon 2010 report and photos.
April 16–18, 2010; Anaheim, California. Maybe.
The show that officially replaces Wizard World Los Angeles is only 10 minutes away, so it would be a shame to skip it. And it’ll be close to the time that Flash and Kid Flash are launching. But it’s also only two weeks after WonderCon, and Wizard, or Gareb Shamus, or whoever is in charge keeps doing things that annoy me.
» Update: Anaheim Comic Con 2010 report and photos. After a lot of dithering, I went for it.
July 1–4, 2010; Pasadena, California. Maybe.
It’s been years since I’ve been to a general science-fiction/fantasy convention. The last one was the 2006 WorldCon in Anaheim, L.A.Con IV, which I experienced through the haze of a summer cold and Day-Quil. I’ve considered Westercon the last two years, but the last two have been Las Vegas and Tempe, Arizona in July. Admittedly Pasadena is a good 10 degrees hotter in summer than where I live, but it’s probably not as hot as Vegas or Tempe…plus I can commute to Pasadena.
» Update: Westercon 63 Report. I finally decided to go.
July 22-25, 2010; San Diego, California. Definitely.
I’ve been going every year since 1990, and I’d hate to break that streak. Even if it ends up being too expensive to stay in town next year, it’s just close enough to commute for a few days.
UPDATE: I’ve just learned via Twitter that one-day tickets go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday, December 15). Four-day tickets are already sold out, so if you plan to go, but don’t have tickets yet, now’s your chance!
» Comic-Con International 2009 report and photos.
» Update: Comic-Con International 2010 report and photos.
October 29-31, 2010; Long Beach, California. Definitely.
I had a good time at the first event this year, and just discovered that they’ve set a date for next year! The website also mentions some sort of one-day event on February 20, but doesn’t provide any detail.
» Long Beach Comic Con 2009 report and photos.
The upcoming Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (April 16-18, 2010) has confirmed Geoff Johns as a guest of honor. Since Ethan Van Sciver was announced back in August, that means that the Flash: Rebirth and Green Lantern: Rebirth writer/artist team will both be appearing at C2E2 next spring.
This also means that neither of them will appear at Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con, held the same weekend.
Long Beach Comic-Con is only two weeks away! They’ve posted their programming schedule and floor map, and I’m happy to see that the panels I most want to see are (a) on the day I’m going and (b) not opposite each other!
Comic Con International has opened online registration for 2010. There’s a pretty steep price jump — the full week is $100 now. Admittedly, that comes out to $25 a day, so it’s not that bad when you think about it. But it’s still triple digits.
They’re trying to cut down on the Wednesday night crowds by selling two types of full-con tickets, one with Preview Night and one without. On one hand, that’s probably a good idea. “Preview” Night has gotten rather insane the last couple of years (since the last time Warren Ellis came out to San Diego, really). On the other hand…you need the Preview Night version to pick up your badge early. If you get the regular version, you have to wait until Thursday morning. Otherwise, I’d happily forgo Preview Night so that someone who really wants to go can have a slightly less crowded experience, since I rarely spend more than half an hour on Wednesday anyway.
WonderCon has announced the dates for next year’s convention: April 2-4, 2010. That’s later than it’s been the last few years, and puts it only 2 weeks before Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con (April 16-18). It’s close enough to make me feel like there’s no point in going to both. WonderCon looks like a better idea for a lot of reasons…but Anaheim is so close that it feels like it would be a waste to not go.
Ever since Wizard canceled Wizard World Los Angeles back in January, just two months before the event, they’ve claimed that the show was not actually canceled, but merely “postponed” (as opposed to WWTX, which was canceled outright). They can probably stop claiming that now that they’ve announced Anaheim Comic-Con, launching April 16-18, 2010.
In the six months since Wizard World canceled half their convention slate, the owners of New York Comic-Con have announced a new Chicago-area show, C2E2, launching next April 16-18 (does that date sound familiar?), and a group of former Wizard staffers have put together Long Beach Comic-Con, starting October 2-4, to take the place of the missing WWLA. Wizard, meanwhile, has renamed Wizard World Chicago as Chicago Comic-Con (its original name before they bought it a decade(?) ago), bought Big Apple Con, and bought Paradise Toronto Con. Or, to be more precise, Gareb Shamus, owner of Wizard, has bought them.
Immediately obvious:
Six months ago it looked like the LA/Orange County area wouldn’t have any big conventions for a while (aside from being 2-3 hours from San Diego). Now there are two. The timing (April) is far enough from both San Diego (July) and Long Beach (October) that it won’t feel like overkill to hit all three. It’s even far enough from WonderCon (usually February or Early March) that it might be worth hitting both.
And I did have fun at WWLA last year and the year before.
And yet… Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to SpeedForce.org, a blog focusing on DC Comics' super-hero, The Flash. It's a companion site to Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning, a fan reference site for the Fastest Man Alive.
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