Speed Force

This photo by spatula108 got me thinking: I’ve seen several women dressed as the Flash at conventions, and two or three as Liberty Belle…but I can’t think of a single Jesse Quick cosplayer.

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Over at K-Squared Ramblings, I’ve put together an index to all 2009 Comic-Con International posts made at that blog and this one. Panel write-ups, photos, the costume how-tos, tips, general convention experiences, etc.

• Comic-Con International 2009 Index

Katie again, as promised, with details on the making of the boots and shirt for Kelson’s Comic-Con Golden Age Flash costume. This shouldn’t be nearly as long as the helmet post, I promise. My aim here is to show the entire process from design to display, as an aid to anyone else who might want to try something similar.

The Boots

Our original intention with the boots was to get cheap boots and make boot covers. I’d picked up a pair of costume boots for myself at Payless at a huge discount a few years ago, which was surprising given that anything in a size 10 or over is hard to find in women’s shoes. However, men’s fashion boots are even harder to find, let alone with a price restriction, and in the sale room of DSW we reformulated our plan. We thought about permanently attaching semi-rigid covers to an old pair of sneakers, but realized that tying laces would prove impossible inside a boot. So it came down to slip-ons, and we located a pair at (surprise!) Payless that fit pretty well. The only question was whether to make them permanent or removable, and the material made the decision for us.

I tend to be a cheapskate when it comes to crafts that I’m going to keep for myself. For gifts, sales, or commissions, I spare little expense; but for my own use it’s Red Heart Super Saver and Westrim beads, because I’m willing to undertake for myself the maintenance that will make the piece look like more than it is. We went to Jo-Ann with no idea what we wanted beyond “shiny bright red.” Luckily, this was during a huge fabric clearance and we found some less-than-half-price red vinyl, which settled the question of what to make the boots from. I also picked up some E-6000 cement, which claimed it would bond vinyl, and some muslin for making patterns and test covers. I didn’t intend to sew the final covers, as it would punch holes in the vinyl. But something else happened then that I did not intend: the E-6000 not only wouldn’t hold up to much pulling (even when I roughed up the shiny vinyl lightly with sandpaper), but flat-out refused to bond to the back side of the vinyl. It didn’t matter that the suggested temperature range meant I’d waited until nearly sunset to be able to use it at all. It just beaded up, dried, and fell off. So, since I didn’t want to mess with mass quantities of hot glue that I’d need to shepherd along definite “seam” lines, it was going to have to be sewing.

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Hi! This is Katie, the wife Kelson’s mentioned a few times. I’m not nearly as involved with comics as he is, but I appreciate a good convention costume and have made a point of wearing at least one a year for a while now. My interests in effects makeup, jewelrymaking, and general arts and crafts really come in handy for this, though it had been a long time since I’d been able to persuade Kelson to dress up for a con. When he mentioned that he’d wear a Jay Garrick Flash costume if he could get all the pieces, my ears pricked up. When he said something about how a really determined person would make a paper-mache hat, I said, “I could do that.” In the end, I did quite a bit more.

The helmet is made from paper mache, Crayola Model Magic, glue, felt, cardboard, a few gap-filling pastes of varying efficacy, and both brush-on and spray-on paint and clear-coat spray acrylic. The boots are vinyl covers glued (again, with a sort of tiered success) to a pair of $20 Payless slip-on shoes, with stuffed plush wings made from felt and sewn on. And the shirt, which we originally thought would be taken care of by Graphitti Designs, involved some last-minute Amazon ordering, masking tape, and several applications of fabric paint. I was heat-setting the thing at midnight the Tuesday before the con; we have yet to see what washing will do to it.

The Helmet

I started with the helmet, figuring it would take a while to dry at the thicknesses I’d be creating, even in dry heat. (One thing California summer weather is good for!) Read the rest of this entry »

It took the TV series Heroes three seasons to introduce a speedster. Daphne Millbrook was a major character during the “Villains” arc (Volume 3), playing against both Hiro Nakamura and Matt Parkman, and had a smaller role in “Fugitives” (Volume 4). I won’t spoil “Fugitives” for the two people out there who haven’t seen it and want to, but she’s not coming back this season.

This year’s Heroes panel at Comic-Con introduced a new group of players for the upcoming arc, “Redemption” (Volume 5): a traveling carnival made up of people who have super-powers, hiding in plain sight. (Everyone’s making comparisons to Carnivale, but I can’t help but think of Payne’s carnival in Girl Genius.) Among them is Edgar, a knife-thrower played by Ray Park, best known as Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He also appears as Snake Eyes in the live-action G.I. Joe movie opening this weekend.

Edgar is described as “a speedster with a mission.” Footage played at the panel showed him using his power not for running, but for combat agility as he fought power-magnet Peter Petrelli.

Appropriately enough, the actor kept moving throughout the panel, making it hard for Katie to snap a photo of him that was in focus.

If the number of Flash costumes at Comic-Con International last week is any indication, the fan base is energized. Most years I only see one or two Flashes, if any. This year there were at least three Jay Garricks including myself, two women who made variations on the costume, one man in a Black Flash costume, a Kid Flash, and a Captain Cold.

Here’s a gallery of photos from Flickr.

Golden Age

I don’t think I’d ever seen a Golden Age Flash costume at a convention until I saw some photos from HeroesCon and Wizard World Philadelphia in June. There seemed to be one Jay Garrick at each. So I figured I’d probably be the only one at San Diego. Imagine my surprise when I ran into not one other, but two!

The photo on the left shows me and a cosplayer who was part of a Justice Society of America group I spotted in line for the DC Nation panel on Friday. I asked the person behind me to save my place in line, walked along the line to where they were, and we did the obligatory “Nice costume!” exchange, then ended up posing for a bunch of photos. We did at least two poss, this one and one just standing and crossing our arms like the Alex Ross poster. Someone got an interesting shot with a blur effect, also.

I ran into the guy on the right on Saturday, when I wasn’t in costume. He actually used an original World War I helmet, polished it up, and made wings for it…then the first day in town the wings broke, so he needed to come up with a substitute fast. He ended up gluing popsicle sticks together and spray painting them gold.

Update: Speaking of the helmet, here’s how my helmet was made. Update 2: and here’s how we made the boots and shirt.

Variations

I didn’t manage to see any of these three in person during the con. But they’re really cool variations.

The two things that usually impress me the most with character costumes are:

• Authenticity – costumes that match the source very well, especially if the person wearing it is a good fit for the character. (That especially helps with costumes from movies and TV shows. If you resemble an actor, seriously look at their roles for ideas!)
• Creative variation – costumes that take a concept and put a deliberate spin on them. The Steampunk Flash from the League of Justice-Minded Citizens, for instance. Or either of the female Flash costumes here.

The Flash is well-suited for variations, because there have been so many of them in canon. You’ve got the basics: Jay Garrick’s Golden Age costume, the Barry Allen/Wally West Flash costume, and the Kid Flash costume (each with its own variations). Then you’ve got Professor Zoom, Johnny Quick, a half-dozen Jesse Quick costumes, Impulse, Max Mercury, Walter West, Iris West II, John Fox’s three costumes…and that’s not counting all the possible future Flashes from “Chain Lightning.”

So it’s not a problem to take the basic red-and-yellow lightning motif and build on it. People will still know who you are, especially if you keep the white circle around the lightning bolt.

Well, except for the dimwits who mistake you for Flash Gordon.

Update August 28: The woman on the left appears to be wearing an off-the-rack costume rather than a custom variation.

Cold and the Kid

I almost missed Captain Cold here. It was late Saturday afternoon, and I was on the phone with my wife trying to work out dinner plans. I saw him through the window, said, “Hang on, I need to get a picture of Captain Cold” and ducked outside into Sails Pavilion.

Kid Flash was there on Sunday. Sterling Gates, who had been announced the day before as the writer of an upcoming Kid Flash series, posted, “I just met Kid Flash! He’s here!” I kept looking for him the rest of the day, but had no luck. Fortunately, Comic Con has a lot of people with cameras!

Bonus: Cheetara!

She may not be a Flash character, but here are two women dressed as Cheetara from Thundercats. Hey, she is a speedster, after all!

Who Else?

I saw at least one, possibly two guys in off-the-rack Flash Halloween costumes during the weekend, and one kid who was probably about 6 or 7.

So…did you see any of these people at the con? Did you see another Flash that I’ve missed?

A whole bunch of linkblogging for the week!

Reviews and Commentary

The Comic Treadmill is doing summer reruns with a look back at Flash v.2 #206-219 from 2005.

Blog@Newsarama looks at a panel from Blackest Night #1 and concludes that Barry died sometime between 1991 and 1996 if “the internet” is new to him today…and then there’s his using the term “geek” to refer to himself and Clark Kent, and Grant Morrison’s comment that “When geeks get power, you get Hitler.” Um…yeah.

Comix 411 reviews Green Lantern #44, guest starring the Flash.

Video Store Blues shows a couple of pages from the 2000 Superman and Bugs Bunny miniseries, featuring the Flash vs. the Road Runner.

The Weekly Crisis wishes DC and Marvel would engage in more world-building dealing with the impact of superheroes on Earth, like the Flash Museum and Superhero Memorial Day.

News and Interviews

CBR interviews Karl Kerschl and editor Marc Chiarello on Wednesday Comics

CBR has their own write-up of the DC Universe panel.

The Source has pictures from Geoff Johns and Dan Didio on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

The Source announces JSA All-Stars, a spinoff of Justice Society of America, and Newsarama interviews Matt Sturges.

Art

Comics Should Be Good has a John Byrne commission showing Doctor Doom defeating various DC heroes including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash.

CBR has The Nerdy Bird’s Flight to San Diego, including pictures of her as a Red Lantern with her custom-made plush Dex-Starr, Red Lantern Kitty of Rage!

The webcomic Kidd and Geezer presents Kiddo Cosplays at SDCC with a trio of super-heroes who all have something in common…

DC made only a few Flash announcements at Comic-Con, but they were big ones!

• Blackest Night: Flash miniseries by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins — 3 issues starting in November December. (announced at the Geoff Johns Spotlight on Thursday) The book will star Barry, Wally, and a whole lot of dead Rogues. [Note: I was originally under the impression that the second round of Blackest Night tie-ins would launch in November, and at the panel I was focused on the official announcement and the people involved, so I missed the fact that the month was one syllable off from what I was expecting. DC has audio of the panel, and he did say December.]
• Flash ongoing series written by Geoff Johns, to start after Blackest Night: Flash. They’re not ready to announce the artist, but Geoff assures us that he’s “awesome.” (announced at DC Universe on Saturday)
• Kid Flash ongoing written by Sterling Gates. No artist or start date announced. (also announced at DCU panel)
• A new speedster will join the Flash family by the end of Flash: Rebirth (DCU again.)

I liveblogged both panels (though a technical glitch prevented the DCU post from actually going up as I wrote it, which really annoyed me), and there are some other remarks in those panels (and in DC Nation) that Flash fans might find interesting.

Comic Book Resources has an interview with Geoff Johns in which he talks about the Blackest Night miniseries and the ongoing series. The first story is called “The Dastardly Deaths of the Rogues,” and he says that “all the Flashes in the Flash Universe will be major players in both Flash books.” There’s a lot more at the interview, such as this:

In “Blackest Night: Flash,” it’s the Rogues versus the Black Lantern Rogues and Flash is caught in the middle. And Captain Cold will be facing off against Black Lantern Golden Glider.

Ouch…that’s going to be one nasty fight!

• Retweeting @GreatWhiteSnark: RT @slashfilm: A real life light cycle in Flynn’s Arcade. #
• RT @SpeedsterSite: OH NO! The Flash: Rebirth #4 pushed back again! Set to release August 26th. #
• Retweeting @SpeedsterSite: RT: @CBR CCI: Geoff Johns on “All Flash” #
• Slept in today. Just got to the floor and I’d swear it’s more crowded than Saturday. Weird. #
• Oh, good, Mark Waid has a line today. #
• OMG Nichelle Nichols! #
• Scored a copy of the Flash:Rebirth #3 Variant! Wish I’d remembered to look BEFORE yesterday’s Geoff Johns signing, though #
• Overheard on return to convention center: “Air conditioning! Woo hoo!” #
• Creepy couple costume: Comedian & battered Silk Spectre from Watchmen. Just saw them pose for a photo w/him hitting her. Messed up. #
• Home from SDCC! Will post today’s pics (w/ decent bandwidth finally!) & unpack a bit, then sleep. #

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• All right! Friday’s photos actually uploaded overnight! #
• Just walked up to Mark Waid for autograph at Boom booth, no line. How times change. #
• Had no idea Leonard Nimoy & Brent Spiner were going to be here. #
• Took a trip thru Artists alley, then rushed 3/4 of the exhbit hall to DC booth. Forgot how far it was. #
• Saw Harley Quinn skipping merrily along. With a gun, of course. #
• Got a great Madame Xanadu sketch by Amy Hadley & Richard Friend! #Vertigo #
• Batgirl, Harley Quinn & Power Girl @ DC booth #
• Dark Reign Panel: “How do you want Norman Osborn taken down?” Kid dressed as Vision: “Honestly? Howard the Duck.” *applause* “Or Deadpool.” #
• Today is trade-off day. Couldn’t choose btw Quick Draw & Sheldon Moldoff, skipped both to do Madame Xanadu #



• Black Lantern Captain America! #
• Liveblogging DC Universe Panel
• Thought my legs were shaking. Understandable for 3rd day of con. Turned out to be the floor. #
• Could really use Google Maps for con floor. Search by booth name, get directions. At least the pull-out map shows major booths. #
• Whoa. Saw a Princess Leia who was fully clothed. #
  
• Fought thru G4 crowd to get Coraline exclusive figure at next booth over. #
• All right!!! RT @Robot6 Gail Simone’s Welcome to Tranquility will return at Wildstorm #
• Ran into a 3rd Jay Garrick a few minutes back. Most years I don’t see any Flashes at all! #
• Newsarama covers DCU panel #
• Whew! Made it through Geoff Johns signing. Going to try for PAD and Bryan Lee O’Malley, then call it a day. #
• 4 signings, 1 panel, caught 4 artists/writers at booths/artists’ alley. Feet ready to fall off. Done for the day #
• Those searchlights should have the Bat Signal #

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