Speed Force

Those of you who have been reading Speed Force for a while know that I go to San Diego Comic-Con every year. I’m still going this year, but it’s going to be a bit different. Usually I go for the full weekend and try to cover convention news while I’m there. This year I’m only going to be there one day, so I’ve decided I’m going to focus on experiencing the convention.

That said, I’ll certainly have a ton of photos to post when I’m back, and if I stumble across something Flashy, I may be posting from the floor.

Comic-Con International is coming up in only two weeks. Now’s a great time to review your plans and check out Speed Force’s tips to make the most of your trip to San Diego, built up from years of personal experience.

After last year’s five-con blowout, I’ve backed off a bit from Comic-Cons this year. In 2010 I attended at least one day at WonderCon, Anaheim Comic Con, Long Beach Comic Con, the general sci-fi/fantasy convention Westercon, and a full week of Comic-Con International in San Diego. (Those links go to my writeups and photos.)

This year I missed WonderCon (we weren’t sure about traveling with a baby), Anaheim (I’d rather catch Long Beach), and the one-day Long Beach Comic Expo (a busy month after moving, the new place desperately needed a no-plans weekend for some unpacking).

The second half of the year looks better.

Comic-Con International (July). I’m only going one day this year — new job, new baby and plans to move all conspired to keep things uncertain back at the time that tickets went on sale. So I’ll be a lot more focused on experiencing the day that I have than trying to report from the floor, but I’ll post my usual photos and writeups afterward.

Long Beach Comic Con (October). I’m still kicking myself for missing their April event, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. During its first two years, Long Beach has been a fun regional con focused on the actual comic part of Comic Con, and while I couldn’t make it to WonderCon this year, I really have no excuse to miss this one.

(Wizard World) Los Angeles Comic Con (September). Just announced a month ago. I sort of figure this is a second chance to catch Anaheim in case I change my mind, since Wizard has been really big on standardizing their shows lately. Also, I suspect they’re trying to crowd Long Beach out of the market, which is a big reason for me not to go.

Comikaze Expo (November). I only just heard about this one today, through the press release on Newsarama. It looks like they’re trying to out-Wizard the Wizard cons, judging by the heavy emphasis on TV/movie celebrities in the guest list, and maybe throw in elements of Anime Expo and GenCon to boot. It bothers me that they’re trying to hype it as the first con of its type in LA, ignoring the history of the Wizard cons and nearby conventions that aren’t within the Los Angeles city limits, but are close enough to be considered LA. I might drop in out of curiosity, assuming I’m not conventioned-out from Long Beach the week before.

So, current plans: San Diego and Long Beach. Maybe one of the two LA cons.

So, Wizard has just announced the return of Wizard World Los Angeles Comic Con in September, stating that they’re filling “a real need for a Fall event that encompasses all the best that pop culture has to offer.”

The thing is, we’ve already got a Wizard con in the area (Anaheim Comic Con, running this weekend), and we’ve already got a fall convention of about the same size (Long Beach Comic Con in October). The three convention centers are all within 30 miles of each other, so they’re going to draw from the same pool of attendees, and the same pool of comics guests. And since Wizard is big on trying to present a uniform experience for all of their cons, we can expect Anaheim and Los Angeles to be basically the same.

I can only think of two reasons for Wizard to add Los Angeles at this time:

• They’re planning to move back to the more well-known location after moving out to Anaheim last year. Is anyone here at Anaheim right now? Can you tell me whether they’ve announced dates for next year?
• In keeping with past Wizard convention behavior, they’re trying to muscle out Long Beach for daring to step in and put together a successful convention from scratch (and one that actually focuses on the “Comic” part of “Comic Con”) when Wizard canceled WWLA 2009.

(via Bleeding Cool)

On April 9, I attended the first day of the free “Fan Appreciation” show in Toronto. This is the first year it’s been held for the entire weekend, but unfortunately real life got in the way and the spouse and I were only able to go for one day.

It was a pretty good show, with some great guests (including Flash artists Francis Manapul and Ethan Van Sciver) and quite a few vendors selling comics and action figures. I managed to get a couple of Professor Zoom figures and a Flash figurine, and commissioned Red Robin artist Marcus To for a drawing of Captain Boomerang.

The woman waiting in line behind me for Marcus To got this Impulse sketch from him, which she let me photograph.

Here’s Francis Manapul working on a Wonder Woman picture for a fan. I also saw him drawing several Flash pieces, and he drew the Flash on a t-shirt which was later given away in a contest. I didn’t take any photos of the shirt, but the gentleman who won it did!

Alas, we ran out of money quickly (part of that real-life thing I mentioned earlier), and eventually left the show early. After leaving the convention, we went for lunch and wandered around some of the nearby streets before heading back to the car. And stumbled across this: the dressing rooms, washrooms, and hair/makeup trailers for the television show Flashpoint! The series is filmed in Toronto, of course. It was fun to see it given the name of DC’s imminent crossover.

And then we walked by Piper Street, so I had to take photos of that too.

All in all, it was a pretty good day for a Flash fan!

Hotel reservations go on sale in just half an hour for Comic-Con International, and fans across the world are gearing up for a grueling session of reloads and busy signals. I’m sitting it out this year — which actually feels kind of weird, since I’ve dealt with it every year since 2006 (and possibly 2005, but I think that may have been the last year it went smoothly) — but with the baby, we figured it would be better to make it a one-day trip this year.

To those of you planning to wade into the fray, I wish you the best of luck. And if you don’t manage to score a room through the convention block, I hope these tips for staying in San Diego that I wrote last year will help you find an alternative.

This photo made the rounds at Tumblr last week, starting with a December post by theboywonder-. (Note: That link won’t work on some systems because technically, ending a hostname with a hyphen isn’t valid.) The poster explains:

Story behind this: Kid had lost his dad in the crowd, freaked out until he saw Flash and Wonderwoman, went up to Flash to ask for help because he knows him.

I saw @Ragnell’s tweet about her repost of the photo on Tuesday, retweeted it, and had a bit of discussion about it. Lia recognized the Flash as a poster who goes by the name AnthonyFlash on /co/, and added that he “seems embarrasssed by how much people love that photo.” That was it for the rest of the week until it hit @toptweets on Friday and just exploded.

That was kind of weird, waking up to hundreds of retweets and replies on Saturday morning!

I ended up going to four comic book conventions in 2010, mostly in Southern California (plus one in San Francisco). Based on this year’s experience and past experiences, here are my thoughts on each show.

1. Comic-Con International

Comic-Con International in San Diego is the ultimate pop culture fan experience. They have everything you could possibly want to see, including comics, movies, video games and more. The downside: they have everything everyone else could possibly want to see, too. So it’s crowded, hectic, and requires planning months ahead in order to make sure you have a ticket and (if you need one) a hotel room. Comics publishers have a major presence, as do movie and video game studios, collectibles manufacturers, etc. and there are so many events on the schedule that you’d need a group of 20 people to see everything. If you can, try to go more than one day. This is the con I’m most familiar with, having attended every year since 1990.
CCI 2010 report.

2. WonderCon

Comic-Con International’s little sibling, WonderCon in San Francisco, is a nice balance of everything San Diego has to offer, but less crowded and less, well, insane. Comics take up a bigger part of the show, with the major publishers always well-represented, but movies and TV have a presence here as well. I’ve been to the last 3 cons.
Wondercon 2010 report.

3. Long Beach Comic Con

Only in its second year, Long Beach Comic Con makes a great impression as a convention that’s actually focused on comics and the people who make them. The artists and writers area is the central feature of the main floor. Programming is light, but the mid-level comics publishers have a strong presence. The emphasis on authors and the light crowds (this was only its second year) make it a good place to meet artists and writers without standing in incredibly long lines.
LBCC 2010 report.

4. Anaheim Comic Con

Wizard World’s return to the LA/OC area, despite the name change, is more focused on pop culture than comics. There’s little publisher presence, minimal programming, and a major emphasis on celebrities and dealers. Good for costume spotting. It’s fun, but if I had to pick one or the other, I’d definitely go with Long Beach. Technically this was its first year, but I understand Wizard World is trying to make all of their shows the same type of experience.
Anaheim 2010 report.

And Beyond

There are a lot of smaller cons that I either haven’t been to at all or haven’t been to recently. The roughly-bimonthly Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention at the Shrine comes to mind, for instance, and the California Comic Con in Yorba Linda. And aside from WonderCon and APE, I’m not really familiar with the Northern California scene — or, for that matter, the Inland Empire here in Socal.

Are there any other California-based fans here? What cons do you like to attend?

I’ve finished my Long Beach Comic Con write-up! It was a fun convention, very artist– and writer-focused, and definitely worth visiting annually for Southern California comic book fans. Head over to K-Squared Ramblings to read the whole review!

I had fun this past Saturday at Long Beach Comic Con. I haven’t had time to write up a report yet (probably tomorrow), but I’ve posted my photos on Flickr.

Enjoy!