Speed Force

Some weekend linkblogging…

Once Upon a Geek can’t wait for the upcoming DC Adventures RPG.

Multiversity Comics casts the Teen Titans

The Beat finds that Comic-Con brings money into San Diego after all. Who knew? Oh, right, we did: the ones spending it!

4thletter! looks at Flash and Batman in Final Crisis: “Everything about the Flash, any of them, in Final Crisis is dead on…”

Comics Worth Reading reviews Wednesday Comics.

Some quick convention notes:

Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver will be at Wizard World’s Philadelphia Comic Con* this weekend, and will be signing this afternoon from 3:00-3:45.

Comic-Con International is gearing up for next month’s event with transportation news: they’re adding shuttle service to hotels in Mission Valley, Shelter Island, and North Harbor Island. Also, they’re partnering with some downtown San Diego parking lots to sell pre-paid parking. Amazingly enough, spaces in the lot below the convention center still seem to be available!

If you’re headed to San Diego, or to any other convention this summer, you may want to check out my Tips for Comic-Con.

Long Beach Comic Con has only been around for a year, but they’re already offering a limited-edition lifetime membership for $129. That’s comparable to three years at the full-weekend price of $45…or just over one year at Comic-Con International (currently $100 for 4½ days). They’re running a contest though the end of July to win one of the lifetime memberships.

I enjoyed the first LBCC last October, and I definitely plan on going back this year if I can.

*I don’t link to the individual convention pages anymore because they keep moving them around. Not to mention renaming the cons.

Here are a few recent comics-related items from my other blog, K-Squared Ramblings, that might be of interest to readers of Speed Force.

First up, I’ve written up a piece on today’s Comic-Con hotel deposit deadline and how it should be a second chance for hotel rooms. The short version: Today’s the last day to cancel without a penalty, so you can bet that rooms will be freeing up. We’ll see how Travel Planners handles the waiting list.

Last November, I wrote up a piece here on mini-series I was reading that had stalled with just one issue left. One of those miniseries, the adaptation of Robert Jordan’s New Spring (a prologue to The Wheel of Time), finished this week. Five years is a bit long for an eight-issue miniseries, but it’s done!

I spotted a movie marquee that had (as most of them seem to) censored the title Kick-Ass, but the placement created another movie title entirely:

This could actually make an interesting movie! Okay, it would be about as long as Bambi Meets Godzilla, but still…

Planning to go to Comic-Con International, but couldn’t get a hotel room during last week’s lottery? Over at K-Squared Ramblings, I’ve posted some tips on how you can still stay in San Diego.

Well, I’ve got a hotel room for Comic-Con International. It wasn’t one of my first few choices — it wasn’t even one of the 12 I submitted — but it’s at least in the downtown area, which is better than a lot of people got.

I’ve written up the whole thing at K-Squared Ramblings, but here’s the capsule summary: The initial process of submitting a request through the website went amazingly smoothly. I was done in five minutes. Then it was eight hours of waiting, wondering whether they’d lost the request, or I’d mistyped my email address, or it had gotten blocked as spam, or something.

• Pre-Game Thoughts on the New Procedure – based on how they described it and how the old procedure worked (and didn’t).
• Reviewing the Reservation Form – How the new design made it possible to finish in only five minutes. (Slightly technical, from a web developer’s perspective.)
• The Reservation Experience – the day of frustration, speculation on what went on behind the scenes, and thoughts on the impact of the new system.

The one thing that I really wish I’d gotten was a confirmation for the request itself. Even if it was just “You’re number 4,321 in line,” at least I could have been sure that I was in line. That would have saved a lot of anxiety. And a record of exactly what I’d submitted wouldn’t have hurt, either. (Next time I may take a screenshot.)

Hotel reservations for Comic-Con International open tomorrow. I’ve posted some thoughts on the new procedure over at K-Squared Ramblings.

We’ll see how it actually works tomorrow.

Some convention linkblogging…

This Saturday, February 20, Long Beach Comic-Con will host a one-day Comic Expo 2010. The full weekend-long convention is still on for October.

Comic Convention Memories has been posting old Comic-Con photos (via The Beat).

Con humor: Someone searched for “san diego donut weird” and landed on this photo round-up from San Diego 2008. I can’t imagine why… The first time I saw these costumes, I remember seeing a little boy of around 5 or so turn to his mother and say, “I don’t like him.” Smart kid.

More con humor: The Beat reveals Wizard World Mars, the latest of Gareb Shamus’ convention acquisitions. Wizard responds by “confirming” the news (with follow-up at the Beat).

Comic-Con’s David Glanzer talks to CBR about attendance sellouts and WonderCon. Full-weekend, Saturday and Friday tickets to this year’s Comic-Con International (San Diego, July 22-25) are sold out, but Thursday and Sunday are still available. Hotel rooms go on sale March 18.

Tickets to WonderCon (San Francisco, April 2-4) went on sale three weeks ago and are still available.

Quick note: One-day passes to Comic-Con International in July 2010 go on sale tomorrow at the convention’s website. That’s Tuesday, December 15. Four-day passes are already sold out, so chances are that one-day tickets will go quickly too.

If you plan to go, but haven’t bought your membership yet, you may want to take a few minutes out from holiday preparation to order your tickets.

I’m pleasantly surprised that Comic-Con International and/or Travel Planners has gotten their act together for next year’s convention. Before attendance (and hotel rush) went completely insane, they used to send out hotel info with their fall newsletter or in a postcard around December (or maybe January), but over the last two years it’s been pushed later and later. For 2009, they didn’t even announce a date for hotel reservations until February…a month before they opened. The list of hotels went up even later — the day before, IIRC.

The fall newsletter, now an online magazine, went up today, and along with it not just the date for reservations, but a list of hotels…including distance, prices, and shuttle stops. Hotel reservations go online March 18, 2010.

Additionally, they’ve made some interesting changes that may help combat the craziness:

• Reservations will now require an immediate deposit of one night’s stay
• Deposits are fully refundable until May 14.
• From May 15 to June 17, there’s a $75 cancellation fee.
• From June 18 onward, deposits are nonrefundable.

With luck that’ll cut down on some of the “just in case…” extra reservations, now that there’s an actual financial commitment to it.

(Cross-posted at K-Squared Ramblings)

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.