Today’s guest post is by Christine Adamo.
I recently bought a Funko Flash plush, and it inspired me to create a similar plush of my favorite character who doesn’t get much love these days in toy form — Bart Allen. Especially as Impulse (Don’t get me wrong; I love that he still exists as Kid Flash, but I, like many, long for the Bart of old).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
So for Christmas this year I decided to make a Gingerbread Flash. Pretty appropriate considering the old Gingerbread Man story and the taunt that he would yell while running at cookie crumbling speeds: Run, run as fast as you can; You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.
I made two attempts with varying success. This is the first time I had done anything by myself involving Gingerbread men and even then I was using a Trader Joe’s Giant Gingerbread Man as a template. I used a combination of cake and cookie frosting (should have just used cake frosting) and it was a fun learning experience overall.
Flash 1.0 (Barry):
My first attempt at Gingerbread Flash. You can tell it is Barry because of the belt and the blue eyes.
Flash 2.0 (Wally):
My second attempt came out a little better. This is kind of a mix of looks for Wally: JLU/New Comic Costume emblem, with exposed green eyes and centered belt that meets in the middle.
The Fastest Gingerbread Men Alive!
Merry Christmas, from everyone here at Speed Force! And a very special thanks to all the guest contributors helping out over the last couple months; Shag, Dave Huang, Liquidcross, Brandon, Frank Lee Delano, KC Flash, Dave Sun, Ken O, Greg Elias, Kojo Manu, Adam Komar and anyone I might have left out, You guys are awesome! Can’t wait to see more fantastic stuff from a very talented Flash community.
Keep it Flashy
A few months ago Joey Forlini, the winner of Speed Force and Arrobasilver’s Design and Win Your Own Flash Ring Contest emailed me about his plans to get some Flash ink. The tattoo is finally completed.
Have a look:
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.
Update: 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!
Enjoy!
And the Dragon*Con costume photos continue! After the first set, here’s a round-up of more Flashes (and one other speedster) spotted on Flickr.
Stephen Lesnik caught the beginning of a Superman/Flash Race:
But wait, something’s missing. What else does every Superman/Flash race need? Continue reading