Final Crisis #3 was released today, and the Anti-Life Equation hit the Internet.
Meanwhile, the Comic Bloc website and forums are offline. A domain parking page loads instead.
Coincidence? Or casualty?
(Seriously, just before I started a round of forum reading, I joked with my wife, “Well, Final Crisis came out. Time to see if the Internet’s broken.” It wouldn’t surprise me if the server got overloaded again.)
(Found via Once Upon a Geek.)
I’m back from San Diego, and I had an absolute blast at this year’s Comic-Con International. I’ve been posting coverage here and at K-Squared Ramblings, and will be posting posted a photo gallery sometime this week (between catching up at work and, well, sleeping.) Links to my full coverage:
I’ll also track down write-ups from events that I missed, and post links to Flash-related info in the next few days.
I stumbled on Freddie Williams II’s Artist’s Alley table at Comic-Con today, and commissioned a sketch of Iris West II in her Flash phase.
I had time, so I waited around while he did the sketch, looked through his portfolio, and talked about the book. Several other people came by to talk, or to look at his art, or to commission sketches of their own. When he was almost done, Dan Didio dropped by to say hello. (To the artist, of course!)
He had original art for sale, including a few pages from the last few issues of The Flash. I was seriously tempted by the page that showed Wally, Iris and Jai running into battle from #241, but I just don’t have the spare $250 lying around…
I mentioned that I’d really liked his run with Tom Peyer, especially the last few issues, and he mentioned that the editor had previously asked him to go with a more open, flat, happy style to his art, and he actually felt better about the art the last few issues. We talked about the harshness of internet fandom — when people like something, they don’t always go out of their way to post about it, but when they dislike it, and when they can hide behind anonymity, it’s almost a compulsion to say so, loudly, as brutally as possible.
On Friday afternoon at Comic-Con, I went over to Artists’ Alley to see if I could commission a sketch of Impulse from Todd Nauck (Young Justice). He was talking with someone, and they kept talking for something like 5 minutes. When he walked away, it turned out that the guy he’d been talking to was Carlo Barberi — who drew Impulse during most of Todd Dezago’s run!
I talked to Todd Nauck briefly, and asked for the sketch, but I had a panel to get to so I couldn’t pick it up. I went back Saturday around 1:00 or so to pick it up. He was doing a sketch of Secret for someone else. He mentioned that when he started doing Young Justice, he was a huge Impulse fan, but got to really like the other characters over the course of his run on the book. By the end, Wonder Girl had become one of his favorites, because of all the character growth he got to portray.
See also: Autograph/Sketch Tally: SDCC 2008
I had a chance to check out The Flash Companion at the TwoMorrows booth today, and it looks really great. I also attended the TwoMorrows panel, where they talked about current and upcoming projects, and author Keith Dallas talked about the book.
John Morrow told a funny story about how, last night, Mark Waid showed up at the booth and wanted to buy a copy. They pointed out that he didn’t need to, they were sending him a comp copy, and he said, no, you don’t understand, I need to read this in my hotel room, tonight! They gave him his free copy then and there.
After the panel I finally got to meet Keith Dallas, Bill Walko, and someone else whose name already escapes me (sorry!) [Edit:] Jim Kingman. Keith is doing a signing at the TwoMorrows booth until 5:00.