Hey Speed Readers,
Just a quick reminder (that I wanted to get up a lot earlier) Young Justice, featuring Kid Flash (Wally West) and Impulse (Bart Allen) as cast members will be returning from it’s mid-season hiatus tomorrow morning. The show has been on hiatus since June so many fans (like the team here at Speed Force) have been anxiously awaiting it’s return. Especially since this seems to be the only place that Wally West (and the Flash family) is getting any kind of love these days.
Hey Speed Readers,
So I’ve been following DC Comic’s latest foray into fighting games, Injustice: Gods Among Us extremely closely. Albeit flawed I enjoyed Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe a decent amount and always hoped for a sequel (preferably without any Mortal Kombat characters). Thankfully I got both of my wishes and Netherrealm Studios (a reshuffled Midway) will be bringing this game to us in April of 2013 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U (Just in time for my birthday *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*).
A quick round-up of West Coast (well, mostly Southern California) convention news:
First off, Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo is this weekend in Los Angeles. Flash co-writer Brian Buccellato will be there, and has posted his schedule on his site. It’s a something-for-everyone pop culture con, and while I enjoyed last year’s event, I’m going to be too busy this weekend to make it.
Secondly, Long Beach Comic & Horror Con is coming up the first weekend in November. This is a good comic-focused convention (despite the addition of “and Horror” to the name last year), and I highly recommend it to anyone in the Los Angeles area who wants to attend a show that’s really about comic books.
Update: I totally forgot that Las Vegas Comic Expo is coming up at the end of the month (September 29-30). Brian Buccellato is on the guest list there as well. It’s been a while since someone tried to do a big comic convention in Vegas, so it’ll be interesting to see how this goes.
WonderCon is going to be a bit weird. Usually it’s held in San Francisco, but renovations at the Moscone Center this year caused them to move to Anaheim. Scheduling problems mean that they’ll stay in Anaheim next year next year, but might also return to San Francisco. They have solid dates in Anaheim for March 29-31, 2013, and a very tentative “maybe” for fall in San Francisco, but they’re reaching the point that if they’re going to do a con in March, they have to commit to it.
Why not try another location in the Bay Area, like Oakland or San Jose? The Beat looks at various convention centers and compares them to the space WonderCon typically uses these days. The options aren’t that great unless you leave town, shrink the show, or hold out for Moscone.
The convention is on for Anaheim in March, one way or another. If they can get San Francisco in fall, they’re planning to do that too, and make that one WonderCon, at which point they’ll call the Anaheim convention something else.
Clear as crystal, right?
I’m looking forward to the Anaheim con, whatever it ends up being called. This year was great, except for parking. Though I wouldn’t mind an excuse to return to San Francisco, either, and IMO it’s best if WonderCon does return to its Bay Area roots.
Finally, Wizard World returns to the west coast next year (this year, I think the furthest west they got was Texas), but not to the Los Angeles area. Instead, they’re opening shop in Portland on February 22-24, 2013. Wizard has a long, troubled history with the Los Angeles area. They launched Wizard World Los Angeles in Long Beach early last decade, moved it to Los Angeles after a couple of years, and then abruptly canceled 2009’s con with only a few weeks’ notice. After a year’s absence, Wizard came back, launching Anaheim Comic Con in 2010. That only ran two years, and while they announced WWLA for 2011, that con was canceled before it happened – again with only a few weeks’ notice.
Frankly, it’s probably just as well. I don’t think Wizard World has ever run a show in the Pacific Northwest before, and Southern California has been burned enough times that I can imagine people would be a bit shy of booking hotels and transportation. And as you can see above, the convention scene has changed a lot since the days when WWLA was the only mid-sized con around, and you had to either go to a tiny con or drive three hours to San Diego.
It’s a bit close to Emerald City Comicon (the following weekend in Seattle), but I suspect the audience for Wizard’s current style of show is different enough that they won’t interfere too badly.
If you live in California, Amazon.com will start collecting state sales tax on September 15. This has led to an online buying spree as Californians try to get in last-minute tax-free* shopping.
Now might be a good time to look at some of those big expensive Flash collections. Even if you live in a state where Amazon already collects sales tax, or one where they aren’t going to start, there are hefty 30-40% discounts on the Flash Archives and Flash Omnibus books. This week’s Flash Omnibus by Geoff Johns Vol. 3, for instance, is running around $45 down from a $75 list price.
Plus, if you order through one of these affiliate links, I get a small percentage, which helps offset the cost of hosting this website a little. Which would be a nice win-win scenario.
*Technically, you’re supposed to pay a “use tax” on out-of-state purchases, but it hasn’t been strictly enforced.
In honor of Jack Kirby’s birthday, today is the third annual Read Comics In Public Day, created by Brian Heater and Sarah Morean at The Daily Cross Hatch.
Comics are fun — that’s why we read them, right? So why hide your love of comics? Read about the event or just go out and read. Bring some comics along to read on your lunch break, or at a park, or on the bus or train. Head to one of the meet-up events today.
And if you want to share stories or photos, the official hashtag is #readcomicsinpublic and there’s a Flickr pool as well.
Read Comics In Public Day is coming up next week, on Tuesday, August 28. Celebrating it is simple: Just read comics in public!
From the announcement of this year’s event:
That’s right, we haven’t abandoned the cause — for as long as people sneak comics home from shops in unmarked brown paper bags, we will be there. As long as men and women conveniently fail to mention their love of sequential art until the third date, we will be there. As long as we’re content to use any excuse to celebrate — and read — comics, we’ll be there.
It’s held on August 28 because that’s Jack Kirby’s birthday (he would have been 95 this year).
So head over to your local comic shop this weekend, pick up some reading material, and plan to kick back on a park bench, a bus or train, the break room at work, at a restaurant, or anywhere else where you can show people that yes, regular folks do in fact read comics!
You can also check out one of the meet-up events if there’s one nearby, or plan your own.