Okay, so maybe the question itself is a bit of a cheap shot, but with the number of times issues #4–6 have been rescheduled, it seems a fair question. At this time, Flash: Rebirth #6 is scheduled for December 23, 2009, just five weeks after issue #5 comes out. But with 3-month gaps between issues #3, #4 and #5, it’s certainly not hard to imagine the schedule might slip again.
I was hoping to get more responses to this one, but only 25 people responded — of whom 9 had never been to a con.
In the end, 79 people responded to the poll asking which upcoming Flash series had them most excited.
The breakdown is interesting: Nearly half (47%) are looking forward most to the upcoming Flash monthly series, which launches (in theory) sometime next March. Almost a fourth each are most interested in the Blackest Night: Flash miniseries launching in December (22%) and the Kid Flash ongoing that will launch “about a month” after Flash.
That leaves 9% who have actually been turned off of the comics by Flash: Rebirth.
Early on, one reader pointed out to me that while The Flash will have two features — a lead feature starring Barry Allen and a second feature starring Wally West — they’re not separated in the poll options. Well, I guess this poll can’t be used to gauge interest in a particular character….
Next Poll: What’s the farthest you’ve traveled for a fan or comic convention?
Edit: I wrote this up Sunday night, intending to schedule it for Monday morning. I forgot to change the date, and accidentally posted it back-dated to Sunday morning — behind two posts that had already gone up! Oops! I’ve changed the time so that they appear in the right order now.
Comic Book Resources and The Beat both noticed something interesting in the program for this weekend’s Big Apple Comic Con: the dates for next year’s event. It’s going to be October 7-10, 2010 — the same weekend as the larger, well-regarded New York Comic Con.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
It’s only been 3 months since Wizard World[1] announced Anaheim Comic Con (in California) would launch on the same day as C2E2. Okay, they’re halfway across the country from each other, and that can happen with a crowded convention season. This year’s WonderCon (San Francisco) and MegaCon (Orlando, Florida) seemed to manage just fine on the same weekend. On the other hand, Anaheim and C2E2 are both new shows. More importantly, C2E2 is run by Reed Exhibitions, who run NYCC, and is setting up in Chicago, the same city as Wizard/Shamus’ flagship Chicago Comic Con. There’s already bad blood there.[2]
Of course, Big Apple Comic Con and New York Comic Con aren’t across the country from each other. They seem to be just down the street, about a mile apart. That’s closer than my hotel was to the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con International this year — and I walked that distance. Twice.[3]
You don’t accidentally schedule your con for the same weekend, in the same city, within walking distance of the #2 show in your market. Especially when you’ve already scheduled another show to conflict with the same organization’s only other event in your industry. (Reed is big in general, but NYCC and C2E2 are the only shows that overlap with Wizard’s field.) Obviously they deliberately chose to compete with NYCC.
What I can’t figure out is: What do they hope to accomplish?
Given all the good will NYCC has picked up over the last few years, and all the good will Wizard has lost over the same period of time, I can’t imagine that if forced to choose one over the other, the comic book industry would side with Big Apple at this point. Publishers will probably split delegations[4], and I can imagine some guests setting up at both cons if contracts allow it, and I’m sure Big Apple will be able to get some exclusive guests…
…but it really reminds me of the attempt a few years ago (2006?) to launch Wizard World Atlanta on the same weekend as the well-regarded Heroes Con. The industry came down solidly on the side of Heroes Con, and Wizard World Atlanta was canceled. If anything, Wizard’s reputation is worse now than it was then.
Given their relative size, reputation and location, I can’t imagine that Big Apple expects to beat New York Comic Con by going head to head with it. So what are they tying to do? Ride on the other con’s coat-tails? Interfere with NYCC’s guests and exhibitors? Interfere with NYCC’s attendance? It just doesn’t make sense.
Update: It gets better! Big Apple kicked out 3 NYCC staffers today — just like they kicked out an LBCC staffer from Philadelphia a few months ago. (via Robot6)
Mr. Shamus, Wizard, whoever: you’re really making it hard for me to justify going to Anaheim Comic-Con next year. And considering it’ll take me longer to find a parking space than to drive to the convention center, that should take some doing.
Update 2: Reed Exhibitions has responded to the scheduling announcement, saying, “We confidently welcome any competition, whomever they may be.”
1. Or whoever actually runs the conventions that Gareb Shamus owns, since they seem to be downplaying the Wizard brand.
2. Robot 6 goes into more detail on Wizard/Shamus’ history dealing with other conventions.
3. Okay, the second time was a mix of walking, running and a pedicab ride, but still, it was walkable.
4. DC Comics will often hold DC Nation panels at two cons on the same weekend, sending Dan Didio to one and Ian Sattler to the other.
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.
Yesterday I ran a quick poll on Twitter and Facebook asking people whether they were excited about Flash: Rebirth #4, due to hit shelves today. Of the 23 responses so far, 3/4 said they were excited or looking forward to the book, with 57% choosing the “excited” option. Only one person each (4%) said they were “dreading” it or were buying it, but not particularly interested. 17% (4 people) responded that they had lost interest.
Obviously the sample size is tiny. Issue #3 sold 83,000 copies, so extrapolating from 23 people isn’t terribly useful. And of course it’s self-selected to represent people who were interested enough in the Flash to follow either my Twitter account or Facebook page, and checked in yesterday or this morning.
The poll’s still open — I couldn’t tell what time it would close, so I gave it Thursday as the closing day — so the results could change. The ranking looks solid, though.