Tag Archives: Cons

Toronto Comicon (Fan Appreciation 2011) Photos

On April 9, I attended the first day of the free “Fan Appreciation” show in Toronto. This is the first year it’s been held for the entire weekend, but unfortunately real life got in the way and the spouse and I were only able to go for one day.

It was a pretty good show, with some great guests (including Flash artists Francis Manapul and Ethan Van Sciver) and quite a few vendors selling comics and action figures. I managed to get a couple of Professor Zoom figures and a Flash figurine, and commissioned Red Robin artist Marcus To for a drawing of Captain Boomerang.

The woman waiting in line behind me for Marcus To got this Impulse sketch from him, which she let me photograph.

Here’s Francis Manapul working on a Wonder Woman picture for a fan. I also saw him drawing several Flash pieces, and he drew the Flash on a t-shirt which was later given away in a contest. I didn’t take any photos of the shirt, but the gentleman who won it did!

Alas, we ran out of money quickly (part of that real-life thing I mentioned earlier), and eventually left the show early. After leaving the convention, we went for lunch and wandered around some of the nearby streets before heading back to the car. And stumbled across this: the dressing rooms, washrooms, and hair/makeup trailers for the television show Flashpoint! The series is filmed in Toronto, of course. It was fun to see it given the name of DC’s imminent crossover.

And then we walked by Piper Street, so I had to take photos of that too.

All in all, it was a pretty good day for a Flash fan!

Photo: Awwww

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This photo made the rounds at Tumblr last week, starting with a December post by theboywonder-. (Note: That link won’t work on some systems because technically, ending a hostname with a hyphen isn’t valid.) The poster explains:

Story behind this: Kid had lost his dad in the crowd, freaked out until he saw Flash and Wonderwoman, went up to Flash to ask for help because he knows him.

I saw @Ragnell’s tweet about her repost of the photo on Tuesday, retweeted it, and had a bit of discussion about it. Lia recognized the Flash as a poster who goes by the name AnthonyFlash on /co/, and added that he “seems embarrasssed by how much people love that photo.” That was it for the rest of the week until it hit @toptweets on Friday and just exploded.

That was kind of weird, waking up to hundreds of retweets and replies on Saturday morning!

2010 in Review: Ranking California Comic-Cons

1. Comic-Con International

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.

2. WonderCon

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.

3. Long Beach Comic Con

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.

4. Anaheim Comic Con

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.

And Beyond

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?

Long Beach Comic Con Photos & Writeup (2010)

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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!

Flash Sketch by Francis Manapul

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Somehow, at San Diego I hardly spent any time on the convention floor at all from Thursday through Saturday. I was always running from one event to another, and spent maybe half an hour in the main hall at a time. So on Sunday, I made a point of walking the entire hall until I couldn’t stand it anymore.*

Among the things I’d been meaning to do at the con was to get my copies of The Flash #1-3 signed by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul, and if possible to get a sketch by the artist. I never managed to make it to a Geoff Johns signing this time around, but I did catch up with Francis Manapul at his Artists’ Alley table.

There were five or six fans ahead of me in line who asked for sketches of various characters including Sinestro, Hal Jordan, Batman and the Flash. After a while I was beginning to wonder whether I’d make it to the front before he had to leave for a signing at the DC Comics booth, but I made it to the head of the line with plenty of time to spare.

In a revelation that I’m sure will surprise no one, I asked him to draw the Flash.

While he sketched, I asked him about the TV series he was on, Beast Legends, in which a team traces the origins of various mythical creatures. It’s airing in Canada now on History Television, and will hit the US on SyFy in September. It sounds like fun, and in some cases they actually traced legends to surprising sources — like tracking griffins to Mongolia!

Check out the finished sketch:

Cool, isn’t it!

» Full index of Comic-Con coverage

*This was a real issue, since with no events in the gigantic Hall H to warehouse 6,000 people plus more waiting in line, the main floor was actually more crowded on Sunday.

DC Focus: Geoff Johns – Live at Comic-Con 2010

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If all goes well, a few minutes after this post goes live, I’ll be live-blogging the panel! Once it gets started, the view here should update automatically as I add to it.

2:01 Geoff Johns has just walked onstage. “I’m supposed to have a moderator. He didn’t show up.”

2:02 Big Green Lantern (movie?) logo on screen.

2:03 “Oh, yeah, I also worked on…” YJ, DCUO

2:03 1/2 second of Blue Beetle footage – “Oh, wait, pause that!” “Nooooo!”

2:04 Says his job as CCO is to bring as many of DC’s characters as possible beyond comics – and do it *properly.*

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Speed Force

Tracking the Flash – the Fastest Man Alive