I made an interesting find at Westercon this weekend. Pendragon Costumes has a series of superhero-inspired renaissance-style leather doublets…including this one.
It’s part of a series called the Queen’s Chamber of Champions, and represents the Red Knight, Master Flashman. He is (of course) the Queen’s swiftest courier.
Some quick convention notes:
Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver will be at Wizard World’s Philadelphia Comic Con* this weekend, and will be signing this afternoon from 3:00-3:45.
Comic-Con International is gearing up for next month’s event with transportation news: they’re adding shuttle service to hotels in Mission Valley, Shelter Island, and North Harbor Island. Also, they’re partnering with some downtown San Diego parking lots to sell pre-paid parking. Amazingly enough, spaces in the lot below the convention center still seem to be available!
If you’re headed to San Diego, or to any other convention this summer, you may want to check out my Tips for Comic-Con.
Long Beach Comic Con has only been around for a year, but they’re already offering a limited-edition lifetime membership for $129. That’s comparable to three years at the full-weekend price of $45…or just over one year at Comic-Con International (currently $100 for 4½ days). They’re running a contest though the end of July to win one of the lifetime memberships.
I enjoyed the first LBCC last October, and I definitely plan on going back this year if I can.
*I don’t link to the individual convention pages anymore because they keep moving them around. Not to mention renaming the cons.
Some linkblogging from the past couple of weeks:
Newsarama interviews Francis Manapul on his work on The Flash.
Comics Bulletin presents the Top 10 Flash Deaths in order of how long they lasted.
A reader at Silver Age Comics discovers that Flash Comics #13 is different on Earth-One.
You’ve probably read about the thief who took Free Comic Book Day a bit too literally and tried to steal a $150 X-Men Omnibus…and was foiled by Spider-Man, two Jedi, and the Flash.
Speaking of FCBD, Chris Samnee has posted a FCBD sketch gallery featuring both Flash and Quicksilver.
Comics Worth Reading’s Johanna Draper Carlson has some ideas for how to make super-hero comics interesting again
4thLetter’s David Brothers encourages you to focus on the stories, not the canon. Don’t buy something you don’t like just because it’s “important,” and don’t pass up other good stuff because it’s not.
Comics Alliance has a thought-provoking article on the racial implications of running legacies backward.
Grumpy Old Fan ponders the role of secret identities in DC comics from the Silver Age through the present.
Once Upon a Geek also reviews the DC Fandex guide (my review went up on Monday).
Westfield Comics’ KC Carlson explains how to meet artists without being talked about afterward, and offers suggestions for convention behavior.
LIFE has a photo gallery of people reading classic comic books from the Golden Age through the 1980s, including a boy reading Flash Comics in 1949. Nitpick: By 1949, the feature wasn’t about a “college student” with super-speed. Jay Garrick graduated during his origin story. (Link via Xian)
Collected Editions considers an increasingly common problem: the trade you want is out of print.
Multiversity Comics analyzes the impact of the shift from $2.99 comics to $3.99.
I had a better time than I expected at Wizard World’s first Anaheim Comic Con. Not surprisingly, it was similar to the last Wizard World Los Angeles, except without any comics publishers. (I guess they all went to C2E2.) Without Marvel, DC, etc., the con focused mostly on dealers, fan groups, artists and celebrities.
Read on: A Day at Anaheim Comic Con. Or check out my photos of the con on Flickr.
I’ve finished my write-up of WonderCon over at K-Squared Ramblings. Most of the posts I’ve made here were about the news that came out of the convention, but this one covers the experience of actually being at the con.
Next weekend: C2E2 in Chicago and the awkwardly-named Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con in California. It looks like DC will have much more of a presence at C2E2 than Anaheim. I’m not traveling again for a while, but Anaheim is literally 10-15 minutes away, so I figure I may as well check it out.
I didn’t make it into the Brightest Day panel today, but Newsarama’s live blog has some Flash tidbits.
Be aware that this has SPOILERS FOR BLACKEST NIGHT #8. At the DC Editorial panel, the panelists were asking that people not spoil the issue with their questions, and suggested going out afterward, buying a copy of the book on the con floor, then coming back to the Brightest Day panel.