Quick note: One-day passes to Comic-Con International in July 2010 go on sale tomorrow at the convention’s website. That’s Tuesday, December 15. Four-day passes are already sold out, so chances are that one-day tickets will go quickly too.
If you plan to go, but haven’t bought your membership yet, you may want to take a few minutes out from holiday preparation to order your tickets.
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.
Over at K-Squared Ramblings, I’ve put together an index to all 2009 Comic-Con International posts made at that blog and this one. Panel write-ups, photos, the costume how-tos, tips, general convention experiences, etc.
If the number of Flash costumes at Comic-Con International last week is any indication, the fan base is energized. Most years I only see one or two Flashes, if any. This year there were at least three Jay Garricks including myself, two women who made variations on the costume, one man in a Black Flash costume, a Kid Flash, and a Captain Cold.
Here’s a gallery of photos from Flickr.
I don’t think I’d ever seen a Golden Age Flash costume at a convention until I saw some photos from HeroesCon and Wizard World Philadelphia in June. There seemed to be one Jay Garrick at each. So I figured I’d probably be the only one at San Diego. Imagine my surprise when I ran into not one other, but two!
The photo on the left shows me and a cosplayer who was part of a Justice Society of America group I spotted in line for the DC Nation panel on Friday. I asked the person behind me to save my place in line, walked along the line to where they were, and we did the obligatory “Nice costume!” exchange, then ended up posing for a bunch of photos. We did at least two poss, this one and one just standing and crossing our arms like the Alex Ross poster. Someone got an interesting shot with a blur effect, also.
I ran into the guy on the right on Saturday, when I wasn’t in costume. He actually used an original World War I helmet, polished it up, and made wings for it…then the first day in town the wings broke, so he needed to come up with a substitute fast. He ended up gluing popsicle sticks together and spray painting them gold.
Update: Speaking of the helmet, here’s how my helmet was made. Update 2: and here’s how we made the boots and shirt.
I didn’t manage to see any of these three in person during the con. But they’re really cool variations.
The two things that usually impress me the most with character costumes are:
The Flash is well-suited for variations, because there have been so many of them in canon. You’ve got the basics: Jay Garrick’s Golden Age costume, the Barry Allen/Wally West Flash costume, and the Kid Flash costume (each with its own variations). Then you’ve got Professor Zoom, Johnny Quick, a half-dozen Jesse Quick costumes, Impulse, Max Mercury, Walter West, Iris West II, John Fox’s three costumes…and that’s not counting all the possible future Flashes from “Chain Lightning.”
So it’s not a problem to take the basic red-and-yellow lightning motif and build on it. People will still know who you are, especially if you keep the white circle around the lightning bolt.
Well, except for the dimwits who mistake you for Flash Gordon. 🙁
Update August 28: The woman on the left appears to be wearing an off-the-rack costume rather than a custom variation.
I almost missed Captain Cold here. It was late Saturday afternoon, and I was on the phone with my wife trying to work out dinner plans. I saw him through the window, said, “Hang on, I need to get a picture of Captain Cold” and ducked outside into Sails Pavilion.
Kid Flash was there on Sunday. Sterling Gates, who had been announced the day before as the writer of an upcoming Kid Flash series, posted, “I just met Kid Flash! He’s here!” I kept looking for him the rest of the day, but had no luck. Fortunately, Comic Con has a lot of people with cameras!
She may not be a Flash character, but here are two women dressed as Cheetara from Thundercats. Hey, she is a speedster, after all!
I saw at least one, possibly two guys in off-the-rack Flash Halloween costumes during the weekend, and one kid who was probably about 6 or 7.
So…did you see any of these people at the con? Did you see another Flash that I’ve missed?
OMG Nichelle Nichols! Powered by Twitter Tools.
Had no idea Leonard Nimoy & Brent Spiner were going to be here. 
Got a great Madame Xanadu sketch by Amy Hadley & Richard Friend! #Vertigo 
Whoa. Saw a Princess Leia who was fully clothed. 
Ran into a 3rd Jay Garrick a few minutes back. Most years I don’t see any Flashes at all! Powered by Twitter Tools.
