Tag Archives: SDCC

Answering Searchers: Convention Questions

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Here are some more questions (and implied questions) pulled from search terms that have shown up in the site stats, all about conventions.

Why are some tickets for the comic con more expensive than others?

That depends on the convention. Some of the price variations I’ve seen include:

  • More popular days cost more. (Simple supply and demand to help balance the crowds.)
  • Days with longer hours cost more. (Friday starts later, or Sunday ends earlier, or both.)
  • More expensive tickets include access to special events or exclusive merchandise.

How can i get tickets to Comic Con?

In most cases, you can go to the convention’s website and order a ticket online, or find a phone number to call. Regional cons will often sell tickets through nearby comic stores.

I’m guessing that this person meant Comic-Con International (San Diego), which has sold out of full-weekend, Saturday, and Friday passes for this year. You can still buy a Thursday or Sunday ticket. If you want to get a 4-day pass, or a pass for a day that’s sold out, don’t give up hope just yet.

But first: you can’t just buy a ticket second-hand because they’re linked to names, and you have to show ID when you pick up your badge. Maybe if your identical twin bought the ticket and is willing to lend you his or her driver’s license.

You can keep your eye open for promotions. Last year, as the con approached, there were companies that held contests or raffles where the prize was a ticket to the convention.

You can also wait until June. Last year, after the cancellation deadline, the con organizers counted up the number of tickets returned and started selling them online. To keep them from selling out all at once, they put them up in small lots in fixed-price sales on eBay. They’ve said that they plan to do something similar this year.

Wizard World Anaheim Review

I’ve seen a lot of variations on this one, which is interesting because there hasn’t been a Wizard World Anaheim yet to review! The convention coming up in April is the first one.

It will probably be similar to the last few Wizard World Los Angeles cons, though the change in venue will almost certainly have an effect. WWLA itself changed drastically (I’m told) when it moved from the Long Beach Convention Center to the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the new con is going to be literally across the street from Disneyland. More importantly, Wizard World itself seems to be broadening its focus to general pop culture and celebrities even as it’s adding “Comic Con” to its name.

If you’re interested, here are my write-ups of some recent LA-area cons:

On a related note, I also saw this:

Comic-Con Anaheim Geoff Johns 2010

Sorry to break it to you, but he’s not going to be there. The same weekend, he’ll be at C2E2 in Chicago.

Update: I forgot to mention another weird one related to Anaheim: “WonderCon Anaheim.” I don’t know whether someone got the names mixed up (it does start with a W) or was looking for information on both conventions.

Comic-Con Int’l 1-Day Tickets On Sale Tomorrow

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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.

Convention Plans for 2010 (And a Look Back at 2009)

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Well, I did attend three comic conventions in 2009…but not the three I was expecting! WizardWorld Los Angeles was canceled with just two months’ notice, but Long Beach Comic Con stepped in to fill the gap.

I’ll most likely be staying in California again next year, so here’s what next year’s convention season looks like for me:

WonderCon

Yip! Yip! Yip!April 2–4, 2010; San Francisco, California. Probably.

The last two years have been a lot of fun. It’s a lot like San Diego Comic-Con used to be before it exploded, actually. (It’s also a good excuse to travel and visit people in the Bay Area!) This one’s still up in the air for now, since they haven’t started selling tickets yet, but despite the distance, it still ends up being cheaper than San Diego.

» Wondercon 2009 report and photos.
» Update: WonderCon 2010 report and photos.

Anaheim Comic Con

April 16–18, 2010; Anaheim, California. Maybe.

The show that officially replaces Wizard World Los Angeles is only 10 minutes away, so it would be a shame to skip it. And it’ll be close to the time that Flash and Kid Flash are launching. But it’s also only two weeks after WonderCon, and Wizard, or Gareb Shamus, or whoever is in charge keeps doing things that annoy me.

» Update: Anaheim Comic Con 2010 report and photos. After a lot of dithering, I went for it.

Westercon 63: Confirmation

July 1–4, 2010; Pasadena, California. Maybe.

It’s been years since I’ve been to a general science-fiction/fantasy convention. The last one was the 2006 WorldCon in Anaheim, L.A.Con IV, which I experienced through the haze of a summer cold and Day-Quil. I’ve considered Westercon the last two years, but the last two have been Las Vegas and Tempe, Arizona in July. Admittedly Pasadena is a good 10 degrees hotter in summer than where I live, but it’s probably not as hot as Vegas or Tempe…plus I can commute to Pasadena.

» Update: Westercon 63 Report. I finally decided to go.

Comic-Con International

Flash of Two WorldsJuly 22-25, 2010; San Diego, California. Definitely.

I’ve been going every year since 1990, and I’d hate to break that streak. Even if it ends up being too expensive to stay in town next year, it’s just close enough to commute for a few days.

UPDATE: I’ve just learned via Twitter that one-day tickets go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday, December 15). Four-day tickets are already sold out, so if you plan to go, but don’t have tickets yet, now’s your chance!

» Comic-Con International 2009 report and photos.
» Update: Comic-Con International 2010 report and photos.

Long Beach Comic Con

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch and DeadpoolOctober 29-31, 2010; Long Beach, California. Definitely.

I had a good time at the first event this year, and just discovered that they’ve set a date for next year! The website also mentions some sort of one-day event on February 20, but doesn’t provide any detail.

» Long Beach Comic Con 2009 report and photos.
» Update: Long Beach Comic Con 2010 report and photos.

Upcoming Cons: Long Beach, WonderCon, Anaheim & San Diego

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Long Beach Comic ConLong 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.

50 Years of the Flash at Comic-Con 2006

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Flashback Post from 3 years ago. Some of the stuff is old news about the launch of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, but a lot of it is also a look at Flash history with a number of writers and artists who have worked on the character: Geoff Johns, Carmine Infantino, Mark Waid, Joe Giella, Brian Bolland, Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo.

I missed the first half of Saturday’s “50 Years of the Flash” panel because we missed the red line and got stuck waiting to transfer at America Plaza. The shuttle might have gotten us there faster (maybe even on time), but we were pretty sure they wouldn’t let us on with our coffee.

What I did see of the panel was still mostly retrospective, and mainly Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, and Danny Bilson. Carmine Infantino told a couple of stories (one of which he’d told at Thursday’s panel, about the “war” between him and Julius Schwartz: he’d try to draw ever-more-nasty cliffhangers on his covers, and every time, Julie would come up with a story to go with it. So finally he drew one with the Flash and the Golden Age Flash both racing to save some guy, and said, “There! Top that!” The rest, of course, is history).

After a while they started talking about the new Flash book. While the most common answer in the Q&A session was, “Wait and see,” Bilson and DeMeo did answer a couple of questions that I’ve seen people asking about.

For the “legacy pages” in the first two issues, they did a whole bunch of research, sometimes finding conflicting info. (They didn’t mention this one, but the issue of “Who named Impulse” is probably one of those cases.) Any changes in continuity are accidental, and not intentional.

The reason Bart’s acting so morose in these first few issues is that he’s got this problem to deal with, and once he starts to work through it, his impulsive nature will start taking over again.

I almost got the new signed, but staff kept telling everyone to clear the room, and as near as I can tell, Bilson and DeMeo took a different exit than I did.

Bilson and DeMeo told a good story about how when they pitched the TV show, the powers that be wanted the Flash to be running around in a gray sweat suit. So they got Dave Stevens to design a suit and his rendering convinced them to go with it. Even then, the network resisted bringing costumed villains in until they showed it could work. And apparently what killed it wasn’t bad ratings, but network politics. Someone wanted his show, so he could get a better bonus. A real pity, as the second season opener would have been a two-hour special with the Trickster, Captain Cold, and Mirror Master—a Rogues Gallery episode.

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