The Shortboxed crew was able to check out the last Big Wow Comicfest in San Jose, California, before the reins are bestowed onto Stan Lee and Steve Wozniak next year. We weren’t able to go for both days, but Saturday showcased an awesome variety of cosplayers, including one of our own, Jeremy Dizon, and his twin brother, Kevin, Kevin’s wife, Stephanie, their best friend, Jason, and their little Shortboxers, Ethan, Mason, and Aiden! Enjoy the professional pics taken by Shortboxed friend, Jason Tong. Let us know which ones are your favorites in the comments below or on twitter!
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There are so many genres of comic books, and storytelling, in general. Pretty Deadly manages to blend multiple genres and storytelling techniques in one beautiful, intricate package. Written by Kelly Sue Deconnick and illustrated by Emma Rios with colors by Jordie Bellaire, Pretty Deadly volume 1 collects the first five issues of the series, and is a story that demands multiple readings, which in this case, is a good thing.
Being a dad, I don’t have the luxury to see movies on a regular basis. I can count the number of flicks I sat through at the theater on one hand in the last year since my son was born. But one movie that I was lucky to check out recently was Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service based on the comic series called The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.
If there was one comic book convention that you have to visit to boost your nerd street cred, then that’s easily San Diego Comic-Con or SDCC, for short. Most people will comment how crowded this convention is and how difficult it is to obtain tickets to the show. But what most people don’t understand is the commitment that countless nerds go through each year to ensure they walk the convention floor or sit in the elusive Hall H. I’m going to give a short run down on my journey back to SDCC 2015 after a year away, caring for my nerd-in-training baby boy, Aiden.
As a fan of this convention, there’s sort of an insanity that comes with trying to go to the show every year. If you were lucky enough to go to the show the previous year, SDCC started a Pre-Registration period where those guests can attempt to get badges for the following year. The caveat is you are required to keep last year’s badge and input your unique ID into the system. This is the first chance guests have to get the 4-day plus Preview Night badges that almost always sells out first. Now, the entire stock of tickets aren’t sold during this period because they need to allocate supply for the Open Registration period which allows anyone try for badges as well as both the Creative and Trade Professional registration periods.
Wanna feel weird? I’ve got just the thing for you. Prophet is a space opera that is like David Lynch’s Dune meets Conan: The Barbarian (Arnold version, sorry Aquaman) meets The Cantina from Star Wars meets Multiplicity. That’s right. I referenced Multiplicity. The Michael Keaton rom-com from the 90’s. Oh, don’t be that way. You know you want to read about space Conan turning everything in his path into a blood jelly.
As a fan of space, science fiction and politics, Image’s Letter 44 Volume 2 Redshift is right up my alley. If you haven’t read the first volume, stop now. Read it and my initial review of volume 1 first. Go ahead, I’ll wait. OK, done? Now lets get back to it.
Creator and writer Charles Soule and artist Alberto Alburquerque continue their adventure in space and in Washington. In the unlikely chance you didn’t heed my advice and read the first volume, let me just quickly catch you up.
We were lucky enough to make the trip up from San Francisco to the Pacific Northwest to attend Emerald City Comicon for the first time – and it was definitely worth it. Considered part of the “Big 3” of comic book conventions among San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, it drew over 80,000 attendees from all over the country (and even overseas). It’s not just comic books, however, but all things comic book and pop culture related – dealers, panels, celebrities, gaming, creators, cosplay and more. We managed to soak all of it up, and had a blast!
We wanted to attend ECCC for several reasons, but mainly because we’ve never been before and we’ve been to nearly every California convention already. While our main focus is comic books (obviously), we still like to attend panels, meet celebrities, do some gaming and sometimes cosplay ourselves. If comic book conventions are buffets, we like to sample a bit of every dish.
In this recap and review, we touch on different aspects of the show: