Tag: comics

Ticket Giveaway: Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo

Adam West. Billy Dee Williams. Charisma Carpenter. These are just a few of the special guests you’ll find later this month at Edmonton’s premier pop culture show, the Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo. This new event grew out of a partnership between the Edmonton Toy & Comic Show and the Calgary Expo:

Whether you’re a connoisseur of sci-fi, horror, gaming, fantasy, animation, toys, and comic books, or you simply have a keen interest in pop culture, then this is the show for you. The Edmonton Expo will feature vendors, exhibitors, celebrities, and artists, from every nook and cranny of the pop culture universe, not to mention the many hours of fantastic programming included with admission.

The event takes place on October 20 and 21 at, appropriately, the Edmonton Expo Centre. Check out the detailed schedule here. You can see the event on ShareEdmonton here.

Ticket prices range from $15 for a single day to $150 for a VIP pass and are on sale now at Ticketmaster. I was fortunate enough to be contacted by the show’s PR folks recently with some tickets to give away! Here’s what is up for grabs:

A family pack of Edmonton Expo tickets (2 Adult tickets and 2 Children ages 10 and under) and priority seating at the Whedonverse Panel, where Sean Maher and Charisma Carpenter will lead a discussion on what it has been like working within the Whedonverse and the benefits their careers have had working beside legendary writer, producer, and director Joss Whedon.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment below identifying an “Edmonton superhero”. It can be a real person or a character you make up!

Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm on October 17, 2012. I will contact the randomly chosen winner by e-mail by October 18, 2012.

Good luck!

xkcd in the New York Times

As a kid I loved Calvin & Hobbes, but that was about the only comic strip I ever read. I think I have all the books except maybe one or two. I still don’t read comic strips, but I do occasionally enjoy reading xkcd, a “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” It was profiled in the New York Times yesterday:

The site, which began publishing regularly in January 2006, has 500,000 unique visitors a day, he said, and 80 million page views a month. (Why “xkcd”? “It’s just a word with no phonetic pronunciation,” his Web site, xkcd.com, answers.)

Here is one of my favorites:

Facebook defines relationships.

A new comic is posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The author, Randall Munroe, is only 23 years old! He’s one smart cookie. He also writes a fairly interesting blog. I think this entry from November 2007 is my favorite:

I was thinking of getting a couch or something for my room, somewhere for guests to lounge around.

Fuck new couches. I now have a ball pit in my room.

That’s right, he has a ball pit in his room (click through for photos). Freaking awesome! And in February, he quintupled the size of it.

My congratulations to Randall on the coverage! Definitely check out xkcd if you’re looking for something fun and interesting.

Smallville Season 7 ends…one more to go

smallville season 7 On Thursday night, the 20th and final episode of Smallville’s seventh season aired on the CW. As far as Smallville season finale’s go, it was neither the worst nor the best. If you need more proof of that, check out all the messages on Twitter. Some loved it, some hated, some were indifferent. The one thing I can say for certain is that I’m glad next season will be the show’s last (the 8th season was confirmed recently).

The biggest challenge facing the show is the exodus of cast members. Lionel Luthor was killed off earlier this season, which means that John Glover won’t be back. Michael Rosenbaum announced earlier this month that he won’t be back as Lex Luthor. And Kristin Kreuk is only scheduled to appear in a handful of episodes as Lana Lang. Fortunately, Allison Mack will be returning as Chloe Sullivan, despite some difficult contract negotiations.

Two new characters are apparently joining the regular cast next season. The first is a woman known as “Tess” who is supposed to fill the gap left by Rosenbaum. That is, she’ll be looking after Lex’s interests. No word on how his disappearance will be explained. The second is the villain Doomsday, best known in the comic world for being the only character to have killed Superman (Doomsday died too).

The finale on Thursday could have been so much better. Series producers/creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar won’t be back next season, and I think they were forced to leave the door open in order for the show to continue. I am glad the writers and producers tried to close some story arcs this year, but I am left wanting more. I really don’t like the way Lex’s storyline in Smallville was concluded (assuming Rosenbaum doesn’t return for a guest spot or two next season). The final scene with Clark and Lex deserved so much more screen time than it received. It could have been epic, but instead felt rushed. I wonder how the story will progress next season, and I fear that it won’t at all.

I’m hopeful that season eight will be enjoyable, but I also think that the time has come for Clark Kent to leave the farm in Smallville behind.