I live in Smallville this weekend

EDIT: This post as been updated with more links to Smallville ComicCon coverage. (6.12.16)

A couple  guys in my town put a lot of work into convincing people Hutchinson, Kansas, should be considered Smallville, the earth hometown of Clark Kent. They based it on everything that could be gleaned about the town from the comics, movies, and TV shows, and the equivalents Hutch has. Some are a little dubious. We also have an grand old movie theater like The Talon from The CW series “Smallville,” but fortunately it hosts a variety of live shows and movies both large and small, and nobody has turned it into a coffee shop with an out-of-place Egyptian theme. But some are more interesting, like one comic where Superman flies along the Arkansas River (which is real) over a town called Hopefield (which is not, but Mount Hope sure is).

Four years ago they succeeded, and the mayor signed a proclamation declaring Hutchinson Smallville for a day. The following years, it’s been two days that coincide with Smallville ComicCon, which debuted here in 2014 and is back this weekend.

Guests at this year’s event includes Helen Slater, who’s left her mark on a variety of Super-products (read more here), actress Leslie Ann Brandt (Spartacus, The Librarians) and voice-over actor Derek Stephen Prince (Kill La Kill, Power Rangers, Kingdom Hearts). There are also a host of things to see and do, from a 10-foot-tall Lego Clark Kent to panels, cosplay contests and, of course, vendors.

My newspaper, The Hutchinson News (which, full disclosure, I work at), goes all out for this event. Here’s the cover of our paper today.

I’ll update this post with more links to stories as I have time, but if you want to get the early scoop, hop over hutchnews.com and poke around. I think you get five free clicks a month before hitting a (not unreasonable) pay wall.

Links

Five of the coolest things about Smallville (tops for me: Today we can get a Smallville postmark on our mail).

Photos galleries from ComicCon in general and the costume contest specifically.

A feature story on cosplay

No time to make this a flashy post. I’ve got to get to work.

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Premiere week is almost here….

With so many new shows premiering soon (and some not for a frustratingly long time), I’ve updated the list of Fall TV that caught my eye. You can check it out here.

While I hate the long wait on Grimm and Constantine, I’m a little hopeful that Supernatural and Arrow don’t start up until mid October. Because, I’m not saying I’m going to binge on seaason nine and two, respectively, once they hit Netflix…but I’m probably going to end up doing that. And the more time between the past season availability date and the current season premiere date, the fewer episodes will have passed by the time I’m current. I figure, if I can start no more than four episodes behind, I’ll try to catch up/keep up live.

Rewatch news

I’m about five years behind on Criminal Minds, but now that it’s streaming, I decided to start a re/watch. I’d only ever seen a handful of season one episodes anyway. Just starting the aftermath of the Tobias Hankel episodes in season two.

The Smallville rewatch is still lagging. I started a post after season four, but it’s hard writing about the tangled mess that is the Luthor family. I’m partway through season five, but endeavoring not to watch anymore until the season four post is done. Which means I’m not actually watching it, I’m just letting it eat two spaces in my DVD queue. Along with some Chris Pine rom com (Blind Date) that I’m also not watching, because OMG TV is my life right now, apparently.

2012 Media in Review: TV

Before I get into all the old TV I watched last year, here’s a reminder that 1600 Penn, the sitcom set at the White House, premieres tonight at 8:30 (central time) on NBC. I am crazy excited for it, and I hope I don’t end up feeling stupid about that. But anyway, on with the post:

I watched so much TV in 2012, and am looking forward to more in 2013. This isn’t a list of current-season things I watched, but rather a list of mostly older shows on DVD or streaming. And just to be straightforward an honest about it, I’m going to say right now that I crammed 20 seasons worth of TV into a 12-month period. But before you start giving me the side-eye, let me explain! They weren’t ALL full, 20+ episode seasons. Okay, 18 of them were, but still: if you factor out commercials, each episode runs about 44 minutes. If you watch three episodes, you’re looking at not quite 2.5 hours of time. So it’s about the length of one long movie. So, even if you only watch one long movie a week, that still sets you up to finish a season of TV in about a month and a half. If you watch two — one on each day of the weekend — you’re looking at a month per season. Less if you sprinkle an extra episode here and there throughout the week.  Oh, who am I kidding? I’m a couch potato, and this should come as no surprise to anybody who knows me.

This is also the last list of the bunch, so let’s get to it.

Apparently I live in Smallville (sort of)

I live in Hutchinson, Kan., and there’s a group making the case that Hutch should claim itself as Smallville, the town where Clark Kent/Superman grew up. There’s a Facebook page, too. I just think that’s fun, and not at all because I’m two and half seasons into a Smallville rewatch. There are some interesting similarities regarding population and, when you start comparing it to the CW series, football wins. And we’re close to Wichita, a “metropolis.” (Not that we can see it’s skyline by climbing up on a giant windmill though, Lana.)

Some of the claims are a little more dubious. “We have an old theater, like The Talon!” Yes, yes we do. But as far as I know, it’s not also a coffee shop with bizarre Egyptian decor finger-painted all over the place. (At least, I hope not. I should go to The Fox one day.)

The guys who started this have some big plans, including trying to get Man of Steel to be shown here first. They’re also making a comic that apparently will be shippable at some point — or available locally on Third Thursdays, a monthly downtown gathering of residents and businesses for some sort of event-like thing that I’ll probably never be able to attend because I work Thursday nights. I need to get on that “winning the lottery” thing.

As a Kansan who’s never minded all the Wizard of Oz jokes that come my way, I’m down with growing the number of Superman puns, if it means I can say I live in Fake Smallville. And even though I don’t particularly like comics as a story delivery method (yet, I’m down with the stories and the art/design. Go figure…), I’ll probably try to get some of these.

And if you’re interested in my Smallville Season One review, check out this post from Ye Olde Leisure Time