Iron Man, originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Any comic book fan worth their weight in refried beans is heading down to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Convention [eccc] this weekend. Though Vancouver has yet to get a decent convention that attracts mainstream talent, Seattle’s convention has been getting better every year.

Since it’s not Vancouver related you won’t see me blogging about it here, though if you head over to our Seattle sister site Metroblogging Seattle [mbs] you’ll find that I’ll be doing some posting while I’m down there.

Anyone one else going down for the show?

More Free Comics than Table space…lol!, originally uploaded by ELFSAR COMICS.

We’re poised on the edge of summer movie blockbuster season it’s clear that once again some of the biggest movies of the year are going to be based off of comic books. Iron Man, The Dark Knight and other all began as drawings on a page sold from comic book racks and newsstands. While a movie based on a popular novel will boost sales of the novel, comic books rarely experiance the same post-Hollywood bump. Attracting new readers is vital to the industry, which was why the major publishers got together and created Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) [fcbd].

It’s a yearly event and this year FCBD falls on Saturday May 3rd.  That’s this Saturday.  There is no need to buy anything, you will not be called at home at all hours of the night by Stan Lee trying to up-sell you into a Spider-Man subscription and best of all these are some really good books specifically designed to be new reader friendly.

Some stores go through a lot of trouble to make FCBD a really fun event, and worth coming in for. Elfsar in Yaletown especially seems to go out of their way every year to make things interesting. The full list of comic book stores in Vancouver that are participating is after the jump.

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The bus in ‘Foyles War’ ?, originally uploaded by Renown.

I am a bit late with this news which appeared in the Guardian on April 9. But I am sure there will be many fans of the PBS Mystery series who will delighted to learn, as I was, the even though the last episode of Foyle was on VE Day he may yet return.

The image, by the way comes from a bus restorer/painter in England. One of the appeals of British tv is the care and attention that is given to historic recreation in period drama. This really is a prewar coach, and yes, when the blitz damaged large numbers of London’s red double deckers, all kinds of other vehicles were pressed into service.

Now all I need is a plausible excuse for posting a picture of a steam train. Anyone want to see the world’s biggest coal fired cappuccino machine?

If you’ve been living in a cave, or only watching American television, for the last week you know that the Canucks are now out of the playoffs. Another year of dashed hopes and spoiled dreams, and it’s time to start talking about what needs to be done for next year [cbc].

Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund are both free agents. Trevor Linden is most likely leaving, or if he stays will be little more than a totem on the bench having long past the days when he could drive the team game after game. Roberto Luongo fled town as soon as he could, one of the few players to do the jersey any credit this year.

So what’s the blogosphere say? Find out after the jump.

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The news can sometimes seem so anonymous.  Some of you may have heard about a missing Burnaby man, Kellen McElwee.  To me it has struck a little closer to home having personally met and hung out with Kellen on numerous occasions.  It’s with this strange disappearance that I reach out like so many other of his friends and family for any information that anyone may have that could possibly help

The police have been looking for him or the whereabouts of his vehicle. In case you missed out on the news coverage here’s a link to the Vancouver Province.   He’s 5′10 - 220 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. He wears his hair in a slight mohawk and has a large black-and-white dragon tattoo below his left shoulder.  If you’d like to help out there has already been a facebook group started that will be posting flyers around town.  He drives an ‘06 Honda Civic that is bronze with the plates 959 HPB.  If you’ve seen this vehicle or might have info about his whereabouts or any clues please give the Burnaby RCMP a call @ 604-294-7922.

Now that we’ve made the move from Moveable Type to WordPress we’re looking to bring in some new bloggers.  If you’re a Vancouver based blogger and want to reach a whole new audiance consider writing for Vancouver Metblogs.  There’s no editorial mandate, beyond what you blog about needing to be about Vancouver and our request that you post at least two to three times a week.

So post two to three times a week about Vancouver and you get an automatic audiance well above a lot of regional newspapers in B.C.  Imagine the power that would give you, or the click through traffic to your own site as loyal readers fall in love with your prose and follow you to your own blog. 

Whatever your motivation come and join one of Vancouver’s best read blogs. 

For more information email me at jefferysimpson at macdotcom or post your questions in the comments.

On Broadway, originally uploaded by rcousine.

Like the photography we use here at Metroblogging Vancouver? Figure you’ve got some better shots of our city sitting around on your hard drive? Why not upload them to Flickr and post them in our Flickr Group [fkr]?

Once in our Flickr group your photos will appear in our little animated Flickr widget on the right side there, but as long as you’ve left the blogging option open we might use it in one of our posts and people from around Vancouver and around the world will be seeing your shots. And if you’re not a photographer, head on in and look around anyway because there’s some stunning pictures in there.

Water Spring Beatle

Originally uploaded by masine.

Link from Beyond Robson [br].

I feel giddy this morning thanks to an article/post from Only magazine [om] taking issue with the tourist attraction that is the blue Beetle that is covered in crap. The first time I saw it it was kind of amusing in the way a YouTube video of a dog skateboarding is amusing, but once I realized that it’s always downtown and it’s always a three ring circus I started to get annoyed.

So who finds it magical? I refer you to Only who note that it’s tourists in “the blissful state of a holiday who don’t know any better, and are starved for something even remotely interesting.”

Pacific Centre

Originally uploaded by SqueakyMarmot.

If you’ve been waiting by the phone, or the email, for a reply about your job application you submitted to the Apple Store opening in Pacific Centre that you sent in after reading about the imminent opening here [mbv], then keep your fingers crossed because the first wave of people are being contacted via email for telephone interviews.

Sadly that first wave, at least I hope it’s just the first wave, does not include me. Apparently I’m completely unemployable. You lucky sods who did get a call back can feel free to comment about the experience in the comments. For this one time feel free to use fake names or no names at all, we can let it slide in exchange for some juicy inside gossip.

Heck maybe we can get Apple to sue us like Think Secret and I won’t need a job, I’ll just take my out of court settlement and buy myself an island.

Edit: I’d like to point out for those of you who seem to believe I’m some sort of billionaire who mines gold doubloons off the posts of the bloggers here, that since I don’t actually own Metroblogging Vancouver I wouldn’t be the one getting any out of court settlement.

What the?

Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

I believe this ad if for a Chinese New Year thing at the QE Theatre on Feb 9th, but beyond that I can’t really make much out. It might not even be for Chinese New Year, it might be for some sort of elaborate puppet show or perhaps to watch a young boy sing and then get eaten by an aligator.

My favorite part of the poster is the bit in the background where a UFO is using a tractor beam to steal an elephant. Or possibly the octopus hiding in the bush, as they are known to do.

I don’t want anyone to explain this to me, or translate it, because frankly it’s a special kind of beautiful the way it is.