TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

This month is almost half over, so it almost time for the start of another Comic Convention Season....

Already???  Yes, and one that is kicking off the Season and is close to us in SoCal is the 'California Comic Con'.  That's a Big Name for a comic con to live up to!

Well, this con is defintely a 'comic con' in the 'retro' sense.

So you have to forgive it for using the name 'California Comic Con'.

You see, it's a comic book convention, not a 'pop culture convention', or a 'comic con' with a multitude of 'media' guests. 

It has two 'Guests of Honor', Frank Brunner and Don Rosa, and comic book dealers, and... well, that's about all!

Here's the lowdown for the date / time / hours / etc.:

Caifornia Comic Convention

In Orange County, California

At the Yorba Linda Community Center 4501 Casa Loma Ave. Yorba Linda  CA 92886 - The Yorba Linda Community Center is North of the Richard Nixon Library in the city of Yorba Linda.

The major cross streets are Yorba Linda Blvd. and Imperial highway. There are many Restaurants nearby.

Next show 9:30 am - 5pm, January 31st 2010

Special apperance by CGC, they will do certain pre-screens and signature witnessing for Don Rosa & Frank Brunner.
 

So I mentioned the two guests of honor. A little more info here for those of you that don't know of their works:

FRANK BRUNNER: Comics Background Only - "Brunner broke into comics as a horror writer-artist for the black-and-white comics magazines Web of Horror, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. His best-known color-comics work is his Marvel Comics collaboration with writer Steve Engelhart on the supernatural hero Doctor Strange in Marvel Premiere from 1972 to 1973, and in Doctor Strange vol. 2, in 1974. Other Marvel credits include the anthologies Chamber of Chills, Haunt of Horror, and Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction; the supernatural series The Tomb of Dracula; the swamp-monster series Man-Thing; and the science fiction series Silver Surfer and Howard the Duck.

Also for Marvel, Brunner adapted Robert E. Howard's sword-and-sorcery pulp fiction hero Conan the Barbarian in the 42-page story "The Scarlet Citadel", and drew many covers for the similar series Red Sonja and Savage Sword of Conan.

Brunner and novelist Michael Moorcock collaborated on a comics adaptation of Moorcock's sword-and-sorcery hero Elric in Heavy Metal magazine. It was reprinted in publisher Mike Friedrich's Star Reach Greatest Hits.

Brunner briefly returned to comics in the early-1980s as artist on the First Comics title Warp, based on the science-fiction play that ran briefly on Broadway in the 1970s. He then wrote and drew the graphic novel The Seven Samuroid (1984), a science-fiction takeoff of the movie classic Seven Samurai."

DON ROSA: Comics Background Only - "Keno Don Hugo Rosa (generally just called Don Rosa) (born June 29, 1951) is an American comic book writer and illustrator best known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other Disney characters. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. In 1985, he discovered a Gladstone Publishing comic book in the window of a small comic shop. This was the first American comic book that contained Disney-characters after the 1970s. Since early childhood Don Rosa had been fascinated by Disney stories about Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. Artist Carl Barks was an especially big idol for him and would remain so for the rest of his career. He immediately called the editor, Byron Erickson, and told him that he was the only American who was born to write and draw Scrooge McDuck comics. Byron agreed to let him send a story, and Don Rosa started drawing his first Duck story: Son of the Sun the very next day.

Son of the Sun was a huge success and was nominated for a Harvey Award. The plot of the story was exactly the same as his earlier story Lost in (an alternative section of) the Andes. As Don Rosa formulated it, he was just "(...) turning that old Pertwillaby Papers adventure back into the story it originally was in my head, starring Scrooge, Donald, the nephews, and Flintheart Glomgold."

Don Rosa did a few more comics for Gladstone till 1989. He then stopped working for them because the policies of their licensor Disney did not allow for the return of original art for a story to its creators. This was unacceptable to Don Rosa, since a part of his income came from selling the originals. Without that extra money, he could not make a living drawing comic books.

His first real cartoon was a comic strip featuring his own character, Lancelot Pertwillaby. He created the strip in 1971 for The Kentucky Kernel, a college newspaper of the University of Kentucky which wanted the strip to focus on political satire.

Rosa later talked them into letting him feature adventures starring Lancelot Pertwillaby and drew the story Lost in (an alternative section of) the Andes. (The title is a reference to Lost in the Andes!, a Donald Duck story by Carl Barks, first published in April, 1949.) The so-called Pertwillaby Papers included 127 published episodes by the time Rosa graduated.

Meanwhile Rosa participated in a fanzine. His contribution was An Index of Uncle Scrooge Comics.

Rosa took a chance at more professional cartooning with his creation of the comic strip character Captain Kentucky for the Saturday edition of the local newspaper Louisville Times. Captain Kentucky was the superhero alter ego of Lancelot Pertwillaby. Publication started on October 6, 1979. The comic strip ended on August 15, 1982 after the publication of 150 episodes. After three years with Captain Kentucky, Don decided that it was not worth the effort. He retired from cartooning and did not draw a single line for the next four years. Years later, as his fame grew, his non-Disney work was published by the Norwegian publisher Gazette Bok in 2001, in the two hard-cover books The Pertwillaby Papers and The Adventures of Captain Kentucky."

Tina and I recently had the pleasure of selling a few comics to Don Rosa via our online store. I met Don years ago at a Wonder Con in Oakland.  A really friendly guy and a fun to read comics creator!

Next, I'll list a few of the vintage comic book dealers that are scheduled to be setting up at this show:

CGC - COMICS GUARANTY COMPANY - SARASOTA, FL 

TERRY O'NEILL -  TERRY'S COMICS -  ORANGE CA   

MICHAEL SHAW - MIKES COMICS AND STUFF - ORANGE, CA

RON MURRY - BIG RONS COMICS - FRESNO CA

DAN LOUFEK - COMIC CELLER-  MONROVIA CA -

HOWARD HARRIS - GREG'S COMICS - MESA AZ

AL PRUETT -  GO DADDYO'S COMIC HIDEOUT - BUENA PARK, CA

HARLEY  YEE - HARLEY YEE COMICS - LIVONIA MI -

ALAN BARR - HEROES COMICS CARDS AND TOYS - CAMPBELL CA

PHIL SCHLAEFER - COMIC COLLECTOR SHOP - MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

HERO'S INITIATIVE - PROMOTIONAL ONLY - LOS ANGELES, CA  

JAMIE NEWBOLD - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COMICS - SAN DIEGO CA

STEVE WYATT - SUPER CON - BAKERSFIELD CA

TERRY STROUD - AMERICAN COMIC BOOK  COMPANY - SANTA MONICA, CA

DAN MEDART - ALTAIR-4 COLLECTIBLES - ORANGE, CA

DON MADISON - FALLEN EMPIRE COMICS - LAKEWOOD,CA

GEOFFREY PATTERSON- GEOFFREY'S COMICS - GARDENA, CA

ED ROBERTSON - ED ROBERTSON COMICS - PEORIA, AZ

MICHAEL DICE - OLD COMICS - COVINA, CA
 

Oh, and I didn't mention this earlier...  There is an old fashioned 'raffle' going on too! To the left is just one of the prizes to be awarded... An original sketch of Vampirella by Guest of Honor Frank Brunner!

So as you can see by what I've listed, this 'California Comic Con' is more like the comic book shows of old, and on a much smaller scale than the media / pop culture cons...

If that is more Your type of 'comic con', then the promoter invites to check out his web site for additional info! 

The web site is at:  http://www.calcomiccon.com

As a side note: Although the above comic con is close to us from the San Diego Metro area, Tina and I do not set up at comic cons anymore... we are strictly online sellers.

We can be found at: http://www.ComicBooksCircus.com