My 'Take' On  The 3rd Annual San Gabriel Valley (SGV) Comic Book Festival! Part 1 Which Was Held On Sunday - September 19th In El Monte, California     - Above Photo:  The 3rd Annual San Gabriel Valley Comic Book Festival (SGV) Poster! - At the Top Left: Michael D Hamersky Under the SGV CBF Banner At The Front of the Cuban Club Building In El Monte! - At the Middle Left: Grasiela Rodriguez, Chairperson of the 2010 SGV Greeting Michael to the Festival. - At the Bottom Left:  Raul Aguirre Jr & Hortencia Aguirre at Their Table. Raul Is Holding Codename: Sparrow #0.

TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3239:

As I have mentioned the past few weeks, Tina and I were looking forward to getting away from San Diego this past weekend.  We did get out of town, and this is the first blog post about those that we met there, either for the first time, or other creators that we have met at other comic cons before, and were able to catch up with at this 3rd Annual San Gabriel Valley Comic Book Festival that took place on Sunday, September 19th!

I'm not going to repeat myself here about who was to appear, and what programs the SGV Festival organizers were having at this comic con. Instead, here is the link to those earlier blog posts, and other links that have picked up my earlier posts.

Instead, I first want to thank Grasiela Rodriguez,  who was  the Chairperson for this Year's SGV Comic Book Festival, AND who met both Tina and myself as soon as we entered the Cuban Club Hall building, as seen in the middle photo at the top of this post!  We also stopped by her her own table at the SGV, where she proudly presented her first self-published comic book! Congrats!

Afterwards, Tina and I started from left to right through the hall, where it took us 2 & 1/2 hours to get through the first of the three aisles of creators!  That's because this was more of an intimate comic con, where you could talk longer with the creators, take photos, etc.  That's what I like about smaller cons in smaller settings.

What really made this comic con different from most others that I have attended, is that there were NO comic book dealers set up there. That's right, NO comic book dealers!  The comics creators exhibiting there were basically almost all self-publishers, and had their own creations for sale at their tables. 

Here are just a FEW of those that were exhibiting there.  Please Note: Several of the creators there had promo copies for me to read and review for upcoming blog posts.  So, due to limited space in this blog post today, several of those will not be pictured in today's blog, but rather with their publications in review blogs later. 

First of all, we went from Left to Right, instead of the 'norm' of right to left you see most con goers travel.  

We first met Art (Arturo) Lopez, who doesn't create comic books. Instead he designs figures, that he paints afterwards.  Art also gave a presentation near the end of the day that was very interesting in how he crafted his figures!

Continuing going left, we met Dahveed Kolodny-Nagy, who has several projects going, including of course: Supa Pirate Booty Hunt that I have pictured here before!

Then we met, Javier Hernandez, who has been a Facebook Friend for a while, but I have never met in person!

Javier is the Founder of this SGV Comic Book Festival, as well as a comics creator.

 We continued going down the far left aisle, and met several other creators who will be mentioned in upcoming blog posts, after I read their publications.

One I want to mention here now, because it isn't a comic book or graphic novel, (thus I won't be reviewing it in this Blog), is Richard Carradine, who wrote the book 'The Park After Dark: An Unauthorized Guide to the Happiest (Haunted) Place on Earth [Paperback]' which when I thumbed through looked to be a very interesting book on Disneyland. Richard was sharing a table with his friend who is a creator of comics.

Another Facebook Friend, whose works I have review blogged, but never met before in person is Shawn Granger.  He is pictured to the left. 

Here are my earlier blog posts on his publications and con appearances.  Good to finally meet you in person Shawn!

Plus Dale Wilson of DWAP introduced me to the newest member of The Antidote Trust, Aposcar Guevara Cruz, who has a graphic novela that I want to read soon, and possibly review here.

Thanks for the intro, Dale!

One of the highlights for Tina and myself, was NOT comic book related!  No Kidding!

That's because the 'Fresh Fries' Van was there for the con goers to buy gourmet french fries.  No Kidding...Seriously! 

Tina couldn't believe I was ordering the Peanut ButterCup Fries, (peanut butter / Nutella / powdered sugar on sweet potato fries), but she ended up eating several of mine! 

I also had a bite of her 'Goat Cheese Fries' - a combination of Goat Cheese tossed with Raspberry Sauce on french fries.  That wa a hi-lite of our day there at the Festival!

That plus the fact that Tina and I imbed a Cuban drink, a Mojito, which is the National Drink of Cuba, and was smooth plus a great combo with my Peanut ButterCup Fries!  Yeah...I've got a sweet tooth! LOL! 

Grasiela told me that all the tables allocated for this comic con were sold out, plus a waiting list of a half dozen that there wasn't room for this year. That should be taken care of next year, when the SGV Comic Book Festival should be moving to a larger venue.  I'll be sure to mention this at that time.

I think I need to wrap up this blog post, as it is mid-morning already, and I have a lot to do today, including shipping out sales made from over the weekend, later today.

So because I have more I want to share here from this comic book festival, I'll wrap Part 1 up for today.

Thanks again, Grasiela and Javier, for inviting us up to this comic festival and for the info / pics that have been used in earlier blogs here publicizing the event!

You both made us feel at home at this Comic Book Festival.  Thanks for that!

We are also looking forward to attending your SGV Comic Book Festival next year in 2011!

PLUS: My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 3,235 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

Note: Our online comic book shop carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items at the link seen below.  

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

---

 

"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:   Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013     ComicBooksCircus.com - It's Under The Big Top Of Comics! Click the Above Circus Tent to See Our Current Listings!

My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! For those of you that didn't know me before today... I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 San Diego West Coast Comic Con (SDCC) at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL!   My wife Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor (dealer) table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! Plus I have a chapter in a new book coming out in December of 2010, that is pictured above, "Gotham City 14 Miles"! You can view our dealer table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link, which takes you to our table named: 'Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing'.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!     Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to also join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'. Please Note: I have reached the maximum of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so it might be a while before I am able to accept your request. Just send a message along with the invite that you saw my Blog!         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that! The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.