Michael D Hamersky On Comics Reports On:   Semantink's Comic Savvy June 19th, 2011 Meet-up (Yes, On Fathers Day in San Diego, California!)        - - Top Photo: The June 2011 Semantink's Comic Savvy was held once again in the outside porch area of Milano Coffee Company in the Mission Valley Area of San Diego, California. Vinne & Michael are shown near the end of the meetup, Vinnie's 1st to attend.  Where else to spend Fathers Day, right?!! Thanks, Vinnie! - Lower Photo:  (L-R) Francis (Jay) Bautista - Winner of 'The Brain Eater's Bible: Sound Advice for the Newly Reanimated Zombie' hard cover book for the Surprise Drawing,  and Benjamin Glibert - moderator of the Meetup & Publisher of Semantink Publishing. -  Note:  The additional pics from last night will be posted in the special photo album: June 2011 Semantink's Comic Savvy Meet-Up at my Facebook Fan Page, Michael D Hamersky On Comics.

TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3441:

Last night, (June 19th), was the June 2011 meetup of Semantink's Comic Savvy at the Milano Coffee Company, in the Mission Valley area of San Diego, California.

And no, this isn't a brand new series of meetups going on in the San Diego Metro Area... Here's the link to the February 20th, 2011 Meet-Up, the April 2011 meetup , and the May 2011 meetup that I attended.  (I did miss the March 2011 meetup due to family members going to the hospital during that time.)

As stated in those prior blogs on this meetup... The 'official hours' of the meet-up are from 5PM to 7PM, on the 3rd Sunday of every month, but several persons, including my wife Tina, my youngest son Vinnie, and myself  were having so much fun attending that we were there till the tables and chairs were being returned to their usual places! 

I've included a couple of pics at the top right of this post, with names of those in attendance shown in the photos, (Sorry, not all are pictured here...)  Because of the limitations of this blog format, I've built a 'special photo album' titled 'June 2011 Semantink's Comic Savvy Meet-Up' at my Facebook Fan Page for you to see all that were in attendance, if YOU weren't there!  And  please.. Feel free to 'tag' yourself if you attended this meetup!

Ben Glibert, Director of Publishing at Semantink Publishing, was once again the 'moderator' of the meetup.

First came the introductions going round the tables, and what the person was currently reading, whether comic book, graphic novel, or TPB.  The group once again had some new attendees, (all are welcome!), and some of the items being read were: Ben - Fear Itself, Frank - Powers, Tiffany - Uncanny X-Men, Michael - Stan Lee's How To Draw Comics, Tina - Pride Predjudice & Zombies, Matt - Conan the Barbarian, James (the new) X-Force.

Ben figured that I would have my usual question of the month to ask, as I had a tote bag that was stuffed with goodies... So he called upon me to ask it right after the introductions were made...

Two months ago, (in Blog #3392),  I asked the question of the group, 'What upcoming comic book movie are YOU most interested in seeing?'.  The 3rd most popular that the group wanted to see was the THOR film, with 12% having that as 1st choice, out of THOR, GREEN LANTERN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and X-MEN.  (PRIEST, based on the Korean comic book series, was not included in this topic at that time.)

For how those who attended the May 2011 Comic Savvy meetup thought of the THOR Film by comic book grading standards, please see this link.

Since then the X-Men First Class had come out earlier in the month of June, and on this past Friday, the Green Lantern film had been released.

So what did this group of 15 attendees think of these two films after seeing them? (Note: 4 more attendees came after the question was asked and their results are not tallied here.)

First was the X-Men First Class 'grades'.  I'm including both the numerical (out of a possible 10.0), and the Comic Book Grade that corresponds with it:

9.4  / NM    = 1

9.2 / NM-    = 1

9.0 / VF/NM = 4

8.5 / VF+     = 2

8.0 / VF      = 2

7.5 / VF-     = 1

2.0 / G(ood)  = 1

Not Seen      = 3  (Grand Total of 15 attending / grading)

Each person added a comment or two on this film, and also on the next film they graded.  Most were surprised how good X-Men First Class was!  Just like myself!

BTW, here's 'My Take' on this film, and here is Tina's Take from a Woman's POV on the same film.

The Green Lantern film had opened on Friday.  For a group of 15 attendees, who are interested in comics / graphic novels, etc., it was a little surprising that 9 out of 15 had NOT yet seen it!  Here's the tabulations on the grading:

8.5 / VF+  = 1

6.5 / F+    = 1 (Note: Seen in 3-D, o/w would be a '4.0')

6.0 / F     = 1

5.0 / VG/F = 1

4.0 / VG    = 1

2.0 / G      = 1

Not Seen    = 9 

I've got to add that the top grade given was mine, and I was the oldest person there, (while Vinnie was the youngest, and he had not seen it).  You can see that the 'grades' reflected how poor of a reception this film had with those who had seen it!

Here is 'My Take' on the Green Lantern film, and Tina did not want to see it, as the trailers had shown too much CGI for her to want to attend.  This is the first comic book film in a long time she did not attend with me at the Big Screen!  After the 'grades' given at the meetup last night, she knew she had made a wise choice, at least in her opinion!  Vinnie didn't come with us until Sunday, so he did not see the film on Friday when I did.

Also, as customary, I brought a 'freebie' for those kind enough to answer my the question(s) for this Blog.  Two months it was a movie poster for the Priest in 3D Film that was being released on May 13th in the USA and Canada.

And for the month of May give-away I had run across a marketing intern, Jennell, who was kind enough to provide a 'Priest' t-shirt for both my Facebook Fan Page 'drawing' to be held after Opening Weekend for the film, and one t-shirt for this Comic Savvy meetup as a 'thank you' for answering my survey questions!  So that was the giveaway for the month of May!  See this link for the winner's reaction!

So for this month of June, I brought in a book that I mentioned last month at the meetup, that I was reading for a review blog.  Titled:  The Brain Eater's Bible: Sound Advice for the Newly Reanimated Zombie! By author J.D. McGhoul with Pat Kilbane.  Yeah, it not my 'normal fare' for reading, but I could see from the expressions and comments from those in attendance at the May meetup, that it would be received very well here!

So I had Vinnie pass out copies of the intro issue of the 'IZombie' comic book to all those in attendance first, while I passed out copies of the intro issue of 'Human Target', which the TV Show was based on.  Yeah, 'brains' & 'humans'... What a choice this month, LOL!

So... once the copies of the two different comics had been passed out, I asked those holding the comics to check to see if they were the 'winner'... (there was a sticky note with the word 'winner' on the splash page!).

It turned out that Francis (Jay) Bautista, (see 2nd top right photo), was the winner!  And he was pleased to say the least!  Plus it turned out, after I took his photo, so were many others who had the opportunity to see the book close up, thumbing through it.  Francis had started passing the book around the table. Several persons called it 'totally rad', and many are going to check it out for purchase!  Like you can by clicking this link! 

There were more topics brought up at this meetup, but once again, as the meetup is held outside in a porch area, and nine-teen ending up attending last night, there were some sub-discussions that I didn't quite hear, and have decided not list more topics here, as this blog is getting a long in length.

So... My thanks once again to Semantink Publishing sponsoring this monthly meet-up!  Here's the Facebook link to the event that just occurred, and here's the link to Semantink Publishing's Facebook Fan Page, which I encourage YOU to 'Like'!  Plus check out their several comic book series that are online.  When they publish hard copies of those in TPBs, I'll be sure to review blog them here!

Again, Semantink's Comic Savvy is normally the 3rd Sunday of every month, which has been held at the Milano Coffee Company in Mission Valley.  There is also another weekday meetup on a monthly basis that is sponsored by this same publisher, but I've not attended it, due to the traffic that hits on weeknights in the San Diego Metro Area.  (I live in North San Diego County.)

I'll mention the upcoming July Sunday evening meetup in an upcoming wall post at my own Facebook Fan Page, 'Michael D Hamersky On Comics', after the event page for July is created.  That one should be extra 'special', as it is being held the Sunday evening before the Comic-Con International / San Diego Comic Con kicks off on that week's Wednesday evening!  So there should be extra people in town that would enjoy a meetup of like minded individuals, and they are invited also!  This is a 'free' meetup to attend, and Milano Coffee Co has great coffee and eats! 

Till then...Have Some Fun!  Oh, and don't forget to check out the rest of the pics that weren't shown here at the blog, in the special photo album just for THIS June 2011 meet-up!     

~Michael D Hamersky

(And yes... for those keen-eyed individuals out there reading this blog post... That is the first 'official' photo of myself wearing the new 'Navy colored' polo shirts with the 'ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com' name on them!  I needed new shirts for the upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego, and the darker color is what I chose to buy.  So I'll be wearing the Navy colored shirts for the most part from now on at comic cons / sci-fi cons / etc., and using the indigo colored shirts for more 'everyday' wear, should you run into me!)  

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~ Michael D Hamersky 

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