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     

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

Yesterday I was asked about what comic book issues we had from Free Comic Book Day from prior years that we hadn't yet listed in our online store... 

So I went to our backstock, pulled those that weren't listed, and informed the potential buyer what we had.

That reminded me that I hadn't yet looked at the actual Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) web site yet as to what was being printed for the Year 2010.

So when I hit their 'landing' page I was pleased to see the artwork presented above for the t-shirt by Aragones that is going on sale soon.  I love Sergio Aragones artwork, especially his crowd scenes!

Then I clicked on the "FCBD 2010 Full Lineup Announced" link to see what was being printed for this year, and was VERY pleased to see the cover of the Green Hornet #1 shown there!  Which is the reason that the cover is at the top right of this blog post.  (And because the Sergio artwork is more horizontal in presentation, thus the layout shown above...)

PLUS: I've always had an interest in the Green Hornet comics, no matter which publisher was printing them, although I do have my own personal favorite issues, including the one shown to the left of this paragraph.

Yeah, my interest in the Green Hornet started with the 1960's TV Show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee!

I've had the pleasure of meeting Van Williams at the San Diego Comic Con International when he was signing his photo, which was being sponsored by Now Comics, who were then publishing the 'Green Hornet' comics line.  I have a photo of that, so will publish that before the new film comes out...

Speaking of the new film, while at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con International, I was struck by how good the 'Black Beauty' from the upcoming film looked on the exhibit floor, as seen below.  Now only if the upcoming film is only half that good...

  

So you can see why I am interested in the final product that the upcoming Green Hornet film will be...

And why I am now adding the FCBD Green Hornet #1 comic book issue to my 'Want List' on this upcoming Free Comic Book Day!

For more info on this year's FCBD, please see their main landing page at:

http://www.FreeComicBookDay.com

I mentioned at the top of this blog post that we have an online store where we sell back issue of FCBD comics for those that were not able to get all of the issues printed in previous years, or unfortunately don't have a LCBS, (Local Comic Book Shop), near them. The online store just had a revamp at the end of 2009. We still go by 'Make it So Marketing' but now are employing the domain name that I used to use years ago called:  ComicBooksCircus.com   So if you have missed an issue or two in the past years, check us out there at 'The Big of Comics', and come back after May 2010 when we'll have several of this year's FCBD issues listed!

Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts!  We do blog usually on a daily basis during the 'work week' on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events or places such as the one blogged about here today.

We hope YOUR New Year is starting off the way YOU want it to be. Join us again soon, as we publish another 'Main Feature'.  And don't forget to check out the 'Featurette' shown below!

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

Tina and I had several shows last night that we wanted to watch; this after watching almost all each of the four NFL Wildcard Playoff Games this weekend.  Talk about a 'couch potato weekend'! 

But no show was more hyped than the Season 3 Premiere Show for the TV Show CHUCK!  Almost every other commercial on NBC during the Playoffs was a CHUCK commercial, or so it seemed!

That really didn't bother me, because as you can see from the photos above, Tina and I are CHUCK fans!

We caught this show from the Season 1 Premiere, and have been steady fans since.  Plus when possible, either Tina or I, or both of us would attend programs / Panels at comic cons that had either the full cast or individual cast members attending.  And before the WGA Strike affected our viewing AND blogging habits, I used to post blogs on this CHUCK TV show here, when the blog was more pop culture oriented...

Yeah, I'm sure the show is aimed at a younger crowd than myself, but the show has been written well from the beginning and it also has generated comic books, which of course I would have to check out, LOL!

So, besides being well written, and published as a comic book, what else does this show have going for it?

Well, it's got to be the cast of characters / actors in this show!

Each of the main characters has been developed during the past two seasons, and the actors chosen to portray them have been spot on. Plus the additional characters / actors have also seen their backgrounds added to, which makes for a darn good mix!

Sure it helps that the women on the show are nice looking to watch, but it is the 'geek factor' of the show that adds to my liking the show.  Similar to scenes like 'Slave Girl Leia' to the left!

Plus when you see Chuck's bedroom, he has a Comic Con poster, and had a 'Tron' poster.  Now that definitely adds to his 'coolness'!

So what happened last night?

Well... I would like to say that the Season 3 Two Hour Premiere Show was 'Fantastic', but I....  Can't!  :(

Why?  Well after the BIG Buildup about 'No More Mr. Nice Spy', the two hour premiere show turned out to be two episodes run back to back!

And unfortunately, in both my opinion and Tina's opinon... there was something lacking in the first one!

We both were expecting a two hour premiere show, so when the first hour took forever in bringing the viewers up to date... well we could forgive that. 

But when we realized that the first hour was a first 'episode', it just didn't flow smoothly in its' presentation.  Not a good start CHUCK people! The 'episode' didn't 'jell' and it looked like the first hour of a made for TV movie, where the action is spread out over two hours...  Not a good start...

However, the second hour, which turned out to be the second 'episode', was back on track!  This is the CHUCK show that we both enjoy watching!  AND will continue to watch this season!

I don't want to go into the two episodes in detail, as I don't want to have to post a 'Spoiler Warning' here.  Just suffice to say that after the false start on the first hour, the second hour was worth staying up for!

Yeah, there will have to be some taping going on, as FoX is having House and Fringe on, and '24' will be coming back.  We DON'T tape that show... gotta watch that 'live', but CHUCK is definitely a show that we are glad is back, AND will be watching this Season!

For those of you that missed it last night, you can view it at:

http://www.NBC.com/chuck  

which you should right away, because tonight, January 11th, is the 3rd 'episode' of the New Season 3!

I am so glad that the Fans of this Show overwhelmed the NBC network with requests that it be renewed for a 3rd Season.  Tina and I will be there to support the viewership, and maybe even blogging about it again. Especially if there is another CHUCK comic book series! ;) 

I mentioned that we have an online store where we sell comics, at ComicBooksCircus.com ;) but unfortunately we have just sold our last issue of CHUCK just before the show aired. Including the Special San Diego Comic Con Edition of the comic book!  However, we pick up collections quite often, so check back when you can!

Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts!  We do blog usually on a daily basis during the 'work week' on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events or places such as the one blogged about here today. We hope YOUR New Year is starting off grand. Join us again as we tackle another 'Main Feature'.  And don't forget to check out the 'Featurette' below!

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

Of course everyone knows that yesterday would have been Elvis Presley's 75th Birthday....

You couldn't get away from it if you were watching TV or checking out the web. 

I was so busy with 'Taking Care Of Business' here at the home office with sales / invoicing / shipping that I didn't blog about the celebrations and the fact that it was a special commemorative date.

That would not have been the case several years ago if I had been blogging then. You see, I once had a really good Elvis Presley Collection of my own.

I had been collecting for many years, but after being divorced and finding my many different collections warehoused in two 10 x 10 mini-warehouses, I realized that I wasn't enjoying those collections as much. Heck, I couldn't easily access them even!

So, I started selling them, and the Elvis Collection was one of the first to be broken up and sold... Funny thing, over half of what I sold was shipped to diffrent Elvis Collectors in Singapore. That included mostly LPs, EPs, and 45s, but there were a few comic books like the ones pictured to the top left of this paragraph, as well as the ones pictured at the top of this post!

Anyways, I didn't blog about Elvis yesterday... And then last night, Tina and I watched the revised "Elvis: That's The Way It Is 2001" film from 2001.  Wait, I said "revised" film?  Yes, "revised".  It appears that the film I thought was too slow and 'quiet' for a film to watch a third time since it had been first released years ago in 1970 had been remixed.  I hadn't seen it. So I watched Robert Osborne at TCM talk with Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling before the movie previewed, and ending up watching all of it... It was much better than I remembered it!

Anyways, after watching that film last night, I woke up this morning wanting to blog about Elvis.  And since this is blog on comics and pop culture... what better way than to present just a few of the comic book covers that Elvis Presley has been pictured on!

First though, you might wonder why the mix of Elvis Presley and comic books?  Well, did you know of Elvis' fondness for a certain comic book character?

Take a look at the comic book cover pictured below.  No, that isn't Elvis on the cover...but look closer... You see... 

"Elvis Presley was a fan of Captain Marvel, Jr. comic books as a child, and later styled his hair to look like Freddy Freeman's and based his stage jumpsuits and TCB lightning logo on Captain Marvel Junior's costume and lightning-bolt insignia."

Plus the following:

"The musician Elvis Presley was a big fan of Captain Marvel Jr., and styled his trademark haircut after that of the comic book character and some of Elvis' stage outfits (with a half-cape similar to those worn by the Marvels) and his TCB logo (with a Marvel-esque lightning bolt insignia) also show inspiration from Captain Marvel Jr.[25] Elvis' childhood collection of Captain Marvel Jr. comic books still sits in Graceland displayed by the fans."

Okay... "Now You Know The Rest Of The Story"!

So that is the reason for this blog post, the day After Elvis' 75th Birthday. I wanted to share with you, my blog readers, the connection between Elvis and Captain Marvel Jr., and also present just a few of the comic book covers Elvis was pictured on from 1956 to an upcoming graphic novel being printed this very year 2010, by Bluewater Comics! (It will be Volume 8 in that series.)

I had already mentioned the graphic novel earlier, (click here for the blog post with the original artwork from October 30th, 2009), which kind of made me go back and look at what is left of my once proudly owned Elvis Collection.

I felt a Big Loss back on August 16th of 1977 when Elvis suddenly passed away at the age of 42.

I had seen Elvis perform in San Diego, Anaheim, and a few other venues, but had missed his show in Las Vegas the last time I had been there.  I had thought there would be plenty more times to see him, and after all, that Las Vegas trip was a spur of the moment action, and it was crowded that night we were there, like every night he performed. And yeah, that's me in the photo, circa 1973.  I'm posting it here to show yu the Elvis posters I had hanging in my batchelor pad at the time.

Anyways, it's 8AM Saturday morning, and I should be checking emails, messages, and sales from overnite here... So, thanks for reading this blog post, as I recounted some of my fondness for what have been two of my passions in collecting during my lifetime... Elvis Presley AND Comic Books!

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

I have been sent several messages during the past year asking about where comic books could be found to purchase or to read, as the parties asking were not close to Local Comic Book Shops (LCBS), and their local libraries had next to nothing to read....

Of course I would mention that we have an online store where we sell comics, at ComicBooksCircus.com ;) , but since it usually has no more than 7,500 listings in it, I realize we don't have everything to fit everyones' tastes!

I have even printed the Local Comic Book Shop Locator icon here in my Blog, where blog readers could keypunch in their zip codes and see what LCBS are near them. I have mentioned that NOT all LCBS are shown in the directory, as the closest one to our house is not listed...

We are lucky here in the City of Carlsbad, California, to have a pretty darn good collection of graphic novels and TPBs in our 'Dove' Library. (As a side note, the other public library in Carlsbad has the best genealogical section in all of San Diego County IMHO, as it takes up half of the second floor!)

However, not all public libraries carry graphic novels nor TPB compilations.  Ours only does because of one librarian who has a passion for comic books! And I have thanked him for that!  So I decided to look on the web for other possible references and found that the Library of Congress is getting even more publicity than when I first looked at it online years ago.  

For those of You that don't know... "The largest collection of comics books in the United States is housed in the Serial and Government Publications Division. The collection includes U.S. and foreign comic books—over 5,000 titles in all, totaling more than 100,000 issues. Primarily composed of the original print books, the collection includes color microfiche of a handful of the early comic books (such as Wonder Woman, Superman, and Action Comics) and special reprints. Although the collection is most comprehensive from 1950, scattered issues from numerous titles date back to the 1930s. A small number of comic books make up the Underground Comic Book collection of titles 'recommended for mature readers'."

So how does the Library of Congress obtain all of these comics?

"The Library acquires comic books published and distributed in the United States almost exclusively through copyright deposit. Titles are added to the collection on the basis of quality of text and graphic depiction; significance of the artist, writer, or publisher; originality of story or main character; the title's popularity as reflected in circulation statistics or media attention; representation of new ideas or social trends; or availability through copyright."

So how long has the LOC been doing this, and are they just interested in superhero comics?

"For more than sixty years, the Library of Congress has acquired comic books through copyright deposit. The current collection of 6,000 titles, probably the largest in the United States, contains approximately one hundred thousand pieces and is growing by about two hundred issues each month. Represented in the collection is the entire range of comic-book subject matter: western, science fiction, detective, adventure, war, romance, horror, and humor. Although scattered issues date from the late 1930s, the holdings are most comprehensive from 1950 to the present. Action Comics, Archie, Detective Comics, Tarzan, and Wonder Woman are among those with fairly complete runs. A card catalog of holdings, by title, is maintained in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room. Also, comic book records are being added to the online catalog. Because of the rapid deterioration of the paper and the value of older issues, full access to the comic book collection is restricted to readers engaged in serious research."

Okay, so here's the important part, as a visitor to the Library of Congress doesn't want to run into the problem as seen at the photo to the left, (stairways with the infamous 'No Admittance' signs!  How does one access this collection?

"Comic books are circulated for use in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Room for those doing research of a specific nature, leading toward a publicly available work such as a publication, thesis, or dissertation; a radio, film, or television production; or a public performance. Self-service photocopying of comic books is prohibited. In some cases photocopies may be obtained through the Photoduplication Service of the Library of Congress. When researching comic books, collectors are usually interested in price and condition, whereas women's studies scholars may look on them as an art form, a popular culture medium, or a historical artifact. Unfortunately, many periodicals that focus on comic books are not indexed in abstracting and indexing services."

So how does a Library of Congress patron get around this restriction, and what other ways does one have in accessing the collection? 

"The Comic Book Collection contains over 6,000 titles dating from the 1930s to the present. Due to the extreme brittleness and high collectible value of many of the comic books, the Serial and Government Publications Division has restricted the use of the Collection only to patrons who show a sincere and scholarly research interest in the history and influence of the format. A microfiche collection exists for the early numbers of five of the most famous comic book series: Action Comics, Adventure Comics, All Star Comics, Batman, and Superman."

Okay... that pretty much covers that topic I believe.  If You are in the Washington DC area, or visiting there, you should check out how to access the collection PRIOR to entering the LOC. For more info please see this web site link:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/coll/049.html as there is a lot of information and other links there on how to obtain access!

As an additional note to this 'Main Feature' today. The above Spider-Man comic book pages pictured at the top of this blog post joined the premier collection of original cartoons in the Library’s Prints & Photographs Division back in 2008. The actual collection at the LOC includes more than 125,000 caricatures, comic strips, and political and social commentaries from the 1600s to the present, as well as your ever lovin Amazing Spidey!

BTW, a few of the persons that contacted me were looking for comics or animation magazines because of their interest in possibly getting into the comics field, or because they wanted to help their children grow artistically.  So if YOU are a comics or graphic novel creator either with a project started or completed, and would like to possibly see Your work mentioned or reviewed here in my Blog, please check this following link, where I tell you: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!"