Michael D Hamersky On Comics Wants To Mention... That He Is Still Recovering From The Surgery He Had On Wednesday Of Last Week Thanks To All Of You That Have Posted On My Facebook Profile & Fan Pages!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3625 -  This blog hasn't had an entry since last Tuesday, as I have had a surgery on last Wednesday that kept me hospitalized overnight.

I wasn't feeling as good during the WonderCon last weekend as I normally am during a comic con, and called my Doctor on Monday morning after we arrived back home.

He immediately sent me to the Emergency Room after seeing me, where I was then admitted to the hospital, and had the surgery. 

I am still recovering, and should be back to posting my regular blog posts the middle of this week.

My thanks to all of you that have posted on my Facebook Profile and / or Fan Pages!

Best, 

~Michael D Hamersky On Comics

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,625 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,719 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly 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:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail 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

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents Tina LoSasso's Review On... WonderCon 2012 Held At The Anaheim Convention Center from Friday March 16th through Sunday March 18th!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3624 -  My first WonderCon - and Wondercon's first jaunt to SoCal - was super-mellow. Now that's an oxymoron for you. Let me explain: If you took San Diego Comic Con, slashed attendance by 75% and The Scarecrow gassed the convention center with an airborne version of Xanax, you'd have WonderCon 2012.

Maybe it was because we were next door to the Happiest Place on Earth, but these folks were the most laid-back Comic-Conners I've ever seen. No rushing, no pushing, no seat jumping, no pens to the eye. That said, this was the first Con (in 10+ years of Cons) where I've had anything stolen. Sadly, someone swiped my prized Fringe Lenticular luggage tag while I was in the big Ballroom on Saturday. Said villian even had the nerve to tuck the tie back into my case! May he/she spend the rest of their sorry days encased in amber.

Michael and I attended all three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Here are my random thoughts on WonderCon 2012 (Anaheim):

Blame It on the Rain. WonderCon 2012 will be best remembered for the deluge that was Saturday and the misery it wrought on this most-attended day. Whether you walked from your hotel or drove over an hour or more (me) to get there, you got wet. Correction, you got drenched. Now realize, I lived over 20 years in New Jersey, I know from rain. This rain was positively Biblical. I was wearing a real rain coat (from my NJ days) and it leaked! Worst of all the rains wrecked havoc on an already shaky parking situation. We exited the freeway about 9:15 am only to spend the next 75 minutes crawling the blocks around the convention area searching for parking. We ended up at the Happiest Place on Earth's "Toy Story" lot which kindly honored the convention parking rate. Unfortunately, this was the moment the skies decided to open with a vengeance. We tried to wait it out, but it would not let up. So we hoofed it about a mile to the convention center arriving with drenched feet and clothes - despite a raincoat and umbrella! I kept wondering, what did the WonderCon folks do to piss off Storm ?

Hall of Horrors. It's hard to imagine that Comic Con International was seriously considering moving SDCC to Anaheim Convention Center. The shallow foyers, small bathrooms and two tiny escalators could never accomodate the SDCC hordes. While WonderCon only had Exhibit Hall D, Con goers spread out the length of the convention center foyer crowding the shallow space and making walking difficult. Fans had no place to hang out with their friends. On the plus side, the convention center staff kept those too-small bathrooms clean and the exhibit floor was configured with wide aisles which eased traffic - a welcome respite from the frustrating standstills, pushing and near-riots on the SDCC floor.


And Now for Something Completely Different. Whoever recommended the Ballroom panel for "Sound of My Voice" needs to have their duties reassigned. Like most, I figured I'd suffer through it in between Trailer Park and Prometheus. And suffer we did. First we were 'treated' to the first inane 12 minutes of the film which included a multi-part 'secret handshake'. Note to film makers: whenever the screening audience bursts out laughing during the serious part of your film, you need to cut. That was 12 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. But wait, it gets worse - two of the actors then came out in character to 'invite' us to their Exhibit Hall booth to join their wacky little cult. At this point, the laughing turned into snorting and uncomfortable silence. But still, this looney and indulgent panel droned on! Next we endured the ramblings of the two people responsible for this drivel as they answered questions from a PR shrill and planted Q&A. While we prayed for deliverance, it became obvious: WonderCon ain't Sundance and Sound of My Voice ain't Blair Witch.

MIA. On the plus side, the Exhibit Hall featured tons of comic book resellers, toys, t-shirt vendors and booths for tons of stuff I have no idea what it was. If you visited an ATM recently, you probably went home with some cool loot. If you were looking for exclusives or were hoping to score some swag, you were disappointed. Aside from the very cool and very popular HBO/Game of Thrones booth where fans could get their heads impaled on a spike, there really weren't any fun experiential booths. Hollywood was essentially MIA.

Of course, this meant more time for Con goers to connect with comic book artists and writers at various booths. WonderCon gave fans plenty of opportunity to get up close and personal with their comic book gods - and, really, isn't that what a comic convention is all about?

Grade for this Con?  It's a VERY FINE FINUS (VF-) 7.5 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grade.

~Tina LoSasso 

(Note:  Also, here is the link to the special photo album at my Facebook fan page for the pics taken at the WonderCon 2012!  ~Michael D Hamersky On Comics )

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,624 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,718 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly 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:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail 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

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Reviews... WonderCon 2012 Held At The Anaheim Convention Center from Friday March 16th through Sunday March 18th!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3623 -  Well... We are back from the three day 2012 WonderCon that was held at the Anahaeim Convention Center in Anaheim, California!

This blog is 'My Take' on the 3 day con, as we attended all 3 days!

The first day went smoothly getting in to the comic con, as we had underground parking at the Convention Center.  The WonderCon took up only Rooms D & E of the Convention Center.

The processing of our badges was a little disjointed, but it was the first day at a brand new location.

Going up to the 1st floor was relatively simple, and the escalator took us to the back of the room.

Tina came across the Game of Thrones booth right away, and I participated in getting my photo taken there.  

I also had my pic taken at the Marvel booth, as seen at the top right photo of this blog post.

The 1st day the WonderCon opened at 12PM.  We soon left the floor and went to our first panel, 'Insight Into Indy Publishing' hosted by The Antidote Trust! 

We also took in Mark Evanier's Quick Draw at 2PM, and then went to the 4PM Showing of Warner Bros. Television Screening of 'Person of Interest'.  Unfortunately that was only a replay of the first episode, so we left.

I took in the CBLD: History of Comic Censorship... That was a pretty good panel, and the 6:30 PM TV Horror Hosts was pretty good too!

Not bad for a first day!

The 2nd day was a bit harder.  It was raining, and the underground parking at the Convention Center was full.  So we had to figure where to go next.  We decided not to go to Anaheim Stadium where the Angels play, which was a good thing we found out later.   Instead we parked at a Disneyland parking lot and hoofed it to the convention center.  In the pouring rain!   Not a good start for the 2nd day.

The 2nd day was Saturday, so I took in the 11:30 AM Ruby & Spears panel hosted by Mark Evanier. Pretty good!

Tina had gone to her panels so I went back down to the floor to finish up the Small Press and Artists Alley locations.  Met a lot of people I already knew, but also met several that I hadn't seen before.  I'll be review blogging those comics / graphic novels in the weeks to follow here.

Tina and I met up at the 3:30 PM Comic Book Entrepreneurs panel.  That was just okay of a panel.

We finished up seeing the floor and called a day, and didn't stay for the WonderCon Masquerade, which had tech problems that we found out about on Sunday.

The 3rd day, Sunday, was once again a bear to find parking, but we went back to the same lot we had been at on Saturday, and walked over to the convention center once again.

We had decided to take in the Ballroom's first three panels, on Alcatraz, Fringe, and Once Upon A Time.  Alcatraz was pretty good, Fringe was even better, while Once Upon A Time showed us Sunday night's episode, and then the two men who started the show.

From 4:30 to a little afte 5PM we were at the WonderCon Talkback to see what others thought of the WonderCon being at the Anaheim Convention Center, instead of at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

First of all, WonderCon for 2013 is not booked yet either at San Francisco or Anaheim...!

The outpouring of personal notes from those attending in the audience to the Comic-Con International President / CFO John Rogers was interesting.  I'll let you know where the 2013 WonderCon will be held in a future blog.

As for the 2012 WonderCon... I would give this first time in Anaheim location a VERY FINE / VERY FINE PLUS 8.25 out of a 10.0 possible comic book grade.  I don't see how this convention center could hold the Comic-Con International: San Diego after 2015, but it could hold a smaller con, such as WonderCon..!

Also, here is the link to the special photo album at my Facebook fan page for the pics taken at the WonderCon 2012!

Toon in tomorrow for Tina's Take on the WonderCon 2012!

~Michael D Hamersky On Comics

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,623 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,718 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly 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:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail 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

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Mentions That...   WonderCon 2012 Starts Today! In Anaheim, California!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3622 - 

Today is the day that WonderCon 2012 starts... In Anaheim, California, for three days, through March 18th!

Here is the Facebook Fan Page for the WonderCon.

Here is the web site for the WonderCon.

Here is the start of the programming for the 2012 WonderCon.

After seeing all of those, and you want to go... Here is the link to the registration page for prices & other info.

And, last, but not least... Here is the link to the photo album where I will be posting pics from the con at my Facebook fan page during and afterwards!

See you there ?!

~Michael D Hamersky On Comics

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,622 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,718 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly 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:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail 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

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents Vinnie's Take On...   Project: Hero by Rick L Phillips

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3621 - 

Today I am reviewing the novel "Project: Hero" by Rick L. Phillips. My dad recommended this book to me, as he knows I am an avid sci-fi fan. This 141 page book is about a man, Daniel Urich, a retired super hero who has created a foundation to help financially support these new and coming superheroes. He decided to do this after he learned of the death of a 90 year old homeless man who died in the gutters of a street. The importance of this to him, was the fact that this 90 year old man was the retired superhero Flag-waver, a WWII superhero in the aid to fight against Hitler. Daniel did not want this same fate to happen to these people who help keep his community safe.

The story was very nicely done. It was interesting and unique, and it gave more life than a retold tale of super heroes with the same powers. The author, Rick L. Phillips, also created unique names and abilities of the heroes that had never been done before (besides the obvious "Mr. Stretchable"). Rick had told the story with great detail, but didn't fill the pages with useless information that had little to nothing to do with the story. It was good he kept this in balance. He also developed all of the characters very well, not giving their whole life stories in the first paragraph, nor leaving the reader without knowing who the main characters were.

My two rating deductions are for a small amount of grammar/spelling incorrections, and repeated words. For example, on page 92, I quote " 'What is going on here?' ask Sprite." There are a few other situations where this occurs, and it is borderline annoying if you are a "grammar nazi" such as I am. The repeated words also have an example taken place on page 92, in which a conversation between the whole group of heroes has most of their speech quotes ending with "ask <Their Name>". Not only is it with "ask" and not "asked", but in this entire book, the only word used to describe a question was "ask". Just off of the top of my head, I can replace ask with ponders, questions, wonders, and others.  I feel like the editor of this book paid less attention after the first half of the book. I feel this way because it was roughly halfway through the book when these incorrections started to appear.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. I am being a little harsh on you with my previous paragraph, but your idea for this novel was just so great and original, you just needed to fix those couple of issues. I want to see you make another story, and I would love if you took these tips into consideration. I will be looking forward to your new books, Rick. Anyway, I give the novel "Project: Hero" a comic book grade of Very Fine Plus (VF+), an 8.5 out of 10.0 grade scale. I really do hope you see this review, and make use of my tips in your further publications. Many thanks for a good read.

~Vinnie

P.S. Here is where you can purchase a copy of this book! 

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,620 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,716 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly 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:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail 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

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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