Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Cons
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3200: The 41st Comic-Con International: San Diego ended on Sunday, July 25th, at 5PM, and I had not yet read all of the 2010 Souvenir Book at the Con! That's because there was so much to see and do at this comic con; that for the first time ever in attending this Con, I didn't get to walk the whole event which included the dealers section! Plus I keep seeing people who recognized me from photos at this blog and from our Facebook Group Page at Hamersky.com, that I didn't make the time to read all of the Events Guide, let alone the Souvenir Book! Plus I really enjoyed meeting everyone in person thus matching faces with names! But that's no excuse for not putting this 2010 Souvenir Book up to the top of my 'to read list', which I did after unpacking the car for the 5th time! We did pick up a lot at the Comi-Con this year to read and sell in our online store, ComicBooksCircus.com! It's now Friday, 5 days after the 2010 Comic-Con ended, and I've finished reading this massive Souvenir Book...Whew! So what were the 'Main Features' of this year's Souvenir Book? Well, here they are direct from the promotional literature on the con's web site: Themes and Anniversaries • The Year of the Writer • 100th Anniversary of Krazy Kat
• 75th Anniversary of DC Comics
• 60th Anniversary of Peanuts
And what's 'My Take' on these? Well, it's supposed to be a Comic Book Convention, right?! So I guess that running the 75th Anniversary of DC Comics would make better copy for the front cover. So that is the feature this year. With DC's 'Big 3' characters. And not a bad illustration at all of them by Ivan Reis (penciller), Oclair Alber (inker), and Alex Sinclair (colorist).
Going back to the order in which the features were presented in the Souvenir book is: The Year of the Writer - Article on 'Adaptation vs Authors' and a panel discussion at Wonder Con 2010 'Comic Writers Unite' make up this section. The latter is a good retelling of the panel for those that missed it in San Francisco earlier this year. Krazy Kat 100th Anniversary - I'll be honest, I've never really enjoyed reading 'Krazy Kat' strips...it might be because of the style and the fact that it was way before my time that I just don't "get it". However, I do see the value in celebrating the 100th Anniversary of this important comic strip.
60th Anniversary of Beetle Bailey - My affection for this comic strip has grown over the years. I liked it years ago, and even more today. Our little newspaper here in North San Diego County has very few comic strips that I read. This is definitely one of them. Good presentation with historical background as well as what's going on today. Happy Anniversary to the cast of 'Beetle Bailey' and the Walker Family! There were other sections in this Souvenir Book as usual. The hi-lights for me were: The bios for the 2010 Special Guests - So much easier than looking them up elsewhere. I found a few guests here that I met in person earlier, not realizing all that had done so far. The In Memoriam section which included a few persons that passed away since the last Souvenir Book that I wasn't aware of. The Awards section would be good for those that haven't attended Comic-Con for a while, as it also listed the 'Eisner Hall of Fame' winners. Once again, the staff of this Souvenir Book have published a very good book. It truly is a 'Souvenir Book' and one that all who attended will be looking back at fondly in the years to come! My comic book grade for this year's Souvenir Book is a NEAR MINT (NM) 9.4 grade out of a 10.0 grading scale. If YOU didn't attend and want to order one of these, we will have a few up for sale in our online comic book shop in this store aisle, as well as some from earlier years. --------------------------- Again, my thanks to those that are listed on page 3 of this Souvenir Book for another great job this year! And my thanks to the GCD for providing the comic book covers! PLUS...My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at the 3,200 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog! ~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
http://www.comicbookscircus.com/
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• 60th Anniversary of Beetle Bailey
The 'DC Comics 75th Anniversary' pages and articles were well written and presented that even a newbie to the Comic Con would find interest in this pages allocated to this topic. Besides, there are a lot of comics fans that are interested in the 'Big 3' as well as other DC Characters. Well written articles, and Fan & Pro art used in this section!
60th Anniversary of Peanuts - A good feature on the latest Milestone that the Peanuts gang has hit this year. Those that enjoy 'Peanuts' will like this section of several articles.
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. 
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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!
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These are my thoughts about the San Diego Comic Con International 2010.
I think this place has become too famous for its own good. My dad tells me stories of the Comic Con in 1973 [Well, the same story over and over ;) ] and it is somewhat hard to believe that this was at one point, very small with very few attendees. It is also hard to believe that it used to be mostly a convention about comics. Now-a-days, it is crowded, but it is about comics and pop culture, which brings in way more audience. More attendees means more money to spend on programs, but I think the numbers are way more than what's needed to host great entertainment.
The previous cons' freebie table was full of great stuff that was valuable, but this year it didn't have much. In the previous years, they would give out magazines and other valuable things, but this year, the table was covered in advertisements. Nothing really of value was found, so we didn't spend much time there.
And last, but certainly not least, for crowd control, they should sell less tickets than they do now. I am surprised there hasn't been any accidents of people getting run over and injured because they tripped and people ran over them trying to go through the door to the exhibit floor (or at least any accidents like that, that I haven't heard of yet).
My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! 
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!
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Autographs - There are separate parts to this - Under the Sails & at the Exhibitor Booths & Off-Site.
Freebies Table (Under the Sails) - You gotta be kidding! This was the 'worst selection' of items I have seen in my many years of attending this con. I found three (3), count 'em...3 items of any value during the whole 5 days & 4 evenings. And I went by that table a lot going back and forth between program halls! What were they? The Animation Magazine with Tron on the cover, The Prometheus Project Book 1: Trapped by Douglas E Richards, and the Uncle Jam Quarterly (magazine) published by Phillip Dana Yeh. I no longer pick up posters as they are too hard to handle, (even with a tube that we brought for this). 
Security - Contrary to what I've read since coming back from the Comic-Con...I found the Security this year to be the best yet in many years! 
Fullfillment Room - To go from the above topic to One of the Worst, IF Not THE Worst thing that happened to us at Comic-Con is because after feeling good about how Security controlled themselves and the crowds this year, our early morning on Sunday fell really flat. 
The 2010 Events Guide - Yesterday I mentioned how we enjoyed seeing the schedule posted online. The schedules were both published timely and for an app to use with your smart phone. However I found that using our new Droids that way added to the problem of our Droids' batteries running down. 
2010 Souvenir Program Book - Would you believe that it is two and a half days after the Comic-Con and I STILL haven't been able to read this in its entirety? 
On-site Newsletters - This publication is a really good idea. Unfortunately the few areas it is distributed at are far and few between. 
Small Press Section - I will be covering this area in more detail in the weeks to come. That's because once again I found several Indy Publishers that I had not come across before at this Con or other comic cons. However, and there's that 'however' again...This section is so far removed from the 'Artists Alley' that there seems to be a very wide gulf between these two sections. This is probably on purpose, but it makes it very hard to see both sections on a timely manner, or refer people to either. 
Off-Site Parties / Events / Etc. - This is one "area" that this year I consciously made the decision to invite my youngest child to attend the Comic-Con with us, knowing full well that we wouldn't be able to attend as many Off-Site Parties / Events.
My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! 
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!
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!
Memberships for 2010 - We bought our 4 days plus Preview Night memberships at the 2009 Comic-Con on the last day. Same procedure as usual in obtaining the memeberships...EXCEPT for the Price for 2010 JUMPED from $65 to $100! NOT GOOD! But I knew it was still worth it for us, as this is a major con going event for our business. I still remember the 'STICKER SHOCK' when con goers last year heard what the new rate would be. AND the thing of its is...This is the ONLY place where I will run into people I haven't seen for years, i.e. Roger & Val Kevan. Roger's 1st SDCC was in 1973, the 2nd Year I set up as a Comic Book Dealer at this Con! Grade: FINE (F) 6.0 (Out of a 10.0 grading scale).
Memberships for 2011 - There was a VERY LONG Line on this year's Preview Night for Memberships for 2011! With NO Overhead announcement that I heard about it. Plus the line snaked around the 'Freebies Table', causing many to ask those in line what they were standing in line for as there was nothing on the Freebies Table itself! Not Good! For 'self-preservation' I stood in line, after being flagged down by a 'line buddy' from last year who informed me on what was going on. After seeing that line had almost doubled in size while I was talking with him, I decided to stay with him and purchase the 4 days + Preview Night for 2011 then and there! This with approx 15 minutes before the Under the Sails lineup was about to be let in to the Exhibit Hall. Grade: GOOD (G) 2.0 (Please Note: 'Good' is NOT Really 'Good'. It is one of the lowest grades in comics grading. Sort of a misnomer for those that don't know comics grading).
Parking - Prepaid parking was initiated for this year approximately on June 5th. With my network of almost 5,000 Facebook Friends, I found out about it quickly. I read the pre-paid parking spiel... Realized it could mean trouble by either buying them or not buying them, and opted to buy the prepaid parking under the San Diego Convention Center that very hour. Cha-Ching!! Each day's worth of parking was sold separately, meaning that a $2 service charge was assessed on each day's permit. An extra $10 in service charges was paid when doing it this way.
Posting of the Schedule For Attendees Prior to Preview Night - WoW! Excellent work of having the Schedule posted way ahead of the actual opening on Preview Night! PLUS an app where you could pick what you wanted to see, and print out, plus have loaded to your smart phone! The only thing missing for me was a full grid line page of each day's events like what is printed in the 2010 Events Guide. Other than that...EXCELLENT execution! We used the actual printed copy of the 2010 Events Guide to fall back on. Grade: NEAR MINT (NM) 9.4.
Art Show - As usual, with a policy of no cameras and no bags, (where do you easily check them for a quick impromptu walk-through?), I didn't view this section once again...Heck I haven't seen this section for a few years! It's not fair to ask one person in your party to stay outside watching the bags and cameras while you are taking a look inside the area. Plus I kind of feel guilty leaving someone else 'holding the bags', quite literally! Please Note: The Grading is NOT for the items inside the section, but for the section itself. Grade: POOR (P) 0.5.
Anime Schedule - I used to stop in late nights or between other programs schedules. 
Artists Alley - The last few years I've developed more of an understanding and expanded interest of this section. At least until this year. The section was moved closer to the doors opening to the Lobby. However the section itself seemed to be 'cut' into two sub-sections. One with the majority of the tables, and the other section up against the final wall with less tables. Almost like when Interstate 5 came through San Diego decades ago, separating Little Italy into two sections. The one section to the East of I-5 died out, while the area West of I-5 had some troubles until recent years when 'Little Italy' was re-developed into what it is today. This year's Artists Alley seemed a little 'dis-jointed' in layout. Plus the main wayfare went right the two sections with attendees not even wanting to stop in this section plowing right through to the back where this section used to be.
My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! 
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!
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!
celebratory
All over the walls were drawings of famous people in history, comic book heroes, and just random cartoons. The place was calming and enjoyable, and the food was delicious!
I of course asked Sergio to have a picture with him, and he did so. The picture can be seen to the left.
Congratulations on the Third Issue, and the New Trading Card Set! That Party was much fun, and I wouldn't mind attending a 100th Issue Celebration! 
Tina and I would like to thank George Karlias of Rochester Electronics for allowing us to bring our 'Official Comic-Con Photographer' to this fabulous party. As you can see, it definitely made a 'big impression' on him...enough that it was the 1st guest blog that he wanted to do!
My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! 
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!
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!