Michael D Hamersky On Comics Will Be Attending...   The 2016 San Diego Comic Fest Running February 12th thru 15th!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #4064 -   I wanted to mention that I will be attending all three days plus preview night of this locally based comic convention.

I have posted blogs and photo albums from the first three years of this Comic Fest before.   I started helping the Comic Fest back in 2012 when it was first being organized.  So yes, I'm kind of partial to this show.

However I'm going to post a few links to show you what is happening at this year's Comic Fest.

First is the programming schedule.  Which is chock full of great programs and panels!  I have something to see almost every hour of the Comic Fest.  Plus there usually aren't lines to get in to see these panels!    

Second is the Artists Alley link.  This area is separate from the dealer rooms, and is at the top of the Tower.

Third is the list of exhibitors in the Dealer Rooms. I have always found good deals in the Dealer Room in previous years.

Fourth is the Ackermansion Cafe which you need to check out in person! This year the cafe is a special tribute to Forry Ackerman.

Now there are a lot more activities to check out at this year's San Diego Comic Fest, but the above are the ones that I am definitely going to be checking out for myself!  

And yes, single day tickets will be sold at the door.  The Comic Fest is once again being held at the Town & Country Resort in the Mission Valley area of San Diego.  Hope to see you there also!

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 4,000 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!   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!     

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 my blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to me for possible review, just contact me. 

 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...   Comic Book People 2 The Second Book By Jackie Estrada!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #4052 -   I've been attending what is now known as Comic-Con International: San Diego for many years.

In fact, I set up as a comic book dealer back in 1972 when the convention was known as San Diego's West Coast Comic Convention.

So I've seen it grown from a mini-con to a Mega-Con over the decades.

So has Jackie Estrada, who has attended since the beginning of the convention! 

Jackie has taken many photos over the years for her personal collection and recently published a book with many of those photos she had taken over the years included.  That was Comic Book People 1, which covered the 1970s & 1980s.  That book was published September 10th of 2014.

Now she has published Comic Book People 2, which covers photos she had taken during the 1990s at San Diego Comic Con / Comic-Con International, as well as at  the Chicago Comic-Con and WonderCon to the Small Press Expo and APE in the San Francisco area.  Actually yesterday was the 'Official Release Date' of the latest book, but I was out of town and missed blogging about it. 

So I'm letting you know today of this new book here in my blog and also at my Facebook Fan Page where I will be posting a link as well.

But before I do, I want to provide a more detailed description of the book for you as well as a few links.  Here's the details:

Jackie Estrada’s Comic Book People 2 Provides Unique Peek at the Comics Industry in the 1990s

The 1990s were a transitional era in comics: Image emerged, lots of other new publishers got into the mix, the direct market flourished, and the self-publishing and indie comics movements really took off. The number of comic conventions also increased all around the U.S. And Jackie Estrada was there, capturing the scene in candid images, hundreds of which will appear in Comic Book People 2: Photographs from the 1990s.

The high-quality hardcover coffeetable book is officially being published on September 10. It features some 600 candid photos taken at comic conventions in the 1990s, along with commentary and anecdotes about each image. The book is 176 pages, mostly with black-and-white images but including a 16-page color section. The Kickstarter-funded project is a follow-up to last year’s well-received Comic Book People: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s.

“The 1990s were a great time for new faces that are now familiar fixtures, such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Jeff Smith, Terry Moore, Garth Ennis, Colleen Doran, David Lapham, and Paul Pope,” says Estrada. “But even as these new creators came on the scene, a number of Golden and Silver Age greats were still with us, and I was fortunate to be able to photograph many of them.” Among the venerated artists in the book are Frank Frazetta, Carmine Infantino, Gene Colan, Al Williamson, Sheldon Moldoff, Nick Cardy, and of course Will Eisner and Jack Kirby.

It was during the 1990s that Estrada and her husband Batton Lash formed Exhibit A Press to produce his comics series Wolff& Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre (aka Supernatural Law). Many of the photos in Comic Book People 2 were taken at shows where they exhibited, from the Chicago ComiCon and WonderCon to the Small Press Expo and APE, as well as the San Diego Comic-Con. The book covers the full spectrum of creators, from mainstream superhero writers and artists to small press cartoonists, as well as people behind the scenes in the industry, such as publishers, editors, retailers, and distributors. Among the events of the 1990s featured are the foundings of Milestone and Friends of Lulu and activities of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Jackie has been both a comics fan and a photographer since the 1960s, and she has been to every San Diego Comic-Con. Her involvement in comics has included editing publications for Comic-Con, being the administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards since 1990, serving as president of Friends of Lulu, and being the co-publisher of Exhibit A Press, which has produced Comic Book People 2. Her photos of comics creators have appeared in numerous books and publications, from Paul Levitz’s 75 Years of DC Comics and Julius Schwartz’s autobiography Man of Two Worlds to Alter Ego and Comics Buyer’s Guide. Most prominently, dozens of her photos were used in Dark Horse’s Comics: Between the Panels and in Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers,Fans, and Friends. Most recently, her photos could be seen in the PBS special on the history of superheroes.

Here's the links I promised:

Where you can buy the book directly from Jackie Estrada, at Exhibit A Press. 

Wikipedia entry for Jackie Estrada

Sample page from the book:  As shown to the left. 

Oh, and here's just a small sampling of who is pictured in the book:

Golden/Silver Age:

Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Bob Kane, Dick Sprang, Julie Schwartz, Marty Nodell, Sheldon Moldoff, Irwin Hasen, Vin Sullivan, Harry Lampert, Ramona Fradon, Bob Haney, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Russ Heath, Joe Kubert, Nick Cardy, Bob Oksner, Gene Colan, John Buscema, Dick Ayers, John Romita, Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta and more!

Writers:

Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Alan Grant, Louise Simonson, Chris Claremont, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Kurt Busiek, Elaine Lee

Writer/Artists:

Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, John Byrne, Eddie Campbell, Mike Allred, Stan Sakai, Matt Wagner, Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, Dave Stevens

Artists:

Bill Sienkiewicz, Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Dave Gibbons, Jill Thompson, P. Craig Russell, Jon J Muth, Art Adams, George Perez, Mike Ploog

Indy/Alt Creators:

Hernandez Bros, Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, Art Spiegelman, Ellen Forney, Chris Ware, Jessica Abel, Grass Green, Joe Matt and more!

Plus: s/f fantasy authors, TV/Film/animation people, and behind-the-scenes Comic-Con people

 My thanks to Jackie Estrada for bringing her latest book to my attention. And congrats on this second volume!

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 4,000 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!   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!     

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 my blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to me for possible review, just contact me. 

 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 An Update On The...   The Mid 1970s Comic Book Dealers! (As Shown At Various Sources!)

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #4046 -   At the left is an advertisement page from a mid 1977 Marvel Comics book. 

Mid 1970's Comic Books Dealers advertising on this nationwide page were:

Richard Alf of San Diego CA, Robert Bell of Hauppage NY,  Howard Rogofsky of Flushing NY, Discount Comics from Santee CA, American Comic Book Company from Studio City CA, Grand Book Inc from Brooklyn NY, Clint's Comics from Kansas City MO, and Superhero Comics from Weston Canada.

Recently I posted the membership page of the 1973 San Diego Comic Con on my Facebook Page.  As seen at this link.  The page was posted small via the Facebook photo procedure, so I'm going to list here in my blog those names identified as dealers.

Those dealers included:  #6 Larry Bigman, #11 Joe Colabella, #16 Gary Nishimura, #17 Mark Reynolds, #24 Melville C Hill, #25 Lucas Dang, #26 Gary Carter (later the publisher of Comic Book Marketplace!), #29 North County Book Shop, #30 Bob Sidebottom (later an Editor of a few comic books), #40 Tom Heaton, # 42 Joe Kotuna, #43 Tony Raiola, #44 Shane Shellenbarger, #74 Roger C Nelson, #78 David Boring, #91 Lance Casebeer, #93 Jay Knowles, #121 Don Morris, #122 Russ Cochran - (still selling today), #127 Jim Buser, #128 Joe Swan, #129 Will Conine, #136 Marc Zarkarin, #145 Harry A Hopkins, #150 Tom Tallmon, #169 David T Alexander (still a dealer today in 2015), #174 Michael D Haw(m)ersky (that's me!), #188 Terry Stroud (still a comics dealer & was a comic book writer), #195 Arnold Berman, #198 Tom French (SDCC's dealer room organizer - died 1997), & #201 Prince & the Pauper Imported Toys.

If you have been buying comics since the 1970s, you will recognize several of the above names!   Some like myself went on to advertise in The Buyers Guide, as well as other publications.  Some just sold at comic cons that sprang up nationwide during the following years!

Also, the photo to the left is a photo of myself holding the 1973 San Diego Comic Con Souvenir Book, along with a copy of the 2pages showing the 1973 membership list as of date of publication!

BTW before I forget... Richard Alf, named in the first paragraph above, who also had bought many of my duplicates issues before I started dealing myself, went on to sell out to Chuck Rozanski, Owner of Mile High Comics in Colorado, in 1978. Richard had built his mail order business into a going concern, but by then there were some major competitors in mail order including Pacific Comics (also in San Diego), Passaic Book Center and of course Robert Bell.

I will be adding more info to this mini-history in the months to follow...

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 4,000 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!   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!     

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 my blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to me for possible review, just contact me. 

 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 Updates On The...   2016 San Diego Comic Fest As Presented At The August 2015 Volunteers Meeting

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #4044 -   Yesterday I attended the August 2015 San Diego Comic Fest Volunteers Meeting at the Serra Mesa Library in San Diego, along with twenty-three other volunteers.  Not all volunteers were able to meet this meeting, but Mike Towry, (founder of San Diego Comic Fest), brought us all up to date on what had happened since the last Volunteers Meeting.

I'm blogging about this meeting so I can bring you up to date also, as well as posting it on the San Diego Comic Fest Facebook Fan Page, which I've been administrator of for the past four years.

The Volunteers Meeting is held once a month at different locations.  It is best to check the Fan Page for news of the next meeting.

Here is what was discussed at the August Meeting:

It is only six months till the 2016 San Diego Comic Fest!  Even though the next Fest is next year, we only have six months left before it starts!   The 2016 Comic Fest runs during Presidents Day Weekend, February 12 - 15th.  That would be Friday Preview Night, Saturday, Sunday & Monday, which is a holiday.

San Diego Comic Fest had tables at:  San Diego Comic-Con International, WesterCon, OzCon, and will have a table at Gaslight Gathering in September.

Those of you that saw Joe Clokey at Comic-Con will be pleased to know he is coming to our 2016 Comic Fest.  Joe is the son of Gumby creator, Art Clokey. Gumby is celebrating his 60th Anniversary th is year.

The Cafe at the 2016 Comic Fest will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Forry Ackerman.

It was announced that we will have Jay Allen Sanford as a guest at the 2016 Comic Fest. Jay is known for his work at Revolutionary Comics, Pacific Comics, Carnal Comics & as a columnist / cartoonist at the San Diego Reader. 

Scott Shaw! plus six or so professional comic book artists are looking in to illustrate the 2016 badges for Comic Fest.  Those of you that went to San Diego Comic Con in the early years will remember those styles of badges!

T-Shirts - Yes there will be a 2016 Comic Fest t-shirt.  Only one style / illustration.  Limited to probably only 150 of them.

Look for an announcement of a one day even in San Diego this October, which is when the San Diego Comic Fest was usually held.   Due to Town & Country being bought out, and the East Side scheduled to be demolished, we will not be having our Comic Fest this October, but instead in February of 2016.

That's it for this month's report!

For more info in the days / weeks to follow... Be sure to 'Like' the Facebook Fan Page for the San Diego Comic Fest!

For photos from the August Volunteer Meeting please see this photo album at my Facebook Fan Page!  

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 4,000 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!   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!     

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 my blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to me for possible review, just contact me. 

 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'!

---

Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On...   The Souvenir Program Book Of The 2015 Comic-Con International

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #4034 -    I've mentioned already that I attended all four days of the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in this Blog. (As seen at blog #4031.)

I also mentioned that the Comic-Con gave away a souvenir book, an events guide and a quick guide.

This blog will review the 'Souvenir' book only.

I had seen the cover artwork at the San Diego Public Library, when I went to see the 'Art of Comic-Con International' exhibit.  (As seen in this blog post, #4029.)

I immediately put the book away to read after the end of the Comic-Con, as the events guide and the quick guide were the items I needed to navigate the convention itself.

 Now that I have read the book, I'm ready to review blog it here.

First of all, the cover... The reason The Spirit is on the cover is because 2015 is the 75th Annniversary of this character.  The Spirit was first published by Will Eisner in 1940.   Will passed away a few years ago, (in 2005), so Michael Cho was chosen to do the cover.  I was always impressed when seeing see Will at Comic-Con over the years.  Which is why I chose to read some of 'Spirit' reprints.   For those of you that like 'The Spirit', the cover should be enough to warrant picking up a copy for your collection.

Skipping a couple of pages on the inside... You would come to the Contents page.  The titles of the articles are presented along with the page numbers where they could be found on the inside.

The next important page, (after skipping a few ad pages), is the credits page.  There are a lot of people that worked on this souvenir book, as well as the Comic-Con.  They all seem to be listed on this credits page.

Then the President's Message is shown as well as the 'Welcome to Comic-Con' write up by David Glanzer. It is good to read this as you want to know what is being touted for the 2015 Comic-Con.

The first section is the '2015 Special Guests' section.  Starting on page 7 and running through page 23 with a few ad pages inbetween.  I saw several of these 'special guests' at the Comic-Con, and will be blogging about them in the near future.  In the meantime you could check out the photo albums I took of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday events. I did miss seeing Stan Lee at his panel, as the line was too long for the hall, and a lot of people were turned away and could not get in.

The next section was 'The Craft of Comics', where seven top professionals talk aboout how they edit, write, draw, color, letter, and design comics.  The pages are kind of 'heavy' reading, and run from page 27 through 41.

Next I'm going to talk about articles that were of interest to me while reading this book.  That would not include all the articles...

Pages 44 thru 48 was on '100 Years of King Features Syndicate', by Brian Walker.  This was a well researched article. I found it to be a worthwhile read.

Pages 50 thru 54 was on the 'Birth of The Spirit' by Paul Levitz.  Also a very good article on the origin of this character.  A must read!

Pages 60 thru 64 was 'Will Eisner, The Spirit and Me' by Denis Kitchen.  Denis reprinted many of The Spirit original stories.  In this article he talks about first meeting Will, and what became of that meeting.  I had read this account before in a prior magazine, but it is of interest to those that would like to know more about that friendship.

Oh, and there are several pages of artwork submitted by outside artists, ranging from locals in the San Diego area, to outside of the USA.  Good interpretations for the most part.  Each article would have a few pieces of artwork shown after the article.

Pages 76 thru 78 was 'Confessions of a Robin and Catwoman (and Occasional Joker) Editor - by Jordan B Gorfinkel, as told to A.J. Frost.   Yes a short article on these Batman characters. 

I'm skipping a few articles and getting down to pages 124 - 127. "Like a Bolt of Lightning: SHAZAM! The History of the Original Captain Marvel.  To me in the 1960s,  'Captain Marvel' was the character in 'Marvel Super-Heroes' comic book.  I didn't know about this original Captain Marvel published by Fawcett Comics.  You see, the Fawcett character ceased being published in 1953, the year after I was born.  I didn't see any of those comics until I became a comic book dealer.  The only other Captain Marvel I knew about was published by M.F. Enterprises from 1966-67.  So this article by Mark Lucas could be of interest to you also.

Pages 130 thru 134 is an excellent article titled 'The Interrupted History Behind Captain Marvel's 75th Anniversary', by RT.C. Harvey.   Very good.  You get this book, be sure to check it out!

Pages 148 thru 150 had 'Oh, the Inhumanity!, about the 50th Anniversary of the Inhumans.  As the Fantastic Four was my favorite comic book series growing up, I was involved with the Inhumans from the get go.  Charles Novinskie does a good job remembering the Inhumans in this article.

Pages 160 thru 165 is 'Steranko and the Origin of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Douglas Wolk.  I remember not liking the fact that this series kicked out by Torch series in the Strange Tales comic book back in 1965.  But with artwork by Jack Kirby, I couldn't help but continue to buy the series.  I always thought that Jim Steranko added a lot ot this series.  This article tells quite a bit about the history of the series, and the value of Steranko to taking the series to a higher point.  For those of you that love Steranko art, page 164 has his inking to Jack Kirby tryout pages for this series.  Not to be missed!

Pages 172 thru 176 has '50 Years of T.H.U.N.D.E.R.' by Michael Uslan and Robert Klein.  Those two were 14 years of age when Tower Comics started those comic books.  I remember back in 1965 that Tower had poor distribution in Kodiak Island, Alaska where I was living on the Navy base, and poor distribution in South San Diego / Imperial Beach where I was living in 1969.  Tower printed comics from 1965 to 1969.  This is a good article by these two.  Be sure to read it!

Pages 178 thru 179 had 'Wally Wood: The Road to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. by J David Spurlock.  A good simple one page article on Wally.

The rest of the pages were on more newer comics, and comics companies. 

Then came the Will Eisner Awards nominations for 2015 & the recipients for the 2014 Awards.  Good reading for those interested in the 'Oscars' of comics.

The final pages, 'In Memoriam', Remembering Those We Lost In The Last Year', was a column I read in each year's souvenir book.  As I don't see all those named as passing within the year.   It is good that there are those remember each of these folks with an article and a photo of those that passed on...

Whew!  That's it!  Another Souvenir Book read and semi-reviewed here in my blog.

For those of you that didn not have a chance to pick one up at Comic-Con, I have several that I will be listing for sale at my online comic book shop, ComicBooksCircus.com.  Check it out for the 2015 Book, as well as previous years.

~ Michael  

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 4,000 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!   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!     

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 my blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to me for possible review, just contact me. 

 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'!

---