Cal Comic Con!

Today was Cal Comic Con, one day, two rooms packed with dealers and tables for artists!  This was located the Hotel FERA in Orange. Nice venue. The strangest part was that was actually comic books at a comic book convention! This is comic book dealers who don’t have the latest issues, more of a concentration of back issues with Silver and Bronze Age. At the con was the Golden Apple table, a well known L.A. comic store, they were fundraising for their Golden Apple Comic & Art Foundation. It is working with the University of Pennsylvania to preseve comic collections. Filmmaker, Kevin Smith, is an Advisory Board Member. They had available the JLA/Avengers trade paperback Hero Initiative variant! 

Today at Cal Comic Con, photo by the author. 

Always ask dealers for what you are searching. You can go to a box and flip through it to get a good idea about the prices and selection. Probably, the highlight was the artists at the tables. The artist with a long line was Kelley Jones, he was sketching and signing comics. I didn’t have my copy of Frankenstein Alive, Alive! #4 (2018) that had Jones complete the artwork for Bernie Wrightson on that issue. Jones said that he had planned to returrn to the area next year. The first season of Sandman adapted various issues up to #18 “Dream of a Thousand Cats.” Issue #19 is part three of Dream Country, one of my favorite issues, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” #22 is the first chapter of Season of Mists with art by Kelley Jones.  I loved this storyline which had the gods from many parts of the world, including Thor, and also Lucifer. Most likely recast from the Lucifer series. 

It is always fun to go to Howard Chaykin’s table. I brought him the Comics For Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds trade paperback to which he wrote and provided art for “American Flagg: The Children’s Crusade.” I brought him a few Shadow comics that he wrote and drew and Chaykin mentioned three Shadow films, which I believe was The Shadow Strikes (1937), The Shadow (1940), and The Shadow Returns (1946). Another artist that was fun to have a conversation was Thomas Yeates. He had a print of Prince Valiant, Yeates is currently working on the comic strip with Mark Schultz. There are several mini-graphic novels in the Graphic Myths and Legends series including Atalanta: The Race Against Destiny (2008) and King Arthur: Excalibur Unsheathed (2007). These are great ways to introduce myth to young readers or to return to them with some incredible art. Lastly, there was Mike Vosburg who had copies of Lori Lovecraft, an adult series with a starlet who opens the Necronomicon! Vosburg also had available his Retrowood Omnibus that has a noir private investigator! There were a number of great artists and dealers at Cal Comic Con! 

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