The big Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade, billed as America’s Largest Balloon Parade, was held this morning along the Embarcadero.
My camera captured a few happy “early risers” before I jumped onto the trolley for work.
The annual parade features all sorts of popular characters, including Garfield, Mr. Potato Head and many, many others.
Several hours before the start of the parade, the balloons were being inflated one after another in a parking lot near the County Administration Building!
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A few months ago Frankenstein’s monster came to life in downtown San Diego. I saw the awesome monster this afternoon when I stepped through the door of artist James Watts’ studio!
The creature, years in the making, now lives among other imaginative sculptures and works of art. I blogged about some of that artwork a short while ago here.
Frankenstein’s monster has a skin made of hammered aluminum. He’s covered with images cut from old lunchboxes, advertisements, and other odd things. When the innocent monster was assembled and jolted into life, it appears his skin rapidly absorbed impressions from the world he was born into.
James Watts wants viewers of his art to make their own discoveries. Each block that composes the monster’s body is numbered. The two hemispheres of the brain include the word NO or YES. One includes the moon, the other the sun. He showed me several other cleverly arranged images. I saw fun word play.
The sculpture is like a giant jigsaw puzzle or visual poem. All is open to interpretation.
The heart of the Frankenstein monster is made of three pieces that fit together. One piece represents love, another lust, another the mind.
I saw several superheroes and cartoon characters on the monster’s skin, parts of old advertisements, and multiple instances of the Three Stooges.
What do you see?
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Are the kids bored being stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic? Are you bored?
The Comic-Con Museum has created something enjoyable for everyone to do! They’ve produced their first Fun Book!
Fun Book #1 has pages to color, instructions on how to draw a cute cartoon character, word puzzles and other activities! Download the .pdf here and print it out!
The Comic-Con Museum has launched a web page called Comic-Con Museum@Home, where all sorts of cool stuff will be appearing in the future, including lots of exclusive videos. Check it out here!
Like many of you, I’m really going to miss Comic-Con this summer, which was cancelled for the first time in 50 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. But time flies and next year will be here before we know it.
And the Comic-Con Museum still plans a Grand Opening in 2021!
I can’t wait!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Charlie Brown welcomes visitors to the Peanuts Pop-Up Shop in San Diego during 2019 Comic-Con, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Today is the 50th Anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon. Half a century ago, Neil Armstrong, one of three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, stepped down onto the lunar surface and proclaimed: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
That first step by a man might not have happened without the help of a beloved cartoon dog.
Visitors to the Peanuts Pop-Up shop in San Diego during 2019 Comic-Con have the opportunity to see fun displays that recall how Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts, one of the world’s most popular comic strips, helped NASA to safely complete their missions to the moon.
This very special Comic-Con exhibition is titled To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA. The exhibit, which includes humorous comic strips, is on loan from the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.
If a couple of my photos appear unusual, that’s because I converted them into cartoons!
To read the signs, click those photos and they will enlarge.
Astronaut Snoopy graphic on the outside of Bubbles Boutique in the Gaslamp Quarter, where the Peanuts Pop-Up Shop is located during Comic-Con.
A look inside the Peanuts Pop-Up Shop at two walls of the exhibit.
One of two Peanuts comic strips on display. Snoopy won’t need dinner now that he’s heading to the moon.
Peanuts, NASA, and the 21st Century. NASA and Peanuts Worldwide have partnered to inspire generations of students to learn about space exploration.
Snoopy to the Rescue. Snoopy became NASA’s safety mascot after the fire that killed three Apollo 1 astronauts.
50th Anniversary of Apollo 10. The Apollo 10 crew chose the call sign for the lunar module during their mission: Snoopy.
The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center has the world’s largest collection of original Peanuts comic strips.
Charles M. Schulz, 1922-2000. Many of his popular characters were named after art instructors he met.
The second of two Peanuts comic strips on display. Snoopy beat the neighbor’s cat to the moon.
Photos from the Apollo missions, and how Snoopy was an important part of that history.
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Look what I discovered walking along the Embarcadero this morning! The United States Postal Service has set up a special booth between Seaport Village and the USS Midway Museum in celebration of 2019 San Diego Comic-Con!
Not only do they have a very cool R2-D2 mailbox on display, but there are all sorts of awesome souvenirs for sale. I saw Marvel Comics postcards and collectible DC Comics prints, plus tote bags, pins, commemorative stamps (of course) and stationery with an assortment of pop culture characters including Snoopy. They even have Spider-Man dolls for the kids!
Should you walk along the Embarcadero during Comic-Con, make sure to check it out!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Thanos with Infinity Gauntlet and Jean Grey as Phoenix cosplay.
Check out all these super cool cosplay photos that I took yesterday at 2019 San Diego Comic-Con!
Negan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage cosplay.
Shazam cosplay.
Ape Avengers cosplay!
Spider-Man cosplay.
Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn cosplay.
Joker in mask from The Dark Knight cosplay.
Cool dystopian character cosplay.
Captain Hook, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell cosplay.
Jedi cosplay.
Cover Girl (G.I. Joe) and Firefly (Cobra) cosplay.
It’s Sunny, mascot of the San Diego Sockers! Not sure if this is considered cosplay, but whatever.
John Coffey of The Green Mile cosplay.
Maleficent cosplay.
Cool versions of Thor (or perhaps Steel) and Superman at Comic-Con.
Marge Simpson cosplay times three!
Fred Flintstone cosplay.
Catwoman cosplay.
Thor cosplay.
Captain America cosplay.
Drax the Destroyer and Gamora cosplay.
Deadpool cosplay.
Obi-Wan Kenobi cosplay.
Riddler and Harley Quinn on motorcycles cosplay!
Lots of very cool cosplay can be seen at 2019 San Diego Comic-Con!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Today I entered the future Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park to check out PAWmicon! As I walked around, I poked my nose into the gallery where the Cover Story: The Art of Comic-Con 50 exhibit is located, and in one corner I discovered walls full of original art created by kids!
The colorful artwork, often featuring superheroes and pop culture characters, is drawn to resemble the covers of Comic-Con souvenir program books! Some of the designs are super inventive!
These covers that I photographed are just a small fraction of those on display.
Creativity rocks at the Comic-Con Museum!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
As I walked down Fifth Avenue through the Gaslamp today, I noticed the Chuck Jones Gallery is now ready for 2019 San Diego Comic-Con!
There’s tons of Marvel artwork right near the entrance, including some awesome pieces by Alex Ross. They’ve got framed prints of classic comic book covers and some stretched canvas, too, which I’m sure will be super popular with fans. Like last year, there’s also cool Star Wars artwork, and lots of fun Looney Tunes stuff, of course!
Here’s the Chuck Jones Gallery’s event page. Creators you can meet at the gallery during 2019 Comic-Con include Simpsons storyboard artist Stephen Reis; Star Wars artists Rodel Gonzalez and Rob Kaz; and Willie Ito, who worked with Golden Age of Animation greats Chuck Jones, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Check it out! A very unique trolley has debuted for 2019 San Diego Comic-Con!
The Infinity Train trolley, which promotes an upcoming animated show on Cartoon Network, is decorated with graphics on both the outside AND inside!
According to Wikipedia: “Infinity Train is an upcoming American animated series created by former Regular Show writer/storyboard artist Owen Dennis for Cartoon Network. The series follows 12-year-old Tulip and her two-in-one robot companion One-One in their journey through a seemingly infinite train with limitless possibilities traveling through a completely barren wasteland. They are joined by Atticus, an intelligent, talking Corgi and king of a Corgi kingdom in one of the train’s cars, as they search for a way to Tulip’s home.”
Today I stepped into that fantastic world of infinite possibility and took a ride on San Diego’s cool version of the Infinity Train!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Look what I spotted early this morning at the MTS trolley yard! It’s the first 2019 San Diego Comic-Con trolley that I’ve seen so far! I recognize characters from Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants!
Right about now a whole bunch of cool Comic-Con designs should start appearing as wraps are applied to trolley cars. I learned from one trolley driver that teams of six people apply each wrap, three per side. Every car takes about a day or so.
I’ll keep my eyes wide open in the days ahead and will post more Comic-Con wraps as I see them. Stay tuned!
UPDATE!
I spotted a SpongeBob SquarePants trolley after work and got some good photos of both sides!
UPDATE!
I got pics of a completely different SpongeBob SquarePants design on a second trolley car! Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time and was only able to get one side…
UPDATE!
I got the other side of the second trolley!
(I also believe a third SpongeBob design was being applied to one of the older trolleys this morning. I’ll watch for it!)
ANOTHER UPDATE!
I took pics of a third new SpongeBob design! This wrap was applied to an older-style trolley car!
What other fun Comic-Con wraps will appear in the days ahead?
Stay tuned!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Cool San Diego Sights! 