Did you know that the holiday season television animated classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas received a censored edit due to “inappropriate” language? And that the Grinch’s green color was likely inspired by a rental car?
Those are just two of many fun facts you’ll learn about the Grinch should you visit The Chuck Jones Gallery, which recently relocated to San Diego’s Seaport Village!
The surprising “Did You Know?” display stands next to works of collectible Grinch art created by Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as beloved children’s author and cartoonist Dr. Seuss.
I happened by the gallery today and enjoyed viewing a wide variety of classic pop culture art, and learning some surprising Grinch history!
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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 X.
The beloved cartoon Peanuts created by Charles Schulz will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. The San Diego Comic-Con 2024 activation for Peanuts is anticipating that big milestone with lots of free fun for the family!
The Peanuts offsite is located along MLK Promenade and is open during Comic-Con from 10 am to 6 pm. There’s seldom a big line, so don’t expect a big wait.
I dropped by this morning to check out what the Peanuts folks were offering this year!
Here come some photos.
As you can see, there are several backdrops for photo ops, lots of Peanuts merch and collectibles for sale if that’s what you want, information about the history of Charles Schulz and his comic strip and the animated holiday specials, and when you go back outside there’s a Camp Snoopy where you can relax and watch classic Peanuts animated cartoons!
And I noticed lots of smiles!
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
More offsite activations are appearing in San Diego outside Comic-Con 2024, just a day before Preview Night!
The Petco Park Interactive Zone has finally begun to materialize, and a couple smaller activations have suddenly appeared along the boardwalk near the Omni Hotel. I saw as I walked along MLK Promenade that two offsites in particular are really taking form.
First, behind the San Diego Convention Center, the IMDb Boat has arrived and is getting itself decorated in time for the start of Comic-Con.
Now over to the parking lot near Petco Park, where activations are being built in the Interactive Zone. I learned the next two photos show construction of the Elden Ring offsite.
Nearby is another activation–I don’t know what.
You’ll be glad to know those concrete stairs leading to the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge are finally being repaired today. Remember them from last year? I was told by a friendly city worker that the bridge will be open tomorrow in time for Preview Night. Good thing!
Walking from the Petco Park Interactive Zone past the ballpark, you’ll find this new Dexter activation. I was told people will walk through it.
Next along the walkway is a super fun SpongeBob activation. It squirts water, streaming like a sponge! Workers were testing it as I approached, and it suddenly squirted some delighted kids!
Walking along Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, I noticed some superheroes were being placed on their feet. Yes, the Marvel Contest of Champions big Ferris wheel has been setting up for several days, but I thought these photos would be fun.
Further along MLK Promenade, the Peanuts offsite has its exterior graphics ready. I saw workers through the windows getting everything inside ready. Next year will be the 75th anniversary of Peanuts. Might as well celebrate early!
Then, lastly, I saw how Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is getting its front entrance ready. Lots of junglelike foliage. (I’m afraid I’m the guy who made the lame “off the rails” joke. You’re not going to throw that net over me, are you?)
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
SpongeBob SquarePants and his watery friends are now greeting guests inside San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel!
Fun SpongeBob graphics can be spotted in the hotel’s lobby. They celebrate the 25th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants during Comic-Con 2024. The Hard Rock Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter will be buzzing with activity once Comic-Con begins later this week!
The exterior of the hotel is now covered with colorful SpongeBob graphics, too! If you’d like to see photographs of the huge, very funny building wrap, click here!
Paramount+ is behind the hotel’s fun interior and exterior during Comic-Con. They encourage people to Stream Like a Sponge!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Animation Domination awaits those who ride these special elevators during Comic-Con 2024!
The Omni San Diego Hotel has been decorated by FOX to promote their popular animated shows, from The Simpsons to Family Guy to Bob’s Burgers to Krapopolis. In addition to a positively enormous Animation Domination building wrap, the hotel’s main elevators now have some very colorful graphics, as you can see in these photos taken today.
As we approach the start of Comic-Con, more and more cool stuff is popping up around downtown San Diego! Stay tuned!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
FOX has returned to San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 to assert their Animation Domination!
This afternoon I saw that a huge building wrap is now being applied to the Omni San Diego Hotel. Over the years, the tall building has been Fox Broadcasting Company’s canvas during Comic-Con, strategically overlooking Gaslamp Square and the San Diego Convention Center. Their past wraps have promoted their perpetually popular animated shows.
How long has The Simpsons been running now? Almost four decades? Is that possible?
Here are some photographs. I’ll take more photos as the wrap grows and post them as an update below.
What’s this? Alvin has arrived and is photobombing me!
He must be jealous of FOX’s Animation Domination.
Alvin! ALVIN! ALLVINNNNN!!!
UPDATE!
The next day (with no pesky Alvin)…
ANOTHER UPDATE!
And later…
ANOTHER UPDATE!
The next day…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Today I spotted SpongeBob SquarePants checking into the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter! Perhaps I should say onto and not into, because he’s part of the super fun graphics now arriving on the exterior of the hotel!
Check out today’s photos of the Paramount+ promotional wraps that are now being applied. It’s the 25th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants as you can see on the smaller wrap, which faces Fifth Avenue.
I’ve learned the interior of the Hard Rock Hotel will also be decorated with a SpongeBob theme for Comic-Con 2024. I’ll take those photos when that happens!
I’ll also take photos of these exterior wraps as they progress, and I’ll post them below in an update.
UPDATE!
Next day…
ANOTHER UPDATE!
And the next day…
YET ANOTHER UPDATE!
Annnnd, the next day…
AND YET ANOTHER UPDATE!!!
How many days will this go on? SpongeBob–you’re wearing me out!
Enough! If you want to see the rest of this immense Hard Rock Hotel wrap, head down to the Gaslamp during Comic-Con 2024!
YIKES! I CAN’T STOP!
One more…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
A Comic-Con offsite in downtown San Diego has opened early! The Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery is already welcoming pop culture fans a week and a half before Comic-Con 2024 begins!
The Chuck Jones Gallery’s pop-up is always a big attraction during San Diego Comic-Con. You might recall that it has usually been found in the Gaslamp Quarter. But not in 2024!
This year’s location is inside Seaport Village, a short walk up the bayside boardwalk behind the San Diego Convention Center, five minutes past the Marriott Marquis, a few steps from the Seaport Village lighthouse.
I was told that before Comic-Con begins, they will be open seven days a week during ordinary business hours.
During my visit today, I saw lots of Looney Tunes and related artwork, produced by well-known artists including the legendary Chuck Jones. The walls are covered with cool collectibles, from affordable prints to original animation cells. If you love Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote, Taz, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian and the rest of the wacky crew, this is the place for you!
There’s also great DC and Marvel artwork by notable artists, including fan favorite Alex Ross.
In addition, during Comic-Con 2024, fans will have a chance to meet artists at the Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery. Here’s the lineup from their website:
Thursday, July 25
Meet & Greet with Chuck Jones artist, Ben Olson live from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Friday, July 26
Meet & Greet Simpsons artist, Stephen Reis from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 27
Meet & Greet with artist, Fabio Napoleoni from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sunday, July 28
Meet & Greet with artist, Dan Bowden from 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Sounds pretty cool? It definitely is! Take a look at a few examples of the artwork on view and for sale in the Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Betty Boop has arrived in San Diego! The iconic cartoon character is now making her home at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park!
Last week the one-of-a-kind exhibition Becoming Betty Boop opened at the Comic-Con Museum. Thanks to a collaboration with Fleischer Studios, museum visitors can explore a large gallery filled with historic artwork and cultural artifacts found nowhere else.
Visitors can learn about the evolution of strongly independent and flirty, jazzy flapper Betty Boop, from her debut in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes in 1930 to modern characterizations. After nearly a century it seems her popularity has only grown. BOOP! The Musical will debut on Broadway in 2025!
Those who are curious about the history of cartoons will see how animators created the Betty Boop short films using a rotoscope, which had been invented by the Fleischer brothers using an old film projector, car parts and a wooden plank! They’ll learn that in the early 1930s, the creation of a six or seven minute cartoon involved about 90 artists and took about two months!
Visitors will also learn how Betty Boop was voiced by half a dozen women over the years, and that Lillian Friedman, who worked at Fleischer Studios, was the very first American female commercial animator.
Exhibition visitors can watch several fun cartoons in the museum auditorium, and those with a creative urge can learn how to draw Betty Boop!
Boop–oop–a–doop!
If you plan to attend Comic-Con this year, make time to check out Becoming Betty Boop, one of many great exhibitions now showing at the Comic-Con Museum!
Mae Questel (voice actress) and Max Fleischer (animator), with characters Betty Boop and Bimbo!Mae Questel has the voice most associated with Betty Boop. She also provided voices for cartoon characters Olive Oyl, Casper the Friendly Ghost–and even Popeye! She voiced Betty Boop in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.Betty Boop for President, 1932.Lillian Friedman made history as the very first female professional animator.A more modern take on Betty Boop. These two dresses were designed by global fashion designer Zac Posen. Pantone has officially designated Betty Boop Red.Sparkly costume worn by actress Jasmine Amy Rogers, playing Betty Boop in the musical BOOP! at Chicago’s CIBC Theatre.An Evening with Betty, by Myron Waldman.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Eduardo del Rio was one of the most influential Mexican cartoonists of the 20th century. During Comic-Con 2023 an exhibit at Seaport Village celebrates the work of this important artist, who is more popularly known as Rius.
Anyone interested in the history and evolution of art–political cartoons in particular–should swing by to view RIUS Para Principiantes. You’ll see how Rius effectively created humorous small satires that called for social progress and attacked corruption in Mexico.
I was interested to learn Rius influenced another more contemporary Mexican cartoonist, Trino. An exhibit at the Comic-Con Museum earlier this year concerned Trino. I blogged about that here.
Where can you see this exhibition? Walk just beyond the Manchester Grand Hyatt into Seaport Village, then look for Casa Mexico. You’ll find it!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 