Tag: comic books

FilAm CreatorCon 2025 in Chula Vista!

An amazing free event that attracted creative talent from around our region was held in Chula Vista today. FilAm CreatorCon 2025 brought together lots of Filipino-American artists and their fans!

I was surprised by the huge popularity of this annual convention. It was my first time.

The interior of the Chula Vista Library was filled with artist tables overflowing with fantastic artwork: posters, prints, comic books, graphic novels, stickers, jewelry–you name it!

Several community rooms hosted panels or screenings; a fundraising art auction was open to all; and outside, on the library patio, there was plenty of food and even musical entertainment. Neighborhood families came out to the fun event, kids were active and exploring, and smiling artists were busy showcasing and selling their artwork.

What a great experience!

I loved the positive creative energy! I even recognized some of the artists or their great work!

I started out on the patio…

I saw the following information poster.

Bridge the Gap is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego dedicated to celebrating and preserving Filipino-American representation and heritage.

In the spring they have a Creative Summit which supports the next generation of Filipino creatives.

Now I’m inside the main Chula Vista Library.

Look! It’s super nice artist Mary Jhun!

You’ve seen many examples of her distinctive art on Cool San Diego Sights. Click here and here and here and here.

Some of her work:

Here’s another cool artist and illustrator: Robert Rodriguez (@robz_drawings).

Some of his great stuff…

Watch out! Godzilla is energizing his dorsal spines!

This is Raina Ramos (@thrillustrated). She likes to create dog portraits and other cool stuff, like Star Wars art!

Ron Rubio (@rubiobroscartoonstudio), Director, Animator, and producer of smiles!

He has worked on King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show! His brother who has worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and for Pixar and others was present, too.

Little Yellow Jeepney author Jocelyn Francisco, Ph.D. was at the con, too! Literacy is more important than ever.

The FilAm CreatorCon panel From Roots to Resonance: Crafting Filipino Stories with Universal Appeal was fully attended.

Look at all the people at FilAm CreatorCon in Chula Vista!

Big respect!

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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.

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More cosplay photos from Comic-Con 2025!

Red Guardian

San Diego Comic-Con is a cosplayer’s dream.

In 2025, the variety and quality of cosplay inside and outside of the San Diego Convention Center is simply amazing.

Here’s another batch of cosplay photos taken while walking around outside!

Wilma and Fred Flintstone
Pee-wee Herman
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Doctor Doom
Snoopy lying on his doghouse and Woodstock
Tigra
Death Eater, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Bellatrix Lestrange and Knight Bus driver
Wolverine and Deadpool
Luigi and Mario
Maui
Hmm. I really don’t know.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Legend of Zelda
Ekko
Riddler
Black Cat and Spider-Man
Wonder Woman
Zoidberg
Captain Picard
Rorschach
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Rogue and Cyclops

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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!

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.

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Marvel’s Savage Land cosplay at Comic-Con!

A cool cosplay photoshoot was held this evening at San Diego Comic-Con 2025. Marvel comic book characters who’ve appeared in the Savage Land posed in front of the Marriott Marquis San Diego’s outdoor fountain!

Which cosplays can you recognize?

I see a cyberpunk Black Widow, Wolverine, Squirrel Girl, Storm, Wild Child, Professor X, Sabretooth, Wiccan, Gambit, Rogue and another Wolverine!

The photoshoot was titled Resistance in the Savage Lands.

Perhaps the hidden Savage Land was suddenly transported from Antarctica to sunny San Diego. If that’s the case, be on the lookout for dinosaurs!

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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!

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.

Feel free to share!

Test your Fantastic Four powers at Comic-Con!

Do you possess world-saving superpowers?

Can you stretch like Marvel’s super genius Mister Fantastic, or project force fields like the Invisible Woman, or clobber evil supervillains like The Thing, or Flame On like the Human Torch?

You’ll have the chance to find out in San Diego at Comic-Con 2025!

This elaborate offsite activation, a collaboration between Google Play and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is still being built, just a day before Comic-Con Preview Night. They’ve been working on it longer than any other Comic-Con offsite. It promises to be amazing!

The public can travel on a moving walkway through interactive pods where their Fantastic Four superpowers are tested. I wonder–will anybody be deemed powerful enough to defeat Galactus?

Learn more about this Google Play Rewards Lab activation here, and see what collectibles your points can earn!

The Fantastic Four offsite will be open on the grassy area next to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter hotel this coming Thursday through Sunday! Looks awesome!

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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!

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.

Feel free to share!

Fantastic Four offsite appears for Comic-Con!

Surprise! There’s going to be an offsite for Fantastic Four in San Diego during Comic-Con 2025. Workers are starting to put it together on the grass next to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter hotel!

This makes sense, considering Fantastic Four banners line Fourth Avenue leading right up to it!

I was told there will be no carnival rides involved, but it’s going to be big and impressive. It will be the sort of activation that people can walk through.

I can’t wait to watch as this Fantastic Four offsite activation takes form. I’ll be taking photos, naturally!

Also, a barge is now docked behind the San Diego Convention Center, which will be the site of the Brawl Stars offsite activation. Workers were busy getting it ready this Thursday morning!

UPDATE!

More photos taken late Thursday of what I was told will be a Fantastic Four related offsite…

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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!

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.

Feel free to share!

Comic books made of LEGO bricks!

This is super cool, and just in time for San Diego Comic-Con which comes later this month. It’s a genuine comic book rack filled with Comic Bricks!

Matt Armstrong (aka monsterbrick) was exhibiting his LEGO brick creations in Balboa Park today, at the House of Denmark’s cultural lawn program. He had his stuff displayed on a huge table shared by other members of the San Diego LEGO Users Group (SANDLUG).

And look what he has assembled! In addition to superhero and other pop culture creations, he has recreated comic books and ordinary books and placed them in an old comic book rack that he salvaged and repurposed!

Matt Armstrong is a steampunk fan, and many of his LEGO brick creations reflect a fascination with older technology, like antique cameras and old manual typewriters. But in my opinion his brick comic books beat all for sheer coolness!

Here’s a great article about Matt.

Here’s some more of his superhero creations…

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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.

Feel free to share!

Fantastic Four banners for Comic-Con 2025!

Fantastic 4 banners have appeared in downtown San Diego in anticipation of Comic-Con 2025 and the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps in late July!

The big tentpole Marvel movie is highly anticipated, and it appears promotion of the film is in high gear.

Who doesn’t love the Fantastic Four in the comics? Cool sci-fi action with far-out concepts and cosmic characters, dimensions and places, and a family of likable heroes. A lot of fans are hoping the movie lives up to very high expectations.

This is the third set of street lamp banners in downtown San Diego promoting different movies for Comic-Con 2025, which I believe is unprecedented.

One month until the big international pop culture event!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Free Comic Book Day in San Diego’s Gaslamp!

May 3rd is Free Comic Book Day!

Today, in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, not only can you enjoy the big Cinco de Mayo festival along Fifth Avenue, but if you spot Rolling Wave Comics among the vendors, you’re invited to grab free comic books! Those are some in the above photo!

I see DC and Marvel and independent publisher titles. I see Superman, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Godzilla and more superhero and comic book favorites.

If you’re heading down to the Gaslamp today, keep your eyes open!

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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.

Feel free to share!

More pop culture street art on Commercial Street!

For many years–as long as I can remember–the north side of the Reliable Pipe Supply lot on San Diego’s Commercial Street has been decorated with street art. Most of the images reference pop culture characters–in particular, comic book superheroes and villains.

When I walked along Commercial Street between National Avenue and 15th Street recently, I noticed much of the artwork changed in 2024. After doing a little research, I see that a variety of San Diego artists came together during San Diego’s Comic-Con to create this street art.

I took these photographs as I walked along.

(This string of pop culture street art is similar to a stretch that was painted a short distance down the road to the east, near the intersection of Commercial Street and 31st Street. You can see those photos, taken in 2018, by clicking here.)

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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.

Feel free to share this!

Organization helps comic book artists in San Diego!

Do you live in San Diego? Are you a comic book artist who’d like to collaborate and grow with others who share your interests? There’s a cool organization you should check out!

The CASD Collective (Comicbook Artists of San Diego) is a group of people who’ve come together to build a local community of comic book artists to foster artistic growth and to showcase their artwork.

I met one of their smiling members at this weekend’s Black Comix Day event in Balboa Park, inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center.

That’s cartoonist and writer Lyssette Williams smiling in the above photo, and some of her artwork below!

Members of CASD Collective attend cons, pop culture festivals and San Diego events promoting each others’ work. I remember seeing them at the North Park Book Fair, Fangaea Con, and at a Free Comic Book Day event in Kearny Mesa a couple years ago!

Here’s a photo of one member at Free Comic Book Day!

Members also come together to produce zines and anthologies. Perhaps you’ve seen their work at San Diego Zine Fest.

Do you want to be a successful comic book artist but don’t know how to proceed? Join others on the fun journey!

Are you an experienced artist looking for more friends and collaborators? This might be the place for you!

If CASD Collective sounds interesting, take a look at their website by clicking here!

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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.

Feel free to share this!