For too many years, the exterior of Balboa Park’s historic Federal Building had languished neglected in a state of decay.
Not any more!
This is what I saw yesterday as I walked through the Palisades area of Balboa Park.
The Federal Building, built for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, has suddenly returned to life. What visitors to Balboa Park will now see is something more like the building’s original appearance.
This uniquely beautiful building will be the home of the Comic-Con Museum, which is scheduled to open this coming Thanksgiving weekend.
The repair and painting of the Federal Building’s exterior was made possible in large part by the Balboa Park Committee of 100.
You can see photos of the historic restoration getting underway a few weeks ago and learn a little more by clicking 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 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!
The exterior of the historic Federal Building in Balboa Park, future home of the Comic-Con Museum, is currently being restored!
During my walk today I noticed the unique building, built in 1935 for the California Pacific International Exposition, is being patched up and painted to match several principal buildings in the Palisades area of the Balboa Park.
The Federal Building was designed by architect Richard Requa, who gave this and other nearby buildings a pre-Columbian appearance. According to this article, the ornamental detailing on the main entrance was unquestionably derived from the Palace of the Governor in Uxmal, Yucatan.
In one photograph you can see how the Federal Building was once home of the San Diego Hall of Champions.
The Comic-Con Museum will be opening this Thanksgiving weekend, in conjunction with the 2021 Comic-Con Special Edition to be held at the San Diego Convention Center.
After taking these photos I peered through the front windows, and I could see some preliminary construction going on inside.
The Comic-Con Museum already has 15,000 members. And I’m one.
I can’t wait for it to open!
…
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!
I’m no graphic artist. I can barely draw a stick figure.
But check out some news I learned today in an email blast from the Comic-Con Museum!
The fun Comic-Con Museum@Home web page has begun an online series where a variety of comics layouts can be downloaded by anyone and everyone!
The first PDF file they’ve released contains six pages of blank, ready-to-use comics layouts. You can print them out and create your own cool comic strip or comic book!
Here’s an example of one dynamic layout:
When I read this email I had a sudden silly idea. Using a few of my photos of cosplay (mostly from past San Diego Comic-Cons) and the graphic editing software GIMP, I’d create my own thrilling comics page! (My creative efforts were limited to applying the “cartoon” filter to cropped photos.)
Mind you, I did this as a rank amateur, merely goofing around this evening by cutting and pasting some images on my computer. As you can see, I obviously did not use the Comic-Con Museum layouts.
You can surely do better than me!
You’re artistic efforts will instantly surpass my own if you download the Comic-Con Museum’s first set of professional comics layouts here!
Hey, Cool San Diego Sights is mostly about enjoying life, learning new things and having some creative fun, right?
Are you wondering how amazing the Comic-Con Museum will be when it has its Grand Opening in Balboa Park in 2021?
It promises to be super amazing!
Check out this web page to see a video fly-through of the future museum’s layout and features. Numerous renovations and additions to the museum will continue from it’s Opening Day in 2021 through 2024.
The Comic-Con Museum is going to be the place where pop culture fans of all ages go for a wide range of unique experiences–to be dazzled, learn, create and simply have fun.
Students will have access to an Education Center where STEAM learning will be emphasized. The museum will have multiple rotating art galleries, areas where fans can participate in panels, movie nights, workshops and a variety of special events, a super cool lounge area above it all for social gatherings, tabletop gaming, book club meetings and more, plus a cafe with ever-changing themes, and a store filled with comic books, graphic novels, and all sorts of cool, collectible merchandise. There will also be an Online Museum for those fans who can’t make it to San Diego, or who’d like to enhance their visit!
And much of the Comic-Con Museum’s programming will be determined by the community of fans!
An artist’s early rendering of what the entrance to the Comic-Con Museum might appear like when it opens in San Diego!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! And I’m an excited Comic-Con Museum charter member! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The very cool Comic-Con Museum@Home web page continues to grow and grow! It’s now bursting with fun activities for kids–educational activities that relate to the popular culture!
Not only are there oodles of downloadable, printable Fun Books, which are jam-packed with word puzzles, mazes, instructions on how to draw comic art, and fantastic coloring pages (including some by prolific San Diego muralist Gloria Muriel), but now you can watch lots of cool videos, too!
A brand new series of videos this summer will be showing kids how to create superheroes and other pop culture characters out of folded cardboard! The tutorials are by Connor and Bauer Lee. You might remember seeing their fantastic creations during December Nights here!
The first cardboard character kids can create by following a YouTube video is Wall-E!
The Comic-Con Museum has also partnered with Balboa Park’s Fleet Science Center for a series called Pop Culture Science. Celebrating the anniversary of the popular character Sherlock Holmes, there’s a video about how TV crime shows accurately or imaginatively portray real forensic science. Additional activities include how to detect fingerprints and write with invisible ink!
Learning is always best when it’s fun!
Check out the Comic-Con Museum web page with all of these great activities by clicking here!
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!
…
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!
Last year I took hundreds of photos while walking around 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. It’s something I’ve done for many summers now. Living downtown near the action is definitely a lot of fun!
2020 Comic-Con is still scheduled as of this moment, but the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has made the future of conventions and all public events uncertain. Hopefully the pandemic will subside by July and everyone can enjoy another great Comic-Con!
Meanwhile, I thought it would be fun to post some random photos from last year. Most are in no particular order.
Enjoy!
…
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!
Another super cool exhibition opened this evening in Balboa Park at the future home of the Comic-Con Museum!
Sense of Wonder: The Art of WonderCon Anaheim features a gallery full of original artwork used for the covers of WonderCon program books. Many top comic artists have created these covers over the years, and visitors this evening were admiring sketches, thumbnails and finished pieces by the likes of Jim Lee, Dan Jurgens, and many others.
Before everyone filtered into the gallery, the 2020 WonderCon program book cover by artist Jen Bartel, winner in 2019 of an Eisner Award, was revealed: a stunning rendition of Wonder Woman with her golden Lasso of Truth! There was applause all around!
This great exhibition will be open to public on select dates through May 31, 2020. If you’re in San Diego and love either WonderCon or Comic-Con, or if you have kids who love superheroes–particularly DC characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman–don’t miss it!
Follow the Comic-Con Museum’s Facebook page here for more info!
…
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!
Did you step inside the Comic-Con Museum during 2019 December Nights? If you did, you saw an exhibit that was absolutely amazing!
Young artists Connor and Bauer Lee have created fantastic life-size cardboard sculptures of popular Marvel and DC superheroes, plus various Pixar and Star Wars movie characters!
I believe I recognized: Groot, Black Manta holding a mace, a tiny X-wing starfighter, Wall-E, a gigantic Hulkbuster armor (under construction), Thor’s Stormbreaker hammer, Iron Man, C-3PO, R2-D2, Baby Groot, Wonder Woman, plus other fantastic creations including several superhero masks.
The two brothers have been building these cardboard models for many years. I spoke to Connor briefly and he explained that they select an image of a popular character, blow it up, then begin to craft the sculpture based on that initial design. I asked how long it might take to finish the enormous, extremely complex Hulkbuster armor sculpture you see in my photos, and he said about a year.
According to the Cardboard Superheroes website: We hold free workshops for kids in an effort to promote the arts for youth as we’ve see funding for the arts being cut in school and are working to provide an alternative that is free and fun for kids.
That’s definitely a super cool and inspirational project! I’m sure young students everywhere would love to be creative and make their favorite characters with simple cardboard!
I hope local schools take advantage of what appears to be an awesome opportunity. For more info, you can contact Cardboard Superheroes at their website 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 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!
Eggshell Jack Skellington, by artist Melody De Los Cobos. Inspired by the film The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Check out all this great pop art by local San Diego artists! There’s a little bit of horror and a little bit of Christmas!
All of these pieces are by the artists of Horrorgasm and were on display at the future home of the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park during 2019 December Nights.
Horrorgasm is a cool art event that is held annually in late October. According to the Horrorgasm website, it’s a “one-night-only celebration of horror and all things creepy, spooky and macabre.” In 2019 Horrorgasm was held in North Park, and featured “an Art gallery, an artisan marketplace, live performances, live readings of chilling tales, and our version of an escape room, the Horrorgasm Survival Chamber.”
As I wandered about the exhibit, I was pleased to once again meet artist Melody De Los Cobos, one of the founders of Horrorgasm. Last month we spoke briefly during a Love City Heights mural painting event, where she was mentoring a young artist. I blogged about that here!
Some great popular movies are represented in this collection of original artwork. A few humorous pieces had me smiling!
To learn more about Horrorgasm, visit their website here.
Horrorgasm is an annual San Diego art event. In 2019 it celebrated Monsters, Maniacs, The Paranormal, and the Surreal.
They have an awesome comic book. Tales of Horrorgasm!
The Ballbreaker Suite, by artist Autumn Sno, inspired by the movie Scrooged. Pictured is Carol Kane’s the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Creep in the Corner, by artist Jennifer Cooksey. Mixed media sculpture and acrylic. It’s a sinister Elf on the Shelf!
Stripe, by artist Jennifer Cooksey. Mixed media sculpture. Based on the horror comedy film Gremlins.
Throne of Lies, by artist Avaline Ai. A meme from a humorous quote in the holiday film Elf.
How Deadpool Stole Christmas, by artist Marc Vuletich. Acrylic paint on canvas. Deadpool enters Peter Parker’s home in an homage to How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Kevin McCallister, Then, by artist Nyxie Von Rose. A famous pose from the classic holiday film Home Alone.
Christmas Ale, by artist Tara Alvarado. Acrylic on wood. A beer label inspired by The Spirit of Christmas Past from A Christmas Carol.
…
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! 