There’s a mystery at the San Diego Central Library, up on the 9th floor in the Marilyn & Gene Marx Special Collections Center!
Look at this huge old paper cutter sitting near one corner of the room! Talk about heavy duty! I happened to stumble upon this unique antique device during a visit to the San Diego Library.
A note atop the antique states:
With the help of Anita Engles, Executive Director of the American Bookbinders Museum, we have deduced that this unmarked, vintage paper cutter is either an Advance Pony Lever Cutter or a Challenge Lever Cutter with a Finger Gauge. As for the year it was manufactured, that remains a mystery.
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Ignition Press, the Los Angeles based publisher of comic books and graphic novels, has returned to San Diego Comic-Con with their Ignition Pavilion! You can find the two-story pavilion on MLK Promenade among many other activations.
As the Ignition Press website explains: The creator-driven company exclusively publishes original series including Murder Podcast, Voyeur, Roots of Madness, Deluge, NO Place, Arcadia, and Bloodland. Current film and television adaptations of Ignition Press series include The Beauty (FX/Hulu) and Extraction (Netflix).
Comic-Con goers don’t want to miss this. In addition to buying a wide range of comics and graphic novels, fans have the opportunity to speak at length with writers and artists, all of whom are very friendly and eager to discuss their work. (You might purchase something, too!)
I noticed that downstairs you can watch the “Revenge Of” podcast. Not familiar to me.
Upstairs, there is a coffee bar (you get one free), and eBay Live which you can watch in action.
The very best part of being upstairs, however, were the awesome creators behind tables with their books.
Here are Jim McCann and Joe Eisma. They’ve created individually and in collaboration with each other. Jim McCann has written for Marvel, including the series Hawkeye & Mockingbird. You can see their cool stuff at their table inside the coffee bar.
This is Ande Parks. He has created Bad Thoughts, a dark psychological thriller. As an artist he is best known for his work on Green Arrow. The art on his table immediately reminded me of work by Mike Grell. He liked my Neal Adams Superman t-shirt!
Lots of great creators to meet!
Dave Wielgosz is another cool creator I met. He wrote 2021’s Man-Bat and contributed stories to comic book anthologies including Batman: The Brave & The Bold and Superman: Man of Tomorrow. His first creator-owned project is Showdown..
Walking over to check out the eBay Live lounge area…
Pretty cool, huh?
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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!
Tomorrow, Wednesday July 22, at 10:30 am, the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park will be hosting a special panel.
Cover Story: Six Decades of Comic-Con will feature a behind the scenes look at Comic-Con’s souvenir book covers. Many of those covers are now on display at the museum.
Gary Sassaman, Comic-Con’s former Director of Programming and Publications, will discuss this fascinating history and answer questions from the audience.
If you’re looking for something to do prior to Comic-Con Preview Night, this might be the perfect activity!
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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!
Awesome examples from a collection of comics fanzines are now on display on the 2nd floor of San Diego’s Central Library, just in time for Comic-Con 2026!
This look back at comics history is courtesy of Larry Thomas, who’s been collecting for many years. You’ll see issues of Rocket’s Blast Comicollector, The Comic Reader, Outlooks, Star-Studded Fanzine, Vacation in Duckburg, The Golden Age, and various others.
Check it out!
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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!
Ish Galvan is a cool dude I met during the Vista Strawberry Festival. He and Vince Vargas are the creators behind Triple OG Comics. He was showing everybody the Tamale Guy comic book they’ve published.
As I understood it, Ish is a writer who loves to mash up different concepts in his work, from mythology to metaphysics to science fiction to neo-noir. The story of the multi-issue Tamale Guy is described as: A tamale vendor escapes his violent past to begin a peaceful life. However, an ex-cartel killer with Aztec powers seeks revenge.
Ish explained that he’s bridging both nerd and Chicano lowrider culture. At first glance the two cultures might seem very different, but in fact they have things in common. Consider the graphics painted on many lowrider cars. It’s the sort of art you’d find in a comic, graphic novel, or at Comic-Con for that matter. Some deep in the lowrider culture have confided to Ish they secretly collect comic books, too!
That these two artists are cultural trailblazers is pretty awesome!
Good luck guys!
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The Golden Era was a literary newspaper that originated in San Francisco in 1852. It was notable for publishing pieces by renowned Western authors like Mark Twain and Bret Harte.
In 1887 the periodical, then a monthly magazine, was brought by James Harrison Wagner to downtown San Diego. It occupied the first floor of a building that stands at 919 Fourth Avenue in today’s Gaslamp Quarter. Much of its focus then would concern the development of San Diego and the West in the late 19th century.
A historical plaque describes the Lawyer’s Block Building, 1889.
Before its completion, 20 spaces of this building’s second floor were rented to some of early San Diego’s best known lawyers, making this an unofficial headquarters for litigators. The first floor had a more literary history. In 1889 it housed the West Coast’s pioneer illustrated literary periodical, Golden Era. The San Diego Union also had its offices here, with printing presses in the basement.
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Are you a fan of Comic-Con? You should know that Will Eisner Week is March 1-7, 2026. The theme this year is Dream Big: Read a Graphic Novel!
San Diego’s amazing Comic-Con Museum will be celebrating “Will Eisner Day” with a special event. Four panels will be held in the museum’s theater on March 4, from 12 pm to 4 pm. Participation is included with museum admission, and free for museum members.
The panels are: Cats vs. Dogs: Panelists’ Pet Comics; Will Eisner Hall of Fame 2026; Graphic Novel Adaptations from Literature; and Graphic Memoirs by Women.
Administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, Jackie Estrada, will be among the panelists!
If you’re a creator seeking inspiration, a lover of graphic novels, or simply curious about this certain-to-be-awesome, one-of-a-kind event, check out this webpage for more information!
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The annual Local Author Showcase of the San Diego Library is now on display on the first floor of downtown’s Central Library!
It’s exciting to see dozens of newly published books every year by diverse authors. Our city has so many creative and talented people! The Central Library is an ideal place to showcase their achievements.
Today I moseyed past the glass display cases and peered at different titles and covers.
A few examples…
At one end of the exhibit, I found a colorful work of art by Judith Parenio! It’s titled Words.
If you love San Diego Comic-Con, you’ll love Black Comix Day!
All this Valentine’s Day weekend, artists, writers and publishers of African descent will be showcasing their work at the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park. The annual event is free, and it will blow your mind!
The last two years at Black Comix Day I met dozens of friendly creators. This year I saw quite a few new participants.
Together they have produced fantastic comics, graphic novels, books, animation, films, figurines, posters and more. Much of the work is informed by their unique experiences as artists of African descent.
Many of the participants come from outside San Diego. Most are self-publishing entrepreneurs with big dreams. Some of the artists have worked professionally or won prestigious awards.
Everywhere you turn, both outside and inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center, there’s something new and very cool. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, Afro-futurism, superheroes, just about anything the human mind can imagine. It’s pop culture heaven!
Read the photo captions and click links to learn about some stuff I saw…
Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls is the Civil War story of a man who escaped enslavement. He’d go on to make a huge impact on American history. There’s a graphic novel, and a major motion picture is in development! Click here.Buy some great books at this outdoor table and you’ll support the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park!Derek Johnson wrote the noir supernatural horror The Caretaker. He’s a Las Vegas filmmaker and comic creator! Click here to support his work!Mike Haynes-Pitts created The Surge Series! It’s about Afrofuturistic, cyberpunk Africa hundreds of years in the future! His Instagram is here.Smiles at the Wingless Entertainment table. They publish comic books, coloring books and more cool stuff. Click here!The Agents of S.O.U.L. and creator David Phillips have many adventures! Check out the DP Comix website here.New Creation Comics is an independent Christian Publisher. Look at all the cool superhero-like covers! Their website is here.Vampires! Blade! Vampirella! Look at the cool pop culture images created by Attiba Royster at his website here!Bryttney-Mischele Salvant was creating a beautiful surreal expressionist piece at her table. To see more, visit her Poetic Artistry website here!More smiling creators! It’s cartoonist and printmaker Lyssette Williams, and Annika B., who wrote Current Objective and was busy creating a business card!What would happen if you turned the Frankenstein monster into a werewolf? To find the answer, check out this website by Eisner Award winning editor, writer and producer Chris Robinson!
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Individual free expression took center stage today at the Compressed Zine & Music Fair. The event, organized by Particle FM and Burn All Books, was held at Bread and Salt in Logan Heights.
Writers and artists (and dreamers who are doers) gathered from around the San Diego region to showcase hundreds of their uniquely created zines. (And other printed works of art!)
What is a zine? According to Wikipedia: A zine is a magazine that is a… noncommercial often homemade… publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter.
As you might imagine, individuals printing their own zines can be boundlessly creative. They aren’t limited by the “demands” of societal acceptance or mainstream publication. Anyone with access to a copy machine or modest printer (and perhaps a stapler) can create a zine. It’s a cool way to easily get ideas out there and create something tangible that others can share.
You know those revolutionary pamphlets created by our nation’s Founding Fathers? In essence, they were zines.
Today’s zines can range from philosophically serious or politically satirical, to just plain silly or art for the sake of art. Some zines are love letters to people, places or things by devoted fans. Some are critiques. Many titles include wry humor.
Titles I spied while walking around the Compressed Zine & Music Fair include Copy Machine Manifesto, Shotgun Seamstress, Respawn Archive, Typical Natural Disaster, We Miss Jerry Garcia, This is a Critique of the X-Files, and My Feelings Are Not Wrong.
It appeared to me that the best part about making a zine is the simple joy of creativity.
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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.
