California Festivals
Long Beach Comic Expo
February 18-19, 2018
Long
Beach Comic Expo
longbeachcomicexpo.com
By C. MacDonald
You never know who you are going to run
into at the Long Beach Comic & Horror
Con (recently held inside the Convention
Center). It could be Superman, Batman,
Wonder Woman, Darth Vadar, Actor Herb
Jefferson Jr. (Lt. Boomer on Battlestar
Galactica), Kevin Eastman (creator of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) or
Butch Patrick (of Eddie Munster TV
fame).
Celebrating its 5th successful year in
Long Beach, the amazing show has so much
to see and experience. It's a living,
creative community of artists, writers,
actors, designers, broadcasters,
publishers, manufacturers and much more,
who feed off (and learn so much from)
each other. Not to mention the more than
8,000 passionate fans, who have the time
of their lives getting to interact with
their heroes. It's an annual "lovefest"
you won't want to miss.
Not only are the costumed characters and
the creative, insightful classes worth
the price of admission, but the
exhibitors are phenomenal and often
unique, like Jason Rodgers of
Fez-O-Rama. He seems right out of
Casablanca or at least his heart is. He
has personally made by hand more than
10,000 Fine Embroidered Velvet Fezzes
since 2005.
The Long Beach resident believes in
"Less Brim and More Whim." "Makes things
more whimsical," says the friendly
guy, whose business is in Fountain
Valley. He studied Costume Design in
college and has a passion for hats. Boy
does it show. His $50-$60 fezzes have a
velvet shell with quilted cotton lining
and unique symbols.
"They're designed so friends can wear
them in comfort and crunch them and
everything will be ok. I made the first
batch 13 years ago when I was diagnosed
with cancer," he said. "I made the
fezzes with a €˜Flaming Eyeball' for my
friends and we all wore them out to bowl
and eat dinner. People would stop and
ask us about them."
He makes the hats in 7 different sizes.
They have all different designs on them,
the most popular being Cthulhu, an alien
god. The convention crowd loved them and
people could be seen proudly wearing
their new fezzes around Long Beach.
"It's such a great convention for the
fans and the artists, so creative and
fun," said the delightful man who grew
up with a carpenter father and an artist
mother. "If we wanted something as a
kid, we learned to make it ourselves.
That's how I started making fezzes."
(Learn more at www.fez-o-rama.com.)
Also at the con were vendors like
Offshoot Comics, which offer very
positive messages to readers through
their comic books, including the new
"Heroes R Us," about a small town turned
upside by the transformation of a
general store into a toy store that
sells superpowers. The children all rush
to get the toys so they can have
superpower.
These are positive stories illustrated
by Joanne Kwan of San Francisco and
created and written by David Clarke of
Van Nuys. "Our message is that anyone
can be a hero," Clarke said. "You don't
need to have sex and violence to have a
good story."
One of their comics even deals with the
subject of bullies.
"We love coming here because it's so
family friendly and we can talk to the
public and explain what we're about.
It's easy to get to know us and we're
looking for further projects to help
society," Clarke said. One
representative from the Los Angeles
Unified School District was very much
interested in their positive,
educational and entertaining comics.
(For further info, go to
Offshootcomics.com)
Another popular vendor was "Cruzin Thru
Comics," owned by John Cruz and run by
his family and friends. They buy and
sell all types of comics from vintage to
modern.
"It's a wonderful hobby that you can
make money at," said Cruz of Saugus, who
also works as a maintenance splicing
technician for AT&T. "We all love coming
here to this convention because
everyone's so happy and we're glad to be
part of the happiness. Everyone loves
comic books!" (Cruz can be reached at CruzinThruComics@yahoo.com)
Events are not guaranteed. It is your responsibility to confirm before going.