El Machete Illustrated: Dirty Hands
Known for mixing history and culture with contemporary themes, Eric J. Garcia always tries to create art that is much more than just aesthetics. Born and raised in Albuquerque’s South Valley, Garcia earned his BFA from the University of New Mexico and went on to get his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. You can follow him on Twitter @garciaink or friend him on Facebook. [Read more…]
Who You Calling Illegal?
Looking Back at the Week at SDFP and OB Rag: July 20-26
Compiled by Brent E. Beltrán
This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles by San Diego Free Press and OB Rag regulars and at-large contributors on Comic-Con, a proud day for activism, stinky SDPD, the Mayor’s climate indifference, GOP wanting to impeach, minimum wage, Obama and Cap America, Neighborhood House, for-profit colleges, who runs San Diego, bare facts, native solidarity, El Machete, OB planning and lots more. [Read more…]
Spotlight on San Diego Artist/Animator Tony Washington
He started in comics at eighteen and twenty years later continues his dream
By Brent E. Beltrán
There is a tremendous amount of homegrown San Diego talent that contributes in various ways to making popular culture and Comic-Con what it is. Going into Comic-Con I wanted to profile one such individual.
The person that came to mind is someone who has become part of my extended family, Anthony Washington. Tony was born in Detroit, Michigan but didn’t live there long. With his dad in the navy he moved around the country a lot and eventually settled into Imperial Beach. Though not born here Tony still considers himself a native San Diegan.
At 38 years old Anthony Washington gets to do what he loves: draw.
On Preview Night at Comic-Con I interviewed him about his background, his influences, how he got started, what projects he’s worked on, what he’s got coming up and what advice he’d give to wannabe comic book artists looking to get into the business. [Read more…]
President Obama Meets the New Captain America
El Machete Illustrated: Every Child is Sacred
San Diego Free Press is proud to announce our site’s debut of cartoonist Eric J. Garcia’s El Machete Illustrated. He’s a political cartoonist from Chicago who will be sharing the occasional toon with us here at SDFP. Much like the Free Press’ regular editorial cartoonist Junco Canché, Eric focuses his poli-toonists eye on latino issues and lefty politics. Please welcome him with a comment below. You can follow him on Twitter @garciaink or friend him on Facebook. [Read more…]
The Return of Comic-Con International: Revenge of the Press Release
SDFP Writer Inundated with Comic-Con Related Emails
By Brent E. Beltrán
Last year I covered Comic-Con for San Diego Free Press. I wrote five articles in a series I called Adventures in Comic-Conlandia: A Nerds-eye View. You can read them here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV & Part 5. This was my first attempt at writing about something I had loved since I started attending back in 1986. Though grueling I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and will cover the event again this week. I plan on being not so ambitious this year.
Sometimes Comic-Con sneaks up on you. You don’t know it is here until trolley station signs are written in Klingon or you’re standing in line for a happy hour beverage next to a Stormtrooper.
For me that wasn’t the case this year. You see, I’ve been inundated with press releases for the past month and it’s picked up even more within the last week. I’ve been sent hundreds of emails from the various media, toy and comic book companies that want to get the word out about their latest film, action figure or storyline. [Read more…]
Welcome to Comic Con: Be Sure to Cover Your Ass
By Doug Porter
The one of the largest collections of make-believe comes to San Diego this week, kicking off Wednesday night with Preview Night followed by four days of events running Thursday, July 24 through Sunday, July 27. More than 130,000 are expected for Comic Con 2014.
What should be a dream-come-true event for fans of the genres involved has turned out to be a nightmare in recent years as an institutional malaise about dealing with harassment issues has surfaced. Last year photographs of attendee derrieres were posted online after Comic-Con as some sort of sick tribute to the misogynist mentality that’s flourished in recent events in San Diego and other cities.
A group calling itself Geeks for CONsent is fighting back this year, circulating a petition aiming at getting Comic-Con International in San Diego (SDCC) to update its harassment policy. They’re asking for a “full harassment policy,” as well as anti-harassment signs and trained volunteers to deal with complaints. [Read more…]
