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Treasures I found at NY Comic Con

There’s so much to see and do at Comic Con, but as you walk around, you’ll see quite a few booths that sell original cartoon art. Most is comic book characters and pages, but in between if you take the time, you’ll see this. Here is an original Peanuts strip from 1964. Look at the size of it. (Click on the image for large view).

It’s amazing to see this original work. I’ve seen Peanuts strips in museums, too, but this was special, I don’t know why. Maybe because if I had $10,000, I could have had it. But that might be the starting price at auction, and it will probably jump up many thousands more.

I love looking at the line work. I think these are such great pieces of art, up there with Van Goghs and Picassos.

Hiding behind the counter at one booth was this original Krazy Kat Sunday strip. Incredible. I think this one is from the 1930s – an original George Herriman Krazy Kat! It’s marked at $21,000, but at auction will go up much higher.

There were original Hanna-Barbera comic cells and original drawings, too, and so many cool things if you looked around. You had to look past all the noise and activities at Comic Con to find these treasures.

My first visit to the Guggenheim

I visited the Guggenheim Museum for the first time in my life yesterday. I think because it was raining and I wanted to get out of the rain. I loved the structure, the architecture, I didn’t care so much for the art. It was mostly blank canvases with a few lines drawn, very abstract. I did enjoy the few Degas, Picassos and Rembrants and of course Van Gogh, but it’s no MOMA.

I loved that Mr. Softee was right outside when I arrived, the perfect thing to start my visit, ice cream from my favorite ice cream truck.

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Here are a few more pics of my trip inside.

Two favs at NY Comic Con

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I saw two favorites at New York Comic Con yesterday – Nichelle Nichols from Star Trek and Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine cartoonist. Stephan was signing books at the GoComics booth and Ms. Nichols downstairs at the autograph section.

I admire Stephan a lot. I interviewed him for my 10 With Tom column once. You can see that here.

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If it’s October, it’s Comic Con in NY

It’s ComicCon time again in New York. The Jacob Javits Center was full of pop culture and comics fans. I look forward to it every year. The event runs Thursday through Sunday, always at Columbus Day Weekend.

The event is sold out, but around the convention center you’ll see people selling scalped tickets. I’m not sure if they are legit, so I wouldn’t recommend buying the tickets because the seller could disappear into the city so easily.

One great thing this year is that the #7 subway line now goes as far as the convention center, so it’s easy to get around.

I visited MOMA; again

I visited MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) yesterday in New York. It was quite crowded, I guess it always is. I feel very at home there, whenever I’m in town, I make it a point to stop by, I say that I’m visiting “my friends,” Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, etc.

Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is my favorite. And then I love the Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” I think I’ve told the story often; in college we had to recreate a famous painting using the colors that we cut out of magazines. I chose the Demoiselles painting by Picasso. I did a great recreation, the size was about 3″ x 3,” so when I first saw the original at MOMA a few years later, I was flabbergasted at the size of the real thing. I was so used to seeing my original at that small size that the original really threw me. And “Starry Night” is so much smaller when you see it in person. I has such a prominence in the art world that you would assume it would be much larger than it really it.

Always a crowd around “Starry Night.”

Matisse’s “la Danse”

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

$14 Pop Tarts greeted me today

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I’m in New York City this week for New York Comic Con, which starts Thursday. After I arrived, within 15 minutes I must have spent over $100. Crazy. I paid $50 for a cab from the airport, $31 for a Metrocard, $11 to get something to eat, $5 for coffee and it went on. At one coffee shop called The Bean, I saw this, $14 for a Pop Tart. Homemade, but still a crazy price.

I was here for a long time in the summer; I don’t remember such crazy prices.

Wake me up when September ends

I used to play this song every September 30, so here it is – Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day. The actual song starts at about 1:50 min.

Ironically, or maybe not, YouTube knew that I love the video and song below, Time to Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli. They had it next to the Green Day video.

And two more versions. All incredible.

Collecting old Pep cereal pins

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I’ve been buying old 1945-46 Kellogg’s PEP cereal comic pinback buttons. I’ve seen them around the internet for very high prices, but I got a good deal on thse. I purchased them one or two at a time. They are quite small as you can see – 13/16″, lithograph print on front with Kellogg’s PEP cereal stamp on the back.

Pep was a brand of whole-wheat breakfast cereal produced by the Kellogg Company, and introduced in 1923.

I got the Pop Jenks from the Harold Teen comic strip and Andy Gump from one guy, he sent me the Pop Jenks instead of the Andy Gump, which I ordered, and when I let him know, he told me to just keep ‘ol Pop, too, rather than send it back. Popeye and Olive came as a set and Superman and Smokey Stover came separately. I am purchasing more as we speak.

moonmullins I got this Moon Mullins button, too. Just paid for it ($3.99), it’s in the mail on its way!

Someone is selling the whole set, I think 86 pins, for $799.00. That comes to over $9 a pin but I’m getting them for half that purchasing them one at a time, which sort of makes it more fun and more of a sport, you know, tracking them down one by one.

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pep — A PeP cereal ad from the mid-1940s. Pep was the sponsor for “The Adventures of Superman” show on the radio.

Wynwood murals

Went to Wynwood (the Williamsburg, Brooklyn of Miami) for lunch with my friend Harry the other day, Zika mosquitoes and all. Visited the Wynwood walls next to Joey’s, the restaurant we ate in and found that they repainted most of the walls. I didn’t know they did that, but it seems like a crime to paint over that great art. I had come upon the this photo of me in front of the walls a few years ago. I noticed that this great colorful mural was changed you can see it here. Then and now.

I use the image of me and the colorful walls sometimes up above as the name plate of this blog.

Then.

Now.

Here are a bunch of new murals at the Wynwood Walls and other areas in Wynwood.

Entrance to Wynwood Walls

Jose de Diego Middle School in the Wynwood neighborhood.

Floating Snoopy

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I looked out the window last night and who do I see? Snoopy! Sitting right over Key Biscayne, floating among the clouds. Look at him, he’s just sitting on a cloud, look at the row of pink clouds, just before sunset. I love it so much, I made it my nameplate above.