2019 Outlook

Last year there were a great deal of ups and downs for me personally. I'm hoping that 2019 will play out better and I wanted to give my loyal readers an idea of what's coming down the pipeline.

As I had mentioned towards the end of December, I'm considering making some major changes to how I broadcast information on both of my blogs (Zanziber's Point of View and RPG4EVR). Because I find difficulty finding time to be able to sit and write, I am thinking of moving towards a podcast based system. I have no problems at all talking about my viewpoints and opinions, and this would also open-up some opportunities to include people outside of myself to add content to what is brought here.



As of this writing, I am still working on getting the right equipment and learning more about how the process actually goes. When I begin, I plan on making the podcasts around 45 mins to 1 hour in length and will be more than just reviews. I will incorporate some additional opinions about the state of the comic book industry, role playing games, cons and other events as well as local items within geek culture. I also look forward to doing some interviews with artists, creators and people I happen to meet at events I'm attending.



On that note, I should make note of the various upcoming events that are coming to the Pacific Northwest in 2019.

We just had Fandom PDX up in Portland not too long ago. This is the second year, and I haven't gone once. For me, it's scheduled way too early in the year and all the advertising I saw was primarily anime based. Since my anime tastes run to the old school (Robotech), and I don't understand many of the series that have cropped-up over the last 2 decades, I have decided to give Fandom PDX a pass.

I recently learned that I Like Comic Con is taking a year off in order to make the next event in 2020 even better than the inaugural event in 2018. I wasn't able to go last year, which I really wished I had been able to attend, because there was some serious talent I would have loved to meet. I'm eager to see what they'll have planned for 2020.

As my loyal readers know, I was able to attend 2018's Oregon Coast Comic Con and had a fun time. Unfortunately, due to circumstances behind the scenes, it seems like that was the last time we will see Oregon Coast Comic Con. I don't want to bring-up sore issues, nor do I want to open old wounds so I will not post the information that I have learned through various sources since I have not hear the other side of the story.

And that segues into Cherry City Comic Con. It doesn't look like there will be another Cherry City Comic Con any time soon. There was a big issue with being able to actually hold the event soon after Oregon Coast Comic Con. One day, the promoter posted a video declaring that the event was cancelled, and the very next day it was miraculously saved; although many of the guests that had been promoted to be attending would not be able to.



While I'm uncertain about the actual circumstances behind this cancellation and resurrection, on the face of it there seemed like a ploy for marketing and trying to get everyone's attention to possibly motivate people to actually purchase tickets. From what I saw when I attended, and the information I have received from people who were either also attending or even a guest/vendor there, the entire event was incredibly lackluster. From what I saw personally, there were not nearly as many people attending as in years past. Also, there were many of the booths that were empty and vendors there that had no real connection to comic books.



It's very unfortunate that Salem has not been able to keep a decent show alive; between Cherry City Comic Con and Northwest Comic Fest. I know that the Facebook Group "Pop Culture Northwest" has been holding small events in Salem. Maybe if these were expanded, held on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, and received additional outside promotion, these events would be akin to the old Portland Comic Book show that used to be held at the Memorial Colosseum. IMHO, it doesn't actually have to be too fancy and have a ton of Hollywood guests to be good.

Since I am on the topic of events that have been cancelled, there has been some news that the once cancelled Walker Stalker Con for Portland will be returning later in the year. The event was scheduled for February (I believe), and I had seen many people making posts about their eagerness to attend and making plans. Then... for some reason... they cancelled. Just this past week, it was announced that they are trying to work with the venue to come back to Portland in November. We'll see how that plays out.

As much as I would love to go back to Emerald City Comic Con, it seems like it is being managed poorly. The last year I attended, it was more crowded that in years previous; and that was somewhat unpleasant to me. It seems that it has grown even more, to the point that they have moved the celebrity area and main stage has been moved to a hotel that is about 4-6 blocks away from the convention center. I understand that Seattle is working on building a new convention center (or modifying the existing site), but this level of expansion and inconvenience to the con goers is not sitting well.



The biggest issue with having the main stage and celebrity area away from the area where the other panels, artists and vendor are is the fact that there are always so many people outside of the event either trying to sell you something, scalp badges to the event, or potentially mug you. This will create an even more unsafe environment for people who simply want to go to the event and have a good time. They have already paid so much for badges, travel and other related expenses and now they're being told that they will need to go to a remote location in order to get the full experience of the event. I look forward to the new convention center opening in 2021.

For the first time, I have submitted my request to be part of the media for this years Wizard World Portland. This will be February 22-24 and should be a fun event. If I'm approved, I hope to bring my photographer friends from Chrysalis Rising Photographic Studio to help document the experience. Perhaps I will have transitioned to the podcast format by then as well and I can get some great interviews recorded. I'm very excited.

You can bet that I am looking forward to Rose City Comic Con, running September 13-15. As my loyal readers can attest, this event is my favorite from all the events in the Pacific Northwest. Early last year, I was hoping that I could get a table or booth for my non profit; Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer. Due to circumstances, I was unable to commit to this level of attendance. There are several factors that are in play for the likelihood of attempting this for 2019, so I am uncertain at this time. You can bet that it I am unable to table at the event, I will make sure to submit my application to be able to cover it again as in years past.



I am so happy that I have not only attended every single Rose City Comic Con, but that I have been blessed to be a part of the media for the past several years. If I end-up going as a member of the media again, I will work to schedule some interesting interviews with a variety of guests.

While I wasn't able to attend EUCON last year, I hear it was a blast. At the time of this writing, there has been no official announcement on when the next event will be held. When dates are announced, I do plan on requesting a table/booth for Comic Book Cover 4 Cancer. I feel like Eugene may be an area that needs to learn about our fundraising activities for the American Cancer Society.

As of right now, the next series of auctions are scheduled to begin March 2nd. We'll also have our annual Free Comic Book Day series of auctions in May. The dates for the remaining 2 series of auctions are TBD and dependent on getting more covers from artists. If you, or somebody you know, would like to donate to Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer in our effort to raise $$ for the American Cancer Society, please contact me through our Facebook page. To date, we have raised just over $9,200 for cancer research since 2013.



For those of you who have blank covers that we have sent you, please
let me know what the status is for receiving them back to us. There are
a handful of artists who have had their blanks since 2017. We can't
continue without covers to put up for auction.

If you have covers you have already worked on that you would like to
donate, please PM me and I will give you our shipping address. We are
also branching-out with sketch cards as well. All donations are greatly
appreciated.

For those that need blanks to work on, we have
plenty; unfortunately our financial situation does not allow for me to
ship anything right now. If we were to receive some donations through
the "Donate" button on our FB page, we would be able to ship some.



I will continue to post reviews here for trade paperbacks and graphic novels. I have a large section of shelf of trades that have been read, but now need the reviews to be written. Finding time to do the writing is the biggest difficulty right now. Changing to the podcast format would help greatly. If anyone has suggestions on equipment to use or best practices, please feel free to comment.



Oh.. and yesterday I picked-up 40 new trades to add to my collection. Here's what the "To Read" pile looks like at the moment:

I'm looking forward to sharing more updates, reviews and information when it becomes available. I hope you have an excellent 2019!

Status Update

I know it has been several months since I've posted a new review or anything of substance here. I would like to take this time to both apologize and explain.



This year has been a bit of a roller coaster for me, personally. At the end of 2017, we started looking for a new house that we could move into with my parents. They're in their 70's and the house they're currently living in is not suitable for them any longer. So, the first several month of 2018 were looking for houses that would accommodate all of us (5 adults total) and suit the mobility needs of my parents.



When the home we mostly thought would be perfect for us was denied, we changed our strategy to renovating our existing house into a more suitable location for all of us to live. Needless to say, this project has taken away much of what would normally be my "free time" to be able to write. Between making changes at my current home, and helping my parents with getting ready for the move, I have not only had lack of time available to me, but lack of energy/motivation to do so as well.



For this, I have only one thing to say to my loyal readers/followers...

Around the middle of July, everything should be back in order and I should have more time to devote to my writing and posting here. I hope that I can earn your forgiveness.



The positive changes that are coming from this:

• I now have my very own office where before I was sharing a small room.


• In the office are additional bookshelves so I have a better place to store/queue the trades that I have to review.


• The additional bookshelf space also means I have room for more trades to add to my collection!

Additional updates to what has been going on the past few months...

• As loyal readers/followers/supporters know, I was gifted with a booth at this years Oregon Coast Comic Con in Tillamook, OR for Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer. The event was an interesting experience, and once I have more time to devote to it, I will post a full recap.


• In May, we had our Spring/FCBD series of auctions for #CBC4C, which helped to raise additional $$ for the American Cancer Society. We are currently at just over $9,000 raised since 2013.

For the rest of 2018, here's the plan:

• Get writing reviews for the large group of trades that I've got sitting on my shelf.


• I have submitted my press applications to Rose City Comic Con and Renton Comic Con.


• I'm currently toying with the possibility of requesting a booth/table for #CBC4C at EUCON this year, but that will solely depend on finances.


• At the beginning of August, #CBC4C will hold our Summer series of auctions. The Winter series will be held either at the beginning of November or December (I still haven't figured-out which is better).


• Beginning in July, I will start a new feature on the #CBC4C Facebook page to call-out one of the great artists that have donated to our cause over the past 5 years. I hope this will help to generate more visibility to both the featured artist and #CBC4C.

What about 2019?



Who knows right now.



Thank you for your continued support. If you have any suggestions on what else you may want to see here, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm always open to new ideas.



-John "Zanziber" Rogers

No Review This Week

With my deepest of apologies, there will be no review posted this week due to the fact that I am at Oregon Coast Comic Con representing Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer.



Normal reviews will resume next week and expect a post about my experiences from this years event as well.



-John "Zanziber" Rogers

www.cbc4c.com

2018 Outlook and Insight

As we're getting closer to the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, I'm thinking about the future and the past. These thoughts bring me to my writing now. We'll start with the future first.



Today, I was updating the layout of my blog when I realized just how many comic events are happening in the PNW in 2018. Here's the list:

These are all posted in chronological order for 2018. It will be the 2nd year for Walker Stalker Con and Oregon Coast Comic Con (which was Northwest Comic Con in 2017). I am so looking forward to going to Image Expo finally now that they've moved to Portland. Also, freshman year for the I Like Comic Con event should be incredibly fun. They've already announced Jim Steranko as the artist guest of honor. Every event should be awesome! And just to think that only a handful of years ago, there was only Emerald City Comic Con, Portland Comic Book Show and Stumptown Comic Fest.



As I've mentioned before, my plans are to promote my non-profit this year at Oregon Coast Comic Con and Rose City Comic Con at the very least. Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer is confirmed for Oregon Coast Comic Con, but I haven't hear back about Rose City yet. If not Rose City, then hopefully EUCON will have me.



2017 has been good to me in the fact that I've come closer to completing my G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Marvel collection. The Holy Grail from this year in the elusive issue # 155; the final issue from Marvel.

When I received this issue, I started to think about my future in collecting; which also turned to thoughts about my previous dreams and aspirations.



Since my early 20's, I've always dreamed of having a combination comic book and game store. Something that genuinely catered to both the gaming and comic book communities. I envisioned a space large enough to have rooms for private gaming, tables for CCG and miniature game events, shelves for trades and graphic novels and several tables with long boxes full of back issues.



There was even a time that I was considering a location that would allow for land with area for LARP events. this was back when there was a large enough LARP presence in Salem to warrant such a space. After about 20 years with the Camarilla/Mind's Eye Society, I know how valuable decent LARP gaming space is around here.



But now I can't imagine trying such a venture, especially with the news that there are so many comic shops that have gone out of business over the past couple of years. I've also noticed that the gaming store that I go to in town has been steadily decreasing the amount of inventory on hand. I'm sure that this is due to the fact that they don't want their assets tied-up in so much inventory that just sits on the shelves. The last time I went in for a specific book for a game I'm interested in, the response was "We can always order it for you." As much as I want to support local small business, I go into a store for a specific purpose and prefer to walk out with the item I came in for. If I wanted to wait, I can order it online somewhere.



I will always prefer physical copies of books, comics and trades over a digital copy. Unfortunately, I must be a dying breed of people. Another unfortunate item is that I'm running out of room to store everything I collect.



I currently have 12 long boxes and 5 short boxes full of comic books. I also have 4 bookshelves full of trades and gaming books. Most of my Funko Pop collection are in about 20+ 12 gallon storage totes in our garage.



An this makes me think about how reasonable it is to continue to collect so many things. I still read the trades and am a semi-active gamer, but the comic books get put away in the boxes, barely ever thought about. What makes matters worse is that the hard drive to my laptop crashed back in September, and I was unable to recover the database that I had all my comics inventoried in. Now, I have to inventory the entire collection again. I have figured-out which software I'm going to use to take on this task, but I still question about continuing to get new issues that I'll probably never read.



I seriously considering giving-up collecting new comics after I have the rest of my G.I. Joe collection completed. G.I. Joe started the obsession, it makes sense that it should end it as well.
















The final 4 issues I need. I would also love for Larry Hama to come back to the PNW to have him sign a few more issues in my collection... especially that #155.



No matter what I decided to do with my personal comic book collecting habits, I will continue to collect, read and review trades. I have a small stack to go through to actually write the reviews for, and I'll be going through it over the remaining weeks of 2017 and get them ready for 2018.

8 years now, and making some changes

Has it actually been 8 years now? I remember having so many trades to read and review. Stacks of each. These days, the stack of trades to read is not nearly as tall and same with the stack of trades needing to be reviewed. My resources for purchasing new trades has been very limited the past few years, and I haven't been buying as much.



My biggest thrill is when I go to events like Rose City Comic Con and get to find vendors that have trades marked down to an incredible level. Buying trades for even less than what I would pay for them in a used book store is such a great feeling. Unfortunately, I have been looking at these opportunities as a collector and not just a reviewer. I've been cherry-picking for volume 1's of titles I've not read yet where most of the available stock are later volumes because they didn't fair as well as the first. I see this now as I write this article, and I am disappointed in myself.



Because of this shortage, I have been trying to find ways to branch-out to keep my blog interesting for you.



You'll notice that for several years I've been covering events around the Northwest as a member of the press. I've been blessed to be included in the past several Rose City Comic Con's, and this year I was fortunately to be able to cover the first Northwest Comic Con (now Oregon Coast Comic Con). As I'm writing this, I'm waiting to hear back from Eugene Comic Con (EUCON) to see if I'll be covering it as a member of the press.



I hope that the reviews that I've been posting for these events have been helpful to both the event coordinators and attendees. I would like to take some measure of credit for Rose City expanding to 3 days.

Looking forward to 2018, I'm planning on making a large push for Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer (#CBC4C). I'll be attending Oregon Coast Comic Con in March, and I'm going to try my hardest to get a table or booth at Rose City Comic Con. This will not only take a lot of my time to prepare, but it will also take additional resources (funding) to make sure I have enough to warrant having a table at both of these events. For Oregon Coast Comic Con, I have recently made an agreement with artist Neil Jorge to do a con exclusive print for CBC4C. I'm very excited to see what he comes up with. I'm hoping to do something similar for Rose City.



Going forward, I think I may also branch-out to start doing some interviews with people in the comics world. I'm inspired to try this because earlier this year, Warrior Innkeeper Creative publisher Benjamin Kreger interviewed me as part of a "Worthy Wednesday" piece for his Black Suit of Death #2 Kickstarter.



I'm still going to be writing my reviews, but they will only be published occasionally instead of on a regular basis like they used to be. This should be a huge issue to my loyal readers as this has been going on for the past year now... at least. I apologize for that, and I hope I've been able to make it worth the while with other posts.



Thank you all for your continued support. Please keep track of me here and on Facebook. Here's hoping for a great year 9!



-John "Zanziber" Rogers