Greetings fans! I trust that you all had a fantastic Halloween (I did, which I’ll mention later in this blog). Usually, October is my winding-down period for conventions, art festivals, and comic shop signings, and the only big event I participate in (if I have a great costume idea), is Halloween. However for this second month of fall, I found myself at three shows, a community meeting, dressing up for the 31st, and even doing some cat-sitting.
The month for me started (and was dominated by) three art events: Monterey Park Artwalk, LA Comic Con, and the Sherman Oaks Street Fair. Just to clarify: I was only a vendor in Monterey Park, but I attended the 9th annual Los Angeles Comic Con (formerly Comikaze, formerly Stan Lee’s LA Comic Con) as a professional for the first time, complete with badge that proved it! As for the Sherman Oaks Street Fair, I went from attendee at the free event, to an impromptu assistant for a writer friend of mine who needed help taking down her booth after the show. All three were fun in their own ways: I made decent sales and met new fans at Monterey Park, got to chat with my talented writer buddy between here book pitches and sales to customers, and while checking up on Artist Alley friends at LA Comic Con, one AA amigo hooked me up with a November convention in Las Vegas called: Great American Comic Con. To further sweeten the offer, he even offered to put me up at his place while we both exhibited at the show (as he’s a Vegas resident).
The rest of the month was divided between finishing up Damn Tourists issue five Photoshop coloring, cat sitting for a friend, attending a morning rail transit meeting, and shopping for a Halloween outfit. While I am technically finished with the latest comic (only dialogue needs to be added before I make a print order at the end of the week), and the four days of caring for my good friend’s feline friend were happily uneventful, that leaves the transit meeting and Halloween to talk about in detail, and boy is there a lot to talk about: Late last month, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority held a series of community meetings the the Central LA area to discuss a northern extension of the currently under-construction Crenshaw light rail line. As is stands right now, the southern segment of the train (which runs from the Expo/Crenshaw station linking another light rail from Downtown LA to Santa Monica) to the Aviation/LAX Green Line station, connecting the Metro Green Line rail, which connects Norwalk to the east with Redondo Beach to the south. Crenshaw south will also feature a station at an intersection near Los Angeles International Airport, whereas LAX will build an elevated tram connecting that station with their terminals. The northern extension will travel from Expo/Crenshaw to the Red Line subway’s Hollywood / Highland station, connecting not only those to rail lines, but also the upcoming Purple Line subway to Beverly Hills, Century City, UCLA, and Westwood, and the popular city of West Hollywood——whom have been pushing for a train in their neighborhood for years. I attended the lone Saturday morning meeting they had, held at an elementary school cafeteria (the norm for most meetings like this), and was pleasantly surprised at the mostly positive response attendees had toward the presentation of this route. It was a welcome change compared to attending two previous transit meetings with quite alot of resistance toward transit improvements (Eagle Rock being the worst of the two, with opponents of a proposed BRT system literally screaming at any supporters of that project). While I was aware of the jist of the Crenshaw North project, I did learn that at three different types of rail are being considered for the new route: underground/subway (primarily), above-ground, and possibly street-level. There are currently five alignments for the train to get to Hollywood, with the western-most alignments (which serve West Hollywood) the most-favorable, though they are longer routes due to how spread out LA cities are. One straight-line direct route is faster and possibly cheaper, but completely misses the heart of WeHo with no real connections in-between. I’m personally in the WeHo camp, as the point of mass transit is to connect communities first, and other transit lines second. Areas this project will serve such as The Grove Mall, CBS Studios, and The Beverly Center, are areas I currently avoid like the plague due to heavy traffic, lack of parking, and convoluted street-parking signs. When this rail line opens, I’ll gladly return to the area for food, shopping, and events like the Halloween Carnavale. Let’s hope the line gets approved and build sooner rather than later.
And speaking of Halloween, I decided to dress up once again after skipping the last two celebrations. As I stated at the beginning of this blog, I don’t “costume-up” on this holiday unless I have a really great idea for one that I can actually purchase. Up until a few days before Halloween, that was NOT going to be the case. In my infinite wisdom, I first decided to dress up as a character featured in a '1980s music video from my favorite band, Level 42. It was going to be a “riddler-esque” character in yellow plaid—-which despite my best online and brick-and-mortar shopping—-failed to produce any favorable results. This led me to later choose an outfit that was staring me in the face the entire time: McDowell’s employee from Coming to America. While searching for a yellow plaid vest to use with the first outfit, I noticed that there was a red plaid vest as well. One set of black slacks, a red plaid hat, white dress shirt, red bow tie, and hand cut “M” later, I was ready to wow friends and co-workers. Based on both the in-person and online response between my office costume contest (which I didn’t win or place in but got some great compliments) and a friend’s Halloween party (where I placed third in her costume contest), I think it’s safe to say that I made the right outfit decision. And it just makes me genuinely excited for dressing up next year, now that I pulled this costume off.
Well, that’s about it for this month. Between now and my final blog of the year in December, look out for the official release of Damn Tourists issue five: “East Coast California,” my final two shows of 2019 at Valley Comic Con in Santa Clarita this Sunday and Great American Comic Con next weekend in Las Vegas respectively, and even more surprises which may include some new T-Shirts and work on a third Cosmic Force Prequel. So stay tuned through December!
Regards,
Allen Carter
Carter Comics