In a few days, I’ll be going to California for an event honoring of some of the people featured in my book. The hosts are Joe (pictured above) and Libby Field and their store, Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff in Concord, just east of Oakland.
This is free and open to the public. Here is the event listing. If you’re anywhere near, you should come.
I could spend thousands of words on each of the special guests. Heck, I probably could write a treatise on the facial hair stylings of Dick Swan.
But I’m going to limit myself to just a thought or two for each person.
Joe Ferrara: The longtime owner of Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz, he is one of those people who seems to know everyone in comics, making his shop a regular destination for top creators.
Joe and Libby Field: This husband-and-wife team are co-owners of Flying Colors, with him doing the marketing and events, and her handling much of the business side. He is the public face — known for coming up with the idea for Free Comic Book Day among many other things — and he says that she deserves much of the credit for the store’s success.
Mike Friedrich: An accomplished comics writer, a boundary-pushing publisher of Star*Reach, and Marvel Comics’ first manager of sales to comic shops in the early 1980s. He and Joe Field owned and operated WonderCon when it was based in the Bay Area.
Brian Hibbs: A man unshy about expressing his opinion, he owns Comix Experience and Comix Experience Outpost in San Francisco, and writes the long-running “Tilting at Windmills” column which now appears at The Beat. Here is a recent scorching he gave to the Marvel Legacy initiative.
Bud Plant: He has done just about everything in the comics business, co-owning his first shop when he was in high school and going on to a succession of groundbreaking businesses, such as co-owning the retail chain Comics & Comix, becoming an independent publisher, and running a mail-order book business that continues to bear his personal stamp. He still edits his monthly catalog and helps decide which titles are worthy of the label, “Our highest recommendation.”
Dick Swan: He goes way back with Bud Plant, and later would be part of Comics & Comix and have his own shop, The Big Guy’s Comics in Mountain View. Now he is semi-retired near Santa Cruz, giving him more time to admire an epic comics collection.
There are some great storytellers in this group, and they have deep connections with each other. The Bay Area has long been a hub for the country’s comics business, due in large part to these people (plus others who no longer live in the region, and some who died way too young). And, there are a few who are not announced guests, but are still in the area and just might make an appearance.
The photos of Ferrara, the Field family, Friedrich, Hibbs and Swan are all used with permission. The other photos are by me.
Dan Gearino 