A Castro comic book store is in serious financial trouble, with its owner saying he needs to raise $8,000 by the end of the week or the shop will close for good. Whatever, as the store is called, is located at 548 Castro Street and has been selling comics, graphic novels, and figurines for ten years. Its owner has launched a GoFundMe with the hope of raising the necessary funds.

"It really hurts to say this but after 10.5 years, Coug and I need some help," owner Rich Boutell wrote on Facebook, referring to the store's co-owner. "It's been a rough couple of months for sales. If we don't raise the money we need, Whatever... will be closed."

Boutell further explained on the GoFundMe page that he is not ready to let Whatever shutter. "I opened this store over 10 years ago and we were doing great," he wrote. "Every year our sales went up. We hit a wall and haven't yet recovered. The Castro is in a weird transition and we just need to make it through."

According to Boutell, the money will go toward paying business bills and helping it through the typically slow months of January and February. "This has been my dream, my own comic store and dammit, it's a great store. I don't want to give up on my dream."

This is not the first time that Whatever, which specializes in queer-focused comics, has run into trouble. In 2014, Hoodline reported that construction related to the Castro Streetscape Improvement Project had allegedly depressed sales at the shop. "We were hit hard by the decrease in foot traffic," Boutell told the publication. "Even with the project being done, it's not like waving a magic wand and everything is back to normal."

Boutell is hoping that the fundraising effort, combined with holiday sales, will enable him to remain in business. "Starting Tuesday we will be open everyday," he told his Facebook followers. "Please think about doing some holiday shopping at Whatever... (It's free shipping because you are already in the store!lol). We could really use the support right now."

Related: Modern Times Bookstore To Close Next Month, Ending 45 Years In Business

The ratio of nerds to official Comic Cons has always been out of whack in San Francisco, where we cosplay every day but have never had a full-on Comic Con (just WonderCon!) held in the city. That all changes today with the opening of the first San Francisco Comic Con (September 2-4) at the Marriott Marquis. And we’ve broken down the festival’s most mint-condition celebrity appearances, cosplay contests, significant panel discussions and lightsaber battle opportunities that you can stand in line for while reeking of b.o. because you were up gaming all night.

Celebrity Stars
Some last-minute cancellations have dimmed the star factor here with Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game Of Thrones) canceling because of a film shoot conflict, and Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad) suffering from a sudden infection that we hope does not indicate a zombie outbreak.

But everything is proceeding precisely as foreseen for appearances by Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars), Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who), and Manu Bennett (Spartacus, Arrow). All will appear both Saturday and Sunday, with the Q&A’s being livestreamed online. The stars will also sign autographs and pose for pictures, but you better believe it’s going to cost you $50-80 a pop.

Image: Cosette Paneque via Flickr

Cosplay
This Comic Con has a very strong lineup of big-deal cosplayers like Jessica Nigri, Heather1337 and more (their Q&A livestreams at 1 p.m. Friday). But cosplay will be taking place at all corners of the convention, with cash prizes on the line in the categories of TV/Movies,Comics, Video Games, Anime, Star Wars and the Kids division.

Image: Warner Bros. Animation

Significant Panels
The voice of Daphne from the rebooted Scooby Doo cartoons (Grey DeLisle) highlights the panel Cartoon Voice Actor Q&A, plus there are dozens of other notable panels like Mrs. Pac Man: A Panel of Women Game Developers, Simpsons Trivia, and Body Image Diversity in Comic, Cosplay and Pop Culture.

Image: Greylock via Flickr

Lightsaber Battles
Unlike certain lightsaber events, the lightsaber events at Comic Con will be highly organized and carefully thought out, with instructional and battle sessions like Sport Dueling with Lightsabers, Translating Traditional Sword Into Lightsaber Metastyles, The Art of Storytelling with Lightsaber Stage Combat.

San Francisco Comic Con runs today (12 Noon - Midnight), Saturday (10 a.m. - Midnight) and Sunday (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.) at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis (780 Mission Street, at Fourth Street)

Ron Henggeler, a chronicler of local ephemera in his newsletter, happened upon a 1975 volume of illustrations harkening back to Old Frisco by Albert Tolf, and you should take a look. The historical cartoons, titled "This Was San Francisco," which appeared in The San Francisco News in 1956-1958, are really a delight both for their storytelling and their aesthetic. They can all be found here, where Henggeler has digitized and restored them. It took him days, he writes, to repair the yellowed paper.

The weekly feature of Tolf's, which he calls "escapes into the city's past" was "one rewarding and happy experience."

"There is still more gold in the hills to be discovered," he writes in his introduction, "so there is more history in the enchanted hills of San Francisco to be found. And it is all free. It just needs panning out." Well, this might be one such discovery!

via Ron Henggeler

via Ron Henggeler

via Ron Henggeler

Related: Trove Of Historical SF Photos Now Available For Your Browsing Pleasure

Yesterday brought with it the conclusion of Silicon Valley Comic Con — the science fiction and fantasy convention spearheaded in part by Steve Wozniak that this past weekend graced San Jose for the first time. By all accounts the three-day event was a big hit, and the Chronicle reports that between 30,000 and 40,000 fans showed up to flaunt amazing homemade costumes, meet some of their favorite stars, and surround themselves with geek culture — something that has long been an intrinsic part of the Bay Area.

Taking place at the San Jose Convention Center, the convention was the first one of its scale in the Bay Area after WonderCon decamped SF for Anaheim in 2011.

"There are lots of fans like me in San Francisco and the Valley, and I’m excited to finally have a Comic Con with our very own flavor," noted Mr. Wozniak. "When I was growing up it was hard to be a geek. It definitely wasn’t cool back then, but I am happy that things have changed because now being a geek, or being different, is cool."

Guests at last weekend's event included nerd favorites like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd (both of Back To The Future fame), Stan Lee, William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, and plenty of costumed revelers.

We have to say, the entire thing looks like it was a lot of fun. Below, some photos from contributor Thomas Hawk.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Previously: Silicon Valley Comic Con Announced In Dorky Video With Stan Lee And Woz

Earlier today, former-San Francisco lawyer/now-syndicated cartoonist Stephan Pastis, revealed that legendary "Calvin and Hobbes" creator had contributed artwork to Pastis' "Pearls Before Swine" comic strip this week. Apparently Pastis had struck up an email correspondence with the reclusive Watterson, and Watterson had an idea for a strip. Pastis replied, "Dear Bill, I will do whatever you want, including setting my hair on fire.”

Pastis writes, "The idea I proposed was that instead of having me get hit on the head, I would pretend that Pearls was being drawn by a precocious second grader who thought my art was crap. I named her 'Libby,' which I then shorted to 'Lib.' (Hint, hint: It’s almost 'Bill' backwards.)"

You can read the whole series here (click the arrow to advance to the next day's comic).

The Washington Post spoke to Watterson (!!) about the collaboration:

So what, exactly, lured Watterson back to the page for the first time since ending his immensely popular boy-and-tiger comic in December of 1995?

“Several years ago, when Stephan did one of his strips that mocked his own drawing ability and mentioned my strip in comparison, I thought it might be funny for me to ghost ‘Pearls’ sometime, just to flip it all on its head,” the goateed Watterson tells me, offering a clear indication that he still follows the funnies. “It was just a silly idea, and I didn’t know Stephan, so I never pursued it, and years went by.”

Watterson also told the Post, "I think we both got some surprises. I didn’t know what he was going to write, and he didn’t know how I was going to draw it." And Pastis did make some suggestions, "It was like editing the pope. Like telling Michelangelo: ‘David’s hands are too big.’ "

Watterston added, “I had expected to just mess around with his characters while they did their usual things, but Stephan kept setting up these situations that required more challenging drawings ... so I had to work a lot harder than I had planned to! It was a lot of fun."

Pastis has more details about how they worked together on his website, " I found out that Bill Watterson is not comfortable with scanners or Photoshop or large email attachments. In fact, by the end of the process, I was left with the distinct impression that he works in a log cabin lit by whale oil and hands his finished artwork to a man on a pony."

You can breathe a sigh of relief, San Francisco, as young, yet oh-so strong, Batkid Miles saved the day. Here now are pics showing what went down after Make-A-Wish turned Baghdad by the Bay into Gotham City. Damsels in distress were rescued. The Batmobile careened up and down city streets. And hearts burst wide open as San Francisco's true, cynicism-free colors were exposed.

Here now are some shots of Miles in action. We will continue to update throughout the day.

Previously: Watch Batkid Save Gotham City (AKA San Francisco) LIVE!
Here's How You Can Help Make 5-Year-Old Miles' Wish Come True
Make-A-Wish Foundation Will Transform S.F. Into Gotham City For Adorable Batman-Themed Wish

When Simpsons creator Matt Groening's mother, Margaret (or Marge, as her friends knew her), died last month at the age of 94, a wonderful obituary was printed in a Portland, Oregon newspaper, which was cause for some fan excitement about all the Simpsons name echoes in the Groening family. While the real Marge's hair may not have been blue, her life story is filled with familiar names.

As many fans of the show already know, creator Matt Groening named the characters on the show after members of his own family, with the exception of Bart, though he has said in interviews that the real inspiration for Bart was actually his older brother Mark. Matt's younger siblings did get animated namesakes, however—Lisa and Maggie—and his father, who died in 1996, was named Homer. He also had an older sister named Patty (who died earlier this year), who seems to be the direct inspiration for the Patty and Selma characters — as one Redditor comments, he used to know Margaret and Patty Groening, who would come into a pharmacy where he worked, and Patty "was pleasant, but reeked of cigarette smoke and had crazy, wiry hair."

The most noteworthy part of the obituary, however, may be the fact that its writer fails to mention The Simpsons or the fame of Marge's son at all, as if that would be tacky.

The Simpsons began life in 1987 as a series of shorts created for interludes on The Tracey Ullman Show. Groening famously sketched out the concept for the show sitting in the lobby of director James L. Brooks' office after deciding he didn't want to risk losing the rights to his Life in Hell characters by doing an animated series about them. The Simpsons remains the longest-running prime-time animated series in the country.

[Reddit, obit via user Yarr]
[Willamette Week]
[The Oregonian]

Speaking of Real World: San Francisco, Judd Winick, a noted comic book writer/artist in his own right, will give away his entire collection of books that he's written over the years. Buy one comic and get three from Judd's very own collection. Delightful!

Also, the MTV reality star will also hold a Q&A with fans. He will also sign your comic(s), which is a must for any Real World fan or slave to the '90s. It begins this Sunday at 4 p.m. at Two Cats Comic Book Store (320 West Portal Avenue), San Francisco.

Have at it, folks.

A clever prankster dolled up the street sign at Waldo Alley in the Marina Russian Hill with much-needed Where's Waldo flair, replete with red and white cap and stripes. Ingenious.

[Photo:Rick Haelig / SFist]