|
|
So you're a comics
fan who'd like to add a cartoony spin to your next vacation? If you're
traveling in the United States, there are a few sites of interest
you might like to add to your itinerary:
- ARIZONA:
Right near the Grand Canyon, in Valle, is one of the nation's
two Flintstones theme parks, Bedrock
City II.
- ARKANSAS:
Visit the town of Alma and drop in on the processing plant for
Popeye
Brand Spinach. If the month is April, you might even catch
the annual Spinach Festival.
- CALIFORNIA:
Of course, Disneyland
is the granddaddy of all cartoon theme parks. You can visit the
small but impressive Cartoon
Art Museum of San Francisco. And in Santa Rosa, you can find
the ice
skating rink and Peanuts
museum and gift shop once owned by Charlie Brown's creator, Charles Schulz,
as well as the Schulz Museum.
- FLORIDA:
Of course, Disneyworld
in Orlando goes without saying. And the Delbo Cartoon Camp sounds like a great summer activity for kids.
- ILLINOIS:
Metropolis is the only town in the US bearing that name. So, it
was natural for the citizens to proclaim it the official Hometown
of Superman. The plans they made in the 1970s to construct
a vast Superman Amusement Park never materialized, but they do
have a couple of eye-catching tourist sites. If you can get there
in mid-June, you can catch the annual Superman
Celebration, sponsored in part by the Metropolis
Planet. In Woodstock, the Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum is definitely worth a visit.
Meanwhile, over in Chester, a bronze Popeye
statue marks the birthplace of the sailor man's creator, Elzie
Segar.
- MICHIGAN:
Drop in at the Michigan
State University and you might get a look at their impressive
comic art collection. It's a comics fan's heaven.
- INDIANA:
The city of Oolitic proudly displays a limestone Joe
Palooka statue outside their city hall. Why? your guess is as good as mine.
- MINNESOTA:
In the heart of the Mall of America in Bloomington, you can find
Camp
Snoopy, an indoor Peanuts theme park.
- MISSOURI:
Visit the town of Hornersville, and pay your respects at
Buster Brown's gravesite. No, really...
- NEW
YORK: Though neither of them give regular tours anymore,
DC Comics and Marvel
Comics both have their headquarters in New York City, making
it the comic book fan's Mecca. Don't miss the
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art at the edge of Greenwich Village. And as of this writing, the International Museum of Cartoon Art hasn't yet settled into a new location, but with a little luck and
some helpful contributions, it will be open soon.
- SOUTH
DAKOTA: The town of Custer is the home of the original Flintstones
theme park, Bedrock
City.
- TEXAS:
Crystal City, the Spinach Capital of the World, has yet another
statue honoring (who else?) Popeye.
And if you make your way to Iraan, you can visit the
Alley Oop Land (though it probably isn't worth the trip).
- WISCONSIN:
Lake Geneva proudly displays a statue of legendary comic strip
patriarch Andy
Gump.
- CONVENTIONS:
There are dozens of comic art conventions all across the country
all through the year. You might like to attend...
- CREATION
-- Various dates and locations
- I-CON
-- Stony Brook, NY, early April
- MOTOR
CITY COMIC CON -- Novi, MI, May
- THE
NEW YORK COMIC & FANTASY CREATORS CONVENTION -- Manhattan, NY, June
- DRAGON
CON -- Atlanta, GA, June/July
- SAN
DIEGO COMICON -- San Diego, CA, July
|
© 2003 Robert
A. Buethe
|
