Viral COVID load in San Diego wastewater sharply increasing

S1: COVID cases are surging.
S2: So what's ahead in the next 2 to 4 weeks ? We are going to be dealing with more cases of COVID and no questions about that.
S1: I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Governor Newsom gives the okay to citizens lawsuits against illegal guns.
S3: But there are other legal issues that could be the demise of these laws.
S1: And monkeypox cases are on the rise , but getting a diagnosis can be difficult. And now that Comic-Con is over , what's in a portfolio review ? That's ahead on Midday Edition. The results of wastewater testing are showing a dramatic increase in the presence of the COVID 19 virus in San Diego County. It's an early indication that the infection rate is rising quickly. Here's Dr. William Singh , assistant chief of staff for Kaiser San Diego.
S2: What that tells us is that in the next 2 to 4 weeks , we are going to be dealing with more cases of COVID and no questions about that.
S1: KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman joins me now to talk about what could be coming. And Matt , welcome back.
S4: Hey , Jade , great to be here.
S1:
S4: We know that infections first develop in the gut , and that's why we see this in the wastewater. And if you look at the graph , I mean , you know , last summer surge , we've already eclipsed , you know , the viral load is already much higher than than last summer. And it's just going straight up. It almost looks like , you know , when we have these winter surges , the last two winters , we have a steep incline peak and a steep decline peak. Whereas like last summer was a little bit of an uphill and a little bit of a downhill , but a much more dramatic increase we're seeing right now.
S1: In wastewater data , as you mentioned , is considered an early indicator of the COVID infection rate.
S4: We know that the lead time can vary based on the different variants that are out there. Like 2 to 4 weeks is when we could start seeing this reflected in some of the cases. But we know that wastewater , you know , we're hearing the hospital people say that this is just a better way to track COVID. I mean , you know , it's nondiscriminatory in the fact that , like , you know , you don't have to go and seek out a test. I mean , everybody goes to the bathroom. It all goes in the pipes and goes to the plants. And whereas we're getting a lot of at home testing right now. So even the numbers that we're seeing cases reported in the daily like to thousands , there's a lot more people that are testing at home that just never make it into those official case counts. That's why wastewater is , you know , being hailed here as a tool to look into.
S1:
S4: I mean , there's kind of this , you know , is Bay five , is it more severe ? Is it less severe ? Even if it is less severe , this this new super contagious variant that's that's driving all these cases. It's more and more people are going to be infected. You know , that means that more high risk people are going to be infected and inevitably , people are going to end up in the hospital with so much spread. So they're worrying and they're also juggling a lot of other things right now , you know , in terms of staffing , like hundreds of staff out sick with COVID. So all those issues haven't gone away still. They're on the back burner.
S1: And the bay five sub variant of the homegrown strain is now , as you just said , the dominant strain in San Diego County.
S4: Like you mentioned , it is driving all these cases. And we're hearing from hospital leaders that it appears to be a less acute illness with this in terms of , you know , less people are needing to be put on ventilators , less people are going to the ICU. Now , kind of I touched on earlier , we really don't know if that's because Bay five is is less severe like a less severe strain but that it might be more contagious or if we have a lot of protection built up from things like vaccinations , previous infections and also we have a lot of these treatments like packs loaded monoclonal antibody. So it's kind of unclear. Bay five is this , you know , really , really bad virus. We know it's still killing people , but it's sort of unclear.
S1:
S4: But we're hearing from health officials not necessarily to wait for that because we are hearing that , you know , wow , bay five might be able to evade a little bit more immunity compared to previous strains that there's still protection against hospitalization and death with these vaccines. And that's exactly why they're intended. So they're saying if people are , you know , having gotten their third booster , if they're over 50 , haven't gotten their fourth booster and they're waiting for that al-Muqrin specific , they say don't wait for that. And we also know , too , that some of the treatments like Paxil , Ovid , some of the monoclonal antibody treatments , some of them may not be working as well , but there's a lot of them that are still working very well. So if you get COVID. County officials want you , especially if you're high risk , to go out and seek out those treatments so that you never end up in a hospital.
S1: And Los Angeles County health officials have said they may go to universal indoor masking based on the infection rate there. San Diego is currently in the highest risk tier , according to CDC guidelines. So are local health officials considering a mask mandate as well ? Yeah.
S4: You know , we went into the high risk tier , what , like a week ago or so. And then now , you know , as of late last week and over the weekend , we've seen this increase in hospitalizations. We saw San Diego Unified. Bring out a mask mandate. We saw the local military bases bring back that indoor mask mandate. L.A. County , as you mentioned , if they stay in this high risk tier for another week , they're going to bring back universal indoor masking. And just simple , Jane , we haven't heard that from county health officials. They haven't gone that far. You know , I wouldn't say I wouldn't completely rule it out as something they're considering , but we just haven't heard that. There doesn't appear to be an appetite for a mask mandate here in San Diego.
S1: But but health officials are still at least recommending masking. Correct.
S4: And they say that they're going to be recommending it even stronger that we're here in this high risk tier of this orange tier , however you want to refer to it. We also know that , you know , part of the CDC guidelines , when we're in this high risk tier , which basically means there's a lot of COVID in the community , they recommend that everyone wear their masks indoors because we know they work. You know , the cloth ones may not work as well , but like N95s , we know that they work and so they want people to wear.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt , thank you very much.
S4: Thanks , Jane.
S5: Critics call it a stunt. Supporters say it's a new important tool to curb gun violence in California. Governor Gavin Newsom ripped a page out of the Texas anti-abortion playbook last week and signed a bill allowing private citizens to sue gun makers for deaths from firearms banned in the state. The new law is fashioned on the Texas law , empowering citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets women obtaining abortions. California's new law is just one of a number of gun reforms recently enacted in the state. Flying in the face of the new Supreme Court ruling that expands the scope of the Second Amendment. Joining me is CAPP , radio reporter Nicole Nixon. And Nicole , welcome.
S3: Thanks so much for having me.
S5:
S3: There's also the fact that , you know , it opens the door for residents and in some cases state and local prosecutors to sue gun makers and sellers , which have been protected for almost 20 years now from liability for their products based on a federal law. So he signed this bill on Friday. Earlier this month , he signed a second bill that requires firearm businesses to abide by this standard of conduct and take reasonable measures to try to prevent their weapons from falling into the hands of people who would use them for violence. And if if these companies break that code of conduct , then it would allow citizens and prosecutors to sue them for failing to prevent gun violence.
S5: So Newsom says this new law may be the most impactful thing the state has done to prevent gun violence.
S3: So theoretically , if somebody notices a weapon that's being sold and it's supposed to be outlawed in the state , that person could sue the gun dealer for damages up to $10,000 and attorney fees. There is a lot of debate here about the legal sort of issues at play and whether it will be challenged before it it takes effect next year.
S5:
S3: You know , the Second Amendment is the big one. There's a clause in the Constitution that deals with interstate commerce. So it could it can face a legal challenge there. There's also that federal law that Congress passed in 2005 , which shields gun manufacturers from legal liabilities. And these these laws want to hold gunmakers , gun sellers , liable for damages stemming from gun violence. So while Newsom is very confident that this one piece of the law based on the Texas abortion law that the Supreme Court did say was okay and returned to the state , there are other legal issues that could be the demise of these laws.
S5:
S3: He has openly stated that he does not agree with the Supreme Court's decision to not rule on this issue , on this one portion of the Texas law that allows people to sue others for aiding and abetting an A in an abortion. But he says that , you know , now that the Supreme Court has ruled on it , he's going to turn it around and use it to fight gun violence. So another sort of us stepping up or another level of the culture wars here between these two states and Newsom going after Texas and Florida , two of his favorite tiger. Gets.
S5: Now , this is not the only response the governor and the legislature have made in the face of Supreme Court rulings expanding the scope of the Second Amendment. Can you tell us some of the gun laws that have recently been signed into law in California ? Right.
S3: These two laws are getting a lot of the attention. But Newsom has signed like ten other gun laws this year. They include a ban on marketing guns to children , a ban on 3-D printing of guns or certain parts of firearms , increased inspections at gun retailers. There's also this new requirement that school officials immediately report any safety threats on campus to police. And that also includes a provision that schools give out storage information about safe firearm storage at homes to parents every year. And then there are a few other laws that sort of expand the ban on gun sales on state and local property , including in San Diego , the Del Mar Fairgrounds. There won't be gun sales and ammo sales won't be allowed there anymore.
S5:
S3: The other one , which allows people to sue firearm businesses for failing to prevent gun violence , takes effect next July. But again , we'll see if there are legal challenges that either either overturn or delay implementation of these laws.
S5: I've been speaking with CCAP radio reporter Nicole Nixon. Nicole , thank you so much.
S3: Thank you.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. The U.S. monkeypox outbreak is swiftly expanding. The CDC reports more than 3400 known cases concentrated mainly among men who have sex with men. And in these early days of its spread , people can spend days in search of the right diagnosis. KPCC senior health reporter Jacki Fortier has this story.
S6: Two days after Kevin Huang flew home to California from New York , pride , his hands were so itchy , it woke him up. He initially thought it was eczema.
S2: Everything started rapidly getting worse. I started to get more spots in my face , more redness , and started leaking fluid. Rash. Expand into my elbows and my hands and my ankles.
S6: An urgent care doctor didn't think it was monkeypox. Kwong spots were clustered together and looked different from the monkeypox pictures the doctor had seen.
S2: Depending on where I was with my symptoms and who I was speaking to , I was getting different answers.
S6: During a virtual appointment , a nurse noticed the rash spreading toward his eyes and told him to go to the emergency room. Their doctors told him he may have monkeypox , but they were unprepared to handle a potential case.
S2: And so they were researching while I was in this room and back and forth on the phone with the CDC. I expected myself as a patient to be in the dark , but I didn't realize how little information was also given to providers and how unprepared they were as well.
S6: His lesions were swabbed , but the monkeypox test result wouldn't come back for at least a week. He spent 12 hours in the E.R. before being sent home.
S2: At this point , I'm just miserable. Have sores in the back of my throat , in my mouth , all over my body.
S6: He says the pain was inescapable.
S2: It feels like you stick your hand in water. That's too hot. Sort of that feeling. But you cannot take it out. And so it's constant.
S6: After her first home call with a friend , he broke down crying after seeing himself on the screen.
S2: Your body is being taken over by this thing that you don't understand and you have nowhere to go. So it's both painful and terrifying.
S6: After days of appointments and very little sleep , Cuong decided to drive to the University of California San Francisco Hospital. There he was , given oxycodone for the pain and swabbed again for a monkeypox test. The next day , UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-hong contacted him.
S2: I thought , Wow , this is really , really extensive disease. I've seen other cases of monkeypox before , but they're very limited , I would say. Kevin is probably in the top 5% of severity of diseases , and most people probably wouldn't get as severe as Kevin.
S6: Because the rash was close to Kevin Huang's eyes. If left untreated , it could have caused him to go blind. Dr. Chin-hong says the case was so severe the hospital okayed a prescription of Tupac's. That's an antiviral that's been given special clearance by the FDA to treat monkeypox under certain circumstances.
S2: I was shocked by how fast Kevin improved. So it was almost like he was a tuba rocket on the way to recovery.
S6: Huang thinks he likely contracted monkeypox from a guy he hooked up with during New York Pride. That man did test positive despite Huang's quick turnaround on the antiviral. He still hasn't tested positive. Dr. Chin-hong says health workers may not have rubbed hard enough to get live cells.
S2: It's very difficult as a clinician to , like , really get a good sample in these kinds of lesions because the patient is often in pain and you don't like to see people suffer. But again , you're going to decrease the yield of the sample.
S6: Kwong now takes six antiviral pills a day and no longer needs pain medication.
S2: So my face was the first to heal , which I think helped me a lot , just mindset wise , to be able to recognize who I was in the mirror again.
S6: Throughout his ordeal , Kwong has been posting on social media to encourage people to get tested and get the vaccine if they're eligible.
S1: That was KPCC senior health reporter Jackie Fortier.
S5: The project to transform San Diego Central Embarcadero went before port commissioners and the public last week. And the verdict is it needs more work. The $3.5 billion redevelopment plan extends along the coast , replacing Seaport Village and ends south of the USS Midway Museum. As the price tag suggests , it is an enormous project , including multiple high rise hotels , retail and restaurant space , new marinas for more boats , as well as open space parks and a fish processing facility. Many aspects of the plan have met with port approval , but developers were advised to make some significant changes. Joining me is Yehudi Goff , Geffen CEO and partner with one Highway one , the developer for the Seaport San Diego Project and GAF. Welcome to the program.
S2: Thank you. Thank you. Really a pleasure being with you. Happy to be here.
S5: Now , the presentation at the public workshop at the Port Commission last week was accompanied by some impressive new drawings of what the redevelopment would look like.
S2: And that's the public space. The public open space , which is the port , is probably the main focus for us. We feel that any great place in the world is really marked by great public realm because that's where most people go. And we felt that we really didn't have enough images of what it may look and feel like. So not only did we increase it from large meeting from 14.8 acres to 216 acres , but we also produced the images to really show what it would look and feel like and how it would be activated.
S5: Now , listeners actually can find those renderings on our Web site , KPBS dot org. There's one seemingly spiral building that's particularly striking.
S2: And it's been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group , which is probably one of the world's pre-eminent architects. It was in response for the need , and the plot actually articulated this in the RFP to create some iconic feature for the site. I think we all know that Seattle is really marked by the Space Needle. If you took the needle out of any picture of Seattle , you'd never know what city it was , you know , same as Paris with the Eiffel Tower , which was extremely controversial when it was built. But we worked hard to refine what that observation tower would look like , and the majority of people we've spoken to really like it. I personally have fallen in love with it. I think some people might not , but I think it's going to define the San Diego skyline in the future.
S5: Now , as you say , there are lots of drawings of public parks and open space. But one of the criticisms from port commissioners and the public is that the combination of high rise hotels and additional boat slips ruin the view of the waterfront.
S2: So we will be reducing that. And the second thing we heard was , obviously , we need to continue working with the fishermen to refine their needs. We've worked hard over the last six years , hundreds and hundreds of meetings with them. Obviously , COVID has affected their needs. And what came across is that they really wanted to be evaluated because of their direct to market approach , which COVID has brought into focus. So an expanded dockside market that's there. So those are the two main issues. But what I'm really pleased about is that most of the other issues seem to have been resolved to this satisfaction.
S5: But there seems to be a significant absence of a sense of equity in these plans. It looks like you can enjoy the new waterfront if you have a boat or can spend money on a hotel. But what about everyday San Diego and how does the redevelopment improve their experience of the waterfront ? Yeah.
S2: Thank you for that question. And it is a key focus of ours from a number of perspectives. I think you heard at the meeting that we are proposing to provide affordable hospitality for people who may not be able to pay the $300 a night. We're going to be providing a hostel. We will be able to rent beds in a gender separated room in the 60 to $90 range. We're going to be providing micro hotels. It'll also fall into the affordable category of pricing. We also are absolutely committed to this being a place that's comfortable for everyone , whether you come from the higher barrio , Logan City Heights or anywhere else in the state. We want to make it comfortable and we're about to embark on a major listening tour to really go out to the underserved communities with translators so that we can present our project , but also hear from those communities as to what they want. What is it that they would use and we feel is enough public realm to really provide all those uses , those activations , whether they are active or passive. So is it's part of our main focus and it's part of our legacy that we want to live. Even this project is a memorable place for everyone.
S5: There are those who still feel , though , that seaport village , as it is , is the kind of low key beach town welcoming attraction that really represents San Diego. And you've gotten criticism that the new development looks like it could be plopped down on any urban waterfront , that it doesn't represent this city.
S2: I have it as well. I can remember when my kids were young taking them to Seaport Village. But I will tell you this. Our. Our. Work on the design is to create an authentic San Diego place that will have some aspects of seaport village , from the duck ponds to the carousel to small , intimate places that you can go and sit and enjoy. So , you know , until we really move into the granular details , it won't become fully apparent. But the commitment is that this is going to be San Diego , and that's part of the reason we're really committed to our commercial fishermen , because I truly believe they're an authentic part of our waterfronts and will remain to be there at Tuna Harbor. So we will feel we would have failed. If this is like any other project that you call plopped down somewhere , we want to create something that's uniquely San Diego and represent something our community will be proud of.
S5:
S2: So again , we're working hard. We've already started. We've , you know , we've done hundreds and hundreds of public meetings. The port meetings were a key inflection point to really try and get to the point of moving something forward. We feel as we narrowed a project like this , being the three and a half billion dollars doesn't happen overnight. We've been working on it for six years. I feel it's really matured and evolved. I often use the saying that a project like this is not Amazon Prime and it doesn't come in two days. So we're going to continue to work on it and we hope that within 60 days we'll be back with the refinements that have been teased out from the meeting we had. We're already working on it.
S5: I've been speaking with Yehudi Goff , Geffen CEO and partner with one Highway One , the developer for the Seaport San Diego Project. Goff , thank you so much for speaking with us.
S2: Thank you for having me. And keep up the good work.
S5: You've probably seen them as you drive along I-5 past Mission Bay Park , 150 decaying mobile homes on the answer point. Last week , the Coastal Commission gave a long awaited approval to dismantle and remove the abandoned mobile homes as part of a plan to transform Northeast Mission Bay Park to include a campground , open space and most importantly , marshland for bird and marine life habitat. But more planning and more approval is needed to make that proposal a reality. Joining me is Andrew Meier , conservation director for the San Diego Audubon Society. Andrew , welcome to the program.
S2: Thank you very much , Maureen. Nice to be here.
S5: So the area the city is planning to develop include Stevens Point , the RV , camping areas , Mission Bay Golf Course and some surrounding areas.
S2: It's a good starting point , certainly because San Diego as a county , is the most biologically rich county in the nation , and there is endangered bird habitat in Mission Bay. There is beautiful tidal wetlands that we have in Mission Bay right now. But Mission Bay has drastically changed over the last hundred years. It used to be a 4000 acre complex of wetlands and mudflats in open water. But now the that habitat , the tidal wetland habitat is 40 acres. There's 1% of that habitat that remains in Mission Bay. We've changed it drastically over the last 100 years or so with a lot of benefit to humans. And certainly I have lots of birthday parties for my kids at Mission Bay and swim there and enjoy the Bay. But in the northeast corner of the bay where Rose Creek comes into Mission Bay , the city has a fantastic opportunity to fight climate change through tidal wetland , habitat improvement and restoration.
S5: Now , the plan put forward by Mayor Todd Gloria preserves 400 acres for marshland. Do you think that's enough ? Yeah.
S2: The Rewild Mission Bay Project is the project of the San Diego Audubon Society and a growing coalition of over 67 organizations that support prioritizing wetland restoration in the northeast corner of the bay. 400 acres would be fantastic. It's a it's a small slice of what the bay used to be , certainly. But in the northeast corner of the bay , with all of those existing land uses , there is still plenty of acreage to restore tidal wetland habitat for the water quality benefits that tidal wetland habitats provide for the resilience to sea level rise , which we know is coming. Certainly a tidal wetland is made to flood and still functions just fine , even at high tide and even as sea levels rise and for great access improvements. So this is a regional park. This is our public space. Not only just does everybody in San Diego need better access to the shoreline in the northeast corner of the bay , which we do not have now , but it's also a great opportunity for the city of San Diego to make good on many of its promises and the state's promises about reconnecting Native American communities to the bay. So Native American communities have a long , long history here. They've lived along the banks of Rose Creek and and Mission Bay since time immemorial. And wetland restoration really empowers those kinds , those communities to reconnect to those spaces that they have that long cultural connection with and re-energize and revitalize those connections and share them with the rest of us. So it's really an opportunity for all of us to benefit. Wetland restoration is with recreation opportunities plus the wetland , water quality improvements and sea level rise resilience that new wetlands would bring for everybody who uses the bay.
S5: Now you've raised concerns about private use of this land. For instance , there is a plan for an affordable camping area to be close to the bay. Can you tell us about those concerns ? Sure.
S2: The Coastal Commission just approved. Camp Land's long awaited , as you mentioned , a plan for removing the dilapidated mobile homes those trailers need to go. Certainly , that's a part of the the plan that the city has , which benefits everyone who uses the mobile , the regional park. But we see it as the first step towards improving those land uses and restoring that wetland. So this is a short term plan that that was just approved by the Coastal Commission and it's a necessary step. But the long term plan here has to include substantial and prioritized wetland restoration and the camping and the access and the paddle boarding and the kayaking that would go along with revitalized and reconnected and accessible wetland restoration so that camping we can have just as much. We need to have just as much camping as we currently have. It just needs to be on the banks of a restored and clean wetland and Mission Bay that the wetland restoration that we can fit into the northeast corner of the bay will improve the water quality for the people who are boating and swimming there and it will improve the habitat and the scenic quality for the people who are camping along the banks. So it's not a matter of whether camping should be there or not. It definitely should be. It's just the placement of the camping needs to be able to move along the banks of the restored wetland so that the wetland is contiguous and functioning as a water quality filtration device for us as well.
S5:
S2: In a matter of years , three or four years , we could start thinking about actual physical wetland restoration and all of the benefits that come from it in less than five years.
S5: I've been speaking with Andrew Meyer , Conservation Director. Tours for the San Diego Audubon Society. Andrew , thank you.
S2: Thank you very much , Maureen. Have a great day.
S1: The governor of Baja California vetoed a ban on conversion therapy , the debunked pseudoscientific practice that aims to change people's sexual orientation. KPBS border reporter Gustavo Soli says the region's gay rights activists are now fighting back.
S4: The memories remain raw for 27 year old Benjamin Sanchez as the teenage son of a pastor in an ultra Christian community of Tijuana. His sexual identity was considered a sin. Church leaders told him that conversion therapy would offer him a cure , but he ended up with trauma.
S2: You're looking at case Mosul time. I had to look at a mirror and say , I am not this. I do not like men. Being feminine is bad. Being feminine goes against God's plan for me. I'm in control , Blanca.
S4: For years , the so-called therapy left Sanchez confused and prone to panic attacks. So this spring , when he heard that Baja California State Congress was going to ban conversion therapy , Sanchez decided to speak out.
S2: He responsabilidad that. I think it's my responsibility as someone who lived through this and survived that. No one else has to go through this and now you must go.
S4: Yet the state Congress initially passed a ban in April , but the governor , Marina de la Avila , vetoed the ban. Instead , she chose to regulate the industry. The governor's regulations give parents the right to choose to send their kids to conversion therapy as long as the kids are not forced to go. Activists have quickly pointed out that several international medical groups , including the American Psychological Association , have debunked conversion therapy as a dangerous pseudoscience. Muta'a.
S5: Muta'a.
S2: Since it was an instant and even national command revered internationally global get down and mark.
S4: Admonition get no symbolizes.
S2: No functioning danger.
S1: Some controversial centers can nearly stigmatize Canadian trauma.
S4: That , says Sara Espinosa , the director of Kirkwood , Tijuana based LGBT rights nonprofit. He says studies have shown that conversion therapy does more harm than good. California banned the practice for minors in 2012 , partly because experts say that people subjected to conversion therapy end up with higher risks of suicidal behavior. Ellen Mayer of the UCLA Williams Institute says that people who are exposed to conversion therapy are more likely to suffer from several medical conditions.
S2: That could lead to suicide attempts depression , anxiety , substance use disorders and a range of mental health problems.
S4: Shortly after the governor announced her regulations , Kirkwood filed a lawsuit seeking to keep the original ban , the one passed by Baja California Congress. Sanchez and other advocates say that regulations create a massive loophole because most of the people in conversion therapy are minors who have been manipulated by their parents and churches into going to conversion therapy.
S2: Mason I was just as apolitical as you would see it. I would have told them , Yes , I want to be here because this is right. I don't want this in my life and I don't want to be gay. So maybe you don't get us through an episode almost.
S4: Sanchez says that as a teenager , if anyone had asked him if he chose to go to conversion therapy , he would have said it was his idea. Gustavo Solis , KPBS News.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. Comic-Con ended on Sunday. It was the first full scale in-person show since 2019. And although the show is over , some attendees will be busy this week following up on contacts they made doing portfolio reviews at the convention. Comic-Con offers artists the opportunity to meet with a variety of professionals who will review their work and offer suggestions on how to improve. KPBS arts reporter Beth ACCOMANDO spoke with Tom Dougherty , editor in chief publisher and owner of Committed Comics , about what a portfolio review entails for both the artist and the person doing the review.
S6: So tell me a little bit about committed comics.
S7: So me and my business partner , Alex , we've been best friends for years and back in 99 we were like , Hey , the complicated history is kind of like garbage. And we were just sitting there complaining about it , as most fans do. And , you know , you go through cycles of industry. And my roommate at the time , John , was like , look , you guys going to sit there and complain and you can do something about it. So I was like , Well , we know enough people , we know enough artists and writers. And I was always I've always been a comic book fan. And so I was like , Yeah , let's start our own company. And so that's pretty much how it started and what the mindset and the goal to give people the opportunity to get into the industry , because it really is very much kind of a closed door industry unless you know somebody or you happen to roll that lucky dice.
S6: And you're here at Comic-Con. So what do you feel ? Comic-Con offers both to a comics publisher and to the artists who come here.
S7: So Comic-Con is as a whole is is one of the only comic conventions around the country that offers pure experiences , you know , other shows around the country. Who has the most money will win. And that's not the case here. I mean , everything is is an experience. You just get to come in. You get to do everything for fans , you know , who want to get into the comic book industry. It affords them things like this portfolio reviews to where , you know , companies are looking for different elements of creativity. They also can go and talk to people on the sales floor and get advice or get tips and tricks on how to do it. And for me as a publisher , it kind of opens up the ability to see more than what can be put in front of me digitally. We get inundated with so much with just images and sound and noise. Now it's it's really nice to actually be able to connect with somebody face to face and actually , you know , look at their stuff , you know , physically , you know , and point out different things about the artwork that might work in a storytelling capacity or just whatever different facets they actually have in their portfolio. And , you know , for me for creating comics , we've hired a tremendous amount of people from doing performances here at Comic-Con , and some of them have gone on to be quite successful in the comics industry , which I have no doubt they would have made it there regardless because they're exceptionally talented people.
S6:
S7: That's the one great thing about the creative industry as a whole is there is no standard , there is no like , hey , it's a which is followed by B , which is followed by C , which is also one of the reasons why I love doing for news. I never know what's going to happen when the person sits down and they say , here it is , and they open it up and it's either , you know , a wonderful treasure trove of things or I'm looking at going , I'm very confused , you know , but that allows me to communicate with the people. And then the other thing I kind of want to geared towards and what I'm looking for is I'm looking for somebody who is creatively driven. I was telling someone the other day down on the sales floor , if you are only going to create because someone's asking you to create , then I really don't want to work with you because for me , this is totally a passion project. This is this is not my full time job doing this. I mean , I have two other full time jobs , but I still will , you know , do the combo company committed comics , you know , 24 hours a day if I need to. So I need to make sure that the people who I'm working with have the same kind of level of commitment , no pun intended , you know , and and drive that. There's so many different facets of that. But that's really it as a whole. You know , people can show that in different ways. We take on creator , on projects. We take on people who only have one facet of the storytelling , you know , whether they be a writer or whether they be an artist or whether they be a colorist , or there's different stages to the creativity. So every single thing is slightly different , but essentially every single person who I want to work with , even if I wasn't in the picture , they'd be like , Look , I have a stack of artwork that I've been working on , you know , because I can't stop. That's the people who I want to talk to and want to see.
S6:
S7: Like , I love it because , one , I'm doing this to try to help people. That's that's , you know , again , yeah , I would love to find more talent. I would love to find more creators and , you know , be able to produce a bunch of more projects. But I just want people to enjoy comic books. And so if that allows people to say like , hey , I learned a little bit from you and I applied it and I'm better , that's like gangbusters for me.
S6: And ah , the art is usually open to the criticism. Or are some of them defensive.
S7: Or good ones ? Are the people who actually want to excel and want to work in this industry ? They absolutely are. They're like , Look , if they're smart , they understand , they don't know anything. If you go to sales and talk to some of the largest comp of artists downstairs , they'll tell you right away , I don't know everything. I'm still learning , too. And any time an artist is stop learning , then they've plateaued and they're not going to excel anymore. And again , like I said , there's. No template for creativity. Creativity. You're constantly learning. You're constantly building your constant , getting better. So the good ones are they're very open to criticism. At the same time , though , I don't when I look at a portfolio , I'm not going to sit and be like , that's terrible and that's wrong. And that doesn't do them any good either , if I'm just mean to them , you know ? And I've heard horror stories of other editors that are just like , Nope , nope , you should go home and never come back. And you know , what good does that do anybody ? All you do is you basically upset somebody and you crushed their dreams. No , that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to try to help them. Where.
S6: Where.
S7: There are times where I'll tell somebody , look , I don't know if commerce are right for you. You know , you might be better off going to storyboarding. You might be better off doing the concept artwork again , creativity. There's so many different realms that someone doesn't fit into one box , you know , Hey , try another box. If they don't work well for sequential storytelling , which is code books , that's what I tell them. You know , hey , this is really good. You should really go into film because they need that painters or they need people who understand storyboarding or they need concept or packaging designs. And so again , that's just another outlet for a creator to go towards if complex maybe isn't working for them or maybe they're not suited for it.
S6:
S7: And I've just been a lifelong Tampa fan and I grew up in New York and they had much smaller conventions out there that I would go to all the time. And I just kept buying and buying and collecting and talking to people and getting to know more and more people to the point where a really good friend of mine who we used to shop at , I think a bookstore , he ended up working at Marvel. Fast forward ten years , he's now a full time staff member and I would go and hang out with him in the office. So I got different viewpoints and different experience in the complex , and that's kind of like I just experienced that and I was like , This is cool. I want to keep doing this. My roommate said , Look , stop complaining and do something about it. So I was like , All right , well , you know , me and my friend Alex were crazy. So , you know , we'll start a company.
S6: Well , thank you very much for talking about committed comics.
S7: Yeah , thank.
S2: You very much.
S1: That was Beth ACCOMANDO speaking with Tom Dougherty of Committed Comics. You can check out Beth's Comic-Con coverage on her blog at KPBS Corgi Cinema Junkie. And congratulations to our own Beth ACCOMANDO. This year , she received a Comic-Con International Inc award given to individuals for their contributions to the worlds of comics , science fiction , fantasy , film , television , animation and fandom services. Congratulations , Beth.