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San Diego broadcaster and local Ram Media Foundation founder returns to the convention where his Comic-Con journey began. Gabriel B. Wisdom, founder of Ram Media Foundation and creator of KRAM 90.5 FM Borrego Springs, will speak at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 24. Founded in 1970, San Diego Comic-Con has grown into one of the world’s largest pop culture conventions, drawing more than 130,000 attendees for panels, exhibits and appearances by creators, artists, filmmakers and celebrities from around the globe. Wisdom will join Radio Hall of Fame inductee (Shotgun) Tom Kelly for "A Conversation with San Diego Celebrities Gabriel Wisdom and (Shotgun) Tom Kelly," from noon to 1 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. Beginning at KPRI-FM San Diego in the late 1960s, Wisdom went on to work at KGB-FM San Diego and KMET-FM Los Angeles during the formative years of FM rock radio in the 1970s. Today, he leads Ram Media Foundation and, among other roles, serves as a portfolio manager with American Money Management, LLC (AMM),

By Gabriel Wisdom I stepped out onto the stage at the San Diego ComicCon dressed as Thor. The wings on my helmet were slightly crooked, and the cape was too heavy for the San Diego summer weather, but none of that mattered. I can still feel the weight of the hammer in my hand, a ridiculous, glorious mirrored prop a friend of mine had built in his garage. The room was buzzing and in 1976, ComicCon was young and alive. The training wheels had come off and we had 3000 paid attendees – real fandom, but nothing like today’s 130,000 who attend each year. Behind me stood Stan Lee and his Marvel artist John Buscema, both of them watching the crowd like proud parents at a very strange school play. “Ladies and gentlemen!” I called out, raising the hammer. “I am THOR, God of Thunder, Lord of the Savage Lighting, and host for tonight’s masquerade ball!” The crowd cheered, and for a moment everything felt perfectly under control. Then I glanced at the judges seated in the front row. Gene Roddenberry, hands folded like he was observing a social experiment. There was Ray Bradbury, eyes burning with Fahrenheit 451 curiosity. And to Roddenberry’s right…a special surprise guest I’d brought along at the last minute, Timothy Leary, smiling like he’d just dropped in to see what condition his condition was in. I felt my stomach drop recalling earlier how ComicCon co-founder Shel Dorf had pulled me aside, his face tight with concern. “You brought him ?” he asked heatedly. “Do you have any idea what this could do to us? The most dangerous man in America , isn’t that what Nixon called him? I had shrugged, maybe a little too casually. “Leary and I are doing a radio show together with rock stars and other guests talking about science fiction; stuff like that, only this is science-faction. He’s crazy smart, and funny. Great fun.” Shel didn’t see it that way, but it was too late because there in the front row, the notorious “pied piper of LSD,” Doctor Timothy Leary was sitting between two of the most respected creative minds in speculative fiction. The first contestant came out dressed as a passable Spider-Man. “Have no fear, Spidey is here,” I boomed, voice steady, but my eyes kept drifting back to the front row. Leary leaned over to Roddenberry saying something that made them both laugh. Bradbury looked less amused. He crossed his arms, studying Leary like he was a story problem he hadn’t solved yet. Stan Lee was standing by the side of the stage, arms folded. “You’ve stirred the pot, kid,” he murmured. “I may have left the gas on and blown up the kitchen,” I replied. “Even better,” Stan grinned. Murmurs started spreading through the convention ballroom about Timothy Leary. A number of older people stood and left for the exits, shaking their heads. A dozen others followed shuffling past the rows of seated attendees. The energy had clearly shifted. I tightened my grip on the hammer and began swinging. “Alright!” I bellowed, “The mighty Thor shall supply the cure!” “True believers!” Stan Lee shouted. “What is a masquerade without a little chaos? The crowd laughed. The tension cracked. I looked down at Roddenberry who met my eyes and gave an encouraging nod. “The great Gene Roddenberry,” I declared to a round of applause. Then I asked, “In the Star Trek universe, what happens when unexpected elements enter the system?” Roddenberry stood slightly but not all the way. “We adapt,” he said. “Or we evolve.” Bradbury chuckled despite himself. Leary raised both hands. “Yes, we evolve. Sometimes you have to go out of your mind to come to your senses,” he laughed. The room erupted with another round of applause, some cheers, some boos, but it was alive again. Electric. I seized it. “Okay, let’s evolve this masquerade! Every contestant, you are now challenged to make it stranger, make it bigger, and make it believable!”  What followed was chaos, yes -- but the right kind. Comic-Con was still half counterculture experiment, half gathering of true believers and those who thought stories mattered more than the world seemed willing to admit. © 2026 Stan Lee, Gene Rodenberry, and Me ™ by Gabriel Wisdom

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By Dennis Mammana Week of Aug 2-8, 2026  One of the most profound experiences a stargazer can have is to stand under the Milky Way on a clear August night far from city lights and see the wispy bunches of stars so tightly packed that they appear to the eye as a hazy band of light punctuated not only by bright individual stars but by tiny regions that appear as hazy clumps. Aim binoculars or a small telescope toward these "faint fuzzies," as astronomers affectionately call them, and you'll walk the same celestial path as Charles Messier did two and a half centuries ago. Messier was an 18th-century French astronomer who scanned the heavens in search of new comets, hoping that such discoveries would lead him to fame and fortune. He knew that comets often first appear as faint and colorless smudges of light that drift slowly among the stars, so that's what he was seeking. Along the way, however, he encountered dozens of such smudges that did not move. What these were he didn't know and, quite frankly, he didn't care. They weren't comets, so to avoid wasting more of his time on them — and to prevent other comet hunters from being similarly fooled — he began to compile a list of all these false comets he encountered on his nightly watch. Visit Dennis Mammana at dennismammana.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com .

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Californians have only four days left to enter the “Share Your Space” Photo Contest, which closes Aug. 1. California State Parks is inviting residents to submit photos taken at any of California’s 280 state parks. Participants may enter one photo in each of five categories: A Space for All A Wild Ride Heroes and Helpers Landscape and Legacy Living Wonders Winners will be selected based on creativity, quality and overall impact, with prize packages featuring outdoor gear and California State Parks merchandise. Participants must be California residents and submit their photos through OuterSpatial by Aug. 1, 2026 . Submit Photos Here