Comic Book Collecting San Francisco

May · Cuba · The Tyranny of Flies

For May, we're reading the novel The Tyranny of Flies by Elaine Vilar Madruga (Cuba). Please see the Goodreads link for the complete description: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199865473-the-tyranny-of-flies?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199865473-the-tyranny-of-flies?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13). 256 pages, audiobook and e-book available.

East Bay Women's Book Club May Meetup: Best Offer Wins

Hello, fellow female readers -- The book for the May Meetup is 'Best Offer Wins,' by Marisa Kashino, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick and An ELLE Best Mystery/Thriller. For those of you who are new, I will send out the address to my house by Monday, May 18. Looking forward to gathering together and discussing the book. Bonnie

The Swapping of the Books📚

Let’s swap some books and hang out with fellow book lovers! Maybe have a beer or two. Bring at least one book to swap, and make sure to take any books back with you that don’t get taken. We look forward to seeing you all there!

May Book Club: The Road to Tender Hearts

Dungeon Crawler Carl @ Southern Pacific Brewing

Come enjoy a drink at Southern Pacific Brewing and discuss our May read! Our book for May is Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Hope to see you there!

June Book Club: Go As a River by Shelley Read

ABOUT THE BOOK Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses. Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the surrounding mountains, where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations. Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.

Diane Arbus - Critique Workshop / B&W Photo Walk, Beauty Pageant

Join us as we visit the Diane Arbus photo exhibit and then take a B&W Photowalk. We will walk to this event at Civic Center. [https://bamboovoice.org/songkran-2026/](https://bamboovoice.org/songkran-2026/) CCC-BAFPM EVENT TIMELINE (Subject to Change) 11:30am All attendees meet at the meeting location. Wait for late comers. 11:45am Meetup event officially begins. Take attendance. Introductions / Group Discussion: Your name? What kind of photography do you like? What level photographer are you: beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert, master? Why did you choose to attend this event? What do you hope to get out of this event? Gear show and tell. [Workshop assignment (optional): upload/submit 1-5 photos to the event page within 2 weeks, comment on each others' photos. Share photos on SOCIAL MEDIA TAGS @thebambooorg @sfphotocollective Take a group photo with the CCC banner.] 12:00pm-12:30pm Distribution of Critique Manual Workbook (limited copies, $5). View and critique photos in the gallery. 12:30pm Briefly visit CameraWest. 12:45pm B&W Photo walk to civic center. 1:30pm-3:30pm Photograph Beauty Pageant at Civic Center. End of meetup event. (Nate Love will be available for photography questions and seminar workshop mentoring.) Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum, an exhibition of forty-five photographs made in private places across New York, New Jersey, California, and London between 1961 and 1971, will be on view at Fraenkel Gallery from March 12 to May 22, 2026, following an exhibition at David Zwirner, London. The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive monograph reproducing works in the exhibition, jointly published by both galleries. [https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/diane-arbus-sanctum-sanctorum](https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/diane-arbus-sanctum-sanctorum) About the Artist Diane Arbus (1923–1971) is one of the most original and influential photographers of the twentieth century. In 1963 and 1966 she was awarded John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships and was one of three photographers whose work was the focus of New Documents, John Szarkowski’s landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967. A year after her death, her work was selected for inclusion in the Venice Biennale, and from 1972 to 1975, the Museum of Modern Art hosted a major traveling retrospective. Her photographs are in the collections of numerous institutions around the world, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate Gallery, London, among many others. Fraenkel Gallery 49 Geary Street, 4th Floor San Francisco, CA 94108 (map) I will have few copies of the California Camera Club book "Photo Critique Manual" ($5 Venmo/Cash) for those who don't have one yet. -Nate Love This event is hosted in conjunction with The California Camera Club. [https://www.meetup.com/sf-photo-collective](https://www.meetup.com/sf-photo-collective) Checkout this Meetup with The California Camera Club - SF Photo Collective: [https://meetu.ps/e/PXGVg/byrPR/i](https://meetu.ps/e/PXGVg/byrPR/i) The California Camera Club The San Francisco Photo Collective Photo Academy Workshop Subgroups- Contemporary Photographic Artist Association Fine Art Institute of Aesthetic Philosophy Society of Film Photographers Analogue Emulsion Imagemakers Bay Area Photo Alliance Camera Culture Guild A DEDICATED CAMERA IS REQUIRED FOR PHOTOWALKS: Thanks. COURTESY & RESPECT POLICIES RSVP POLICY: If you RSVP to attend this event, and then find that you are no longer able to attend the event, please edit your RSVP status accordingly. Change your RSVP status to "Not Going" if you are not going (it takes about 5 seconds to do this). Thanks. LATE POLICY: As a courtesy, we generally wait 15 minutes for latecomers. If you arrive later than 15 minutes, please have no expectation of finding the group. During the event, the hosts are busy hosting the event, not constantly checking for phone messages from latecomers. Please note: traffic and parking often causes delays in San Francisco; please plan accordingly so as to arrive on time. Thank you. LEGAL LIABILITY WAIVER/DISCLAIMER: The California Camera Club is run by volunteer organizers and hosts who generously donate their time and energy to organize and host these free events for your pleasure and enjoyment. But your safety and security is ultimately your responsibility. By joining us for any event you hereby release and discharge its organizers and hosts from any and all liability, claims, demands or causes of action that you now have, or may have in the future.

Trinket Making Decompression

**Trinket Making Decompression in Oakland ✨ Saturday May 23, 3:30–5:30 pm at Temescal Library.** We’ll have materials for making items into trinkets: key chains, beads, charms, ribbons, glue and other bits to play with. Bring your own scrap treasures or pile of recycled items: broken jewelry, single earrings, weird tiny objects, all the little monsters hiding in your drawers. These little trinkets are a way to share joy with others and serve as reminders for our own inner child. Make gifts to share with the community, add to your bag and share at trinket libraries. There’ll be a sharing table if you want to swap materials, and you’re welcome to bring any art or craft project you’ve been wanting to make!

May Podcast Club Discussion: Art Crimes

In May, we're talking about Art Crimes: From graffiti and forged paintings to looted antiquities, stolen comics, and NFT scams, this playlist looks at the many ways visual art can become entangled with money, status, and crime. Looking forward to discussing this topic with you all! **How It Works:** * We often follow the Podcast Brunch Club listening lists covering a different topic each month. Members can also make suggestions for future topics. **Be sure to check the monthly Meetup event to see what we're listening to!** * Listening lists are composed of episode selections related to the month's theme and are pulled from a variety of shows. And we love to include some recommendations too! * Finishing the recommended listening list is not a requirement to attend. Listen to as many or few of the suggested episodes as you would like. * We will have an unstructured, informal discussion of the selections and the month's theme. **This Month's Topic:** These episodes travel through street art, galleries, museums, private collections, and digital marketplaces, revealing how value gets assigned, who gets protected, and who gets exploited when images and objects become powerful commodities. **Here's a link to the Spotify playlist:** [https://bit.ly/spotify-artcrimes](https://bit.ly/spotify-artcrimes) **The Playlist - Suggested Episodes:** * ***The Economics of Everyday Things*: [“26. Grafitti”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5OgjDpW6swSKIDujcu9ZEp?si=6a3ac8f6a45c4e98%E2%80%9D)** *(November 2023, 14 min)* A brisk look at graffiti’s origins, evolution, and economics, asking how one person’s vandalism becomes another’s public art. * ***Reveal*: [“Fancy Galleries, Fake Art”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7t9DNln3Dq4BZDpbfK5u5l?si=5a7f69c7575348de%E2%80%9D)** *(December 2025, 58 min)* This episode investigates a massive art forgery scandal involving fake paintings sold through high-end New York galleries as works by major artists. It also follows the trail of a Nazi-looted painting, showing how questions of provenance, ownership, and accountability continue to haunt the art world. * ***Dynamite Doug*: [“Episode 1: Greatest Art Heist”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7cFs8DSkUA7LXm1cdD4obu?si=6609bb86f25c44d1%E2%80%9D)** *(February 2023, 27 min)* This episode traces Douglas Latchford’s rise in the world of Cambodian antiquities as stolen cultural heritage made its way into elite Western collections. It shows how looting can be recast as prestige collecting when museums, dealers, and wealthy buyers help legitimize the trade. * ***Stealing Superman*: [“Episode 01 – Beads of Sweat”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZXV61aoywyZPreZ33Ivyi?si=70954f069f8e4ca2%E2%80%9D)** *(November 2022, 48 min)* When a rare and enormously valuable comic disappears from Nicolas Cage’s collection, the theft kicks off a strange and compelling mystery. The episode expands the idea of art crime beyond galleries and museums, into the world of collectibles, fandom, and celebrity. * ***The Art of Crime*: [“The Adventure of the Libelous Painter (Crimes of New York)”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6fAsQiBA6sWe9fjHYuEEOc?si=42d29e12f4ee40e1%E2%80%9D)** *(November 2024, 44 min)* This historical episode follows a feud between a painter and his patron that escalates when the artist creates and auctions off an insulting portrait. What follows is a fascinating case in which visual art becomes the basis for criminal libel. **Bonus Episodes:** * *[WSJ Tech News Briefing](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4oyHqrhx3mOn9s3ze9jJ1l?si=88694fb761f44815)*[: “NFT Art Presents New Frontier for Fraudsters”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4oyHqrhx3mOn9s3ze9jJ1l?si=88694fb761f44815) *(August 2021, 14 min)* A short look at how NFT art opened up new opportunities for scams and fraud, proving that even in digital spaces, the old art-world problems still apply. * *[Freakonomics Radio](https://open.spotify.com/episode/45BUuAcKaWnmLCzsmtGmM7?si=f081814a92be40a3)*[: “The Case of the $4 Million Dollar Gold Coffin”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/45BUuAcKaWnmLCzsmtGmM7?si=f081814a92be40a3) *(May 2023, 53 min)* A sharp, investigative look at how a looted Egyptian antiquity ended up at the Met, using repatriation, celebrity, and museum power to expose how stolen cultural heritage gets legitimized. * *[Empty Frames](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0VQVDhahMH32A9boAbShYV?si=e1e1153a06764eae)*[: “New // Louvre Heist”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0VQVDhahMH32A9boAbShYV?si=e1e1153a06764eae) *(November 2025, 32 min)* This episode breaks down a recent Louvre jewel heist with enough detail to feel grounded, while the hosts’ conversational style keeps the story moving. * *[Hashtag History](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Gr8c0HsHrLiASn53CcXEv?si=5723445bff904d8b)*[: “EP44: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Gr8c0HsHrLiASn53CcXEv?si=5723445bff904d8b) *(September 2020, 43 min)* Despite its tangents, this episode gives the most detailed and accessible overview on the list of the infamous Gardner Museum theft, still the largest unsolved art heist in history. * *[Art Crime Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4lRKkjvHXH3KPQN07V0MYW?si=116ae82b98c24bc4)*[: “The Georgia O’Keeffe 10th Episode Spectacular!”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4lRKkjvHXH3KPQN07V0MYW?si=116ae82b98c24bc4) *(March 2021, 47 min)* Less focused on the theft itself than the others, this episode is most interesting for the way it connects Georgia O’Keeffe’s stolen work to larger questions about gender, visibility, and which art crimes get remembered. * *[Wine & Crime Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6245eSfBZHkUWzai78Cgwr?si=84a8aeb17682493a)*[: “Ep80 Art Theft”](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6245eSfBZHkUWzai78Cgwr?si=84a8aeb17682493a) *(August 2018, 1 hr 39 min)* This loose, funny, and very long episode closes out the bonus list with a broader, boozier tour through cultural property theft and the strange stories that surround it.

Meet to draw each other in San Francisco!

Take a turn modeling (nude) then just draw for the rest of the session. Looking forward to seeing old and new friends! Optional $10 donation to cover studio rent is suggested but not required. We will supply chairs but bring your own drawing materials, such as pencil, paper, and drawing board if you have one. (No oil paints, solvents, or fixative inside the building.) Open to all levels of experience.

Lot by Bryan Washington

For the next meeting of A Queer Book Club we'll be reading and discussing Bryan Washington's debut collection Lot! From the publisher: **One of Barack Obama’s “Favorite Books of the Year”** **“A profound exploration of the true meaning of borders.” —The New York Times Book Review** **NAMED ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2019 in the New York Times by Dwight Garner** **A New York Times Notable Book of 2019** *In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.* *Around him, others live and thrive and die in Houston's myriad neighborhoods: a young woman whose affair detonates across an apartment complex, a ragtag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, hurricane survivors, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, a reluctant chupacabra.* *Bryan Washington's brilliant, viscerally drawn world vibrates with energy, wit, raw power, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot explores trust and love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.*

Queer Biker Invasion of National Parks: Grand Teton & Yellowstone