My name is Emilio Torres Garcia and I have dedicated my spare time over the last 30 years of my life to the hobby of collecting comic books.

I love comics. I have read since the fifth grade. I started with the Spanish translations of DC Comic’s reprints that were published at the time by EDITORIAL NOVARO, a Mexican publishing house whose comics were sold in Spanish-speaking countries. After a brief interruption in the practice of my hobby (which lasted from 1980 to mid-1984), I resumed my collecting habits during my second year of college. Only this time I was reading and collecting comics directly written in English and published in the U.S. The bulk of my recreational reading titles were from DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

After my college graduation, I moved to New York City in August 1988 (I lived there for about a year) where I went to my first two comic book conventions and experienced firsthand what it was to be among U.S. fans. In addition I met face to face for the first time comic book greats like writer Peter David, legendary artists Joe Kubert and Mike Kaluta and comics legend William Maxwell Gaines. These were only the first of many future encounters I would have with other comic book artists. In late 1989 I returned to Puerto Rico. Throughout the 1990's I saved enough money to enjoy my summer vacations attending some of the major comic book conventions in the continental United States.

Below is a list of these conventions:

July 4-7, 1991: I attended what is considered the main event in the United States’ comic book world, the SAN DIEGO COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL 1991. There I had the honor of meeting and talking with the great Jack Kirby. I also met a lot of my favorite authors like Harlan Ellison, Colleen Doran, Jim Shooter, Sergio Aragones, Denny O'Neill, Erik Larsen, Stan Sakai, Alan Grant and Mike Baron among others. I also had the special opportunity to share a table during a special dinner event for comic book professionals with Colleen Doran and his mother.

October 8-11, 1993 I attended the COMICFEST in the city of Philadelphia. In this event I attended the famous “WRITERS VS ARTISTS “debate between Peter David and Todd McFarlane, moderated by George Perez (this was my first encounter with him). I took the HOW TO CREATE COMICS seminar given by Jim Shooter himself. I also met a young man who was just beginning in comics called Randy Queen (Darkchylde’s creator) and another veteran of comics and creator of Green Lantern, the legendary Marty Nodell. I also saw Colleen Doran for the second time.

June 17-19, 1994 I attended the HEROES CONVENTION in the city of Charlotte, state of North Carolina. This convention had an exclusive art gallery event with the George Perez penciled pages from the Justice League vs. Avengers cross-over version that was never published. This was the 3rd time that I ran into Colleen Doran and my 2nd encounter with George Perez, who signed me a copy of the comic CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS # 1, which I still have. I met for the first time Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross who I signed my copies of the mini-series MARVELS. Among my other first time encounters I also met Jeff Smith (creator of Bone) and Terry Stewart who the President of Marvel Comics by that time.

July 13-16, 1995: I went to Dragon*Con / Atlanta Comics Expo (ACE) in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the last convention that I attended in the 90's. I had the singular honor of meeting three legends of comics, Jim Steranko, Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner. I saw Harlan Ellison for the 2nd time and attended that year’s Locus Award Ceremony Banquet. I also met for the first time the writer /penciller John Byrne and David Prowse (Darth Vader from the original trilogy of Star Wars movies).

After my trip to Atlanta I had to discontinue my semi-annual trips to the United States for economic reasons. I continued collecting comics and it would not be until the following century that I took my next step in my involvement with popular culture.

It all began on April 28, 2002. The film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, was about to be released in theaters in Puerto Rico in a few weeks. To earn some money I had to sell part of my collection and the place to do it was the first edition of the Caribbean Sci-Fi Odyssey Convention at the YMCA in San Juan. The organizers brought in as a guest star for that event the actor Billy Dee Williams, Lando Calrissian himself. I rented a table that was right across from the table from Billy Dee, on the other side of the room. Once I got to the event as all other distributors to prepare my table a couple of guys who also rented a table approached me and asked if I wanted to trade places with them for the event. My answer was negative because I didn’t go to all the trouble of making an early reservation right in front of Billy Dee Williams just to give it away to the first person who asked me. That person was Rafael Mejias and gave he gave me a flyer.

That flyer changed my life. I used it to join the movement of the Puerto Rico Fanforce on the internet. Once there I began to interact with them cybernetically speaking. My first real-time human contact was a kite flying activity in El Morro. Finally, the name was changed to Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Fanforce Jedi Outcasts. I remained active in that group from 2002 to 2006. During that time I made tremendous friendships in that group and participate with them in a number of activities. Those were good special years.

Currently I am not associated with nobody and I work on my own to cover comic book related events that interest me through my blog. To this day it is my intention to continue to stay involved in the Puerto Rican and American fandom’s in one way or another.