§ Citizen blogger gives you the 411 on the 616 and a dozen other pocket Mravel universes. Useful for those of us who are behind the times.

§ Kaiju Shakedown, our favorite blog about Asian movies, has returned, Grady Hendrix tells us. For now the direct url isn’t working but you can do this:

1) Go to http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/
2) Go to the menubar where it says “Departments”
3) Pull that down and click on “Kaiju Shakedown”

§ Answer: Social networking with FIGHTING: a new online RPG called Duels.
Question: What is a nerdgasm?

§ Over at Flog Eric Reynolds reviews comics–including some he publishes!!!– and yet does it gracefully and interestingly, showing why he’s the Roberto Clemente of comics. We know we need to stop sucking up to Eric here at Stately Beat Manor — but we just can’t stop ourselves. Eric, where is OUR copy of FLETCHER HANKS???????

§ SLG’s San Diego picture gallery, including Dan Vado nursing a bottle of whiskey. We’d copy it here but it’s in Flash

§ Speaking of San Diego and SLG, Award-winning Jennifer DeGuzman has some very funny observations:

* We’ve been trading Hollywood Guy stories. As I predicted, one came by and wanted me to educate him on the entirety of our line, asking annoying questions without identifying himself as One of Those Hollywood Guys, but he nevertheless gave himself away by being so effin’ Hollywood in his demeanor. This is intolerable to someone from the Bay Area. I narrowed my eyes at him and demanded that he tell me to what the hell his questions portained.

* An artist from Mexico tried to kiss me on the cheek after I gave him a portfolio review. Don’t do that.

* Make sure you don’t stink before you get a portfolio review. Otherwise, the editor will only be able to think about how she wants you to get the heck away from her so the stink will stop.

* Don’t come to the booth and ask people working there to give messages or cards to artists. We’re not their personal secretaries.

* Don’t put your lame-ass promo stuff on publishers’ tables expecting that maybe they won’t notice. Jeezus.


We would dispute Point #4 actually — if someone is headquartered at a booth and they are not there, it is common procedure at some booth to take a business card, anyway — but the rest can’t be said often enough.

§ Otakon announced their attendance:

Otakon 2007’s official membership attendance number of 22,852 is computed strictly from the number of memberships sold through the end of the 3-day event. Since we do not offer 1-day passes we do not consider attendance for individual days. The rest of the statistics for Otakon 2007 will be available shortly in our history section. Thank you to all of our members for their contributions to the success of Otakon 2007!

§ Richard Bruton At Forbidden Planet reviews rom-com comics and some of them may surprise you.

1 COMMENT

  1. Gulp!

    The response to “I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks” has been staggering. After years of toiling away in my studio on this book it is deeply gratifying to receive such a positive response.

    At MoCCA, we sold out by the second day. At San Diego, we sold out by the second day. Now the book is completely sold out…everywhere. If you can find a first edition, I’d like to know where you got it so I can direct people there.

    The 2nd edition is being printed at this moment and should be in stores within a month.

    In the meantime, if you are unfamiliar with the dazzling work of Fletcher Hanks, you may wnat to slide over to the BONUS page of my website to see a slideshow of a complete Fantomah story that does NOT appear in my book!

    http://www.fletcherhanks.com

    (If you can’t wait a month, why not order a t-shirt off the site? YOur choice: Stardust or Fantomah)

    -Paul Karasik (editor and shameless self-promoter)

  2. We had posted schedules for the artists so people know when to find them at the booth. Asking me to tell an artist that so-and-so came by to see them while I’m wrangling books for the signing schedule and restocking shelves and having my named called at me from four different directions at once is a sure way to make sure that an artist will never get that message.

  3. I was at Otakon, my first anime convention. I went with this girl who’s an anime freak, and it was quite an experience. I couldn’t help but be a little jealous that American comics haven’t been as popular here. They did some amazing things. I was pretty pissed at having to pay $50 (or whatever the price was) to go to the con. “We’re selling MEMBERSHIPS, not tickets”. What a con, as in, ripoff.