Going to Comic Con in San Diego is like spending days at a major rock
festival--a veritable city of wild humanity where anything may happen and you
may just see everything.
THURSDAY
I hoped to get to the Con the first day, Thursday, in time to get my press
badge at least, but it turned out all I had time to do was scout the territory.
The San Diego Convention Center fronts the bay and is adjacent to the downtown
area known as the Gaslight District. Making the third part of the triangle is
the new baseball stadium, and parking is on the other side of that. There was
easy parking in the $5 lot and then you could walk past the stadium and across
the main highway to the center, along with all the other 100,000 or so attendees
coming to and fro. If you were really lucky and brave, you could park a few
more blocks away for free in the industrial and warehouse zone of downtown, but
that parking was hard to find and I didn't chance it.
I couldn't find one place for all three nights, so my first overnight stay
was at the Motel 6 in the suburb of El Cajon, about fifteen miles from downtown.
The best I could do for a second night was 50 miles away at a very expensive
Motel 6 in Temucula. (I asked why the much higher rate and they said it was
because of the Pechanga Casino nearby.) All the hotels and motels all around
San Diego were booked solid except for a few rates well over $100. One
reservations clerk said it was because of Legoland and all the convention
business San Diego is getting because of Hurricane Katrina.
FRIDAY
First on my agenda for Friday was the TokyoPop panel with Lillian
Diaz-Prybyl, the editor who handles the BLU line and some mainstream titles,
too. If you're wondering what she's like, she's this nice chestnut-haired
girl-next-door type, and was dressed casually. After discussing manga for
children and how TokyoPop is getting heavier into original manga, instead of
just picking up translation rights to manga already published overseas, she got
to the news yaoi fans will want to hear.
She said one new TokyoPop title was "Satisfaction Guaranteed," with "2
bishonen, subtle homoerotic tension." And two new Sanami Matoh one-shots,
"Trash" and "Rise." There a new title from the same artist who did "Pet Shop of
Horrors," but I didn't get the title.
Then she named, "Dragon Voice," and she described it as like a sports manga,
but about a boy band.
She said her dad saw it and said, "No wonder Lillian likes it. That girl
looks like her."
That's a guy, Dad.
I roared. I'm not the only one who has parents like that!
She said there's an early CLAMP title, "CLAMP Defenders Dukiyon," I think.
She then detoured into talk of putting "Peach Fuzz" and "Van Von Hunter"
into newspaper comics, but finally she got to BLU. They've licensed "Sex
Pistols," but it will probably be changed to "Love Pistols," since, Lillian
says, "It has nothing to do with punk rock." Here's her description: "It's
like a really, really gay "Fruits Basket." (I'm tempted to say, "And so's
"Fruits Basket," but--opps, I just did, right?) She also mentioned, "Gerard et
Jacques," by the same artist who did "Antique Bakery," which BLU has had on
their release schedule for a while now.
Returning to the mainstream news, a Korean artist, Kim Jae Hawn, spoke about
his manga, "King Hell," especially for TokyoPop. He's the same guy who did "War
Craft."
TokyoPop is also publishing some new "Star Trek" comics in manga form, and
they had a whole panel on that. It's due in September.
Next I poked my nose into the Dark Horse panel, that was an interesting
overview of the company on its twentieth anniversary, but of course I think
we'll all agree they're too super-macho for any yaoi or BL. They do "Samurai
Champloo" and "Trigun" (with DMP, of course), the ani-manga of "Saiyuki Reload,"
and of course the cult faves from Kazuo Koike, like "Samurai Executioner."
Next up was VIZ and "Shojo Beat." The biggest news, I thought, was that
"Cain Saga" will finally be published starting in Oct. (I got the impression
fans put the screws on VIZ about how they'd like to read the first part of
"Godchild" first.) Most of the panel, though, was spent with Matsuri Hino, the
shojo artist who does "Meru Puri" and the Goth "Vampire Knight." One other bit
of shojo news was the new series, "Gentlemen's Alliance," whatever it is, will
be out next March.
On to the Seven Seas panel (yes, this was all on Friday!) and I didn't even
stop for lunch. (Note on lunch: there are concessions on-site, but I can't eat
that, with my allergies, and packing a lunch was out of the question with all
the junk I had to carry.) Apparently "Boogie Pop" is their flagship title,
whatever it is. They said they had a yuri (lesbian-themed) title coming up,
"Kashi Mashi."
In between and after panels, when they didn't back up against each other, I
saw about one-third of the exhibition floor. About one-third of the hall
consists of comic book dealers and related merchandise, and a person could
probably spend all four days just going through all the bins. The rest of it is
publishers' booths, artists' booths, and some booths I never did figure out.
Friday's highlight? (Other than Lillian's story about her dad?) Yayoi
Neko was at the Antarctic Comics booth! She had her art available (in a
notebook marked for 18-and-over) and she said vol. 2 of "Incubus" may be out in
Sept. However, she said it may be published by Media Blasters instead of
Bang/Antarctic. Vol. 2, she said, was too lengthy for Bang, so she was talking
to Media Blasters about publishing the entire work instead of cutting down vol.
2 and saving part of it for vol. 3 the way Bang wants to do.
She gave me a PWP doujinshi or zine she'd drawn, "Weapon of Mass
Destruction," that featured different characters from "Incubus," a scientist and
his very-out-of-control monster this time, and said she'd like to do a series on
that, too. And she gave me her card and a postcard with the new "Incubus" cover.
And another card that was Joker/Batman slash. (Honestly, after all I saw of the
comics scene over four days, Joker/Batman slash seems just like the normal state
of things. Get the picture?)
I asked her how she got into yaoi, and she said, well, she liked drawing
men, naked men, so her (male) editor suggested she try some yaoi, "since that's
big now." So then she came up with the "Incubus" storyline.
The guy at the booth needed some convincing that I was interested in manga
in general for my column, even if it wasn't gay manga. ("It's not gay," he kept
saying about the rest of Antarctic's comics.) But he eventually introduced me
to some of Antarctic's other artists. I got about four volumes of a series
called "Ninja High School" (by Ben Dunn, I think his name is) to read and
perhaps review.
At the time, I was just thinking, "Oh, darn, I don't have my copy of
"Incubus" with me, so I can't ask her to autograph it." By the time I got back
on Sunday, to ask if she could autograph the doujinshi instead, the guy at the
booth said she'd gone home.
She did look like on Fri. that she was doing brisk business with "Incubus."
Several people came by and bought a copy while I was talking to her, so maybe
she left when all her copies sold.
I'd hoped to spend some time talking to TokyoPop's staff, but they were
always in pre-booked meetings, so we barely even said "Hello." I'll have to try
and arrange time with them ahead if I go next year.
TokyoPop had hired some women to dress in cosplay from TokyoPop series, and
give away their trading cards for some kind of contest. I thought the best was
Mauve the Succubus from "Mark of the Succubus." She did look just like the
character. She even autographed her card for me, so I tucked it into my copy of
"Succubus" when I got home.
I wonder why TokyoPop didn't have any male cosplayers at their booth. In
fact, what would really be gutsy is to have a few yaoi pairings, right?
Wouldn't you like to see:
Dee and Ryo of "Fake,"
Eiri and Shuichi of "Gravitation," (Haven't read "Gravitation" for so long,
I had to look up how to spell "Shuichi")
Saiga and Kaike of "Legal Drug," (did I get those names right?)
Let me know who you want to see, and let's send suggestions to TokyoPop!
SATURDAY
Friday night I got dinner at a KFC near Qualcomm Stadium and drove the fifty
miles to Temucula, got about three-four hours sleep before I was driving the
fifty miles back to San Diego at about five a.m. The Temucula Motel 6 was a
glorified truck stop, and right next to the freeway, so it was like sleeping in
the middle of the Indianapolis 500. They had rooms available for Sat. night,
but I booked a room at Hemet, 20 miles back in the hills, instead so I'd be able
to sleep in peace.
Main attraction for Friday was supposed to be a personal appearance by Kazuo
Keike, the cult-status Japanese manga writer who scripted "Lone Wolf and Cub"
that was turned into "The Road to Perdition," and "Lady Snowblood" that was
turned into "Kill Bill." Rumiko Takahashi was one of his students in the 70's.
He had a line of people coming up to the mike who didn't want to ask a question,
they just wanted to tell him personally how wonderful he was.
Since the convention, I read, or tried to read, his "Path of the Assassin"
and "Crying Freeman." Personally I thought they were just so much
sensationalistic BS, and the attitude towards women stank to high heaven,
besides. I'm obviously going to have to come up with a kinder way to pan them
if I want to review them and still show my face to Dark Horse afterwards.
Later I attended the panel that TokyoPop held (TokyoPop was sure busy this
year) to introduce yet another new line of manga that they're making, off the
"Labyrinth" and "Dark Crystal" and "Neverending Story" movies of the 80's. It
was there I got to meet up with an internet chat pal who's very involved with
the "Fake" fanfic sites. We both got 2' x 3' posters of the new "Return to
Labyrinth" cover (a sequel to the movie, although they'll probably turn the
movie into a manga, too) with the character Bowie played in the movie, and since
we're both Bowie fans, that worked out well.
We went to a late lunch at the TGI Friday's in the Gaslight District and
chatted about "Fake" and the fanfic/slash/yaoi scene in general. As someone
who's been into slash (thanks to being a "Star Trek" and "Starsky and Hutch"
fan) since the 70's, she had an unique perspective on yaoi, entirely different
from mine, as I came to yaoi through my recent interest in manga (actually, more
like the other way around, I came to manga because of the yaoi).
We squeezed in the "Flight" panel, which I was glad to check out. It's not
really about manga, but it's worth keeping an eye on just the same. It's more
than a comics anthology, it's more like a whole scene or circle or movement of
comic artists based in LA. Their superstar is Amy Kim Ganter, thanks to her
"Sorcerers and Secretaries" for TokyoPop, but the guys have their followings,
too, and some probably will be seen in the mainstream eventually. There was
another women on the panel, and I didn't see her name but I wondered if it was
Jen Lee Quick of "Off-Beat." (Quick's "Off-Beat," vol. 2, is coming in Nov.) I
know she and Ganter are friends.
My friend wanted to hang around the Net Comcs booth and wait for an artist's
autograph session, and I wanted to check out the Artists' Alley, so we split up
and didn't cross paths again. We agreed later we must get together again,
sometime soon.
SUNDAY
I did about half the exhibition hall on Saturday, and that left about 1/6th
I still hadn't seen. There was also a panel about "How to get your graphic
novel reviewed," that I wanted to ask about being on. As the only writer of a
weekly manga review column in the country, I notified Comic Con I was available
for panels, and of course I hadn't heard any response. So I figured I'd just
ask, the worst that could happen was I'd be turned down.
Charles Solomon was on the panel, and I'd met him at Anime Expo and given
him a sample of my column, so it's not like he didn't know me. So when he came
to the panel early, I asked him. "The panel, I think, is closed, and I'm not
the chair," he said.
"Well, maybe we can ask the chair, then?" I said.
A few minutes later a woman came in and he and she proceeded to have a
private little chat for the next 10-15 min. Only when the panel was about to
start did I discover she was "the chair."
He didn't introduce us or anything, like, "There's this reviewer whose work
I'm familiar with, and she asked about being on the panel. I said I didn't
think so, but I thought I'd let you make the decision."
So then I was stuck trying to talk to a woman who acted like she couldn't
wait to get rid of me, when it wouldn't have hurt anything to say, "You write
manga reviews regularly, you want to join the panel, fine."
She said, "These are reviewers from the New York Times and LA Times and big
papers."
I said, "Well, my being from an alternative paper might add some
perspective."
"Well, we've been planning this for months."
"Well, I notified Comic Con that I was available for a panel like this
months ago."
"Well, it's my first panel."
"Mine, too."
"Well, maybe next year, here's my card," she finally said.
The whole episode reminded me why I never pursued a journalism degree
despite my interest in journalism. In fairness, the woman and I did exchange
e-mails later about sorry, and maybe next year. Yeah, right.
The DMP panel was held the same morning, but because I have such regular
contact with DMP anyway, it didn't look like it was going to be anything I
didn't already know. Their new yaoi titles this month: "Dear Myself" and
"Hybrid Child." Of course, there's also "Hero Heel" in Nov. and that looked
like it was getting a lot of interest. They have the artbook for "Embracing
Love" called "Kiss of Fire" on their release schedule but it's been delayed.
I did the last bit of the floor, and was glad I did. I finally got to meet
Evelyn and Jane, the VIZ publicists. Before that final day, the VIZ booth was
one you could barely move in, let alone meet up with any staff in. I let them
know how much I was looking forward to "Cain Saga." They gave me some
promotional goodies. I asked them what had happened at the Shonen Jump panel,
since I missed it, but they said to check with them in a few weeks for the
answer, since they'd have to get the reports from the editors first.
Along the way in those three days I also caught up with Netcomics, that do
Korean manga including the shonen-ai of "Let Dai" and "Boy Princess," and CMX,
that's got a Sanami Matoh title somewhere in their catalog, or perhaps their
upcoming schedule.
Yaoi fans will also be interested to know about a semi-related organization
called Prism, which is a collective, movement, organization, "or something" to
promote gay comics in the mainstream media. They were supposed to have a booth,
but I didn't see one. I met a couple of gay artists with individual booths, but
they couldn't tell me much about it, and one of the guys in particular seemed
very offended about the "effeminate" men in yaoi. (He describes his art as
being "bears" and "manly men.") I'm sure someone can find more about Prism if
they want to poke around on the internet.
Of course there were also plenty of other niche comics, black comics,
Christian comics, even a booth for Arab comics. The "Nacho Libre"
Mexican-wrestler artist had a both, too, even though I didn't get to meet him
personally.
I finally saw the whole thing, as in, "I can't believe I saw the whole
thing" around lunchtime Sunday and drove home. So, is that enough news for one
Comic Con?
--Lyn Jensen
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