Tuesday, October 21, 2008

btw

In case you missed it, this is exactly what SPX was like.

...kinda

Sunday, October 19, 2008

win

Here are some pages from Third Horseman.
....no, really. I'm serious!!


Ok, so maybe it's only the second illustration (which is only a panel) but hot damn, do I love that first page. However, if I really had to draw 3rd Horseman like that, not only would it be wildly inappropriate, but I'd also want to throw myself from a ledge. Drawing and joking about shoujo are two different things!

NIGHTBIRD

Thank goodness I wasn't too much of a little shit in my high school years because I had the pleasure of getting a call from one of my cronies of way back when with a commission. JP is a fellow artist of the musical persuasion, and is putting out a cd for which he asked if I could provide cover art for. Now, sometimes I feel like I know more musicians than I can shake a stick at, but he's the first who's ever asked if I could do some drawing for him. Needless to say, I was pretty tickled about it and had a good time working with him.



JonPaul R

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Potter- occupation: not a wizard

Of all the Third Horseman characters, Potter is the one who took longest to pin down as far as looks went. This is probably why he's never made any appearance on the internet till now. He'll be coming up in some pages soon though so I've been thinking/drawing him a bit more as of late.

He's a bit of a punk-ass, but I like him.

Oh yah, and there's Chester lookin' fancy.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

change of plans...

OK, so I found this amazing book at BookOff and (holy shit!) I didn't even know there was shoujo western manga out there. I can just imagine Third Horsemen with a total shoujo sparkling facelift. So many roses!! Of course, I can also imagine loosing my job so let's just call it a secret fantasy.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Oh yah, thanks a lot Ada!

Thanks to an unnamed party, I recently finished watching Macross Frontier which was done for the 25th anniversary of the good ol' Macross franchise. I came for the weird farting lizard phone and stayed for the boys who looked like dreamy girls.


Oh yah, Yoko Kanno, the creator of the series' dreamy music, is also appropriately dreamy as well.

NY Anime Festival 2008

I was an anime corespondent for my friend's web page. *cough*nerd*cough* It was awesome AND I didn't loose money!
Anyway, he already posted it in a prompt manner to his site but I thought I should post it up here as well. You know, 'cause readin' and writin' is awesome too.


After a successful failure the first go ‘round, the New York Anime Festival could only get better in it’s second year. Thankfully, it did. Attendance and overall organization was up giving the convention a stronger and more positive vibe this time. Cosplayers were also happy to trade in the December chills for a muggy September rain and appeared in full force. A varied guest list showed off big names who were appropriately given panel rooms this year and not made to present at the back of the dealers room on a stage that was sectioned off by curtains. The dealer’s room itself did unfortunately close promptly six o’clock, but panels and screenings ran later into the evening this time to keep attendees in each other’s anime loving company for a few more hours. Such improvements should be duly noted, but the fledging con still has a long way to go before it can settle into an established identity that has a consistent quality standard.

The movement towards showcasing a larger swatch of Japanese pop culture, as seen with bringing in Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chief, fine art friendly Yoshitaka Amano, and loli fashion designer Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, is a promising direction to be headed in for the con’s future. However, bringing in these guests only to fall back on crowd Q&A’s for the entirety of a panel doesn’t do anybody any favors. Such was the case with Morimoto-san’s forty five minute block which contained a shining example of such dangers when a Naruto Shippuden cosplayer ask if Morimoto-san knew and was friends/related with the Morimoto of Nintendo fame. Uh, right. I ended up learning a lot of what Morimoto-san’s likes and dislikes were by the end of the panel but little else. The same can be said for the amateur run panel Kingdom Hearts: A Fan’s Point of View. The two speakers brought a topic and their bodies to prop up the microphones but little else in the ways of informative or creative content. On the other hand, Amano’s panel provided an appealing balance of a thought out interview, crowd questions, and limited prize give-away. Having evidence of preparation was really the deal breaker for most of the panels I sat through and, unfortunately, a lack of this was in the majority.

The main floor stayed fairly consistent from the year before and remained pleasantly bland. The most notable change was the consolidation of the artist alley to the side of the dealer’s room/main floor space. It gave a lot of the artists more face time with the attendees but many of the artists saw slow sales and remained uncommitted to a positive return appearance at N.Y. Anime Fest ’09. Artists with original content had an especially hard time moving their wares and the state of the economy certainly wasn’t doing anyone favors.

At the end of the day though, for all its faults, I still found myself having a good time. The opportunity to be in a crowd that loves the same the niche market that you do is something special. Seeing new fans with bewildered parents in toe and old fans heralding the classics will never tire for me. This anime convention is no different from any other in the fact that I always walk away with an over priced import item, the mental scar of seeing an especially inappropriate cosplayer and the prospect that next year will be bigger and better.