Eisner Judges 2007

Here is an article from ComicCon discussing the judges on the Eisner Awards Panel. One of the judges, Robin Brenner created No Flying No Tights, a old and excellent guide to comics. It covers comics for teens and kids. Comic World News has an interview with Brenner.

Persepolis the Movie (2007)

Persepolis the Movie

I’ve only read volume one of this graphic novel but I highly recommend it. The story is honest and straightforward. The art work is simple and effective. I’m really looking forward to seeing the movie. The quote below is from ifilm.com

Based on Marjane Satrapi’s best-selling graphic novel, the poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

Kitty Alarm Clock Video

As the seasons change and it’s dark and cold when I go out – I need this kind of motivation!

SugoiCon – Sunday

We watched Boys Be which we both liked. I’ve watched another one since I’ve been home, in fact. It’s about three boys and two girls who are friends and the various romantic mishaps they experience. It’s much more sweet and wistful than it is salacious. The characters are also designed in a less stylized way.

Then we visited Name that Anime Tune which we had decided to skip. I’m glad we went because it was very enjoyable. The man who was the MC was entertaining and we thought he’d had experience with crowds too. He even played some tunes that I recognized like My Neighbor Totoro, Ranma 1/2, and Sakura Wars. One of the first contestants was wearing a mudkip mask and so the MC refused to use his real name and called him Mudkip.

Unfortunately, Mudkip only got 1 out of 8 answers right. So, his score became the one to beat. The MC told people that they had to be smarter than a mudkip and so on. The Mudkip guy had a lot of personality and he did know a lot of songs once the pressure was off, and so he played along. We applauded the winner at the end but then Mudkip came out for applause too and I’m afraid the applause was louder for him.

Next we went to the end of Japanese Folklore panel and all of the Shinsengumi
panel. I learned a lot about the real history behind the Shinsengumi – Samurai X and Kaze Hikaru were all I knew.

We were on the verge of leaving until the MC from Name that Tune came in. So, we stayed for his J-Drama panel, and he was knowledgeable and well organized. Most of the audience was unfamiliar with Japanese fictional television. I didn’t count Bambino since I’d only seen one episode. Later on, people who were more familiar with the shows came in so that was a nice mix.

I was pleased to learn that live action television series in Japan aren’t all wacky game shows. In fact, he said that it is aimed at audiences in their late twenties and early thirties. The series that follow a person’s career as a chef or a teacher sounded the most appealing. There were also series on sports, illness, family life, comedies and so on.

So, a satisfactory end to the weekend.

SugoiCon – Saturday

We missed seeing the Studio Ghibli panel because we were both very tired.

I think we shopped on Friday but I’ll put it here. We went around the whole room and looked at everything carefully. We learned about the lazy college students portrayed as tarepanda. My sister loves them and I seriously considered getting her one. (Note: she was disappointed that I didn’t.)

There was only one seller of DVDs and manga and I remember the last time we went, there were about 5 of them – odd. I intended to get a key chain this time but I didn’t find any that I liked. My brother was taken with the plushy Mario Bros. boxes and mushrooms that make video game sounds when you smacked them.

We came to the snacks table and our resistance fell. My brother bought pocky: green tea, almond, and chocolate. We both bought rice candy. I bought two kinds of chocolate swirl pocky and 2 cans of fruit drop candy (as in Graveyard of the Fireflies.) My brother also bought a bottle of soda pop with a glass marble. It took a long time to figure out how to open it but it tasted OK.

We bought The Centurion (vol. 1 of In His Likeness), Viva Las Vegas, a choose your own adventure and Meph adventures. We both bought vol. 1 of Devil’s Panties (I decided to wait for the 2nd collected volume rather than buy the individual comics. I bought a black and white version of Realms of Ishikaze, rather than the color versions.

Also buttons: “Pestilence: You are All Diseased” “War: What is It Good for? Me!” “I Love Lamp” and “geisha girl” “devil girl.” I lost the devil girl which makes me sad. Worthwhile buys all, and I’ll discuss them individually later.

Both James Hatton and Jennie Breedon were very friendly and approachable. Breedon talked to my brother about button makers (which he became fascinated by) and she told me why she chose Devil’s Panties as the name of her strip even though I’m sure she’s sick of telling the story. It turns out it was from a list of rock band names her friend had.

We checked out FLCL but it had already started and it doesn’t seem to be a series that is easy to pick up. We wandered into the Hats panel which was mellow and fun (neither of us made hats).

We watched PaniPoni Dash! which I liked but my brother didn’t much. It’s a school comedy about an eleven year old girl named Rebecca who is a graduate of MIT and teaching a homeroom class of mostly girls. In one episode, she took attendance by using nicknames and one of the girls is called “too plain and boring to have a presence.” The girl in question, Kurumi, goes catatonic and hides out under the school with stray cats.

We went to the Alternative Manga panel. I was familiar with a lot of what he said but not all of the information. I was most interested in his comment that USA was presently the home of the most innovative and experimental comics. My brother had different expectations: he wanted to learn about titles that had more challenging content (”something not set in a school”) rather than the titles with political angles that the moderator seemed to prefer. Either way, interesting.

SugoiCon – Friday

Friday, we arrived at 3:30 for registration.

We knew we were at the right place because my brother saw people with multicolored hair and I saw cars with geeky bumper stickers. e.g. “If only life were as simple as Evangelion.” hee.

It had a “knight” theme with suits of armor and rooms named Friars Hall and Ivanhoe. We wandered around the halls trying to find things and got lost because it was very confusing. Later on, it was easier to find our way around.

We saw School Rumble about an ordinary girl who falls in love with a handsome fellow classmate and at the same time, a male juvenile delinquent falls in love with her. They think up the same kinds of plans to win the object of their affection. We both thought it was funny.

We ate lunch in the car and planned what we wanted to see for the rest of the day.

When that was done we waited for the Steve Conte concert but he had either missed his flight or his flight had been delayed. After we waited a while, we moved on.

We went to see Pumpkin Scissors – about a noblewoman who joins army intelligence to troubleshoot and rescue citizens of the devastated society that war has left behind. It was very emotional and quite tense. I was separated from my brother and at the end of the episode, I went to join him and I commented that I still thought the name was lame. A girl sitting beside him assured me that that was typical for rather bizarre English words to be used for names and she gave me several examples.

(still think it’s lame and Theron Martin agrees with me about the name: ” One has to wonder what Ryoutaru Iwanaga, the manga-ka for the manga on which this anime is based, was thinking when he named this series. Did he just stick together two English words which sounded cool as a combination without understanding that they not only don’t fit together, but sound positively silly?”)

Minimalist Webcomics was the best pick ever. James Hatton (In His Likeness), Jennie Breeden (Devil’s Panties) and Dan Hess (Realms of Ishikaze) were so funny. They told stories about hate mail which they don’t receive. In His Likeness is actually posted on church notice boards. Jennie Breeden told stories about her leaf blower that she uses at the DragonCon to blow up the kilts of unsuspecting men.

They talked about various story lines. In His Likeness has the Internet is marrying a jpg of Rita Hayworth. Breeden was shocked that the Internet didn’t even rate a gif much less streaming video. Devil’s Panties is about guerrilla shopping trips with family members, and a kind of mellow Jesus who sometimes smokes pot. Realms of Ishikaze is about role playing games from inside the game.

They kind of hijacked the Do’s and Don’ts of Con Dating, though to be fair they asked several times who was in charge of it. The lady who finally showed up was a bit snippy. But they were pretty funny. They reminded us to bathe and use protection (and they didn’t mean our mystic shields). Hatton suggested that we not explain the entire plot of the latest comic we’d read. “So, Wolverine and Hulk were fighting on a mountain and then Wolverine stabbed Hulk with his claws and then Hulk (because his gamma-irradiated blood is regenerative) got better and pound on Wolverine’s head.” But, he said, if the person in question objects because “Wolverine has the regenerative power not Hulk – then marry her.”

SugoiCon

I’m off to the Sugoicon, Yeah!

I’ll be back by Monday by the latest.

Manga, manga, manga, manga, manga.

Top Romances 2007

So the results from the All About Romance poll have been revealed. The analysis is worth reading too.

I mentioned before that I was working on my list, and I was curious to see how it would turn out.

Cindy, Lee, & LinnieGayl listed some questions about the poll which I’ll answer here (not registered for the forum.) .

1. How did you do with your choices? Are there books on the list that you think are just ‘one-hit-wonders’ (there’ve been some in every poll) that will get knocked off one day?

I have no response to that.

2. There is a core 34% of titles that have made every poll – how many are among your favorites?

Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Mary Balogh, and Jennifer Crusie all made it and I think they deserve it. Although my favorite titles didn’t necessarily win. I barely remember Heyer’s Fredrica and I love The Convenient Marriage and The Talisman Ring a lot more. My favorite Crusie and Austen and Balogh novels made it. So, I’m happy.

3. With the average ballot having 55 titles on it, what kind of “rules” did you impose on yourself? Did you list only “A” or five-star books, or perhaps books that you’ve re-read at least once? Cindy cops to having “umpteen rules yet somehow made up in my mind.”

I submitted the full 100. I’d say the first 60 or so were all 5 five stars. I tried to put what I considered “legitimate” romances toward the top. Romantic books that were not traditional romances went lower. There were a couple of B+ books toward the end.

4. Are there any titles you voted for that you knew would never make the final top ten, and that you suspected would only be included on your own ballot?

I added a lot of young adult romances which I think are valid but I didn’t expect to see them in the top ten. I put in the manga Mars and From Far Away (and followup) which I knew would only be on my ballot.

I think romance readers are missing out by not reading Mars. I remember loaning it to three women: 15 years old, 30 years old and 50 years old. All three of them later said something to the effect of, “That Rei guy, he’s um, compelling.” Definitely, definitely, missing out.

5. Which are the books that you are shocked to see did not make the Top 100?

I feel no surprise.

6. If nearly half of the European Historicals that made this year’s Top 100 were published after the year 2000, does this counter the argument that historicals have been declining in quality, is it possible that readers have lowered their expectations accordingly, or that fewer long-time readers participated in the poll?

I think that there are some excellent writers working today, and I like to think that fewer topics are taboo for romance which make them richer. I don’t just mean they describe sex but that various points of view are welcome, less pleasant aspects of living in the past can be described and it’s still considered “romantic.” Anyway Mary Balogh is good stuff. So, there.

5 Book Challenge: Lola Carlyle Reveals All

Rachel Gibson was on my 5 book challenge list for the romantic comedy.

Lola Carlyle, former lingerie model, has recently been humiliated by her wretched ex-fiance. He uploaded private pictures of her to his website. Now, she’s hiding out in the Bahamas on a boat with her obnoxious dog Baby Doll and trying to recover from the public scandal.

She wakes up to find a secret agent man named Max has stolen her friend’s boat. He’s trying to escape his would-be killers. Neither of them are happy to see the other. Havoc ensues as they each try to control the boat and each other. A lot of havoc – which results in a disabled, understocked boat.

It reminded me a lot of Overboard: she’s spoiled and he’s a jerk and they both have secrets. But overall, I would describe it as a romantic adventure rather than a romantic comedy. There are a lot of lost-at-sea adventures, and the killers show up again, and she is good at getting into trouble. He rescues her a lot.

The staring contest between the dog and the guy had me smiling.

I think my problem is that I’m not a huge fan of adventures fiction (which is going to make the true life adventure challenge interesting). I found the dog Baby Doll irritating and not adorable like Fred in Anyone But You. Max and Lola didn’t do much for me at first but I warmed to them by the end.

Gibson’s very popular since all her books are constantly checked out in my library, except this one. I might try another one to see if a different scenario might be funnier for me.

on my shelf

I’m really stressed right now, although much of it is for fun reasons (I’m going to the Sugoicon next weekend).

So, here is a lazy post: what I’m reading and watching.

I Walked With a Zombie came in the mail a few days ago. I’m not sure about it. But its director Jacques Tourneur also filmed Cat People, and that was enjoyable. I’ll give it a chance.

Also re-watching season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I’m up to the episode Inca Mummy Girl. Xander was awfully cute and loyal in the early days.

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I’m reading volume three of Emma by Kaori Mori which didn’t look too exciting at first.

It doesn’t involve rampaging demons but I’m liking it quite a bit. It’s about a maid in Victorian England who falls for wealthy young man. Their love is not to be, evidently.

After I started reading it, I found a positive review of it by Johanna from Comics Worth Reading. She’s always right when she recommends comics. After all, she loves Sinfest.

I may pick up Hikaru no Go, Beauty Pop, Hana Kimi, Othello, Saikano, or Swan when I go to the anime convention.

Back to the list.

I’m also reading Serious about Series by Silk Makowski about young adult books series. The series she’s discussing are old but she’s an engaging writer. I wish she’d written more. If she’s got a blog, please let me know.

Lastly, I’m reading Robert Silverberg’s Book of Skulls, it’s good. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out at this point. It’s not science fiction so much as psychological horror.