From what I can figure out, S-inc. has partnered with Jhouse-Rock, who’ve been bringing J-rock and Visual Kei performers to US conventions for about six years now. They seem to be hitting mostly anime-heavy shows, which makes sense, and hitting a lot of them – not just the big events like Otakon, but also smaller shows in places like Nashville, TN, Raleigh, NC and Rosemont, IL. For some shows, they’re bringing in Japanese guests, like Gashicon, the graphic designer behind the HANGRY&ANGRY characters; others seem to be focused on locally-driven fashion shows and a sales booth.

Hopefully this is a way for h.naoto to test the waters in terms of opening up more access for North American customers, either through international web sales or maybe even a physical store base. Not that my bank account is pleased about that idea! I’m utterly in love with the GRAMM line these days, and only the prospect of painful shopping service fees is keeping me from succumbing to the shopping temptation.

The blog has a list of upcoming events through early June, although I know there’s a confirmation on a late July appearance at Otakon as well, which isn’t listed yet. Naoto Hirooka will be in attendance at this event and yes, I’m already planning an appropriate outfit

The application process for the Otakon fashion show is now online; deadline to submit is May 11, 2010, and you must have your Otakon badge registered in order to submit.

We head in a day early to help with a few pre-con events, and stick around for a few days after to hang out in Banff for some networking events. Which is awesome, but I’m rapidly reaching the point of being pinched on deadlines all around, and I suspect there’s some awkward “working from the hotel room” in my future.

May gets a little wacky, with local Toronto cons to bookend the month: TCAF on May 8-9 and Anime North on May 28-30. UDON doesn’t have a booth at either show, although some of our artists have personal booths, which will need a bit of support. TCAF will actually be busier for me than Anime North, even though it’s a smaller show: I’m friends with the organizer and will be helping with a few events, plus hosting some out-of-town friends. Not to mention that Jim is sandwiching some more travel in between the two shows, which is going to make for a fun juggling act!

Boy, am I glad I did that!

The festival itself was a lot of fun, although there were a couple of stumbling points. We got in mid-Friday and just chilled near our Brooklyn hotel for a while before the Friday night cruise around Manhattan. It was a bit harder to meet people on the cruise than I’d hoped – the deck was chilly and the interior was one large, noisy room with bands and bellydancers – but we had fun admiring the outfits and the skyline. Still, it was a bit of a soft note to start the weekend, and I think we were both a little worried about it.

Saturday made up for all that in spades. We did a whirlwind tour around Manhattan, hitting all the key spots (for us): Uniqlo shopping for Jim, a couple of fun stores around SoHo, a long wander through Central Park, lunch at a funky diner, watching a proposal at Rockerfeller Plaza, Grand Central and Times Square and a whole bunch more. We were pretty exhausted by the time we headed out for the Shipwreck Ball that night, but happy – especially once we reached the location and discovered that people were much friendlier at this event than they’d been at the cruise. We met some great folks and were having a pretty awesome time….

And then Jim conspired with Coco, the MC, to grab the mike and drag me up front before Hellblinki’s set in order to propose:

(click-through for a photo set from the weekend)

Obviously, I said YES.

The rest of the trip was a bit of a blur after that: Jim managed to catch me truly off-guard and it took a while for the reality of it all to sink it. We did have a great time, including a lovely brunch on Sunday at the Montauk Club and a hilarious adventure at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply company, but mostly I was busy boggling at my ridiculous good fortune.

Since everyone keeps asking: we don’t have any specific plans in mind yet, aside from trying to find a date outside the ongoing con schedule (which is challenging, considering that UDON’s con schedule currently runs mid-March through mid-Sept!). I’ll try to keep y’all updated, without babbling incessantly about the whole thing.

I’ve seen a few of Lotte Reiniger’s shorts, and outtakes from an unrestored version of ACHMED, but never the full film; hopefully, this new restoration will merit a DVD release (there’s one currently available, but I’ve been a bit hesitant about the transfer quality). Her life story is pretty interesting, and her influence resonates clearly among modern directors such as the Brothers Quay and Guy Maddin (in particular, the silhouette sequences in ARCHANGEL).

“I love working for children, because they are a very critical and very thankful public.” – Lotte Reiniger

(links via the Dangerous Minds blog)

* – oh, and it turns out HAXAN is public domain and thus available online; the quality won’t be as nice as a print, of course, but I’ll have to give it a try this weekend, just to see.

Otakon was an awesome show – lots of fun, lots of in-jokes, lots of great fans. Any show where our biggest problem is selling out of product early doesn’t really merit much complaint! The fault there was our own: inventory planning for cons is always a tricky guessing game. Too little product, and you wind up with limited sales and disappointed fans; too much, and you have to cover expensive shipping for the remainders.

Anyway, gotta run – hauling boxes over to the con floor now for our final set-up run. Online time’s going to be limited, as we’ve got four people sharing one computer/internet connection here, but I’ll do my best!

Also: I have tickets for the Amanda Palmer CBLDF concert, AND an awesome date for the show. Huzzah!

BUT the best part of the day was waiting for us when we logged into email on the hotel’s free wifi – DARKSTALKERS TRIBUTE hit number one on Amazon Japan’s foreign language book list. Not just comics or art books, BOOKS. All of them. For several glorious hours, we were beating out Michael Jackson and Twilight for the top sales slot. Jim’s got a screenshot of our moment of triumph (and yes, it hurts so much that they don’t have the cover image up yet!).

Heady stuff. It may just be a fluke of some kind, a glut of sales timed just so to bounce us to the top of the charts, but it did the trick of getting everybody pumped for the con rush.

Even with hotel wifi, I’m not sure how regular my blogging will be; nine hours in the exhibit hall, plus set-up, tear-down and all the socializing away from the dealer hall are an exhausting combo.

The Shuster Award nominees for 2009 were announced this morning, and UDON Entertainment is up for Best Publisher! Of course, we’re up against Drawn & Quarterly, who’ve won the category in all but one previous year, but a girl can dream, can’t she? I think the last year has been UDON’s best for publishing so far, what with the original Street Fighter books (shipping consistantly on time & with great art, thanks to Matt’s awesome stewardship), the manwha and upcoming Manga For Kids lines, and the art books (Darkstalkers Tribute is going to knock people’s socks off!). Guess we’ll see on June 27th!

A couple of my friends are also up for awards: Cameron Stewart in the webcomics category for Sin Titulo, while Ray Fawkes & Cecil Castellucci are among the contenders for Best Writer. Woo!

Legends of Zork, the online browser game Jim did artwork for, launched yesterday. He’s started an art blog at http://www.jimzub.blogspot.com/ and will be posting images every day or so over the next month.

AND flights are booked for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, April 25-26! This is one of my favorite shows and the guest list this year is absolutely stellar. Can’t wait!

UK citizen Cat Le-Huy (Diz) is not a drug smuggler.
(please sign the petition!)

Cecil Castellucci is, however, pretty darned awesome.

* * *

General update: Mostly, I’m writing. The first draft of Familiar Tricks, which wants to be a much longer book than I’d anticipated, is about 2/3rds complete, and I’ve just finished an edit of Bearers of Bad Tidings, which has been sent to a few brave souls for their review. I’m feeling a bit nervous about that.

Vegas was entertaining. It deserves an entry of its own, but there’s no telling when I’ll have time for blog catch-up. Short version: it’s both liberating and confusing to be in a place which encourages gawking, photo-taking, meandering tourist behaviour.

Affairs with my accountant are finally settled! My files are safely back in my possession and everything seems to be in order. Insomnia reduction: 14%.

Yesterday, I shoveled this sidewalk in this outfit. Platform boots get surprisingly good traction in fresh snow.