Comic-con report & update

Post by **JWR** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:26 pm

Well Comic-con in San Diego was quite nice this year.
Lets just say it's a lot better organized than AX. For starters , They opened the badge pickup line a 1/2 hour early cause there was a good sized line. They opened the doors right at 6:00pm on preview night and they have a large amount of paid professional secuity staff supplimented by volunteers. They had 14 panel room of verious sizes and 394 different panels to chose from over the 4 days. 3 anime rooms showing from 10 am to 3 in the morning as well as film rooms.
The Dealer room takes at least 2 full days to see everything.
We sat in on panels with Ray Harryhousen , Kazuo Koike , Yoshihiro Tatsumi and J. Michael Straczynski among others. Saw the preview panels for the anime & manga companys.

As for what I got there , on the Anime front I picked up quite a bit of Maburaho sketches & backgrounds from Dave at Neichibei as well as a 3x3 eyes artbook. On the comic front I got two pieces from Bernie Wrightson and a painted cover test from Steve Rude but the main prize was a cover artwork from Ted Naifeh's latest book series Polly & the Pirates. Cover Art is very rare to ever find and we both love Ted's art style beside he is a nice guy who spent a good portion on time doing a sketch in Maria's book for her.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:26 am

Nice Catch of Mabuharo art!

Comic books still seem to be alot more popular and deep rooted in american culture.

I've never heard Comic companies complain that they are losing money. Although I'm not really as involved in comics as I am in anime.

What do you think JRW? All the anime companies are complaining about how hard it is to make money, while the comic industry look like they are doing pretty well...

Post by **JWR** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:52 am

RoboFlonne wrote:
I've never heard Comic companies complain that they are losing money. Although I'm not really as involved in comics as I am in anime.

What do you think JRW? All the anime companies are complaining about how hard it is to make money, while the comic industry look like they are doing pretty well...

Actually a lot of comic companys have had quite a bit of problems over the past few years. You will notice that a lot of titles that are not top sellers end up getting canceled after short runs. Sometimes the are only put out to renew the licence on the character. Marvel inc. has recently been involved in a bankruptcy and Crossgen & Tekno comics went out of business all together.

A lot of the current problems with the USA Anime companys has been brought on by the Musicland chain (parent of Suncoast) going bankrupt while owing tens of millions. Central Park Media is very shaky and could go under. Others like ADV had to scale back plans to purchace , licence & sell new series. Currently the strongest company is Funimation.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:55 am

Oh, I hate companies who get tons of credit then think they can just go bankrupt...

That really makes me mad!!!!!

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:05 pm

The G4 channel had a 2 hour special yesterday of converage from Comic-con. It was really interesting. I'm glad you are enjoying yourself JWR.

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:58 pm

Awww, now I'll have to see Maburaho! That "recovered but?" just sucked me in!

The Wrightson pencil is really nice, I like all the warm shading.

The Ted Naifeh IS a cool one! The contrast of the dark details of the door, and the clean brightness of the girl.... neat!

But I like the Steve Rude the best. The colors and motion.

Glad to have you back!

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:59 pm

Nice Maburaho art JWR! I think I like the stunned Rin and your Tell Me artwork the most.

How can I NOT like a character named Kamishiro.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:02 pm

I still love the fact that those have matching backgrounds!!!

Kawaii!