What's This? Hmmmm?

Saturday Cliffs Notes……

Brass Balls – Alec Baldwin is a speaker at one of the BEA author events I announced this week and Vroman’s Bookstore blog linked to a great McSweeney’s piece recreating his famous monologue from Glengarry Glen Ross. Read it here, it’s hilarious. My favorite quote? Take care of the class hamster? Fuck you. Which reminds me, my McSweeney’s came in the mail today. Yipee! It’s got three collections, but the hardback is titled, Where to Invade Next, with a big American flag. I vote for Youngstown, OH.

NY ComicContents – I’ve got a few things about The Con, I think I can leak tomorrow, so stayed tuned. Perhaps some guest stuff but certainly some VIP ticket info. Scroll down to see the list of store where you can buy tickets. Will any bookstores sell tickets? McNally or BookCourt? I didn’t formally ask them, maybe that’s why they aren’t, ok, I’ll add that to the to-do list.

Lego my Lego – Check this out from Wired’s blog, Lego is building a MMO (massively multiplayer online game) that allows players to live among the Lego sets they’ve created! It sounds amazing. So basically Any structure or vehicle you may construct out of the MMOs virtual blocks, you can also export to LEGO who will allow you to purchase traditional LEGO sets that are exact replicas of what you've created in-game. Also on Lego’s, I was having a bad week this week (something about pissing off all of the comic industry news outlets tends to wear one down) and I got into the car Thursday (The Editor-in-Chief and I carpool) and there was an Imperial Landing Craft Lego set sitting on the passenger seat for me. It must be love. It’s awesome, the wings move and everything.

Viral Vid - The first NYCC Viral vid by It's Just Some Random Guy is now up to 23,000 views! Nice. Visit it and share it, please! I want to get to 100,000! Also, last night I got the enxt vid. it's great, I can;t wait ot get it out there.

Borders New Store Layout – Friend and indy bookstore owner Karl Pohrt reviewed the new Borders store concept on his blog here. It’s a great perspective from Karl – it’s sort of like Ronald McDonald writing a review of a Whopper excep Karl isn’t a clown. Far from it. I mean he is entertaining, but.…damn I need to pick better analogies. Honestly it’s very insightful.

To Hell with Helvetica – Watch the documentary Helvetica last weekend. It was good, within the context that it is a full length documentary about a font. But my favorite line was from a stereotypically snobby German guy and when asked why he didn’t like Helvetica he replied, “I don’t know, what is it about bad taste that is ubiquitous?” I need to work that into sentences more often.

The Kennedy Mystique – I mentioned reading Rock On by Dan Kennedy a few months ago, well I came across a video he made for his first book, Loser Goes First, that is a hoot – as we say in the Midwest. It’s like 6 minutes long, but worth watching.

- L

NYCC Tickets Now On Sale at a Store Near You!

Finally, we've unleashed tickets into the real world! You, yes you, can actually go and get your sweaty little hands - or dry hands if you don't have any glandular problems, onto NY ComicCon tickets. So what the hell are you doing reading this blog? Go buy your tickets! By the way, if you are not sure what you are looking for, I previewed the ticket art about a month ago - check em out here. Also, please click on the links below because it took me like 10 minutes to add all the url's.

The Coolest Comic Stores in the World (this mantle is based solely on the fact that they sell NYCC tickets, if you want your store to join this prestigious list, all you have to do is email me):

A Little Shop of Comics
All Things Fun
Amazing Comics
Cosmic Comics and Books
Crazy Scondos
Fat Moose Comics
Forbidden Planet
Fourth World Comics
Jetpack Comics
Jim Hanley's Universe
Legends of Superheros
Midtown Comics
New Moon Comics
Royal Collectibles
St Marks Comics
The Jokers Child
Time Warp Comics & Games

If you want to sell tickets for NYCC at your book or comic store, email me!!!!!

-L

NewYorkComicCam.com!

Coming Soon!

Japanamerica Night at Kinokuniya! Tokyo! Paula! Chairs!

Last night, Kinokuniya Bookstore in NYC held Japanamerica Night, featuring authors and artists including Roland Kelts, Hiroki Otsuka, June Kim, James Barry, and Melissa DeJesus speaking about Japan, their work, how Japan's influenced their work, and signing a lot of autographs. The night also featured special guest appearances by folks like Ali T. Kokmen from Del Rey Manga, Newton Grant from The Escapist Magazine, Anime News Network founder Justin Sevakis, NEW YORK-TOKYO creator Taeko Baba, and me. It was a great evening, with the crowd overflowing from Kinokuniya's event space into their manga section -- making it impossible for me to pick up a copy of the newest Soul Eater.

I've got to immediately thank every one who came out, and I hope you all had a good time. Special "shout outs" to Paula and the Yajai Thai waitress. See, Paula, I remembered your name. I also loved the tie. And, Yajai Thai waitress, I should learn your name. I also didn't know you liked anime.

It was amazing seeing so many NYAF volunteers, NYAF maids, and fans in NYAF T-Shirts at Kinokuniya and I hope I wasn't a total disappointment. Anyone who glomped me or just said hi early in the evening got one of the last New York Anime Festival 2007 mascot plushies. (If you didn't get one but are craving a chibi Statue of Liberty, I made sure to leave a few at the office so you can still pick one up at the NYAF Shop at newyorkanimefestival.com.) And anyone in cosplay got New York Anime Festival calendars as well as previews of Del Rey Manga's Faust courtesy of Ali.

Ali and I go back a few years to our time together at Be Beautiful Manga. (That's right, girls.) I think I was attracted to Ali's signature bow tie, and I think he fell in love with the fact that I knew how to work the fax machine. Ali's a good friend. (Girls, that means secret lover.) Last night, though, we had a bit of a tiff. See, Ali writes for the Del Rey Manga Blog (activeanime.com/delreyblog), and he was complaining that one of MediumAtLarge.net's upcoming features -- "Peter's Tie of the Week" -- seems based on from his "Ali's Tie of the Week". He charged that I stole his idea. I, admitting I did, told him it didn't matter because it was a blog and no one really reads it anyway. (But maybe people would if there was more shounen ai innuendo.) He countered by reciting some manifesto about blogs being the next generation of journalism. I said that nothing written in blogs was true. I then hit him with a chair.

I'll talk to Ali today to make sure the swelling's gone down.

Getting back on track, talking with the Kinokuniya team, everything went off beautifully and a few folks actually bought some of their zany Japanese funny books which always makes the store happy. I, of course, didn't actually get to see too much of the formal Japanamerica Night presentation. Instead, the evening was filled with me dodging questions about who's coming to NYAF '08. Had Newton (also a Be Beautiful alum) snuck in some beers, I may have let a few names slip, but because he didn't all I put out there was...

"I'm talking to a band that has something to do with Bleach. They're not confirmed, but I'm talking to them."

Have fun speculating until summer.

Oh! I forgot the superbonushappy gift I was also giving out. While I started the night passing out plushies, once they were exhausted, I pulled from my pocket a small stack of tickets to the Tokyo Anime Fair. The New York Anime Festival will have a booth at TAF, and the event sent me a few extra tickets. People were happy. People were very happy. People were very, very happy. When I explained the tickets were just to get into TAF -- and they didn't cover airfare and hotel rooms -- people were still superbonushappy.

My favorite part of the tickets is actually the back. The rear of all of TAF 2008's tickets is an ad for Soul Eater. Soul Eater is a manga that's half Bleach, half D.Gray-man, and half naughty. No one's releasing it in America yet, but Kinokuniya has the Japanese version. Also, it's being made into an anime that's premiering in Japan in April. When's it premiere in America? New York Comic Con. Maybe. I'm working on it. My connection to the whole thing is T.M.Revolution sings the opening theme, and since T.M.Revolution is performing at New York Comic Con, wouldn't it make sense for Soul Eater to be there with him?

Once Japanamerica Night wrapped, Newton, Justin, and I headed on out for dinner at Kenka. Kenka's an izakaya (a low-class Japanese bar) on Saint Mark's Place specializing in deep fried bull naughty bits and $1 Sapporos. Justin and I go there more often than we should, and this was Newton's first time. He'll be back. In between pondering how I won't know what to do if my eventual kid isn't a nerd, explaining why Justin should teach Newton's kid about girls, and halting all conversation when the Cutie Honey theme started playing over the establishment's tinny speakers, we actually talked about a fair amount of business that I'm not going to share with you all right now. Once the stuff I can't talk about wrapped, we got cotton candy and watched Korean cartoons.

I ended up in bed around 3 AM only to find my radio had died and because I can't fall asleep without the cold, unfeeling lullaby of NPR, I stared at my ceiling until morning. And I've got a meeting with the CEO at 8:30 AM.

What have we learned from all this? Not much. So, let me try to pin a conclusion on this train wreck.

I'm terrified whenever staging events -- big or small -- because there's always that fear that no one will show up. This trepidation then swells exponentially when you bring in partners, especially partners you're a fan of, and because I have a total crush on Kinokuniya, I really, really didn't want to screw up 'cause if I did Kinokuniya wouldn't call me any more. (Did that joke connect? Not really? Yeah, I thought it was pretty lame, too.) What I'm trying to say is thank you all for coming out.

BookExpo Author Events Announced!

So here they are, the author events for BookExpo America! We have a great line-up this year with a few guests with California ties. While of course, I never want to play favorites with our events or our authors, I'm pretty excited about the Children's Breakfast and the Saturday lunch. Honestly, all of the events are excellent and we've got a pretty exceptional group pf writers and personalities on display for BookExpo attendees. Yeah, John Hodgeman and Ted Turner on the same stage with Nafisi and Lehane in between? Come on, where else are you going to see that!

As for my excitement for the kids breakfast, who wouldn't be? Neil Gaiman? Sherman Alxie? Eoin Colfer? Judy Blume!!!! I was sure Gaiman wouldn't be able to do it for one reason or another and he was actually the first confirmation we got from the entire group. If you missed it this summer, go here for my story of hanging out with Gaiman on a Beijing rooftop - one of the coolest memories from my job!

Through a funny quirk with our registration vendor, tickets won't go on sale until next Wednesday. Once they do, snatch those tickets up! For the breakfast events, you'll have a choice between general admission or breakfast at a seated table. We started this last year after I got some sound advice form some attendees. So with no further wait, here are the BEA 2008 author events!

CHILDREN’S BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST

Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); Judy Blume, author of Going, Going, Gone! with the Pain and the Great One (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers); and Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins). Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Book Group) will be the Master of Ceremonies. Introductory Remarks by Jon Scieszka, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

SATURDAY BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST

Magic Johnson, author of Magic Moves: 32 Lessons on How to Be an All-Star in Business (Crown Business), Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Queen (Touchstone/Simon&Schuster), and Andre Dubus III, author of The Garden of Last Days: A Novel (W.W. Norton). Alec Baldwin, author of A Promise To Ourselves: A Journey Through Divorce and Fatherhood (St. Martin’s Press) will be the Master of Ceremonies.

12PM – 2PM SATURDAY BOOK & AUTHOR LUNCHEON

Richard Engel, author of War Journal (Simon&Schuster), Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, author of Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era (Celebra), Jon Krakauer, author of The Hero (Doubleday), and Michael Moore, author of an as yet untitled work (Grand Central). Christopher Buckley, author of Supreme Courtship: A Novel (Twelve) will be the Master of Ceremonies.

4PM – 5PM THE HEARD WORD: BEA’S AUDIOBOOK & AUTHOR TEA(Saturday)

Robert Crais, author of an Untitled Elvis Cole Novel (Brilliance Audio), T. Jefferson Parker, author of LA Outlaws (Brilliance Audio), and Michael Connelly, author of The Brass Verdict (Hachette Audio)

SUNDAY BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST

Ted Turner, author (with Bill Burke) of Call Me Ted (Grand Central), Azar Nafisi, author of Things I’ve Been Silent About: A Memoir of Family (Random House), and Dennis Lehane, author of The Given Day (William Morrow). John Hodgman, author of More Information Than You Require (Dutton) will be the Master of Ceremonies.

Things Money Can't Buy.....

Love. This bloggers favor (that's a lie). The feeling a kitten's meow gives you deep in your heart. The laughter I got yesterday watching a co-worker fall off his chair. Immortality. Morality. Enough Lego's to satiate my desire to build. The respect of the Editor-in-Chief. And.........

This Poster:

That's right, the crack team of NYCC lawyers (some guys I like to drink beer with) told me we can't sell it, but, we can give it away! So here is the deal, you can see this completely awesome show poster the Kubert Boys drew and inked for us at your local comic retailer (where you can buy droves of NYCC tickets) and we'll be running a bunch of contests to give them away. But what you can't do is give me any money for them, ok? Seems fair, what you once thought about paying for, you can now get for free.

The first 5 people to leave a comment on the blog or send me an email will get the first of these spanking new, the ink is hardly dry, amazingly cool, one-of-a-kind posters.

-L

Snafu-a-Rama

We issued a press release today announcing what I think is a really cool partnership with Newsarama for this year’s show. Newsarama is going to create a news room at the con that will overlook the con floor. In it they will conduct all kinds of interviews with the myriad of guests we’ve got lined up in addition to roving reports from the thick of the con. All of this will be streamed out to waiting fans via Newsarama. Cool, huh?

Well, the not so cool part was that the release gave some of our friends the impression that this was an exclusive arrangement with Newsarama in some way. It’s not. Newsarama is doing a really cool feature at the show that we are excited to support, but this by no means limits what we will do with CBR, The Beat, The New York Times, Pravda, or any other news source anywhere in the world!

We completely value all of the media and industry sites that cover, support, and love NYCC so the last thing we’d do is want to freeze any of them out or limit them in any way. This is really about an exclusive news room that Newsarama has created to cover the con from a unique perch and we’re happy to be doing that with them. However, if our friends from another news site called us up and wanted to do the show exclusive hat cam (head mounted, web streaming con cam) at the show, we’d welcome that and call it the exclusive New York ComicCon hat cam and issue a press release about how stoked we are to have it!

We’ve got a cool partnership with IGN.com, we are talking with a huge group of podcasters to create a podcast arena, we’ve got big things cooking with Anime News Network, The Beat is our freaking sister for god sakes - media is all a flutter around NYCC and we embrace them all!

The lesson learned? Issue separate press releases and make sure we are a little more clear on the agreement. So sorry if we weren’t clear as mud, but come web sites, podcasters, newsprint and mags – the con is 50 days away and there will be a lot to cover.

-L

Japanamerica Night at Kinokuniya! Tomorrow!

Tomorrow night, starting at 6 PM, is Kinokuniya Bookstore's Japanamerica Night, featuring authors and artists including Roland Kelts, Hiroki Otsuka, June Kim, James Barry, and Melissa DeJesus all speaking about Japan and its influence on everything that they do. Also, the New York Anime Festival's donated 33 pounds of swag that'll be given out to anyone who shows up in costume. And, looking at the forecast, it's not supposed to be that bad tomorrow night. Snow flurries are expected, but it could be worse.

And there's an even bigger reason to show up to Japanamerica Night tomorrow night! Two more special guests! Newton Grant from The Escapist Magazine and... me! Newton's a long time friend who long, long ago used to be my boss. Now, he works at www.escapistmagazine.com, most known for Zero Punctuation by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, a delightful weekly videogame review that's filled with more cussing than actual review. Newton's in NYC on ultra top secret business that has nothing to do with playing Gears of War and watching The Venture Bros. in my apartment, and he'll be at Japanamerica Night to answer questions about why Yatzhee is so angry.

And, beyond Newton, as I said, you can also look forward to seeing me. If you saw me at the New York Anime Festival, I was the guy in the staff shirt and suit jacket who looked like he hadn't slept in a week. Tomorrow night, I'll be the guy in the yellow shirt and corduroy jacket who looks like he hasn't slept in almost a week.

Newton and I aren't technically special guests, but we'll both be there, both love Kinokuniya, and both helped put the night together. Wait, Newton didn't, but you should still talk to him. He's got three kids and great stories about each of them. His oldest dressed as Napoleon for Halloween. Honest! As for me, what'll I say? Don't know, but if Kinokuniya's gotten its liquor license, expect me to talk about New York Anime Festival 2008's bands and guests months before I'm supposed to.

If Kinokuniya still lacks a liquor license, I'll -- instead -- probably be chatting about their cafe's intriguing take on creme brulee. I've been a big fan of creme brulee ever since I ate ten or so bowls of it at a buffet in Vegas, and Kinokuniya has a dessert that's a conceptual creme brulee, kinda sorta inspired by the dish but definitely not what you'd expect to see in a traditional burnt cream.

I've got definite opinions on what makes a good creme brulee, and I hope to share them with you tomorrow!

Lucky Star and CODE GEASS at New York Comic Con!

Previously, I revealed that New York Comic Con will host Emma's US premiere. Today, I'm happy to announce that Emma isn't the only anime series that'll be shown for the first time in America at New York Comic Con. Working closely with my friends over at Bandai Entertainment, I can announce that two of their most-anticipated series -- Lucky Star and CODE GEASS -- will both screen at NYCC as well!

Lucky Star's the slice-of-life story of Konata Izumi, a Japanese highschooler who -- while smart and athletic -- doesn't do all too well in school or at sports. What's the reason? She's an anime fan. Lucky Star follows Izumi, her friends, and their quirky, clever, and so very, very cute adventures through adolescence.

CODE GEASS is the story of war, revenge, and robots with character designs by legendary manga studio CLAMP. In the year 2010, the Holy Empire of Britannia invades Japan, crushing all opposition with their robotic soldiers, the Knightmare Frames. But while Japan is enslaved under Britannia's rule, the Japanese Resistance are about to receive help from the most unlikely of sources, the son of Britannia's Emperor.

CODE GEASS will begin airing on Cartoon Network later this spring, and both series will be released on DVD by Bandai Entertainment in the summer.

Looking over blogger reactions to Emma's announcement -- and Japanese pop star T.M.Revolution's before that -- I've seen a lot of questions and confusion about why there's anime at New York Comic Con at all. New York Comic Con has comic books at its core, but it's a celebration of the full breadth and depth of American popular culture, and if you haven't noticed, anime's not something only viewed in dark basements and in underground clubs anymore. Nope, Naruto and Bleach are as well known today as Batman and Superman. And just as New York Comic Con is a showcase for movies, television, and toys, it's a home for anime, too.

And, in response to the grumbles about New York Comic Con featuring T.M.Revolution and getting these premieres instead of the New York Anime Festival, don't you fret. Work's already begun on NYAF '08, and what you see at NYCC is just an appetizer.

Exclusive Iron Man Bobble Head!

One of my many duties for New York Comic Con is collecting information on the various exclusive figures, toys, statues, and other goodies for sale at the show. I just got the information on a limited edition Iron Man bobble head that'll be revealed on NewYorkComicCon.com tomorrow, but I wanted to share it with all of you today.

Straight from the upcoming Iron Man live-action movie comes this limited edition Iron Man Mark II Armor Bobble Head. The bobble head is just like his big brother on the big screen, except for his -- well -- titanic noggin. He's only $15, only at the Action Figure Xpress Booth (1544), and only 1500 have been made! For more, visit shopafx.com.

Japanamerica Night At Kinokuniya! Update!

So, last week I mentioned Kinokuniya's Japanamerica Night, taking place this Wednesday. A number of authors will be speaking about Japan's influence on American books, films, cartoons, and culture and NYAF and TOKYOPOP will be giving out prizes to everyone who shows up in costume.

I mentioned, too, that everyone who comes in costume would be getting 10% off all manga. This last bit ain't exactly accurate. I spoke with the store this weekend to make sure everything was coming together -- and while they did the discount for NYAF's last event there -- there won't be a discount during Japanamerica Night. Sorry.

But there will be swag. Lots of it. I believe the box I mailed out to Kinokuniya was 33 pounds of goodness.

To make up for those few bucks you won't be getting off of volumes of Soul Eater, how about I break some New York Comic Con anime news? Hmmm? Maybe? Let me do some laundry, eat some breakfast, and then I'll reveal not just one -- but two -- anime premieres!