Day 1

The New York Comic Convention is a 3-day annual pop-culture event attended by 1000s of comic/cartoon/video-game/anime/manga/graphic novel fans from New York and beyond. This is my first time attending, and I’m also chaperoning a group of 5 high school students from my Anime and Japanese after-school clubs.

*Also check out Anime News Network’s coverage of the panels, for a different take: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2008/new-york-comic-con

It’s interesting to compare the Comic Con to last December’s Anime Festival (both held at Jacob Javits Convention Center at 34th & 12th in Manhattan).

We arrived at 3pm, in time for General Programs. (The morning activities were only for professionals and industry folks.) I attended bits and pieces of the following panels:

America: Through the Eyes of the Graphic Novel
a panel of white men talking about America. I (and my students) left after hearing that they were working on a bunch of projects on the “sad events following 9-11,” and other projects commissioned by the Department of Defense for the repatriation of Iraq War veterans. I had been excited about this panel because it was supposed to feature Howard Zinn, who worked on A People’s History of the American Empire – a new graphic novel. I should have stayed and given them a fair chance, but I figured I could just read the book when it comes out.

Comics Experience: Building Your Art Portfolio
a panel of white men (one guy from Brazil) talking about what to avoid when you go in for a portfolio review and how to impress editors at DC, Marvel, etc. Here are some highlights:
- It’s an interview. Take notes and look “presentable.” The moderator sheepishly recognized that “It shouldn’t be this way but we really look at the way applicants carry themselves, the way they look…” Apparently, you have to look “confident” but not “cocky.” If the editor gives you criticism, make him feel like he is god handing you new commandments. Yeah – if you want to get in, you have to play that game, just like in every industry.
- Bring 5-6 pages with “establishing shots” (frames that set the scene for the story, convey the setting, set the mood, etc.); “action shots”; and some “character moments” (I don’t really know what this means but I assume that it refers to some scenes that show the reader a little something about the character.)
- Always place newest, most impressive work at the top of the portfolio. Have your illustrations “on the right paper.” “I know it’s a cliche but Make a Good First Impression,” said one editor.
- You can bring a second portfolio with more diverse work so that you can show them your range if they like you.
- Draw good backgrounds, scenes, and realistic movements and clothing. (In other words, Be Good!)

Beyond Shounen and Shoujo
a panel presented by a white british fellow (well, specifically from Scotland) with a pretty young japanese woman translating and clicking the space button on the slideshow. Aside from the extremely annoying and shallow presentation by the British dude, the panel was pretty interesting for anyone who has any interest in the diversity of the manga industry – the dude was representing his company, Fanfare, which is an imprint that puts out alternative manga and gekiga from Japan. I’m still not sure what “gekiga” is because I missed the first part of the panel, but it seems to be a more realistic, more intellectual medium with roots in the manga medium. Common themes are the “ordinary” (this word was used about 86 times by the dude during the presentation.) The dude had no analysis and could not speak to whether or not gekiga and alternative manga were responding to anything in “mainstream”, profit-driven manga. Instead he would drivel on about “It’s a stereotype that Japanese are hard workers, but it’s a true stereotype. That’s why this manga is about a woman coming home late from work and feeling exhausted, blah blah blah,” or “Again, this is a very ORDINARY story. It’s not flashy and hyperactive like mainstream manga, which is great but I prefer ORDINARY stories…”

Women in Comics
a panel of 5 white women, including a librarian at Columbia, a blogger, a comics artist and the latest successor of Wonder Woman, another graphic novel writer/artist, and an illustrator for Marvel. The panelists’ analysis of feminism or sexism was as shallow as a mud puddle. When asked “Is your work feminist?” by the moderator, most panelists distanced themselves from “the label” and called it “a dirty word” although they tried to argue that “if being a feminist means that women should have equal rights as men, then everyone in this room should be feminist.” (The panel began with them congratulating each other on their hair.)

What I did find interesting was the parallell resistance to ghettoization that I have heard from many Asian American poets and literati. They claimed that the work of previous generations of freedom fighters made America so liberal that they were able to live untouched by the concerns of contemporary feminists. I understand the frustration of being marketed by industrial forces to occupy a niche, but instead of critiquing any of that, the panelists blamed “feminists” – fellow women! Like the Asian American poets who are so hung up on ghettoization, they failed to present anything insightful about conversations in the industry and in feminist debates around marginalization and representation.

Here are some initial thoughts and observations:
-The comics industry appears to be thriving – or at least everyone I listened to on the panels I attended – were very enthusiastic and upbeat.
-Every panelist I listened to was so pro-industry that it was kind of creepy.
-I wish I had spoken up, to show my students that there is resistance and counter-narratives do exist, that not all resistance has been co-opted.

Maybe I will find some gems in the next two days!

 

Day 2

11:30am

Arrive at Javits Center and meander to the events hall. I’m too late to get into whatever movie is being featured in the IGN.COM theater (the main stage) so I float around and eventually settle into Del Rey’s panel. The Del Rey team announces its new releases for this year and the coming year. Some highlights: Fairy Tail by the creator of One Piece; a collaboration mystery/fantasy suspense by Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan; and Me and the Devil Blues about a (historical) legendary blues singer who is said to have been so good that he must have made a pact with the devil.

1:00 pm

Peek into the “Comics Writers Talk about Writing” panel but it’s a bunch of people I don’t know and don’t care about so I head over to the Show Room on the upper level. The Show Room (other cons call it The Dealers’ Room”), for those of you who are unfamiliar with comic/manga conventions, is where all the loot is. The big distributors and comics suppliers (or “dealers”) set up stations or booths to hawk their wares. Those expensive entrance fees get you discounts on most merchandise in the Show Room, plus “SWAG” – “free” stuff that is usually just promotional material that weighs you down (short for Stuff We Always Get). At one booth, they were promoting the new movie, CatBlue Dynamite, which I saw in December. It was a well-done but stoopid male-fantasy movie starring an over-sexy kitten-woman. An Asian woman in cosplay was there to take pictures with adolescent boys and middle-aged men. In another part of the Show Floor is the Artists’ Alley, where artists or teams of artists pay $800 for a space the size of a half-bath to display their work. This is the best place to go and meet cool (or wierd, scary) people. More on this later.

4:00 pm

Float in and out of Scott McCloud’s ZOT! panel and Today’s Voices in Graphic NOvels panel. Scott McCloud is a hero of mine. His book Making Comics was pivotal in my decision to go back to manga after a hiatus of 5 years. (It is a bit nerdy, although he does his best to make it understandable.)
The Graphic Novel panel was a bunch of wierdos again who were talking about how graphic novels are either memoirs or fantasy. That’s a problematic distinction but an interesting idea nevertheless… It’s problematic because there are at least 2 or 3 problems with their argument:
1. They never said that graphic novels don’t include manga – and manga is certainly more than just memoir and fantasy. See Glossary pages.
2. I have definitely read graphic novels that don’t fall into either. For example, Adrian Tomine is neither fantastic nor memoir. Also, I wouldn’t place The Ticking in either category, although it would fit uncomfortably into fantasy, maybe.
3. I forget. sorry.

6:00pm

I wandered in and out of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The English dub was pretty good although not convincing in super-emotional scenes. The part of the boy, Chiaki, was excellently cast. In any case, the animation was OK but not WOAH, and the plot was cliche but well-done nonetheless. I would see it again but I wouldn’t pay for it.

9:00pm

T.M.Revolution!!! He started on time, his set lasted over an hour, he spoke to the audience in more-or-less understandable English, AND he came back for 3 encores! That is a fan-service machine if I ever saw one. Very professional – he has been in the business for decades, after all. And he’s an icon.

 

Day 3

Day 3: Kids’ Day Sunday April 20

The NYCC blog (MediumAtLarge.net) reports a preliminary count of more than 64,000 attendees for the weekend. Pretty impressive.

I only made it to 2 panels today, but I met cool people and swiped a lot of SWAG so it was OK.

I went to Harold & Kumar, where Kal Penn (who played Kumar), Neil Patrick Harris (who played Neil Patrick Harris), and the writer/directors sat and talked about making the movie, laughing at racists, and shipping in a woman from Texas with “the biggest tits in the world.” Very enlightening stuff.
Interestingly, the first movie did poorly in theaters but the DVD sales alone made it possible for them to make a sequel.

Then I went to the Show Floor, where I met an art teacher in the Bronx. I was initially drawn to his historical/historical-fiction comic Bronx Heroes, calling for accurate representation of the Bronx and also for resistance to gentrification. We talked about lesson plans for students learning the art of comics, where to find funding, and different strategies on how to promote student work. I have to get back to him.

Then I went to the Self-Publishing Your Work panel, which was interesting. All I wanted was some tactical/technical advice, which I got, but then they had all kinds of advice I didn’t even ask for like:
- have finished work. “Finished work is something apart from yourself,” said Harold Buchholz. Basically this means something that doesn’t need you to explain anything but can stand on its own.
- market yourself. Develop a 3-second soundbyte that summarizes what your comic or project is about, so you can tell very self-important people with ADD and lots of money/power about your work in the hopes that they will buy.
- establish an audience by putting your comic on-line. update OFTEN.
- do short stories first. Don’t try to do your best thing first, because you might regret it later when you are a better artist and want to re-do it, which you can’t. Just do little projects that you know you can finish.
- use these on-line/on-demand printers: comixpress.com, ka-blam.com, acredalemedia.com, lulu.com

Thus ends my reportage. Analysis to come!