It seems that every time I go to an anime convention, there's always something really getting in the way of a perfect con experience. This time it was a decision made by A-Kon and a lot of the misinformation that's surrounding it.
At Ikkicon a lot of artists and dealers were complaing that they had been told by the con officials that if they had reserved multiple tables, they would be getting only one. Ever try to squeeze in over 1,000 DVDs on a single table? In addition, they were told that those that didn't get a table last year would get one this time, and that anyone else had to undergo a lottery system to get what few tables remained. In additon, the money paid was not refundable.

Truth: Dealers were not affected by this decision. The only thing out of that which was true was the artists that didn't get a table the year before would be getting preferential treatment and the long-time artists that had been at A-Kon multiple times would get a lottery to determine who actually got to come. While I can understand their desire to get new blood in, they shouldn't leave something like this to chance. I would recommend having some kind of voting system so that the fans would select who gets to appear.

In other news, I've been struck a bit by deja-vu when it comes to my creations. Recently I had do a commission of Chantal in a swimsuit. He put in her hands a ball. I had never told anyone Chantal was on her high school volleyball team. Also last weekend I had someone draw Fushimo, one of the Battle Boyz (a series I've created as a spin-off of Secret Agent Fangirl, if it becomes popular enough. It's Kimiko's favorite fandom, and she talks about it a lot) and in Fushimo's hands the artist put a picnic basket. I didn't tell her that Fushimo was the one that does the cooking while out on missions; in fact, I had told nobody about that.

Well, I recently updated the conventions site (and Yuurei, yes there is a new Ivan Flores pic there)so now you can see the Battle Boyz test shots (or as one artist's friend called it, the Bishi Boys.) I specifically designed it to attract a lot of rabid fangirls. It's about five male mercenaries that go out and save the world. They are the five types of hunky guys that fangirls seem to like the most: the brooding hunk, the sweet guy, the likable rogue, etc. They report to a control center run by two women: one is very stiff and formal (she's the granddaughter of the CEO of a major arms manufactuer) and her assistant, a very fun-loving, boy-crazy girl. Sample page of dialogue below:

(Scene: Melody, the boy-crazy girl is manning the control room. The Battle Boyz have been in a fight and had their shirts torn off.)

Melody: Battle Boyz, come in!

(Melody sees a shot of Chimoto with his shirt torn off. Chimoto, as the brooding hunk, is naturally the most bishonen.)

Chimoto: This is Chimoto. We're all accounted for.

(Melody's eyes go wide and she blushes.)

Chimoto: Control, are you there?

(Pause)

Chimoto: Hello? Control can you hear me?

Index to the section here: [link]

Next con will be Anime Matsuri in April in Houston. Theme there: another original series, Lover Camp. This one has the typical anime stereotypical people that strike out in romance animes going to a summer camp to learn how to be a better lover. Here we have whiny emo boy, angsty girl, angry girl, yaoi lover, yuri lover, all muscles and no brains guy, taciturn girl, and shameless pervert. When I wrote the rough draft for the outline, it was six issues long. By the time I finished the rough script for the series itself, it had ballooned into twelve issues. It's an ecchi series, and naturally, the shameless pervert gets bashed around a lot. His name is Bakaho Bonkura. (Those of you who know Japanese will get the pun that is his name.)

In other news, I just found out that Playboy magazine printed a letter I had written them, which I thought wouldn't be printed, although they did edit it a bit. (Yes, I do read Playboy. They pay the most out of any magazine for articles. Consequently, they tend to have very good writing.) Anyway, the thing I think that they should have left in was my solution to the problem: encouraging others countries to pass and enforce safety and environmental laws. I suggested placing tariffs and quotas on products that originate from countries with no safety or enivironmental laws.
Until everyone realizes that we must respect everyone equally, we'll end up tearing ourselves apart.