NYCC is really the only convention where I get to celebrate my love of American comics so I try to take advantage! In past years, I’ve had an eye more toward the superheroes of Marvel and DC. This year saw a change in that for me, I was really focused on Image Comics panels and their current and upcoming titles. So while I still spent a good portion of my NYCC with American comics on the brain, very little of it was big name superhero fare.

As much as the anime and manga coverage is our bread and butter I think we would be remiss in not hitting up some of the panels that most people would say personify NYCC. If nothing else the Ongoing Investigations and APB posts should have provided plenty of evidence that Narutaki and I are at least casually aware of American comics (I would go as far as to say Narutaki is well-informed). If nothing else going to a few of these panels keeps our geeky diet more well-balanced.

Continue reading →

Even though NYAF was folded into NYCC, there was still quite a bit of anime and manga programing on the schedule. Of course we’d always like more though! This being NYCC, things were really led by industry guests and there wasn’t any fan-run panel programing that I was aware of. Still, there were plenty of interesting things to experience including special guests and screenings.

I know one of Narutaki’s favorite things about the blog is that when she goes to a convention she can pretty much do whatever she likes and write it up no questions asked. Therefore neither of us is obligated to cover anything or miss out on anything if we don’t want to. That said I think we tend to have tastes that keep us fairly on point for anime and manga coverage at NYCC. Our general schedules align in a way so that we cover most of the interesting panels just as a natural extension of our personalities. So while we did a bunch of cool comic and generally geekery related activities we did not skimp on the anime and manga coverage. I regret missing out on seeing Masakazu Ishiguro (other than getting his autograph) but there is still a good deal that we did cover.

Continue reading →

I remember when Ed Chavez started at Vertical one of the things he mentioned was wanting to bring more manga-ka to the U.S. True to his word he helped North American otaku meet Usamaru Furuya, Konami Kanata, and Felipe Smith since then. Those three artists alone is quite the lineup. But as it stands Moyoco Anno is the crown jewel of his accomplishments. She is one of the more interesting and respected josei artists working today. She is a very unique voice in the world of manga and I am thankful that the English-speaking world got to get to know her a little better.

As Ed Chavez introduced Moyoco Anno we learned that she was the first josei artist to be published in English when TokyoPop released Happy Mania. Her magical girl series Sugar Sugar Rune was released by Del Rey and now Sakuran put out by Vertical Inc. has topped the critics lists. She is an endlessly amazing woman as she spoke in the panel and chatted with fans during the autograph signings.

Continue reading →