This year I didn’t spend as much time in the alley as I usually do. So I’m not too keen on making any overall observations about what was there this year. I will say there seemed to be a lot more artists making comics, fan or original, than I’ve seen in years past. Oh how I wished I could have gotten more!
Anyway, this is mostly a shoutout post for the amazing artists that I picked stuff up from at this year’s Otakon.
Normally we would have separate articles for guests and events. Otakon usually has so many great industry guests that we separate panels with them into their own category and then have a separate post for any events especially the ones with the musical talent. This year on the other hand paradoxically we got so many interviews that there was not much time left over for us to go to many guest panels. So this means we have a ton of great in-depth coverage of the industry guest but we don’t really have a lot of coverage of their public appearances. It is the sort of “problem” you never mind having.
That means we are combining the few industry guest events we could attend the other events we went to. I wanted to go the concert with MICHI but it was sadly somewhere in the middle of the cosplay contest. According to Kate, they tend to throw the concert more towards the last third than right in the middle so it seemed like a bit too much of a time investment.
LeSean Thomas is a unique individual. It is rare to be able to speak to someone who has had experience with the American, Korean, and Japanese animation industries. He has worked on such diverse projects as The Boondocks, The Legend of Korra, and Black Dynamite.
Mr. Thomas has even created his own comic series Cannon Busters which he Kickstarted with much fanfare to produced a proof of concept animation which has the potential to be turned into a full series. He is someone who could be a guest at an American comic convention, at an anime convention, or a school to give a lecture on international animation.
We sat down with him to discuss his success with Cannon Busters, his thoughts on Kickstarter, and his views on International collaboration.
Reverse Thieves 