Dog Eaters

DOG EATER T-SHIRTS!!!

Posted on 08.18.08 under News, T-Shirts

NEW SHIRTS!!!
DOG EATERS T-Shirts are available Junie Moon Online.
Very limited numbers on each shirt. Some sizes are already sold out.

Fun and games are over — or are they just beginning?

Posted on 08.18.08 under News

August 10, 2008

Text and cover image for DOG EATERS Issue #2, which is coming out in December, is due on Monday, EST. We’ve got hard deadlines to meet every month and things will be getting tighter and tighter.

This is the announcement for the Diamond Monthly Preview catalog for DOG EATERS Issue #1.

DOG EATERS is in the lower right-hand corner. After clicking once on the thumbnail, click again to enlarge to read the text. We’re third fiddle in this ad, but hopefully we won’t get lost in the cacophony…

The next cover will feature Tommy, the oldest remaining son of Lamont and Rebecca Black Dog. He lives with a burning, risk-taking zeal that only a hormone engorged teenager possesses. A carefree and careless young man, Tommy will eventually take Lamont’s place in leading the tribe, but he is not concerned with taking on responsibility just yet — after all, his father is strong and vital, domineering in fact — and will not step down until his guns are pried from his dead hands.

This is a rough of the cover for Issue #2 which will feature Tommy, Rose, and Bronco.

Look to the left sidebar for another image of Tommy that more fully captures his insouciance and cocky self-confidence.

Well, enough fun and games. Got to get to work…

Back In Tokyo, musing about Maui…

Posted on 08.18.08 under San Diego Comicon 2008

August 8, 2008

Is 08/08/08 an auspicious date? Sure why not. Safely back in Tokyo after a sixteen day trip. Five intense days at San Diego Comic-con, eight more-or-less leisurely days of family reunion/80th birthday party in Maui. Nothing especially interesting about other people’s family reunions. However, you might be interested in seeing the Lukas, the family acrobat, walk on his hands. He can also juggle. We think he may run away to the circus someday. Disclaimer/cautionary note: you may get a stiff neck watching this.
lukas_handwalks
Lukas is on the right. We’re going to bill him as a five-year-old. Hey the Chinese Olympic committee does it! Brian is on the left. His Drunken Monkey style is pretty good. He managed to snatch the pebble from my hand…

The highlight of this birthday party/family reunion was the fantastic hula performance by the Kanoeau Dance Academy.
Live music by Auntie Ke’ala Kukona backed by Leia on stand-up bass and Kimo on acoustic guitar — singing sweet harmonies. Some very young dancers prepare in the wings.

Here are some of the dancers posing with the family.

A few random sights of Maui. From 200 Leilani Dr, Wailuku, a view of a cruise ship in Kahului Harbor.

This is an attempt to make a living environmental art piece out of a fallen macadamia nut tree. Mac trees are like weeds — even if you cut them down, they’ll grow right back. This tree blew down in a storm half a year ago and it was still as green as the rest of the trees around it. We gave it a major pruning then lifted it off the ground and propped it up. Check back in a couple of months to see how this piece progresses.

Uncle Rob and Dustin stand proudly next to “Tribute to Dali.”

Another random thought: my red eye. At the birthday party, I started recruiting new Black Dog Clan members. I got wound up again, probably raising my blood pressure, and my red eye (which had been in remission) came back. I’m starting to think that this is going to a chronic condition for the rest of my life. Or as long as DOG EATERS is in my life.

I guess I should throw in a couple of gratuitous shots of “beautiful” Maui.
The view from the condo lanai.

From Maalaea, off in the distance, Molokini…


A couple of sunset shots…

Aloha!

San Diego Comicon wrap up and the flight to Maui

Posted on 08.18.08 under cosplay, San Diego Comicon 2008, San Diego Comicon 2009

July 28

Got to bed at 2 AM and was sleeping deeply when the alarm went off at 6 AM. I guess the five days of Comicon were stressful (although it didn’t seem that way or I else I don’t want to admit it) as I was finally able to sleep deeply after it was over. I also had a big red spot in my eye from a burst blood vessel the whole time I was in San Diego which immediately started to go away on Monday after SDCC was over. It started in the San Francisco airport where I had to fight to get priority standby to San Diego so we wouldn’t miss Preview Night and it just kept getting worse until the Con was over.

I felt satisfied with the work we put in at Comicon and the whole experience in general — right up to when I realized that the cab driver had dropped us off at the wrong terminal. We were supposed to go to the commuter terminal which is at the beginning of the airport. Still made our flight with plenty to of time to spare. We did have to buy an extra bag because 2 of our bags were overweight. The good news? San Diego airport has free wi-fi, which no other airport has, it seems.

Got to LAX fine and then to Honolulu. The following shots are from the plane from Honolulu to Kahului.

Tail of a Hawaiian Air jet. Aloha Airlines is out of business leaving just Hawaiian Air servicing the islands with jets.

Next to the HNL airport is Hickham, the Air Force base, which is next to Pearl Harbor.

Top Gun coming in for a landing.

Shots over the ocean.

Coming into Maui.

A lovely rainbow to greet us as we landed!
Dinner with a view of the sunset.

First part of the trip, mission accomplished. The bag that wasn’t on the baggage carousel when we got in was delivered to the condo later that night as well, so we start tomorrow off without a missing bag as a problem that needs to be solved. Hallelujah!!

San Diego Comicon Day 5, Sunday

Posted on 08.18.08 under San Diego Comicon 2008, San Diego Comicon 2009, San Diego Comicon 2010

July 27

The last day of the Comicon and expectations were low, but in fact with people coming in for just this one day, it was quite busy.

I went to bed about 10:30 PM on Saturday, unable to keep my eyes open even after a shower, literally falling asleep at the keyboard as I was writing this and then jerking awake with a long row of the same letter typed on a page. I think that’s how zzzzzzz came to mean sleeping…

I woke up at 2:30 AM, wide awake and continued to blog. With so many photos to upload, I worked steadily until 8:30 AM.

I met with Les and Ernst Dabel at 10:30 AM. We found an empty room on the 2nd floor that had a huge chess board on the carpet to talk. “This is our office!” said Les. I guess there must have been a human chess game the day before. It was a very good and optimistic meeting and things are going full speed ahead with DOG EATERS. There will be some other big DB news announced in the next week or so. Any good news and good sales for the DB books can only reflect well on Dog Eaters. Like I said, I’m optimistic. The game plan is in place. Now it’s all a matter of execution. Execution!

I didn’t really feel like recruiting new Black Dog Clan members after the meeting. It takes quite a bit of energy to “get into character,” and wind myself up to deliver the pitch the way it should — in rising and falling preacher oratory style. I was a bit drained by both the meeting and the past 4 days. What difference would it make to recruit more members? I would just be making work for myself. I had enough members to make a nice presentation on the dogeaters-manga site. Then, as I was standing in line at Starbucks on the 2nd floor, I saw these two guys and I felt the urge to recruit again.

Don’t know quite who they are supposed to be but I am reminded of the Venetian masked parties.

Then I saw this boy under the “Men’s” sign.
And I was off and running again.
This vampire was a fangirl last year.

And this year she is the star of a couple of hard-core, girl-on-girl DVDs and a character in her own hardcore comic. I’m not sure if the fangs in her mouth are dentures or implants. Or real…

This character was a bit confusing. I think it is one of the minor characters in a webcomic called, GIRL GENIUS, but I could be wrong. You see two interpretations, one played by a boy and the other by a girl. Again, not sure what the intention is here as they were both official cos-players for that booth. A unisex character? A transvestite? A character anyone can play?

On the first or second day of the Con, I shot the oldest and second-oldest sister of the Living Dolls. The middle sister, Rannie Rodil, is the photographer. The one in baby blue is the youngest, I believe… And they are somehow connected to a weird “family” that resides at InkPenMutations. Not sure how it all works, but…

This Button Man is like a holdover from the Ken Kesey days of Orange Owsley. Or a flashback…

Quite a few Iron Man’s this year. I think it will be Watchmen next year.

Foxes wouldn’t normally eat dogs, I don’t think. But they did chew on the comic when I shot them for the Black Dog Clan membership initiation.
I visited the booths of artists David Nakayama who gave me a Hulk he drew in exchange for a DOG EATERS and Dustin Weaver who was right next to him in the farthest corner of the Artists’s Alley. David is a Punahou grad, like Barack Obama. Dustin has the same name as my oldest son, a member of the band Ponytail.
I also paid a visit to Angel Medina who’s art I bought last year. Two pieces, actually.

Another artist who’s work I admire, Simone Bianchi, did not want to be inducted into the Black Dog Clan. Savvy guy, aware of the complications of “endorsing” art and a comic that he is not involved with — and will not profit from. I was stung for a long moment, several hours actually, but it’s cool. I haven’t bought any of his art yet either, so it’s not like I deserve any favors.

I also wandered onto an autograph signing by Adoni Maropis who played Abu Fayed, a terrorist on 24.


Kiddy robots with foam for armor. Like a stuffed animal or plush, as they say these days.

A couple of intricate Kamen Raida models.

The Force still lingers.

There were a lot of cameras this year. Lots of small HD video cams shooting for cable and web, lots of stills. More cameras than things and people to shoot, probably. Greedy Productions, working for G4 in Canada, a TV network dedicated to interactive and new media, shot footage of me going through my spiel. They had already done a little about DOG EATERS on their own, which was surprising and hopefully a harbinger of things to come. There is only so much you can do to promote yourself and your project. It has to take on a life of its own if it is going to survive in the marketplace. It went quite smoothly — it better have as I have been delivering this speech hundreds of times with only minor variations for the past 5 days.

Another shot of Isaac and me. Miyuki thinks it’s important to get capture this time together as Isaac goes off to college in the fall.

It’s over!

Azusa spots a t-shirt: Army of One.

The fastest way back to the hotel…
After a quick dinner at the food court near the Westin Horto, I took the suitcase with DE previews, t-shirts, and other stuff collected over the last several days back to the Westin on 400 W. Broadway before we watched the DARK KNIGHT. I’m embarrassed to say that I nodded off to sleep a few times, starting with the opening bank robbery scene. I must have been exhausted, but I’ll never admit that.

Tomorrow morning early, we leave for Maui. Blogging will go on a short vacation. Check back in a week or so to see what kind of progress has been made on the production. I am still hoping that we will soon have a downloadable pdf of the preview issue #1.

For those of those of you who have been reading this, thanks for coming along for the ride and we’ll see you soon!

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