August, 2009 | Dog Eaters

another satisfied — but still hungry Dog eater (reader)

Posted on 08.16.09 under Uncategorized

Linda was kind enough to say that she loved the first three issues of DOG EATERS, and wants more!
She also sent this photo of us together. She and her husband are clan_388, San Diego Comicon Division.

Thanks, Linda!

Comiket — or as they say in English: Comic Market

Posted on 08.14.09 under comiket, cosplay, Uncategorized

We saw how they do it in San Diego. Now we see how they do it in Tokyo. Unlike San Diego, the emphasis is on fan art. It’s 90% fan art, 10% corporate. 90% of the fan art is copyright infringement of existing intellectual properties. They turn your favorite characters into gay lovers or porno. Interestingly, female artists like to draw boys, coupling. They do not identify with their art, they are voyeurs, innocent but … how do you say, “depraved” in a neutral, non-judgmental way?

There are cosplayers, but not to the extent you see in San Diego.
cos_club

I estimate there were 100,000 people on the first day. There were lines to get into lines. We were led in through different doors by very efficient volunteers and the wait was only 45 minutes. Admission is free! Catalogs are 2000 JPY or a little more than $20 USD, though. And you need a catalog to find what you’re looking for. It’s like a telephone book for a city, over 1400 pages in all. Each day, the booths change.
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Each image on the page is a booth. Each booth is like a cell of a honeycomb. Tokyo Big Sight is comprised of the West Halls, which is an architectural wonder.
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West Hall and the monorail tracks curving in front.
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Frontal view.

And the East Halls, which are huge and sprawling. In terms of participants and viewers, this is a much, much bigger than San Diego Comicon. And yet Comi Ke couldn’t hold our attention for a full day.
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East Hall with the monorail tracks above.

As mentioned, the fan art is based on IP (intellectual property) which the fan artist does not have the rights to. Their work is an inspired mash-up or rip-off, depending on how you look at it. Yet the owner of the IP does nothing to stop it and even seems to encourage it. Why they would allow a Gundam character to be in a porno is a mystery…
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Detail of cover (you should see the rest): “Cogito, ergo sum.” Artist: Junki Mutoh (female)

Female artists love to depict boys coupling. They will riff on something like “Boondock Saints,” (Willem Dafoe played a gay cross-dresser) and run with that motivation. Here are some examples:
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This one is called: “Western Child”
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A couple of large posters

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Here’s one called, “Delicate Zone.” The small figures are like paper dolls.

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This one is called, “Jerk Trick.”

Well, I think you get the idea.

So the female artists are into boys coupling. What are the male artists into? Take a guess. Ummm… well, porno. Corporate imagery is not as explicit but Kotobuki did have these shower curtains.

These go for 8000 JPY or a little more than $80 USD.

Here are some large posters. I think that since about 50,000 people saw them today, it’s okay to show!
pornbanner
Big lines for whatever these people were selling.

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Lot’s of this kind of stuff. And girls draw it as well.

Here are some examples of shopping or swag bags.
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Would you walk down the streets of your home town with bags like these? I thought so!

For those of you who enjoy seeing cosplayers, here are a few images. You’ll notice they don’t hold anything. It is against regulations to have any accessories longer than one foot and absolutely nothing that looks like a weapon. In San Diego, there were so many realistic weapons, it would have been easy for someone to smuggle in a real gun or sword.

Here is one of the Cosplay zones (down below) where you were allowed to take photos.
cosplay_zone
I think there was another zone which probably had better cosplayers, but you can get the idea.

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She’s cute!

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What did you say?

cos_club41
Come closer, please…

cos_clubchubba
Oh, that’s who you wanted to come closer!

cos_crossred
This guy was wearing a padded bra. I think his day job is figure skater…

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Sweet couple!

cos_hanged
This character has auto-asphyxiation issues…

cos_redhed2
You are the only one for me!

cos_redhed4
And she doesn’t take, “No,” for an answer!

cos_redweird
Another lovely couple.

cos_muscles
At the end of the day, this character is sure to get better muscle tone because of all the flexing and isometrics he did for the cameras.

cos_whitemini3
She casts a mean spell.

cos_pink
Your standard pink-haired bunny character.

We went by car and were lucky to find parking. Note to self: definitely take the train next time!
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However, we did see these great cars, tricked out in manga motifs in our parking lot.

Here’s the car on the left.
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The hood.

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Side window.

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Rear view.

This is the middle car.
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This one has cushions with a manga motif.

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The rear right bumper.

We saw a couple of cars on the road as well.
blackcar
This one was headed for Big Sight.

We slowly overtook this car at about .001 mph in heavy, heavy traffic.
whitecar

It took us about 20 minutes to pass him.
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He was in the lane to turn to see the giant, full-size Gundam. That was where we were going, too. But it was just too agonizing.

We skipped it for today and went back over Rainbow Bridge. And you can see Gundam from there.
gundam
He’s just a bit far away. But we’ll catch him later!

New tokyo BDC member

Posted on 08.12.09 under Uncategorized

The latest member of the Black Dog Clan is the manager of our building. He’s been the president of a large construction company in Fukui Prefecture. He now spends a lot of time making military “pro” models. He makes a lot of planes and really likes the American planes, which is interesting because when the B-17 Flying Fortresses flew overhead, he had to hide in the rice paddies, neck-deep in the water to reduce the chance of getting hit with shrapnel.

In the background, you can see a completed garage kit of the Battleship Yamato. Those battleships were a huge investment for Japan in WW2 — and as it turned out — a costly one…
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yamato_1lite

Just a few of his warplanes.
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now represented by creative convergence

Posted on 08.08.09 under Uncategorized

Malcolm, DOG EATERS, and his other screenplays have a new literary manager, Brad Kushner at Creative Convergence.

Brad has some fresh ideas that hopefully, will push DOG EATERS closer to being made into a movie.

Dog eater archival prints on stonehenge paper

Posted on 08.02.09 under Uncategorized

Here are the art prints. Printed on 22 x 30 Stonehenge paper. Signed and numbered. Look for them on the streets of Los Angeles in wheat paste poster form in the near future.
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