HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2009!!

Monster Re-Hash

Okay, this has been the longest gap in which I haven't posted.  With all the Facebooking and Tweeting these day, it is just so much easier to fire off one sentence and be done with it. 

But to catch everyone up to speed, here's what's been going on since July:

- Avery and Kori are getting bigger, ages 4 and 1 respectively.  And as you can see they  have already started driving (at Lowe's).

- The San Diego Comic Con was a HUGE success.  We were told selling a graphic novel at our price point, averaging about 15 sales for each of the 5 days would be REALLY optimistic. 

However, we averaged about 30 sales/day for a total of 153!  Lots of our contribs were there to help with signings and draw different crowds with their respective fan bases.  Ex: Keiko Agena brought in her female 'Gilmore Girl' fan base who would never have given us the time of day and Kelly Hu brought in the guys who were too cool for school to give us the time of day.

SECRET IDENTITIES is currently nearing its 3rd printing and we are most definetly getting the ball rolling on Volume II!

Also, amongst the thousand of people at SDCC, look at who I bump into  - Jason Tobin (aka 'Virgil' from "BLT")!

- I'm providing a voice for an upcoming video game.  It's all hush-hush but it will be this company's largest to date. 

At first I was only syncing my voice to a video clip of the stunt person doing all the movement and interaction.  But it was honestly one of the most challenging acting experiences I've ever encountered having to 'match' the intentions of my voice/performance with the physical traits that someone else provided.

And the producers and casting director could tell.  So they came up with an awesome solution. 

As you can see, we the actors are now suited up.  The tiny nodes on our suits motion capture (mo-cap) our movements into the computer.  The bar attached to my helmet has a tiny camera that records all my facial movements (as seen in these monitors) and also inserted is a tiny microphone to record my voice. 

It's basically like shooting any other movie but just taking care not to bump into the other actor's face rigs or having a node fall off (which would make it look like a body part fell off in the computer) - oh, that and trying to take each other seriously in this ridiculous get up.

The nodes don't actually light up, it's the light reflected from the camera's flash.  We perform in this grid and the nodes get picked up from the red lights stationed all around us.  It was kinda cool to not have to worry about where the camera was because no matter where we moved, we were caught from every conceiveable angle!

- And finally, I've been secretly drawing lately. 

I actually used to draw fairly frequently -- like the Sesame Street characters for the playhouse I made for Avery that I wrote about in this entry.

But man, after hanging out these past few years with professional artists for SECRET IDENTITIES, it's just humbling for a lack of a better word. 

For example, imagine you're doing Karaoke with some friends and all of a sudden the cast of MAMA MIA! walks in and just gets up on stage and does their thing. 

Sure, you could keep on singing and they're not intentionally trying to embarass you but it's a whole different level. 

I mean look at this drawing of prize fighter, Manny Pacquiao for a shirt our Art Director, Jerry Ma just whipped up because he felt like it a few days ago.

 And then Cliff Chiang did this awesome tribute to the late Director John Hughes - the Teen Titans as "The Breakfast Club"!

Ming Doyle just started drawing this hilarious comic strip once a week called the "The Loneliest Astronauts".

And last week, Bernard Chang whipped up this live painting of Wonder Woman for charity at the Baltimore Comic Con.

However at the same time, it's impossible to not get inspired and WANT to draw when you see these folks in action (I witnessed Bernard draw BUMBLEBEE from 'The Transformers' for a kid while playing poker!!!)

So I thought, what have I been inspired by lately? 

Well, that's easy... anything Apple.  Yes, I'm taking about the Steve Jobs Cult.  I am a PC to Mac convert.  It started with the iphone back in May and then I dove in and bought the 24" iMac -- so that was the jumping off point for this drawing below:

The reason I chose Plastic Man as my muse is because until I get more practice in, the guy's what I call: 'Accident Friendly'. 

If you're not familiar with 'Plas' -- he's a superhero that can take on the shape of whatever he envisions - the only catch is that he can't change colors or anything, so his costume usually gives him away but that's also what makes him such a fun character.

I refer to him as 'Accident Friendly' because if I happen to make his arms a different length, I can simply justify it as Plastic Man intentionally making his arms uneven -- he can be anything he wants! 

I mean, now looking at the final product  - you can see the bottom right of the 'screen' is not as straight as the left bottom - well to that I say, "It's 'supposed' to be like that, he was in mid-shift on his way into morphing into something else!"

AACC and SDCC (Jul 22-26)

Well, things have been going swimmingly with Secret Identities.  We sold out of our initial print run and are in our second printing of the book.  Lots of professors are slowly adopting the book into their applicable courses using these lesson plans.

And last week we (SI Universe Media), helped put together the very first Asian American Comic Con at the MOCA Museum.  It was a HUGE success and definetly filled a niche that was missing as almost 500 people came out to the event -- even though we had a cap of 250.

One of the highlights was filmed by MTV, where fellow SI contrib, Bernard Chang 'art battled' his studio pal, Sean Chen.  As you can see in the video clip below, Bernard somehow roped me into the battle and I happened to just walk by and the camera caught my baffled reaction to the whole thing:

Now, we are gearing up for the big one next week -- the San Diego Comic Convention (July 22-July 26).

For the past two years I've gone as a bystander -- seeking out contributors for the book.  This will be the first year I'll be going as an exhibitor with my own graphic novel -- a pretty cool thing.

But the thing I'm most stoked about is NOT having to pound the pavement and just staying in one place to sell books -- because my feet were killing me last year!

Also, this will be Avery's first time at the con -- should be a trip to see her reaction to a million square feet of comic book heaven.

We'll be situatuated in Booth #1735 under Jerry's Epic Proportions banner.  And as you can see, we've got a great lineup of folks coming in to sign the book.  And on Saturday, we'll be issuing a limited litho of Kelly Hu and Cliff Chiang's character "JIA" during their signing from 2-4pm.

Additionally each artist dropping by will sketch either an existing Asian Superhero or one in "Secret Identities" as a part of a collage/jam piece - which will be raffled off to one lucky winner at the end of the convention on Sunday!

However in order to get an entry, folks need to first show us 10 collected signatures in their copy of "SI" from the 19 contributors spread toughout the convention.  Hell, I may just go run around and collect signatures for myself to win this thing! 

It should be a good time and great to finally have this at the biggest comic convention in the world.  Passes have been sold out for almost 2 months - so if you've been lucky to get a pass, stop by and join the SI Scavenger Hunt.   Here are the locations of all the contribs that will be present (from right-left on this nifty map that may help):

EXHIBITOR TABLES:
  - Martin Hsu # G-02
MAIN FLOOR:
  - Cliff Chiang # 1322
   - Jeff Yang/Parry Shen/Keith Chow/Jerry Ma/Walden Wong # 1735
   - Keiko Agena (Fri)/Ming Doyle (Fri)/Kelly Hu (Sat) # 1735
  -  Bernard Chang # 1821
  -  Kazu Kibuishi/Anthony wu/Sonny Liew # 2329
  -  Francis Tsai # 2629, #1415
ARTISTS' ALLEY:
   - Gene yang # AA-4
   - Benton Jew # EE-02
   - Dustin nguyen # FF-04
   - Vince Sunico # GG-18 (Sat/Sun)

Also Secret Identities Editor-in-Chief Jeff Yang will be moderating a unique panel titled Four Color Reality: Making Comics Relevant to Readers Across Cultures in Room 3 on Friday, July 24 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Panelists include Dwayne McDuffie (Milestone Comics, Justice League), Gail Simone (Wonder Woman), Gene Yang (American Born Chinese), Stuart Moore (Wolverine: Noir, The 99) and Jai Nitz (Blue Beetle, El Diablo).

Panel Description:
Four Color Reality: Making Comics Relevant to Readers Across Cultures. Comic book stories have become the core of American pop culture—is there a big-budget spectacular that doesn’t in some fashion owe its existence to comic book roots these days? But sales of traditional-format comic books themselves have been in decline for years. This panel explores one reason for this shrinking market: the divergence between the identities of mainstream comic icons—who are typically straight, white, male and American—and the demographic makeup of a new generation of readers. How can the comic book industry connect with changing audiences—not just of diverse races and backgrounds, but of different cultural and national origins as well?

"SI" West Coast Launch Party, this Sat. May 30 and So. Cal events!!

* EDIT: Kirin Beer is the beer sponsor.  Hakutsuru Sake will be providing the Sake.  There was a conflict with the Kogi Truck but in lieu, Marked 5's truck will have their truck parked outside after the event and selling their delicious Torakku Burgers with handmade rice buns!  Check out their menu here:

Asian American

Japanese American National Museum

*indicates simultaneous events

FRIDAY – MAY 29 (2 events):

1) *Friday, May 29 - 7 to 8pm (video+talk+signing)
Barnes & Noble - Thousand Oaks

2) *Friday, May 29 – 7:30 to 8:30pm (video+talk+signing)

1) Sat, May 30 – 11 to 1pm
(video+talk+signing)

2) Sat, May 30 – 2:30 to 4:30pm
(video+talk+signing)

3301 Torrance Blvd, Torrance , CA , 90503, (310) 618-5959


Scheduled to appear : Keiko Agena, Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma.


3) Sat, May 30 - 6:30pm-11pm
(video+talk/workshop+signing)

Japanese American National Museum,
369 East First Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(See above)

1) *Sun, May 31 – 12 to 4pm (Meet & Greet)

2) *Sunday, May 31 - 3 to 4:30pm
(video+talk+signing)
Borders - Thousand Oaks
125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
(805) 497-8159

Scheduled to appear : Parry Shen and Jerry Ma.





3) Sunday, May 31, 5:30 to 7pm

Secret Identities Across The Country

Since May is officially Asian American Heritage Month, we at Secret Identities are going bi-coastal to kick off the festivities.

First up, SI Editor Keith Chow and legendary writer/artist Greg LaRocque ("Trinity") will be celebrating Free Comic Book Day at Super Villains, Inc. in Nottingham, Maryland beginning at 11am on May 2nd.

Then, on the other side of the country on May 2nd, SI Editors Jeff Yang and I, with writer Jason Sperber ("Many Masks") will be facilitating a workshop at the Japanese American National Museum as part of the one-day "Imagined Futures" conference.