MomoCon 2012

I'd have written this post on Friday but stuff came up so here I am writing a late convention report on MomoCon 2012. (March 16-18)

This year, MomoCon went through a lot of changes: it now covers Fri, Sat and Sun; it is now a paid convention; the new venue is at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, the same venue as Dragon*Con, an annual SF convention held every September.

Like the past 3 years, I only went on Saturday and Sunday. It was a neat trip, but also felt underwhelming and short compared to last year's madness. While it was more organized, there's a sharp drop in activity. It's not hard to see why: it's now a paid con, so there's less kids to run around, and another convention happened about two blocks away, Furry Weekend Atlanta, so there was a bit of a furry invasion.

I did hang out with friends, get a lot of StreetPass hits, finally found the remaining volumes of Dr. Slump (save for volume 9, but that was soon remedied thanks to John B.), I tried out Guinness on tap (so good), and I got to meet Ellen McLain, voice of GLaDOS from Valve's hit game "Portal". Sadly, my favorite artists weren't around at the artist's alley this year, and the place was crawling with Homestuck cosplayers, bronies, and to a lesser (and a lot more tolerable) extent, Touhou fanatics. Also, con food is just unnecessarily expensive. :/

Due to the limited activity, I took less photos than the previous years, but they should still be of decent quality. There were a lot of repeat cosplayers from the previous years--part of me wonders why I never try to befriend them.

Click here to download the MomoCon 2012 photo album. (13.44MB)

I hope you all enjoy the pictures.



PS: Please vote for my bro Tsukento's entry for the Shonen Jump Fan Love Contest. Thank you.

I'm in Shonen Jump Once Again!

I'm featured in the latest issue of Shonen Jump, which also happens to be the last print issue of the magazine. This time, I have a two page comic in the back of the magazine promoting the reborn digital edition of Jump, Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha.

You can try out an issue of WSJ Alpha for 99 cents or subscribe for a year (48 issues) for $26 by visiting http://sjalpha.com/
If you subscribe, you can also score some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, just like the print edition!


Pick up a copy today and show a brotha some love.


Bless,



SHONEN JUMP and WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP ALPHA are owned by Shueisha & Viz Media.

Image is owned by their respective creators. Image scan courtesy of @ZEROINTELIGENCE.

Jump Festa

Within a short amount of time, I've blogged about Shonen Jump three times. But this time it's not about me, but about a convention and a fan community regarding Jump.

As some of you may or may not know, the North American edition of Shonen Jump is ending as a monthly print magazine in March next year and will be re-tooled as a weekly digital magazine christened "Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha". WSJ Alpha can be rented for 99 cents an issue or a year's subscription (48 issues) can run for $26. With the new weekly digital format, there's talk about more fan involvement (like the Storyboard Contest) and maybe even original manga in the future, so the future could be pretty cool.

Speaking of fan involvement, there's an unofficial group of Jump fans on Twitter called #TEAMJUMP. #TEAMJUMP is composed of international Twitter users who love Jump and its series and occasionally interact with the Shonen Jump Twitter account.

I created six drawings on the behalf of #TEAMJUMP as gifts to the authors of the serialized works that will be covered in WSJ Alpha. I hope they like them, let alone look at them. :P

For Eiichiro ODA/ONE PIECE
click here

For Masashi KISHIMOTO/NARUTO
click here

For Tite KUBO/BLEACH
click here

For Hiroshi SHIIBASHI/NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN
click here

For Mitsutoshi SHIMABUKURO/TORIKO
click here

For Tsugumi OHBA & Takeshi OBATA/BAKUMAN。
click here

Why am I posting these images? This weekend has Jump Festa, an annual convention of all things Jump in Japan sponsored by Shueisha, the publisher of the various Jump magazines. A lot of the editors and creators of Jump will be there, so it's pretty much a big deal, not to mention lots of game and toy companies showing off their newest products. If you're there and reading this, then stop wasting your time reading my blog and go have fun--and take some pictures!

Whether you're at Jump Festa or not, try to have fun this weekend. :)



SHONEN JUMP is owned by Shueisha and Viz Media. All characters are owned by their respective creators.

I'm in Shonen Jump...Again!

Shonen Jump issue 107 (January 2012) hits store shelves on Tuesday, December 6.

This issue of Jump contains my entry from the "SJ Storyboard Contest" which won a runner-up prize as well as illustrations on an article about the manga industry. Pick up a copy and help a brotha out. :)

Bless,



SHONEN JUMP is owned by Shueisha & Viz Media.

AWA 2011: A Journey in Pictures & Convention Report

AWA 2011 was pretty cool, although I do regret not being able to meet Brina Palencia. ):

Nevertheless, I did take a lot of neat pictures while I was there and you can download a huge (68MB) .zip file here.

There is also a 4 page full-color convention report. Read it here:

1 2 3 4

Just about what went on in the report was true......to the best of my memory. Special thanks to Pikaoh, Donnimon & Onna Bancho J for making that weekend more awesome than it would've been. I hope to see all of you next year.

Bless,

Anime Weekend Atlanta

I will be attending Anime Weekend Atlanta from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. I won't be selling anything this time, but I still hope to have fun nevertheless. If you plan to attend, seek me out and say "Hello" to me. I'll give you a free sketch and make small talk. Convention report and pictures will be uploaded in two weeks.

Bless,

MomoCon 2011: A Journey in Pictures

DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/?i0w19tdvbzv7le4 (179MB!!)

Another year, another convention filled with weeaboo madness.

Despite a confusing new venue, this year's MomoCon was pretty awesome. More people to meet, very nice cosplay, and the artists' alley was actually decent. I've also sold out of copies of "Those Naughty Rabbits!" on Saturday, and sold/traded a decent amount of copies on Sunday, and I've basically spent that money on comics, prints and other swag.

I got to meet some friends old and new, and on Sunday, me and two other friends have spent the day together. Despite some money being lost, good times were had.



Yes, this all happened.

Enjoy,



PS: For those of you who attended MomoCon, I was the man in the Red Army cap.

Meet Ray N. at MomoCon 2011!

Tomorrow will be MomoCon, held this year at Tech Square in Atlanta, GA. The convention will last until Sunday evening, so if you wanna hang out, feel free to find me and say hello. I also have comics and portraits for sale, very cheap!



Hope to meet you all there,

You Know You Might Be a Weeaboo If...

You Know You Might Be a Weeaboo* If...

> ...You think dubbed anime is worse than Hitler.
> ...You want a Japanese waifu.
> ...You want a Japanese husbando.
> ...You believe that Japan is a magical land of whimsy where everything is just like anime.
> ...You believe that you are the reincarnated from a Japanese priestess or samurai.
> ...Your love of Japan is greater than right-wing Japanese nationalists.
> ...You listen to J-music exclusively but you don't understand the lyrics.
> ...You wish you went to a Japanese high school.
> ...You list "Japanese" as one of your spoken languages on your resume even though in reality you barely know the language and you butcher it every time you try to speak it.
> ...You import a box of Pocky straight from Japan for $6 over the Internet, rather than go to your local Wal-Mart and pick up a box for a dollar.
> ...You give your kids Japanese names even though you or your spouse aren't Japanese.
> ...You draw everything "anime" style.
> ...You and your friends eat at Panda Express, although they are a Chinese restaurant.
> ...You go to anime conventions.
> ...You buy untranslated manga, despite not knowing how to read it, just because it's in it's "pure" form.
> ...You pay more money for a Japanese beer at a bar.
> ...You sing anime theme songs at karaoke.
> ...You want a Japanese imouto (little sister) who calls you "onii-chan" (big brother).
> ...You'd give anything to live in Japan, even though you've never been there.
> ...You lurk and post on /a/.



*Weeaboo (n.) - Internet slang for someone (read: Westerner) who is obsessed with Japanese culture. Syn: Wapanese, Japanophile, Otaku.

Meet Ray N. at MomoCon 2010!

Another year, another con. I hope that there's some good (and cheap) merch this year. Would be nice to pick up some more mini comics and doujins. If anyone is interested in hanging out with me or just stopping by to say "Hello", then use the information posted above. Photos and a written experience of the con will be posted next week.

Adios,