Comicon notes - just a few.

The red circle

Blown up - the line goes as far as you see. Miles long!

This is the other direction. It went all the way down the street to the corner and then down a decline to the door on the bottom level. Although the lines look long, where were these people? The hall isn't huge, it's like 1/10 of the SD Comicon. There's not a ton of booths you can comb through pretty quick, especially if you aren't in the market for back issue comics (there's a ton of these). If you don't want manga, then that knocks out a lot more. Comicons are usually about comics and what's around it, but NY is still in the dark ages. Comics reign. The toy thing isn't really happening in NYC.

Mori Chack was at the NY Comicon. He's a good man.

That's Hayden Panettiere from Heroes. She looks nice in person, but had to sit next to the bathroom! See above the banner? The yellow tile is the entrance to the men's toilets. It's already bad to be near any toilet, but this is a Comicon toilet, so that means obese, even in NYC, big, stinky, junk food turds. There's a bunch of stalls making this the worst seat in the house. Standing 40 feet away, the waft of crap was disgusting. Imagine her being right there next to the guys who laid the turds.

You know it's over when you see a box labeled this way. "Urban Vinyl" is over, and this box was part of Diamond Comics booth, which means, it's much over. Are you part of this? Aren't you embarrassed?

Sir Kaws!

Michelle meets Frank McLaughlin
Frank is a funny guy. Read the wikipedia entry I linked above. He's a true character, a comic book veteran, and can crank out great work. We visited him three times, and each time was a fun adventure. He draws the ladies quite well and enjoys looking at them too! Dirty doggg!

Signs at GRNY

I'm liking the signs at GRNY a lot. Drawn by the entire staff at GRNY, these are like art pieces and they're all over the shops. Which do you like?

Pics from New York

1. Snow was on the streets even though it got to 50 degrees. So why won't the snow melt during the day? I don't understand that. It didn't snow in the first couple of days in NY, yet you see scenes like this.
2-4. Street art in nolita. It's crazy how tagged up this building is. Then you turn thet corner and there's more.
5. Ipodiot. Not that great, but still funny in Soho.
6. Right outside of GRNY on sunday. The pic actually depicts snow falling. I couldn't capture the snow in a photo, it looked nice, maybe I'll post video. It was really incredible.
7. Snow fell in this pic too but you can't tell. That's GRNY on the right side.
8. This photo is from the taxi window while riding in at 6am from the red eye. I felt like I was in the intro from the show "TAXI".
9. Driving into Manhattan from Newark is an ESPO piece. Can you see it, sort of?

Kikuo Johnson

Group shot of artists. Katy Horan, Kikuo Johnson, Scott Teplin, and Andy Kehoe.

I was going to get all into writing about the signing which I'll probably do very, very soon, but I learned that Kikuo is a distant cousin. I came to NY and gained one new family member. I'm pretty happy about that. Where did my tall genetics go? He took it all. Now, I have yet another place to crash in NYC. I wonder if he's sorry he explained it all. Meanwhile check out his night Fisher comic, it's really good.

Comicon booth

NYC comicon

I heard last year this con was packed, and this year, I hear saturday is already sold out. What's going to happen? So far, it looks like a lot of superheroes and anime, a few booths of "stuff" we like, but no sign of the indie comics kids whatsoever. Where are you? I see that Gene Colan is signing, Gary Coleman? There's a games room that promises Magic the Gathering. I can't wait. There was light saber fighting rehearsal of some sort, maybe that'll be cool. Meanwhile, our booth looks like GR garage sale. Pics will follow later. Today will be the first day, Friday.

George Takei

George Takei on Tim Hardaway. George is awesome. Glad to see him kick ass.

NY Comicon

NY comicon, I'm taking off tonite red eye. Come by the booth and say hello. Where are we? Booth number 674. Also BEASTS signing. Come down to GRNY on saturday, get a BEASTS book signed by all of the artists attending!

Yoshitomo Nara Movie

A site with Nara's movie is up. Trailers, short videos and much more. I wish I could be in Tokyo or the many other cities on this tour to see this. Thanks noriko apod for the heads up. A lot of you may not know Nara at all, since it's been a few years since he's shown in LA, and so on, but he's been doing well everywhere else. His work is great, and I wish I could be at each one of his shows.

Why-y

One thing that's puzzled me for a while, is why do Japanese Americans add an extra vowel at the end of some words. For example, "I bought some sushi-i." It's sushi. But somehow there's an extra "i". It sounds like "su-Shii" as if it's two words with a heavy accent on the second half of the word.

Another one I've heard is gyoza. It's gyoza. That's it. But I've heard it as "gyo-za-a" with three syllables.

I know there's more!

Podcasts

I just built the Giant Robot issue podcasts page up and it's pretty bare, but you'll be able to see the podcasts and open them in itunes. It was sort of a task noodling around the net to figure it out, but Blogger actually has a few tools and such to make this work. Now, I'll edit gr45 (late) and the gr46 podcasts and get those up too. It's still updating and so forth, so it'll be more up to date in a bit of time.

The big house on La Grange street

Martin gave me the Home section from the Los Angeles Times. It talks about the big house on La Grange street that I've written about before.

Sanuki Sandou

Soba or Udon, anyone? The revamped Mitsuwa in West LA, is beginning to turn into an almost cool place. First it's a remodel of the market, then it's Santouka ramen, now it's Sanuki Sandou.

The plastic food display always works. As you can see, the food is reasonable.

Next to Santouka Ramen, Sanuki Sandou will be a fixture. Sanuki, from what I understand is a noodle company. If you're a fan of the beloved Udon spot that's now closed down, this has some of the same staff. In the kitchen, I saw the dude who ran the old udon place.

A healthy portion of zaru soba is $2.80 and it's still served on the bamboo mat. This is great deal.

The key here are the side dishes. It's one reason why the noodles are so inexpensive. They're hoping you get at least one side. Pictured are: Kayaku Gohan, chikuwa tempura, and California roll. The Kayaku Gohan is a flavor filled mixed rice that's $1.80. The California roll wasn't impressive at $2.50, but the true treasure is the chikuwa (fish cake) seasoned with dried seaweed. $1.20!

Kake soba's pretty good too, but the zaru soba is definitely better.

A close up of the chikuwa tempura. Definitely get this. To be honest, it's not the best soba on the planet, it's pretty good, but at it's price, it can't be beat.

Sanuki Sandou
3760 Centinela Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310)398-2113

Pho Hong Phat

Who wants pho? In Long Beach on Anaheim Blvd is Pho Hong Phat. Taken by art director friend, Ian who gives this place the thumbs up, I went for the taste test. Of course, the first thing to try is the special pho, in the large size.

The spot isn't pretty, there was no grade to be found in the window, but the space actually has a second room to help fit the pho fans. However, at the wrong time, people doget stuck waiting outside.

It shows up looking like this. Hot and very simple, the meat is red and the tripe is furry. Of course, you have to break in the basil, bean sprouts, and maybe a chili or two. On the side plate, maybe some sauce to dip your meat. Order a lemonade. Some Vietnamese restaurants do it all wrong, Pho Hong Phat does it all right - and it's big.

The pho looks simple once everything is mixed in. The soup tastes great, the noodles are nice, and it's a substantial sized meal. A lot of you might get freaked out by the idea of eating tripe. But it's actually mild and reminds me more of seafood.

Vietnamese restaurant 101. Pay at the counter after you're done. See the beautiful chairs?

Have pho and a smile

3243 E Anaheim Street

Long Beach, CA 90804
(562) 498-3754

8x10 GRSF Show

Tonite also GRSF's show - over 100 drawings.

Free to a Good Home

Some pics from the GRLA show tonite!

That's Albert Reyes's "house"

Wii on the Flat Screen

No Wii party can happen without Thai food. With the tons of styro containers and a limited amount of space, you can stack them into the covers to create a grid of food only.

Something like this. It's so simple, but I never thought of this.

See the TV? You can't see what's on there. Is it porn? If you know about Wii's, you can see the Wii at the bottom of the Ikea PS cabinet. Look at the reflection on the table, that's the screen where you make your profile. More to come on the Wii including some video.

stormy weather

that's mini Ft Fuji on the bottom left. It sure looks like a roof...

See the rainbow? It's above the dumpster. This house, I hear is going to be a swimming house or something like that. It's being built along with a swimming pool.

Paper mag inside

The inside page of the Paper mag is a page about the panel discussion I participated in as part of Paper mag when they came through LA. It was about art magazines which was moderated by the great Carlo McCormick. I didn't sift through every page, but they nicely marked a page for me, and it's pretty small mention for having a name on the cover. Nothing too exciting to report, so it's still a mystery.

Paper magazine

Paper Magazine released "the other Los Angeles" issue.
I don't know who these two are on the cover on sight, do you? But that's not important. Everything was fine as I opened this in the mail.

Who are you dudes, and why are you behind a window? It's not jail although maybe the cover might make you want to put you hand against his in either a gruff, "I'm there for you holmes..." or maybe a soft, "I miss you........"

That aside, I look quite at the names, and I don't recognize too many.
Johnny Knoxville was at the top. But there I am. A surprise.

So after I scan down to the bottom. I feel something weird. Poot!

(Insert Higgins from Magnum PI's voice) "O h m y GOD."
"The Hipsters Have Landed." ahhhhh... Paper magazine... you folks have a weird sense of humor! Of all things... any other word. Really, anything. I spend half my day making fun of "hipsters!"
Life is tough being a publisher.

It's all good nonetheless.

donated the car... guess how much money

So remember the post about my old car? I donated it to the Little Tokyo Service Center. Basically what that means is, they get someone to pick up the car, tow it to a junk yard where they auction it off for cheap. I'm sure they split money with the LTSC and so on. I have no idea how much the cuts are, but for the amount of work the LTSC does for this, I'm sure it must be 50/50. I get some paper work, and it says something about $500 being a certain amount that the car was sold for. But really, it was confusing, it said something about them telling me later. I was confused. So I write them an email asking how much it sold for. Guess what? $200! That's fucked up! So in reality, the LTSC probably got $100, and the car went to some dude who's gonna fix it and sell it for a lot more. I'm sure a single seat was worth more. What about the windows or wind shield, or even the rear view mirrors? The full sized spare tire has to fetch at least a hundred. This once great car that still started up and sold for a whopping $200. Where are these auctions. Can I get a great car for $1000? I'm glad I took the freebie tools that came with the car. If I prorate those, they must be worth pennies.

photo shoot take 2

This one gets a post all it's own. Thanks for writing. I think Japanese magazines have a look that's all their own. Sure there's great examples of cluttered, and it's a place where their Kanji text looks like a logo every time it's used in a headline. I think if you look at the weekly mags, they look just as bad as US Weekly. Cluttered, packed with junk, and so on. It's about the content and that has to be done quick. But then take a look at Brutus, it's a bit cluttered, but the work that goes into that editorial is amazing. It's a bundle of content, for a low price, and it's decently done. Relax magazine was once the gold standard for nice magazines in Japan. Clean layout, great images, awesome content, and I could hardly read it. It's done like a design magazine. Casa Brutus, another fine example of a nicely done magazine. These aren't indie magazine operations, these are funded and are owned by large publishing houses. They have ads, they make their money, and the design doesn't suffer. I think there's plenty of ads in Japan, it just depends on which magazines and so on. I think part of what you see here isn't the creme of the crop... unless you dig a bit. It's fun to see the magazines like Cutie which do the street snap photos. Why can't they do that in the US? They shouldn't. It would be filled with crappy photos. The kids in Japan, spend a lot on their gear if they're in certain areas and they always look good.

Catalogs are another story. I guess I don't really look at catalogs, except Muji. Those catalogs are quite nice. It's like a treat when I can grab one.

umeboshi onigiri said...

Speaking about catalogs, I've always
liked looking at catalogs from all
over the world, (when I can
find them). It's interesting for me
to see the difference in layouts,
products, ads, etc.The same for
magazines, I've always liked scanning
the mag stands looking for new
or different magazines.

I've always noticed that many
times catalog and magazine
designs from Japan look cluttered.
Compared to a western magazine,
it might have 3 times more products
shown on a page. I feel sorry for
the proof reader. And then there
seems to be a lot less ads.
How do they survive without ads?
When my Japanese friends
look at a western magazine or
catalog, they tell me that they
look sparse and have too many
ads. So from the design standpoint,
is it a cultural perception about
what a magazine should look like?,
is it a matter of economics?,
a perception of how space should
be used? Design is so important
to Japan, I've always just wondered
why it looks like not much attention
is put into the design of their
magazines and catalogs.

32 flat panel

Someone asked me, "why do I do a blog?"

That's a great question. My honest reasons are:
1. I seriously hope that a few words by me, or even by someone else can make a difference. Which for some reason reminds me of the Jawbreaker lyric from their song, Kiss the Bottle, "hey mister, can you spare a dime? Some change can make a change, could buy some time, some freedom..."
2. Sharing is fun and the bits of input and comments are fun. It's just another small thing in a lot of things that I enjoy and don't know why. I don't need a reason to blog, do I?

Guess what I won? A 32" flat panel. Linda chills on it, while Tyler pushes it with all his might. Chinese New Year? I'm in.