Follow up news to my Friday post about the Junko Mizuno signing at NEW PEOPLE in San Francisco. I headed over yesterday to make a second visit to the shop, meet Junko and get my Disneyland autograph book signed.
Junko was signing in support of her new manga from Last Gasp, Little Fluffy Gigolo PELU, Volume 1. Lots of local manga folks were in attendance, including Colin from Last Gasp, Otaku USA editor-in-chief Patrick Macias (whose jaPRESS did the English adaptation of PELU), About.com's Deb Aoki, and some editorial Viz friends.
Junko Mizuno recently moved to San Francisco earlier this year. She mentioned hating the summer weather in Tokyo and that SF was a way more comfortable place to work on art and comics.
A number of people lined up, bringing comics, toys and even a Junko Mizuno-designed skateboard deck for her to sign.
Deb Aoki brought Junko a bunch of presents :)
I mentioned this a little in my previous posts about NEW PEOPLE, but the shop is not the Viz/Shogakukan-centric store I expected. While they sell some Viz books (most notably, Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys and Pluto), they carry lots of other publisher's book-- both English and Japanese editions.
The shop is pretty snazzy and all, but the main thing I like is having NEW PEOPLE as a place to host events, readings, and signings like this. Previously, I guess the Cartoon Art Museum would suffice, but it's great having a manga-centric gallery and store for when creators come into town.
NEW PEOPLE features two Junko-designed t-shirts, in addition to a new Yokoyama shirts and other designs.
And finally, the latest addition to the autograph book :)
As mentioned in my previous post from Friday, the NEW PEOPLE center opened to the public on Saturday in San Francisco, accompanied by a street fair with 2-3 different stages hosting performances and signing/panel events. I spent most of my time stalking Yuichi Yokoyama, but took other pictures too. Here is my (photo-heavy) recap of the afternoon!
WELCOME TO NEW PEOPLE NEW PEOPLE is officially open! The inside of the store is sleek, clean, and full of interesting goods from Japan... or so I heard! From the opening until the late afternoon, there was a non-stop line to get in to the building and check out the shops. I heard from folks that waited that it took over an hour in the sun to get in :( I opted to skip this, and am planning to visit the shop leisurely tomorrow afternoon on my day off.
That said, the store was constantly hopping and looked pretty slick from the outside.
Right by the entrance to the building, they had set up a stage for conducting interviews. Over the course of the morning and afternoon they interviewed Yoshitaka Amano, cast members and the producer of the 20th Century Boys film adaptations, and various gothic-lolita designers featured on the 2nd floor of NEW PEOPLE. Here is the head lady who runs the "BABY The Stars Shine Bright" label:
The apparel component of NEW PEOPLE is a welcome addition for San Francisco teenagers-- they get access to a subset of Japanese fashions that other Americans won't get. I'm expecting to see more lace and parasols very soon in the Bay Area. That said, the fashion show I saw showed off a lot of gimmicky and sorta cheap looking outfits. Oh well.
I WOULDN'T HAVE GUESSED Down the way from the front of the NEW PEOPLE building were a bunch of tents/booths for local businesses, vendors, and the Asian Art Museum. On the other side of the main Peace Plaza area were local food vendors, selling shaved ice, onigiri, hot dogs and Beard Papa pastries.
ANONYMOUS was also out in force, giving out free hugs and dancing to a boombox.
4-chan people are not as fearsome (and younger) in person than expected.
This booth sold dozens of colorway block shirts, and offered custom color combos you could order and have sewn on demand.
Toto Washlet had a booth. The NEW PEOPLE folks said it's the first public building in the US with Toto toilets. The only other building in the US where I've seen the washlet in effect was at the Google offices. I wonder if they will catch on in the US?
Workers setting up the FRIEND banner for the 20th Century Boys film premiere event. The film is playing all week at Viz Cinema (in the basement of NEW PEOPLE), with the 2nd and 3rd films playing in subsequent weeks. Just read Volume 4 last night, holy shit the Friend logo is starting to terrify me when I see it. So good.
YUICHI YOKOYAMA LIVE PAINTING
I can't remember if I said this above, but the main highlight of the day was catching a live painting demonstration by geometric genius Yuichi Yokoyama (of Travel, New Engineering fame, duh). Apologies to the fainthearted or uninterested, here are like a million photos of Yokoyama at work: [In this one you see the small flashcards he used to pre-plan the mural elements]
I also shot a short video of Yokoyama putting finishing touches on the last of the "faces":
MTV IGGY & ROCK GIRLS In the Peace Plaza, MTV IGGY had a tent and were MC-ing the live acts and contents on the bandshell stage. MTV IGGY is a global news/music channel that (I believe) is predominantly online content and focuses on Asian and Asian-American artists. A cool dude I met through mutual friends named Woody Fu works for them, but I didn't see him around. Woody's is submitting a comic for Electric Ant #2, and also interviewed Jim Lee dressed up as Cyclops.
Girl rock group TsuShiMaMire played a long set, and got a good response from the crowd.
These same bands played a bigger show Sunday night at Yoshi's.
Merch table for the various bands.
All rock ladies, all the time.
A bunch of local girls got made-up and took part in a nerdy HARAJUKU KAWAII(???) fashion contest.
Hosted by MTV IGGY, the winner of the contest won a free round-trip flight to Tokyo courtesy of JAL. Pretty chill prize, no?
YUICHI YOKOYAMA SIGNED MY BOOK Last thing before I got my pale ass out of the sun, I had the chance to meet Yuichi Yokoyama and get him to sign the Disneyland autograph book. There was a very short line to meet Yokoyama (4 people including me?) which sorta confirmed the general anonymity he enjoys/suffers among most J-pop/manga fans. I talked to him for all of 20 seconds, mostly me showing him my PictureBox bag and gushing about his work inarticulately. As our small group made its way to the signing table, others noticed and started lining up to meet the man as well.
For folks without books/things to sign, Viz was handing out rad/creepy paper masks of Yokoyama's designs. These same designs were all over the inside of NEW PEOPLE and the main part of much of the advertisements, volunteer t-shirts and motif for the center. Very cool, but I wondered how it was hooked up? I assume Seiji (Viz's president) is buddies with him :)
Yokoyama was not into my brush pen and silver sharpie. It is red & blue all the way.
Signing my book! His sketch was right after the Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Frank Santoro sketches I got at TCAF earlier this year.
FOR LIAN.
I again shot a really short video of Yokoyama in action.
Finally, after getting back home I here "model" the Yokoyama mask. It conveniently covered up my sunburned face:
Other folks are probably writing more representative posts of like, the actual inside of NEW PEOPLE, and the other events I skipped (Amano happenings, gothic lolita fashion show). The first (and biggest) comes in from About.com's Deb Aoki (who was at NEW PEOPLE on Saturday from 8am to 1am). Check out her full write-up here.
UPDATE: Another great post, with lots of video tours, can be found over at ANIME VICE.
As has now become a tradition for me, I brought my Disneyland Autograph Book along with me to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) this past weekend. The book has become my place for collecting autographs and sketches from cartoonists and friends... Previous posts included sketches from MoCCA 2008, along with the batch from SDCC 2008.
I am still uploading photos and working on additional posts for tomorrow, including a round-up of the entire TCAF experience, meeting Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and visiting The Beguiling comic shop. Here is one post from the weekend to start things out!
In addition to the sketch by Tatsumi (which I'll post tomorrow, and is the new highlight of the entire book), check out these pages from rad artists I met at TCAF:
Nate Powell, author of Swallow Me Whole, numerous minis, and all around nice dude.
Jason Shiga, math wizard and author of Bookhunter, Knock Knock, Meanwhile... and other books!
Portrait of me by Derek Kirk Kim, author of Same Difference, co-author of The Eternal Smile, and Electric Ant contributor.
Kate Beaton, webcomics maven extraordinaire and winner of the Doug Wright 2009 award.
Matt Forsythe, nice guy author of Ojinbobo and winner of the Doug Wright 2009 award.
Saicoink, radical Showa-inspired cartoonist of Open Spaces and Closed Place and Electric Ant #2 contributor.
Bryan Lee O'Malley, comics lord of Canada and brains beyond Scott Pilgrim!
Frank Santoro, insightful and righteous cartoonist/critic behind Cold Heat, Storeyville, and Comics Comics Mag (and blog).
On the trip to San Diego Comic Con, I managed to take only a mere 15 pictures the entire time. Ridiculous, I know. This always seems to happen when Evan and I travel, as he's the one with the 12x zoom handheld and the massive SLR. I rely (happily) on homeboy to capture everything. On account of that, I don't yet have my San Diego post ready, but will work on it tonight. In brief, it was: Exhausting! Great to see a bunch of our buddies and so many kings and queens of indie comicsdom! Extremely satisfying to see folks buying copies of Tokyo Zombie! Also, did I mention exhausting?!
A better summary post (with pics of folks we meet, a comic debut by friends, and new goodies from the con and Book Off) soon. In the meantime, I'm happy to report that the "Official" Disneyland Autograph Book was in full force at SDCC. Here are the newest additions to the batch from MoCCA earlier this year:
Gary Baseman. He signed at the Last Gasp book to promote his newest book.
Adrian Tomine. I've met him a few times through friends-of-friends, and finally got him to put down a sketch for me!
Edgar Wright! Director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and one of the greatest TV shows of all time (HOLY CRAP). I sadly missed the Spaced panel (more on that in the trip report post) but ran into him on the floor. I tried to give him a copy of Tokyo Zombie but he claimed to already have it (I think he meant the original Japanese edition!?) and was familiar with Hanakuma's comics :)
Jim Woodring. I was retardo dumbstruck to have him sign my book. Seriously. (Also, Pupshaw looks adorable, no?)
Dame Darcy. The Dame signed at Fantagraphics, and was promoting her upcoming post-apocalyptic graphic novel, Gasoline.
Dash Shaw. Indie cartooning prince and author of the impressive Bottomless Belly Button. Dash shocked me by revealing he reads Same Hat and is heavily into manga. He sketched a scene of Tatsumigaoka (where he spent a year abroad in high school) and a Hanakuma homage.
Johnny Ryan. Our American patron saint, Johnny signed at both Fantagraphics and Buenaventura, and debuted Loady and Sinus figurines at the con. He's also working on editing the upcoming Comics issue of Vice, which may include some international materials right up Same Hat's alley.
Esther Pearl Watson. Like Gary Panter and Tom Neely, she stuck with the Disneyland theme. I try to buy any and everything she and partner Mark Todd put out, and managed to grab 4 issues of HERO LAND and her new Romeo & Juliet comic.
THE DISNEYLAND AUTOGRAPH BOOKS MAY BE COMING TO A CON NEAR YOU: SPX in October, APE in November!
Updated: SAME HAT stopped updating in 2013! For all new projects, please see Youth in Decline's sit and Instagram.
All fan translations of manga that you'll see in the archives are previously untranslated into English and range from comedy to horror to avant-absurd weirdness.
Same Hat is written & edited by Ryan. If you would like to contact me, please email: samehat @ gmail.com. Also, you can Ask me anything on the Same Hat Tumblr!
