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APE weekend was a blast!
The APE hall in full swing
The Bang Gang crew (LtoR): Anthony Wu, Evan, Me, Derek Yu, Hellen Jo.
First off though, it seems that a few people, including Simon from Icarus, and a user from scanlation megahub Manganews.net, are bothered that we did a small run of our scanlations and gave/traded/sold these to friends at APE. In a way, I can see this in a theoretical sense, but I think what we actually did for APE was much more mundane and non-commercial.
As mentioned in our last post, we compiled all the materials that are freely available here (or at least, will be available once we move to a new host). In addition to Evan's framed artwork, copies of our Bible comic, and a Same Hat flyer, we wanted to have a physical manifestation of our blog content for the hardcore Same Hat fans and our friends. To this end, we printed a total of 30 copies of our booklet, at a cost of about $135 to us.
Really, we would have been more than happy to give them all away to folks, but when you stay up until 5 AM paying Kinkos to duplex, copy, fold and staple booklets, then it makes sense to charge a nominal fee as a barrier-to-entry. As any con attendees know, there is always a group of fanboys, usually dudes with light sabers and jedi robes (yes, we saw a guy like that at APE07), that simply grab up any and all free stuff blindly, and we couldn't/wouldn't spend the time & money to print enough copies for that sort of consumption.
We gave away about half our tiny print run to friends and tablemates, traded some for other zines and minicomics, and then sold a few to people who dig the site. At the end, our net "profit" for this labor of love booklet came to a loss of over 100 bucks, but in the process, a bunch of people that were already interested in weirdo manga now have an offline artifact with pretty layout to check out when their internet is broken.
Me, Derek and Hellen holding down the fort
In the talks we had with the new people we met, it was extremely clear that there is a small but rabid circle of people anxious for this type of stuff to be released in English, and we'll keep doing our prosteletyzing work here. In the meantime, we recommended them to Kinokuniya for more Sensha/Aihara (in Japanese, granted), AbeBooks and Booksense for used copies of the very out-of-print Maruo titles from Creation and Blast, and to buy the three books of the discontinued Museum of Terror books and the upcoming Gyo & Uzumaki re-releases from Viz.
That said, the expo was about the chance to talk comics and zines with some rad compatriots for 2 days straight. We ended the weekend with a celebratory group dinner at an all-you-can-eat Indian place. Here are some of the pictures we snapped:
The sole cosplayers we saw at the 'alternative' expo
At the fair, we reconnected with friends like V. Vale (Publisher of Re/Search), Derek Kirk Kim (Eisner winner and nice guy supreme), Jason Shiga (mathematical rapper and Eisner winner), Mari Naomi (painter and indie cartoonist), and Ed Chavez (MangaCast blogger)
We also saw our friend and author Jason Thompson (ex-Viz editor of Pulp, Gyo, Uzumaki and Drifting Classroom)
The most unexpected person we met was cartoonist Aaron K, in town from Chicago.
The entire Bang Gang crew is huge fans of his comics, and we wondered what the hell happened after he disappeared off the internet last year. Turns out he's making music and working on a new comic, Manatee Island. He showed us the first 18 pages, and it looks to be really, really great. Somebody publish this guy!! We're hanging out later this week, and will try to talk him into letting us scans some panels for the site.
Finally, here is the haul from this year. With the Last Gasp party on Friday night (where they let APE exhibitors buy stuff right off their warehouse shelves) and the great spread at the expo, I ended up burning a HUGE hole in my wallet. Check out the goodies:
The Mourning Star by Kazimir Strzepek, strongly recommended by both Hellen & Johnny Ryan!
Garo-successor and indie manga compilation AX (アックス) issue 37.
Finally tracked down Dungeon, Zenith Volume 2 by Sfar/Trondheim!!
Met Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd and bought issues 4 & 5 of Unlovable, John #1 and a garbage zine.
Tom Gauld's new collection of Very Small Comics from Buenaventura
Inside Vineyland by Lauren Weinstein (my GF originally read this serialized in The Stranger)
Re/Search hardcover reprint of their long unavailable Industrial Culture Handbook!
LtoR: Hellen Jo postcard, collection of mid-90s Eighball postcards, Walken card from Brandon Bird
Tablemate Anthony Wu's new mini Brain Market, Jason Thompson's Hyperborea adaptation
Julia Wertz's Fart Party 4.5, Derek Kirk Kim's Lowbright strip collection
Jason Thompson's entire collected webcomic, The Stiff
Jason Shiga's MINDBLOWING choose your own adventure monster, Knock! Knock!
Okay, this is the weirdest thing I got-- Jason Shiga's rap album, featuring I Love My Shigacorn and 2pac Lives
APE07 exclusive, Shiga's fold-out adventure The Last Supper
The new issue of Giant Robot (thanks Michelle!!) and Jason Thompson's adaptation of Lovecraft's The White Ship
LtoR: Mari's APE mini, a mini trade, Just The Facts comp by David Collier
My GF picked up books at Last Gasp too:
We finally have our own copy of Kramers Ergot 6!
LtoR: Incredible Mark Bayer stationary, Law & Order-meets-Batman card by Brandon Bird, Witchcraft compilation of pre-code horror comics
Beautiful screenprint by Hellen
Derek Kirk Kim put together a mega-poster with dozens of characters, including
GI Joe's and the Predator (also Conan and Picard)
Tetsuo from Akira
Galactus!
Thanks to everyone for your comments and support. It sounds like about 25 more of you that read the site regularly would like your own booklet. I think that I'll simply drop the bucks myself and whip up those as a spring thank you present for being awesome and checking our site out over the past two years. We won't be making this available in perpetuity, but once I've gotten that run finished, I'll post and ask you all to send us an email at samehatATgmail.com.
Coming next: Online shops we endorse, Parasyte and more on Aaron K
COME SEE US AT BOOTH 247!
Evan and I will be tabling this weekend at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco. The Expo runs from 11-7 on Saturday, 11-6 on Sunday. Our group willl be selling wares again this year under the moniker THE BANG GANG, with our buddies Hellen, Derek, Anthony and Jake.
For APE07, we've spent the past week putting together a booklet that I think is really fucking rad (IMHO). In addition to having some copies of our original webcomic, The Bible, we've compiled every scanlation to date into a 120 page book, along with other goodies sprinkled throughout the pages. We're planning to basically give them away for a few bucks, trade or even if you come up and say you like our site (Yes, we're doing this as a major loss, but the occasional buck or so should cover part of printing costs). Take a look at the cover and its inspiration:
VS. 
I'm leaving work to print up 25 copies in a few hours (yep, that's the scale of distribution we're talking here), and we hope to make some available after APE via the blog. Leave a comment if you're interested so we have a general sense of how many additional copies to print up :)
Also, Evan is selling some of his art, in snazzy neon frames:
APE weekend is always a crazy whirlwind of sleep deprivation, but we're especially looking forward to seeing Jason Shiga, Jason Thompson, Julia of Fart Party, PressPop (the publisher of AX), visiting the Last Gasp offices, Gene Yang, our GR pal Michelle, Vale from Re/Search, and others. If you're gonna be there, please stop by booth 247 and visit us!
I'm gonna be taking photos/videos and will post a proper APE RECAP next week.
WILD APES 2006
At Kinokuniya last week, I picked up the first volume of Cromartie High School creator Eiji Nonaka's newest series, Mirai Chounaikai (未来町内会) - best translated as Future Neighborhood Association.
As I'd said before, I think Cromartie High School was probably the best comic to be published in English in 2005, and ADV is already more than halfway through releasing the series (I think it's 17 volumes in total). Quick pat on the back to them, ADV is using the original Japanese covers and each volume looks really kick ass.
While Cromartie is still totally rad, it's cool to know that Nonaka has already moved on to a new comedy series, and it's being serialized in マガメガ. For more info, you can check out their Mirai Chounaikai page for a preview of the first few pages of the manga.
The series revolves around a neighborhood association in the year 2076. No really, I'm serious. At first, it's literally PAGES and PAGES of neighbors sitting around tables having zoning discussions and stuff. But in a way, the initial setup and scope of this comic already makes it pretty damn experimental and weird, for a comedy manga.
It looks like as the story goes on, Nonaka introduces weirder and weirder neighbors and committee issues, like these intense mutant warriors that look like something out of Mai, The Psychic Girl or Dragonball. The basic format, with repeating scenarios, running parodies and a growing cast of odd characters, should feel pretty familiar to Cromartie fans. Here are a few shots from the comic:
He's basically saying: "Well, this means that offically, as of today... Papa has been named Committee Chair of the Mirai-cho Neighborhood Association!"
Lots and lots and lots of this.
A ROBOT! ...but is it the same one?
I'll need to take some time to get through the comic, but it seems even more absurd than Cromartie in its banality and plot conceits. I wonder if ADV is gonna license and release this one too?
PS: Later today we have some Alternative Press Expo news to post... Evan and I have been working all week on a new booklet for this weekend!
The scheduled release date according to Viz site is tomorrow, 4/17/07. But it looks like the Kinokuniya in SF got their shipment early! I picked up and read the fifth volume Saturday afternoon (like a real nerd proper: over hot dogs, fries and Dr. Pepper).
This isn't the first time Kinokuniya has hooked me up ahead of schedule with Viz titles; They've regularly had new volumes of Phoenix, Death Note and Nana available 1-2 before their official release dates. Maybe they get the special hookup because Viz's headquarters is only like 2 miles from them?
PS: As you might have noticed, the scanlations are still down. We're working with out host to get things back up and running ASAP!
Yep, the scanlations are currently down. SHIT!
There is good and bad news here... and then some more good news.
Good News #1 is that we've had a huge spike in daily traffic, which means more of you weirdos are reading our scanlations and content (yay).
Bad News #1 is that the site hosting all our original stuff already smashed the normal monthly quota within the first ten days of April and we need to pay to upgrade bandwidth (boo).
Good News #2 is that we're going to do this over the weekend, and the scanlations should be back online by Monday! (yay x2)
thanks for your patience, and check back again soon!
Short post tonight, but let me just say that I'm extremely geeked about New Comics Day tomorrow. Like most of you (I'm guessing), I hit up a local comics shop during my lunch break, each and every Wednesday. Well, the moons of Jupiter and the winds of good fortune have aligned, and give us new volumes of two of the best series being published... on the SAME DAY. Oh, shit-- ENJOY:
DRAGON HEAD 6
DEATH NOTE 11
...and on the non-manga scene, check out this one:
The Complete Universe of Dupuy & Berberian, 300 pages of new comics in English by the creators of Get a Life and Maybe Later.
Can't wait to dig into all three of these books. Alright, it's time for a cup of decaf and some work emails for me. Here is one last omake to beef up the post, DRAGON HEAD Kubrick set:
Based on the movie adaptation, but pretty sweet nonetheless.
This one came in via our email address (samehatATgmail.com), from a reader named Winslow. Dude is a New York City resident, and his tattoo features the radical art used for the cover of Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freakshow. Little did Suehiro Maruo know that this particular comic would end up as the source of so much ink!
His tattoo artist Stina features this one on her site, and Winslow is planning to eventually go for an entire Maruo-themed sleeve design. He's open to any great ideas, so if you have a Maruo image in mind that you think would make a good addition to the Ero-Guro shrine he's assembling on his arm, definietly post it in the comments!
Thanks again to Winslow for sending this along! Are there any more Maruo/horror manga tattoos out there? Might as well send them to us and help grow the collection! Same Hat's new charter: manga news, scanlations and manga tattoos!!
