54394 [file]
+ Comic World II U.S.A. report +

"comic world"

is a convention for fans and amateur comic artists that is in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and now America! There are usually six events in Japan and four in other countries. I hear that many artists publish and sell "doujinshi" or fan comics in "comic world". This is the first year that comic world takes place in U.S.!


On Octobre 14th, I attended the second "Comic World" convention at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. The admission was $5 per person, which is quite inexpensive. Upon entering the museum, you can see the time traveling car that was used in the movie "Back to the Future"! But anyway, I didn't come to look at the cars.. @_@.. The convention starts at 10:30 AM and ends at 4:00 PM
I was somewhat a bit disappointed with the convention.. because I was expecting it to be much bigger, with many dealers.. What i found was that there were probably around five artists selling and showing their art.. A couple of them created some simple letter set stationaries with their art. I actually bought a King of Fighters letter set.. (hehe.. i couldn't resist to buy some KOF fan stuff.. and i really wanted to help support some of the artists.. because i can imagine to be in their place!! perhaps i hope to make some stationary stuff and see how much i can sell them! :D :D :D hahaha!!) The art is rather professional looking. There are only two different pictures: one of Kyo-chan singing into a microphone with holding a guitar, and one of Iori-chan looking cool while playing a guitar! haha! well, off topic, i am looking for a good and cheap guitar.. :D Anyway, those prints are printed on some semi-transparent (opaque?) paper.. The set costed only $4.

* [iori-chan] from stationary set
* [kyo-chan] from stationary set
* [kof] free KOF art flyer by same artist

The KOF artist is actually Japanese! She had very nice artwork in her folder.. Her art style is kind of similar to Yuki Kaori's (who did "Angel Sanctuary" or "Angel's Gate"). Very stylish clothings too! She also drew some j-rock band members. I was hoping that she would have some doujinshi for sale, but there was no doujinshi at all.. except for one table selling a non-manga art style comic.
There were a couple of tables selling anime related goods.. such as keychains, posters, video tapes, CDs, animation cels (kind of expensive..), and art supplies for making professional comics. I bought a pencil board of Le Fillet Revolutionaire: UTENA movie for $4.00... which is quite cheap compared to many places.
Some other tables displayed some art (anime style of course) by who I assume to be UCLA students (it was the UCLA anime club tables after all). However that was kind of disappointing since that most of the art were not original artwork; I could tell that they were copies from comic or existing drawings I even recognised some of the drawings before! :D If they are going to display art, don't you think that it isn't such a good idea? But anyway.. :D.. The UCLA anime club members sitting at the table were also drawing too.. by copying off some art books.. fufu..
At the more professional artists' tables, most of the artists were drawing things such as Washu from Tenchi Muyou,.. and had a folder of their artwork for display! There was about 3 tables reserved for an art workshop. They supplied markers (which somehow seemed to be only pastel colours of purples or pinks..) and screentones (the dotted patterns used for shading in black and white comics). Since it didn't take long to look at all the tables, well,.. the art workshop was the only thing to do.. (sweat drop rolling down) What you do is just take a seat and start drawing. There were "advisors" or more professional artists on the other side to give you advice. The advisor is actually Henry Liao, who does some art for the magasine "TOKYOPOP". Actually, i recognised his artwork.. he used to be an UCLA student! I looked at his folder and saw his originals and published versions of his short comic that was published in the magasine.. In his resume I found that he graduated with a degree in Economics.. (!!) so! you don't have to work in the field of your major!! :D :D Also in his folder is a comic about basketball.. however, it was all in Chinese.. so I couldn't understand it!
So most of the time at the convention, I was at the art workshop doing some drawings. There really wasn't anything to do. My friend who drove us here wanted to see the cosplay, but there was plenty of time before it takes place at 3 PM. So it was quite uncomfortable sitting at the table, thinking of what to draw.. while many people walk by and look at you. I wasn't really inspired to draw anything! :D But since my friend was bored, I thought i better do something. I luckily brought my sketchbook with me.. so i drew a very quick sketch and decided to try and use the professional markers to colour it in. The colour selection wasn't too great, so the colour i used were basically the darkest colours out of the bunch. My marker colouring is quite bad .. when i coloured the skin, it turned out to have darker and lighter areas!! And i couldn't really do anything about it!! My other drawing was supposed to be the vocalist of the visual rock band "Eliphas Levi" (who are going to disband!! :( ), but they didn't have red (only bright pinks!!)! So i had to once again use the dark blue for the hair.. and i just said "this is Mana of Malice Mizer now!" (but it doesn't look like him at all!!) For the costume, well, it is way too hard and time consuming to design one at the moment.. so i just drew one of my "stock designs". I have some designs that i created in another sketchbook (which took quite a very long time!!). Well, i also tried to colour it but the skin turned out to be very blotchy again. So I have to use Adobe Photoshop to fix up the mess by using the smearing tool or something! I got a few comments from the artshop advisors.. One of them gave me a Japanese artbook that showed how to colour using markers.. It didn't really help much though.. :D.. and the other guy (TOKYOPOP guy) said something like "oh, this is pretty good".
The artshop tables were quite flourishing.. I was surprised that many people (about 5-7 people including me and my friend) was there.. And many of the people brought their own sketchbooks.. It was quite a very strange feeling to sit at the table and draw with other people! I found that many of the art style drawn seems to be more of the bigger eyeball type.. and the body is more "American comic" art style. My art style is quite a contrast with the others (IMHO).. . So the people at this table all have the dream of making their own comics? That I do not know... but I am one of them .. kind of anyway! @_@ Some of the people were talking about their "meetings" , which i assume to be an anime art club or something.. Anyway, that was quite strange... . to be surrounded by these types of people.. dreamers?

* [sketch1] quick sketch in colour(!), the only coloured item featured in my old sketchbook.. My friend couldn't tell if it was male or female. .. but it is supposed to be a male.. (sweat drop rolling down) I wonder if visual rock is really infecting my brain/art? =D
* [picture2] The intended "Eliphas Levi" drawing in colour! well, just convince yourself the blue is really dark red.. .. :D The hair colour of this picture and the sketch above are the same.. but i just overlayed many layers to make it darker! This is the edited version to clean up the blotches on the face. The pattern on the clothing is really meant to be plaid... but my skill level isn't that great ne!! I really don't use markers... .. ... [unedited version here]

Another thing i was really looking forward to was to look at real "cosplayers" (= "costume play", or Japanese for fans dressing up in costumes .. such as costumes from anime/manga, video games, or their favourite band members).. There were 1 Utena, 2 Athena Asamiyas (KOF), 1 Kensuo (KOF), 1 Todou Kasumi (KOF.. sweat drop rolling down), 1 Sakura (of SEGA's Sakura Taisen), 1 um.. well, that cowboy hatted girl in Digimon (sorry, je ne sais pas..), 1 Sailor Pluto complete with her "key staff", 1 Sengoku (i think he was.. .), 1 "cat-man" of some video game (didn't know this character either..).. The first prize winner was the "cat-man", and then Utena (?), and one of the Athenas.. (i kind of forgot! :D)