Photos: The First Asian American ComiCon

This past weekend, NYC hosted the first ever Asian American ComiCon. My top three highlights:

1) Fantastic original art for auction to benefit the Museum of Chinese in America.


2) The NerdPop panel, which featured the following quote by Derek Kirk Kim on how nerdiness is relative: "Sometimes I think I'm a nerd because I watch Star Trek, then I meet actual Star Trek fans and I realize I'm just a normal person."

3) The Writer's Bloc panel, which yielded some really sincere and down-to-earth advice about writing, as well as one amazing anecdote from original GI Joe writer Larry Hama. He recounted a semi-recent pitch for a new GI Joe series that would have re-imagined the characters as more realistic, modern solider archetypes. This would have included Snake Eyes as "the owner of a kid's karate school in North Carolina", who had simply imagined his own epic ninja dojo backstory. The entire audience gasped at the brilliance of this idea, and we were all collectively crushed when Hama told us how the publisher passed on the series.

Many more pictures are up on Geekanerd's Flickr, including a doodle battle between Cliff Chiang and Sean Chen, shots from Artist's Alley, and more auction items.

NYC'S First Ever Asian American ComiCon - Now With Gnerd Discount Code

Every time I go to a comic convention, I see tons of Asian American girls and guys in attendance, as well as on panels and behind the tables in artists alley. It's lame that this kind of representation doesn't usually transfer into the actual pages of mainstream American comics, where the highest profile Asian American superhero is...maybe Cass Cain? Is she the new Batman yet?

With this imbalance in mind, a band of creators within the Asian comic community have recently embarked on some awesome projects that give Asian Americans in comics the spotlight. April saw the release of Secret Identities: The first Asian American Comic Anthology, and this Saturday, Manhattan will host the first Asian American ComiCon.

More info after the jump, including details on Geekanerd's very own discount code!


The AACC will feature a bunch of top tier writers and artists who all share an Asian American background (including those folks in the picture above), and will feature such comic con staples as an artist's alley and a day's worth of panels. Topics range from the general, such as advice on storytelling, collaborating, and the business of comics, as well as more socio-anthropological topics such as nerd pride, the Asianization of pop culture, and one area of comics where Asian characters are becoming OVER represented (villains!).

I'm definitely going to be taking my non-Asian self there early on Saturday (maybe I'll finally get a Cliff Chiang sketch?!), and the folks behind the Con have been cool enough to give Geekanerd readers their own discount code: GEEKNY! It'll give you $5 off general admission and $10 off a VIP pass; hit the link for more info, and head over to the official site for time and place, a full schedule and the list of guests. They've also got a Facebook page; you know, for kids!

Photos: Friday at the 2009 BookExpo America

Though the bulk of our collective attention may be split between the siren songs of DVR, the internet, and video games, I think most geeks maintain a special place in their hearts for regular old books. It's certainly true of me, and it's why I love the BookExpo America, North America's biggest book publishing convention. The sheer concentration of booths filling the Javits Center in Manhattan makes the NY Comic Con look like the Montgomery Flea Market.

I was able to pick up review copies of a few upcoming comics (including the very awesome looking Pixu) and I'll be posting about those soon. In the meantime, here are some Friday highlights (frilights?) from the convention floor...

As you may already know, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies from Quirk Books is a paperback best-seller, cultural phenom, and further proof that geek memes are pushing their way into the cultural mainstream. The formula is fiendishly simple; take the ultimate romance novel, insert zombie mayhem, and publish to a waiting nation of zombie fanatics. Love that public domain!

At the Quirk Books booth, publishing reps were promoting a new Deluxe Edition of PPZ coming out this winter, which will include "30% more zombies". I half-jokingly asked the rep if this addition was a concession to reader demands, and she answered in all seriousness, "Yes, we got a lot of reader feedback on the subject."

The big news is that on July 15th, the next "...With Zombies" title will be announced. The only hints I could get out of the rep were:

1. It won't be another Jane Austen book
2. It will take place in the Regency era (I'm guessing they'll stick with the Romance genre too)

I'll call it now: Jane Eyre With Zombies. Maybe cause that's the only Regency era book I can think of that isn't Jane Austen.



Neil Gaiman was signing copies of The Graveyard Book at the Harper Collins booth, bringing fans to tears with a mere word or touch of his hand. The autograph line was absolutely soul-crushing, so I just snapped a picture and moved on. We're BFF on twitter, though.

Life-sized Clifford is actually pretty frightening.


Let's talk bookmarks. Old and busted.....

NEW HOTNESS:
It took me a minute to understand the point of an XMarxit, but it's actually pretty smart. You point the dot at the spot you stopped reading, so when you open up the book you know exactly where you left off. Boom. Elegant it's simplicity.

And if you ever need to prove that you're a bigger nerd than someone else, whipping out a speciality bookmark is going to be your ace in the hole.


The idea of making a tiny Ultimate Fighting ring for the Ultimate Fighting book to live in is totally adorable, but I question whether it's a good idea to give Beat-Em-Up gloves to a person who is so obsessed with Ultimate Fighting that they'd want this thing in their house. Someone in that house is going to get punched, that's all I'm saying.


From the publisher's notes: "Meet all these cute baby animals that find clever ways to solve their not-so-small problems". I have a problem with crying when I read children's books. I didn't even try to read these on the floor because there would have been trouble.


Oh look, it's a little tiny novelty book!

Or is it....?I can't decide if this is a great idea or not. Playaway is a self-contained audiobook - you'd just get it from the library or as a gift, plug headphones in, and listen to it like an iPod. It's kind of cool to not have to transfer CDs to your computer to your music player before listening to something, and the "tiny book" visual impact is definitely appealing.

My biggest problem is the packaging...

WHAT THE HELL? Why would you create a giant VHS sized package for something that's smaller than a cellphone? Just because something is going to be housed in a library doesn't mean it HAS to look uncool.


In case you were wondering what to get your mom for Christmas. My mom might actually like this, actually.