omg dimensional vortex absence

I can't believe the last thing on here is me bitching about Indonesia in October. Let's see, in the interim I went to Japan, formed a local girl posse, got my ass kicked by H1N1, did my first christmas in Asia, spent a few days on a tropical island in Malaysia where they filmed South Pacific which is, like, FREAKIN BALI HAI I'M NOT KIDDING and mail-ordered a skort. Yes, Dee in a skort. That's how hot it is on the equator.

(Also, on Tiomen Island-- Bali Hai, above-- they have have the world's smallest runway. So you come in at 9 thousand miles an hour from Singapore for, like, 25 minutes then you turn RIGHT and then you LAND, ERRRRRT. Then you get on a boat cause roads on Tiomen are optional and all the Tamil-speaking guys stare at your hair the whole way...)

But before I get started on the catch-up I'd just like to say one thing. Back in Boston I was like WISH WE COULD GET ANIMAX, MAN so I could watch tons of anime, which, I know absolutely nothing about anime being much more into comics, but I'm like, all the Studio Ghibli stuff is awesome, what else is out there? Well here I am, after midnight on a Monday night and I've been toning chapter 19 of Nightschool all night and I take a break and turn on the tube and LO! it's on Animax, which is a throwaway freebie here on cable, and I have just have to say, IT SUCKS. Or more specifically, YOU SUCK ANIMAX.

So, yardstick of suckatude, here's a list: first the translations. >_< <-- this is the face of me cringing. Are there people who work for this company that actually speak Japanese or is it just a bunch of monkeys with typewriters? Then follow that up with what we in the states call "Voice Actors" and what other people on the rest of the planet would call "Frat Boys" or maybe "Your Cousin Who Could Use a Partime Job" or maybe just "People Who Can't Act"... so the 'Voice' part is right, such as it is, but they should definitely take the 'Actor' part off that job title cause it IS THE LYING PART.

Also, all the frat boys who do these gigs get REALLY uncomfortable doing those roles where the bad guy is one of those archetypal ass-kickers who's definitely in touch with their aesthetic side, if you know what I mean, and I think you do, the badguys with the thorny roses and the fur colars, right? Have you noticed that? Like the character Howl in Howl's Moving Castle except Cristian Bale is actually a real actor, so he doesn't have this problem. So they give these characters this freaky bizarre inappropriate clown voice because, well, you know, the guy who's doing the lead male is like, RIGHT IN THE ROOM WITH ME, so it's like AWWWWKWARD. Voice Actors, feh. MY BUTT. I turn the sound off. At least the explosions are still pretty. Don't order Animax. Buy more comics instead. Unless you want something to mock. Then do it. But it's kind of a lot to spend just for mockatude.

"Darn yooooou!11!!11!!!!!!!" <- actual quote

Stop. JUST STOP.

Anyway, what was I going to talk about....? Oh yeah, Japan. I was in Japan for 10 days, we all went to Comitia and it was AWESOME. Comitia was AWESOME GUYZ. A huge convention center, packed to the rafters with original work. ORIGINAL WORK. No Bleach fanart, no FANART, no fan comics, ALL ORIGINAL WORK, those are the rules. And not pinups either. COMICS. Table after table of original comics by people who make COMICS not drama and who are all INTO it because they have a story to tell and want it enough to self publish it. It was like a comics creators' heaven. I would have cried... except I couldn't freakin READ anything of course so let's not get carried away. Still, I got what I could from art, which was heart-felt even when it wasn't experienced and even then spoke to you clearly over language barriers and geological barriers and whatever barriers and makes me reflect on US cons, with their tiny little AAs full of Final Fantasy dA pinup divas, in an unkind way. Or am I being too honest, pardon me.

But it was great, working the table and talking to the other creators if they could speak english or at least buying their stuff to show your appreciation, which, I have a ton and have all their websites bookmarked :D I think, too, creators may share a common language. Thumbs up, 'your book rawks, dude, can you sign it for me please?' seems to be a universal. It's a good thing.

Tokyo, btw, outside of Tokyo Big Site and Comitia was ehhhh okay, but Kyoto was omg amazing and the best night I had (outside of Comitia) was at this cramped mom-and-pop off the main drag in Kyoto by the river, which looked just like one of those little canals you see in Zatoichi movies where the mobsters are staging an ambush, where we all piled into a back-table and drank beer and ate endless rounds of fried stuff on sticks for hours with the people from there. I have a lot to say about that trip, it was amazing... a proper post about this coming up with pics...