Last weekend, I went to Room 801, a yaoi and yuri convention, and it went by in a wonderful blur. Lots of great panels, from 'Comparing Homoerotica, Slash and Yaoi/Yuri' to 'Legal Issues and Censorship' to 'Self-Publishing Mature Comics'. Other highlights included a live kinbaku demonstration from the Sydney Rope Dojo, and a playthrough by the ( Read more... )

So I wasn't planning to go to SMASH! this year, after feeling a bit too dinosaur last time, and deterred by the rising ticket prices (now $29 prepaid or $35 at the door). But. Shin-ichiro Miki. Who has played a billion roles in anime, including Allen Schezar from The Vision of Escaflowne.

All right. Maybe one more time.

( Highlights )

I went on the Sunday this year, which, sadly, meant I missed the friends who went on the Saturday. Then, also sadly, Hayden Panettiere cancelled. So it was a kind of low-key Supanova for me this year.

(It was good to catch up with you, fluffyduck!)

( David Mack )

GRAPHIC has reached its second year! I only went to the Scott McCloud talk, but it was totally worth it. He was an excellent speaker. I wish I could talk coherently about it, because it ranged over many areas of visual communication and drew upon many fantastic examples, but I was too engrossed to take notes and my brain filled up and overflowed ( Read more... )

An abbreviated SMASH! report for an abbreviated day, due to a hectic weekend ( Read more... )

My somewhat belated report.

I went on the Sunday. I'd never been there early enough for the doors opening before, but I didn't want to miss any of the talks I was keen on, and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get inside. But for some strange reason, the EFTPOS queue was shorter than either the cash queue or the prepaid queue. Sweet.

( James Marsters )

Everyone I knew who was going to GRAPHIC - and a few who weren't - wanted to attend the Neil Gaiman reading. But The Arrival is my favourite Shaun Tan book, and possible my favourite graphic novel ever, so for me the must see event of the festival was Ben Walsh's Orkestra of the Underground performing a live score to projected images from the story ( Read more... )

So for this year's SMASH! the Japanese seiyuu guest of honour was Yuko Miyamura, most famous for her role as Asuka from Evangelion. I thought I would be late for her panel, but I should have known that these things never start on time. Anyway, she came across as a warm and lovely person, and hardly seemed old enough to have been doing this fifteen ( Read more... )

The one convention I go to every year. Sometimes there are guests I want to see, and sometimes I just want to go hang out.

Eliza DushkuThis year, I was keen on seeing Eliza Dushku, aka the very cool Faith from Buffy ( Read more... )

I always say that Supanova is the one convention I go to every year, but perhaps I need to add SMASH! to that count too. Today I went to the third one in three years, and enjoyed it as thoroughly as the first ( Read more... )