Took more pictures today
Was in a better frame of mind.
And then I went to the “Can Manga be Created in the US and be Commercially Successful?” panel and my mood wobbled dangerously.
Left to right: Northrop Davis (mod), Robert Le, Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, Luis Reyes, and Robert Napton
Lillian and Luis did most of the talking. Lillian still works for Tokyopop and Luis worked there during the Felipe Smith OEL heyday. So they talked and talked and talked and the answer to the “Can Manga be Created in the US and be Commercially Successful?” is no, it can’t. OEL is about $25K, which is 4x as expensive as licensing, translating, production, etc. Asian manga. US manga creators don’t have 50 years of manga culture behind them as they do in Japan, so US manga isn’t good enough yet. So, no, no commercial success for US manga yet, maybe someday when the US manga culture matures and the economy bounces back. If we’re all still alive by then. Oh well.
Then I had a nice lunch at the Holiday Inn. On the way up I noticed the news majors (AP, NBC, etc.) setting up across from the Staples Center. They’re setting up for the Tuesday memorial for Michael Jackson. They must be expecting a freak show over the weekend. So after my nice peaceful lunch, I took more pictures.
Then I got to see 4 original Harlock episode. Oh! The drama! Oh! The corn! Oh! The weird pacing! Oh! The slashiness as Harlock romances Takashi onto the Arcadia! Who knew!? He’s much gentler with the lad than he was in the later Herlock series. So I really enjoyed it and with a happy heart (because I was leaving) I went into the happy crowds and took more pictures. And more at the Flickr page, too.
And more at the Flickr page.
So that was day 2.
Day 1 if you haven’t seen it.
Day 3 what there was of it.