MegaCon Report 4.

OK, so this is the last report on MegaCon 2010. There was some pics of the universal costume contest but they all came out too dark and fuzzy. I did sit in on the DC Comics panel with Dan DiDio. It was a relaxed panel with DiDio asking questions to get a feel for what the fans want to see in DC Comics, how to make it better, how to sell more comics. The questions ranged from what got you back in to comics if you had been out for some time to does death really mean dead in comics. I'm waiting to see if the new policy on death is going to stick. The first character to suffer under the new rule on dead meaning dead was Kid Devil. Granted he isn't a big name character at all and when he did die he had already lost his powers and was nothing more than a normal human. So a side character dieing and staying dead is nothing new. The only proper test for the new policy is a big name character, someone like a leader of the JSA or JLA. I know they'll never kill him off for good, but I would love it if Superman was dead and gone and never spoken of again.

Besides that, my timing was a bit off this year and I missed most of the panels I wanted to see. I did try to see the main Marvel panel, was sitting down and waiting for it to start even. But it ended up being canceled. It still went on, but not as planned. The only guys that made it were Nelson Decastro, Paul Pelletier and Greg Land, so it just ended up being laid back. Still a good and interesting panel in the end.

Now comes the time when I show off the goods I picked up while at MegaCon. First the goods from Friday the 12th.

Intron Depot 4 - I already have 1, now I just need to get my hands on 2 and 3. I'm not sure if I want 5 and 6. Would love to get my hands on Galgrease.

This is the stack of manga I bought for $5 a piece. It seems the dealer that goes to MegaCon with this deal is having less and less of the titles I am looking for and want. Still got a few good books.

Black Jack hardcover volumes 2 & 3
Black Magic
Appleseed volumes 1, 2, & 4 (already have 1, oops)
Vagabond volumes 30 & 31 - Now I need to get 29.
Gacha Gacha Next Revolution volume 10 - OK, so I only have the 1st volume, but I like the series and at $5 you don't pass up volumes just because you don't have the ones before it.

This is the stack of OOP Anime I snagged up on Friday.

Please Teacher Box Set - Sure I already have the series, but I've always wanted that damn box. It happened to be a bonus I got the soundtrack in this purchase as well. So win/win.

Virgin Fleet
They Were Eleven
My My Mai
Knights of Ramune
Iczer Reborn
Domain of Murder

Most of those as you can see are U.S. Manga Corps releases, in other words, Central Park Media stuff that isn't likely to ever get re-licensed. I've seen the previews for most of them on other CPM DVDs I have and have always been curious about them. Of course I'm also always looking for OOP titles on the cheap where ever I can find them.

On marches the plastic... I mean the figures and toys.

Niece figure from Record of Lodoss War
Skuld, Belldandy and Urd figures from Ah! My Goddess
Skeleton Knight from Berserk
Mizuho Kazami from Please Teacher - Like I don't have enough figures of her already.
The three nine train from Galaxy Express 999 - Super awesome, even has a ramp track to display it on.
1/1 scale Gravity Saber - Most of you have no idea how cool this is. Just know that the coolest space pirate to ever grace animation wields one.
Yomako Littner aka Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann - I've always found the older, adult Yoko much prettier and sexier than the young Yoko.

This doesn't get much cooler, The life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and the Companion both signed by the writer/artist Don Rosa. He's a an interesting man and was very fun to talk to. He was also selling prints of the Ducks. I grabbed a few each day, the first 4 are the following.

Now if you look closely under Huey, Dewy and Louie's names and then in the box for their father's name you'll see somthing wrote in. Neat little thing Mr. Rosa does for guys that buy this print.

I just like this one because Scrooge has a mountain of comics he's selling. Huey, Dewy and Louie are having a blast while Donald seems to be on edge. He must be reading a great thriller or cliffhanger comic.


I love stuff like this. The detail and thinking and planning that goes into something like this always intrigues me. Mr. Rosa said he doesn't sell many of these, and that I must be pretty anal retentive like himself.

OK, so that was Friday, here's Saturday the 13th.

Saw some of the Wolverine tribute to great painters covers at $5 a piece so I grabbed four of them.

I like to get a few shirts each time I go to MegaCon. Stylinonline has been there each year now for the last few years I've been going. They have tons of pop-culture Ts. I planned to get some more with Bettie on them but I didn't see any. Instead I went with the S.H.I.E.L.D., Deadpool, Joker & Harley and Captain America shirts. The last shirt was from another T-shirt seller at the con. I forget the name of the company, but all of the shirts were a spoof of some sort. The one I grabbed on Saturday was Iron Man.
A manga and some more anime.

One Pound Gospel volume 1 (have 2-4)
Slayers Revolution collection - Got a couple of neat coins for buying this and spending enough at the Funi booth.
SGT. Frog Season 1 Part 1 & 2 and Season 2 Part 1 collections
Human Crossing volumes 1-4

And here's the coins I mentioned. One is a Slayers coin the other is a Spice & Wolf coin. On one side of each is the lead character of the series on on the other is a title logo. Pretty nifty swag I think.

Next there's the half-off trades I picked up and some figures and a lunch box.

The trades are as follows:

Please Teacher Fan Book
Battle Pope volumes 3 & 4
Tarot volume 5
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck 2nd printing

The lunch box is a Coop item if you couldn't already tell. I havea bad habit of just grabbing Coop stuff when I see it. It was only $10, so I don't feel too bad about it, even if I over paid on it. I plan to put it with my Olivia lunch box. Who knows, this may be the start of me collecting lunch boxes (I hope not).

The figures are a GitS statue if Major Motoko Kusanagi and a great Masamune girl from the Wild Wet West poster book. Both have amazing detail. I was surprised to find both at the con.


Finally there's another Don Rosa print I picked up. It's Scrooge with Goldie in the Klondike where he made his riches. I also wanted a sketch from Mr. Rosa but didn't have any paper for the man. So I suggest he just dram it on the back of the print. He thought I was a bit nutty saying it seems like a waste since you can only hang one side at the time. But my thinking was that Flintheart Glomgold is the other half of why Scrooge is the way he is. So why not have him on the back side of the Klondike print? That and I like Glomgold, he's basically Scrooge's evil twin, even has the gottee. Either way, I think I have a really neat piece.

Last but not least there's the last day of the con, Sunday the 14th.

I decided on Saturday I should go back and pick up some more half-off trades on Sunday. So I did and here's the haul for Sunday.

The Goon Volume 9 - I only have 0-3, but I know I'm going to pick up the others, Goon is very fun reading.
Tarot volume 4 - Only have 4 and 5 from the day before, but the sexy art is worth it alone.
Emily the Strange volume 2 - Picked up volume 1 last year.
Hellboy volumes 3-8 - Have 1 & 2 at home, can't believe how lucky I was to find 3-8 in the guys stash. More on that in a second or 30 or however long it takes you to read past this to get to the... yeah.
Promethea volumes 1-5 - It's Alan Moore and I've heard some things about the book. So at half-off, why not.

OK, so the dealer I got the half-off trades from had them in long boxes. He had 3 rows, of about 10 or so long boxes 2 deep, to shelves worthe each row. The problem with this was, 1. the was no order at all to the trades so I had to look through all the boxes to see what he had and, 2. the bottom shelf was the floor, so that was killing my knees. Like I said, I was lucky to find 3-8 of Hellboy, 4 & 5 of Tarot too.

If you can count (if you can't, get away from me) you should be able to see I'm missing volume 10 out of the stack of Video Girl Ai volumes 1-15. I thought I'd be able to find it either else where at the con but no luck. Next I have tried looking around Orlando in B&N and even Books a Million, nadda. So I'm going to wait untill I get back home to order it from an online anime/manga retailer. I bought Video Girl Ai at the con because it's getting hard to find, even though these 2nd editions aren't even that old, and I don't want to have to worry about having to look for them later down the road.

Looking for Group volumes 1 & 2. Sure I could just read it on the internet for free, but I like to have something to hold, something to flip through. I asked if they had volume 2 in a softcover, the guy asked why I would want such a thing. "Because it's cheaper." I told him. "Only by $5." He responded. "$5 is $5. I responded back. So in the end he cut me a deal and knocked $5 off the hardcover. The reason there's no hardcover for one is because, or at least this is what he told me, is that it's was a mix up on the publishers end.

I eyed these Bettier Page books since last year at MegaCon '09. The same dealer had them this year too. I don't know if they're the only ones he had or if he had a stock pile of each of them, I don't care, I finally got my hands on them.

OK, so this was a VERY bad impulse buy. The figure is great, it's authentic, a Bome BottleCap figure of Lum but I over paid by twice the retail. I'm an idiot. I have got to stop doing that (buying on impulse) with Lum figures. I had been lucky up to this point. So this time it's the last time. There's a 2nd Lum figure that goes along with this one that I ordered off of ebay for the proper price last Friday. Better not forget to place my pre-order for the 2nd pair of these coming out soon.

Days of Future Past diorama statue

I waited until the last second to grab this in hopes of getting an even better deal than the one he offered when I asked if he could do better than what he had it marked as. Which as you can see is $140. He told me $120 earlier in the day. I came back to him with $110 (maybe I should have pushed for $100 flat?) as they were pulling the carpet up. So $110 isn't bad for a statue that went for $300 retail.

So, yeah, I grabbed four more of the Wolverine covers. I wanted the Ukiyo-e style painting but they didn't have it. Oh well, maybe I'll find it the next time I'm looking.

Up next is a bunch of art I grabbed from artist alley. I wanted to get a bit more, but funds were running low and time was running out.

Deadpool Vs. Afro Samurai

Deadpool's recent popularity is awesome. And because of it someone thought to do something this uber awesome. I don't know what inspired the guy to do this piece, but damn, talk about striaght up cool. Two guys that are both crazy with voices in their heads having a sword fight, yeah, it's going to be both bloody and hilarious.

Phoenix Spanking Wonder Woman & Supergirl

There was another version of this with Phoenix bent over getting a spanking by Wonder Woman and Supergirl with a DC paddle. But I'm a Marvel guy, and I do love to see DC characters getting their ass whooped (or in this lovely case, spanked).

Boba Fett Vs/ Master Chief

Come on, you know this is the start of a fanboy throw down. So, who do you think would win, Master Chief or Boba Fett? I have no idea, but holy gaming face-off Batman!

Harley Quinn in Lingerie

Harley Quinn in what looks to be her idea of lingerie. Or at least the artist's idea of what Harley would wear as lingerie.

It's Kei and Yuri of Dirty Pair. I need no other reason.

Jessica Skywalker in Coruscant

Jessica Rabbit, er.... I mean Jessica Skywalker. This guy had some pretty neat pieces and it was his first time at the con on the other side of the table of artist's alley. I need to get around to checking his dA page.

Yeah, Catwoman licking up some milk, not much else to say why I bought this.

Harley Quinn Papercraft

This is but a print of the papercraft a beautiful young woman does. She layers paper to create the image. The actual piece is about a 1/4 inch thick and has a very 3D look to it. If I had the cahs I would most definitely have bought an original from her, I may ask her to do a commission next time. Or maybe I need to check to see if I have a card with her name or something on it. Search the web for her see if she has a site.

OK, so this was a mistake on my part. I already have a print of this print. Eh, I'm not really complaining about having two of these. Holli Would "searching" Jessica Rabbit, doesn't get too much sexier.

More Deadpool goodness. Thank you Marvel so slapping him in everything.

And here's the last bit of Don Rosa prints I picked up. My favorite of these 3 is the young and old Scrooge side-by-side.

And to end this post, the 2nd printing of The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck I picked up on Saturday signed by Mr. Rosa.

That wraps up my MegaCon of 2010. I hope to have as much fun and enjoy myself at MegaCon next year.

MegaCon Report 3.

So, this is a bit of the other things I took pictures of. Mostly the cars that were on hand.

Back in the Day - Patlabor '88 OVA 03/20/2010.

Ah, a girl and her giant robot, is there any finer relationship in anime?

OK, so there is, but trust me, you do NOT want to come between Noa Izumi and her Alphonse. Which, by the way, was THE Alphonse before FMA, and is still THE one in this fan’s eyes. Back in the mid 80s a group of people got together and formed Headgear, which is the collection of people credited for the creation of Patlabor. The reason for the creation of Headgear was so the production team could own the rights to the series. The members of Headgear made for a dream team of anime. Mamoru Oshii, Masami Yuuki, Kazunori Ito, Yutaka Izubuchi and Akemi Takada are just the main unit of Headgear. Oshii was basically the final piece of the puzzle, the director. Before he was on board they were still faced with not having a full production team, which would have made it tough to be taken seriously and sell it as a full package. Other staff involved in the creation of Patlabor were Kenji Kawai, Naoyuki Yoshinaga, Takayama Fumihiko, Kenji Kamiyama and Tori-Miki. Though not all of them worked on the original ‘88 OVA, I feel they still deserve mentioning when talking about Patlabor in depth. If you are curious as to what makes them each so special (though you probably should know some of them and their works already), hit up the ANN database. A quick five minutes there and you’ll see that each of them brought something to the table.

The original OVA ran for 6 episodes in ‘88 with a 7th episode added to help promote the first movie (same timeline as the 1st OVA) in ‘89. This seems like a short jaunt when such a brain trust is involved in the creation. Truth is, Patlabor went on to have a 47 episode TV series (which retells the story differently), a 2nd and 3rd movie, a second 16 episode OVA - which was really more of the TV series, and a small short, Mini-Pato, that was shown with the 3rd movie in theaters. Yet, many people either don’t know about Patlabor or they gloss over it for more flamboyant mecha shows such as Gundam and TTGL. This is somewhat understandable since Patlabor is much more about, and focused, on the characters than the mecha. In Patlabor the mechs, or labors as they are called, are just a means to an end. They aren’t simply used to fight wars; they are used for everything from construction to firefighting and deep sea diving. However, since they have become such an integral part of society, they are not always used as intended. This is were Patrol Labors (Patlabors) come in. Used by the Japanese police force to battle labor crime, they are the first defense against labor abuse. Labors aren’t super powerful weapons that have made other vehicular weapons outdated either. They are no more powerful than construction equipment of today, yet they are the leading edge of technology in the world of Patlabor. Besides labors, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about the world. Labors are the only real bit of sci-fi in the entire series (ignore episode 3, it can‘t be taken seriously). With the pacing, focus on characters and great storytelling, Patlabor fits into the slice of life genre more than it does the mecha genre. That doesn’t mean the mecha side of things is ignored. The development, construction, operation and maintenance of labors is gone into detail significantly. It goes hand in hand with the story most of the time too, so you won’t even notice your head being filled with the geek data.

The lead for Patlabor is Noa Izumi; she’s a new recruit for Section 2 Division 2 (or Special Vehicles Unit 2, SV2) Team 1 of the Patrol Labor segment of the police. She’s a bit ditsy at times but, when she has to, she’s a top notch labor pilot. Having formerly had both a dog and cat with the name of Alphonse she had decided on her labor’s name before ever seeing him. Her backup is Asuma Shinohara, SV2 Team 1, son of the head of Shinohara Heavy Industries. While he acts like he doesn’t like labors, he knows a good deal about them and is smarter than he lets on. The last member of SV2 Team 1 is Hiromi Yamazaki, the carrier driver for Noa’s Patlabor. He’s the gentle giant of SV2 and he doesn’t ever say much, but his green thumb and great strength speak for themselves. So that’s Team 1. And if there’s a Team 1 there must be a Team 2 - and there is. The labor pilot is Isao Ota, a quick to act, slow to think hothead who is a dedicated officer that believes in the honor of the force. His backup is Kanuka Clancy, a Japanese-American who is on loan from New York for a one year study period. She’s a tall, cool kind of woman, the kind men trip over themselves trying to get to, who is an expert in explosives and speaks four languages. The carrier driver for Team 2 is Shinshi Mikiyasu, the only married member of SV2. Overall, he’s a bit shy and easily stressed. However, upset the man, by questioning his marriage for example, and he’s more dangerous than Ota. Of course there’s someone above all of these people, someone that must be absolutely responsible and never act without having the OK from his superiors. Well, that’s not who Captain Kiichi Goto is, but he is the leader of the SV2. Captain Goto is a very laid back man on the surface, but look deeper and you will find he is an amazingly intelligent man who is very politically savvy. He is also very subtle and therefore an expert at manipulating people to do what he needs them to. The head of SV1 is Captain Shinobu Nagumo, a by-the-book leader. Her division is

held in high regard compared to Goto’s, which is why she can’t understand why Goto’s unit got the new AV-98 Ingram labors. Then there’s the “Old Man” of the mechanics crew, Chief Seitaro Sakaki. At the age of 12 his father beat him for taking apart his family’s footwarmer-engine scooter; machines have been his life for the past fifty years since. Finally there’s Shigeo Shiba, second in command to the “Old Man”. He’s a bit over zealous about his job, but he’s also the resident computer genius. Every single character is a believable person who is capable of their duties, even if they are a little outside of the norm.

The OVA is episodic in nature (with exception to the two part political thriller), but as it goes on you learn a little bit more about each character. While the character development may be a little fast it won’t feel like it. Patlabor is a very laid back kind of series that requires a small bit of brain power to keep up with, in episodes 5 and 6 most notably. One of the first differences you will probably notice about Patlabor as compared to other anime with mechs is the all adult cast. There is no over-dramatic teen angst drama, just honest and real stories. Nor is there even a hint of any T & A fan service. Every woman is in the show because of who she is and what she is capable of, not her bouncing bosom or bubbly bottom. There’s also no over-the-top technical data to back up why the mechs are possible. It’s all very believable kind of stuff, well mostly. The price of bullets are even taken into account. Such is the case when Ota asks to have practice with live ammo to be prepared in the field. Captain Goto must explain to him that the Fuji shooting range for such practice is reserved through winter by the SDF and that an application must be filled out in order to get the ammo. Even then it takes a month to get after strict review. Of course it does look a little wonky that the guns the AV-98 Ingrams use look like scaled up versions of guns people use. Somehow though they look right and fit in a way that makes total sense. Another fun fact is that the people piloting the labors required training before they were allowed to operate them. They didn’t just hop in and know how it all worked, having it simply explained away by them being natural geniuses. There’s a great ghost story mystery in episode 4 that takes place at the Fuji Labor Personnel Training Camp, aka “The Labor’s Den.” This is because of Ota’s… exuberance while in the field on assignment during a hostage situation, so the entire division is sent back for re-training. That alone is a great example of how you learn the wokings of the Patlabor world without being bonked over the head with the information. It’s also a great moment of comedy, which the series has plenty of. While the show is on a much more realistic level than other anime with mecha, it keeps the door open for stretched possibility comedy.

The comedy in Patlabor is thoughtful and intelligent at times and other times more basic and simple. All of it is funny and will make you laugh. Being a slice of life anime it really speaks to people on the common experiences level. It’s the little things sometimes that catch your attention, like Hiromi making his own lunches that are a bit too cute for a man of his size (especially the bowl). Other times it’s the love affair between Noa and Alphonse. Well, a lot of the time it’s that. Normally a dream sequence is annoying, but here it’s comical. Both in it’s poking fun at the absurdity of mecha anime at the time (even today’s) and it’s complete failure as Noa is woken up from it. It’s in the comedy that Patlabor shows us it’s heart. Oh, what a great and big heart it is. While it may not be seen in other areas since the show isn’t overly emotional, the comedy is where the series takes a sigh of relief from the hijinks division 2 manage to get caught up in. It’s also where the show gets a bit unrealistic and takes the path of over-the-top. This is seen at it’s worst (or best, depending on your tastes) in episode 3 where a sea monster is attacking people that get too close to Tokyo Bay. There’s a comical attempt at explaining how the monster came about and it’s stretched as far as sci-fi can be stretched. The end of the episode is very weird, eerie and isn’t really explained at all. It’s just one of those things where the production crew was having fun with the show doing a Godzilla spoof. Taking that episode serious at any point would be folly. On the other end of the spectrum is the two part episode story that is almost completely serious by the 2nd half. These are the episodes that define Patlabor, the episodes that allow all the characters to shine their brightest and best. They are the two episodes where you have to make sure that you have brought your brain along, it’s turned on and working properly. Otherwise you may get lost in the heavy political dialogue that explains why things are happening. It’s quite an interesting take on a terrorist overthrow of the government by the military following the orders of a former military genius.

When it comes to the animation and audio, Patlabor delivers an above average standard. It’s not the worst and it’s not the best in animation. It has moments where it looks great with the typical detail of things and even more so when the details of the AV-98 Ingrams are on screen. The animation is also clean and smooth with consistent character designs. Overall it looks like it was done in he early 90s rather than the late 80s. There’s even small things you might not notice or think about when you see them, such as the moving clouds in the background. While a simple slide animation, it’s not something you see in every anime. For an OVA it had some of the best animation of it’s time. It would be hard to have a better soundtrack to the series since Kenji Kawai wrote the music. Look at the man’s work and it’s obvious his music leaves a lasting impression and is connected to many emotionally heavy series. The opening song however was “Miraiha Lovers” by Hiroko Kasahara and it’s more or less a love letter for Noa and Alphose’s relationship. It’s a decently upbeat and catchy tune that you won’t quickly forget. The animation that accompanies it shows Noa lovingly polishing and working on Alphonse until the call comes in to head out into the field and it works with the song perfectly. There is no ending animation, just a rolling of the credits with a simple repeating song behind them. As for the dub, well, it’s a bit lacking. They didn’t try to localize it one bit so the dub is almost word for word the same dialogue as the sub. You might think it’s a case of English subs of the dub for the Japanese audio track it‘s so spot on, but it’s not. While it is nice that the dub follows the original dialogue so closely, it causes problems here and there. Most of the time the lip synch is a bit off, and unfortunately the performances aren’t as well played as those of the original Japanese cast. There’s also the small quibble of the mispronunciation of names. It’s not unwatchable awful, but the sub elite will most definitely complain. So if you pass up the dub track altogether you aren’t really missing much.

If I have somehow managed to get you interested in Patlabor, and I really hope I have, there’s a bit of bad news as usual with anime that’s gone out of print. Central Park Media, as I said in the Project A-Ko article, has gone out of business and they had the licenses for the ‘88 OVA and TV series. There are still copies of both out there (the ‘88 OVA being the most difficult to find now), but as usual they are going for collector prices. Over at Robert’s Anime Corner Store though they have the 3 box sets of the TV series going for $30 a piece and RightStuf has the New Files (2nd OVA continuation of the TV series) going for $23. Those are great prices for the TV series considering it‘s not likely to get picked up by other US distributors any time soon, if ever. It’s possible to find them at conventions at somewhat reasonable prices too, I did so while at MegaCon this past weekend. While I haven’t spoke much of the movies, which Manga Entertainment owns the rights to, they are still easily obtainable from many online retailers. I highly suggest you check them out; they are some of the best animated movies out there, even outside of anime. If you miss out on the deals at the retailers mentioned above, there are fansubs of Patlabor on the internet as well. Though I would hope you wouldn’t immediately turn to the internet to get your hands on the series. At the very least I hope you can watch the OVA I’ve focused on this time around. Finally, before I forget, if you would like even more information on Patlabor I will point you towards Schaft Enterprises, possibly the best Patlabor fansite on the internet. There you’ll find plenty of info on the series, from specific labor data, to character synopsizes, to backgrounds of the creators and much more. So, prepare your eyes and ears for a marvelous treat of mecha anime like you’ve never seen before or, sit back down with this old favorite, you know you want to.