Comic-Con Twitters

If any of you are into any updates from me on Twitter and or Facebook, join up. It's easy. I'll try and update what's going on at Comic-Con at least from where we stand at our booth. I'll even try and do some photo blogging and updates as well.
I guess that's about it, we're heading down shortly.

Twitter.com/giantrobot1 and facebook eric nakamura

Giant Robot Comic Con booth special

Giant Robot Have a Rice Day Eco Friendly bag. There's a 4" gusset so you can carry Red Books, vegetables, tea, ginseng, lotus, rice, or a Giant Robot magazine.

We got a bunch made and we'll feature them at our booth. A perfect addition to our theme, in case you haven't figured it out.

SD Comicon Con Location

We're right near Buenaventura Press. I had no idea. That's really great. They're in Green, we're in Red, and Top Shelf across at 1721! See you there.

Comic-con Exclusives - Giant Robot Booth 1729 San Diego Comic Con

People always ask about our exclusives at the San Diego Comic Book Convention. Comic-Con! What are they? This year, it's going to be:

1) KAMI ROBO toys - we're the only ones to have them. These are the production line that's not coming out for a while, so get them while you can. Check out the video below. You can get a couple and fight them. Of course, learning how might help, although you can just make it all up on the fly. They're jointed everywhere, and articulate well.

Check out the site.



2) David Horvath Drawings original drawings. These are nice. We'll have them in a portfolio. Ask to see them.


3) Souther Salazar print new 12.5 x 20 (no photo yet). Signing Friday and Saturday 4pm. We'll also be carrying his zine, Monsters that Ate the Stars from Blue Q


4) James Jean signing Friday 2pm. We'll be selling some of his special prints and he'll be signing Giant Robot 54.

5) Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson Signing Saturday 2pm and Sunday 2pm. Signing their zines from Blue Q.

Comic-con Preview Time

That's Jenny, and she's working the Giant Robot Comic-Con San Diego booth. This photo is merely a preview. Lanterns, Chinese dress, a metal apparatus, it's going to be interesting. I'm not sure if people know that we've been doing Comic-Con SD for perhaps over a dozen years, and I've been to each one. 

This is the banner for the booth. Can you guess what it's going to look like? We've never worked this hard on a booth design before. It should be fun and memorable, at least for us.

swap meet scores

FeFiFoFum! I think that's from Jack and the Beanstock... but that's what I think when I see this. The cyclops giant comes with a club. It's so weird that these were from the 70s. Blue hair even on it's chest. Where did it comes from? It's made in Japan, but over all it's just a strange item. $4! I'm digging these mid 70s banks made out of ceramic, and they're made in Japan.


Glass cups with sailboats drifting by. $20 for the set of 8 including the caddy. I don't know if I even like sailboats.


Antoni is the designer of these plates. His drawing looks like a Geoff McFetridge images don't you think? It's a plate that you hang on your wall, if you try to use it, it's pretty useless since it's heavy and small. $5.


Karate aftershave! I didn't buy it, but it was $20 and in the box. Weird how a brand was named after a martial art. I wonder if someone would bust an aftershave called, "ground and pound" or MMA. This is how cool Karate was back in the day. Even Elvis did it.


That's my new puzzle collection. Rubik's, fakes, and some great puzzles. Some of this stuff, I've never seen before. I used to do the cube in about a minute. The triangle took even less time. $12 for the whole box of puzzles.

Venice Obon

Obon season is on. It's the celebration for us to remember those who aren't with us anymore. These photos are from the Venice obon. It's a smaller local event, and I'm glad to have stepped into the Venice Buddhist Temple to see it all. West LA does this too, and it went from being decent / small, to in my opinion at least from the last time I saw it, a raging and great event. The bad thing is that Comicon is on the same days, which is next week and I feel like I miss the event every year.

They even have a book sale, games, and other fun things like a bake sale! In WLA, they even allow outside vendors to have a booth.



Had to have it. Shave Ice, the magic coolant on a hot day.

Served

Getting a ticket. It's not that he's getting a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot which might be a couple hundred dollars, but he's in the gr/eats lot getting served by the parking enforcement but he was eating at Furaibo. I'm not sure how people think 1) parking in a lot that's not Furaibo's parking lot, and 2) in a handicapped spot, is alright. But 3), why didn't car next to him who parked within the blue lines of the handicapped spot didn't get a ticket? We've towed cars of seniors, deaf, and pregnant, but this might be the best deterrent. I'm not sure why some people park illegally and expect that they'll get away with it over and over, and I don't understand why some people are adamant about being jerks when they're wrong. Is it a defense mechanism?

Formula One F1 Robot

New GR shirts alert. Yes, finally got the Formula One F1 Robot done. It took a lot of design, experimenting, and even a failure to get it right. There's a couple of other shirts that just got done, and more on the way. I'm making efforts to design a few more shirts. I draw in Illustrator with no mouse or Wacom. I'm using the track pad and my index finger, and usually I do this stuff while I'm watching TV - preferably Law and Order Criminal Intent or SVU.

That's Jordan Fu who works at GR holding up the shirt. Will any females buy this shirt? I didn't think so...

This is Abby wearing the new brown cap with yellow robot. It's SD Padres-ish, forgive me Dodger fans.

Suburbia by Richard Linklater

Does anyone like Suburbia by Richard Linklater as much as me? 1996, I think the word to describe a generation of kids coming of age was Slacker which was ironically, Richard Linklater's break out film title. Usually rating a 6 or a 7, a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, and that's about it. It's a two hour film, which I keep hoping is going to come out on DVD, but it hasn't. I found a torrent and got to rewatch this again and again. I think the work is genius.

Imagine a group of kids from Burnfield, USA where ever that is, who hang out in front of 7-11. They drink, hang out, and goof around. There's the ex military dude who was the local high school's star quarterback now a drunk, the goof ball played by Steve Zahn, the cerebral over analyzer Giovanni Ribisi, his girlfriend the upbeat but crappy "artist" who plans to go to art school and move to the big city, the local girl who seems to have nothing special going for her, but a drinking problem, and the young South Asian couple who own the 7-11. The night is young and they're waiting for their once friend from Burnfield now rock star, Pony to come visit them. He shows up with Parker Posey and that's when the drama begins. He rides up in a limo, checks out Ribisi's girlfriend, pisses off Ribisi, since he's the big star artist and he's not, meanwhile, almost everyone makes fun of the convenience store owner because he's South Asian. Then as the film goes, you realize the South Asian guy has a point as he often gets pissed off at his peers who have it all and have nothing, while he has to struggle. Meanwhile, the kids point is that they're being spoon fed everything, but can't make anything with it. As the film continues you find how you value each person, and you don't quite know who's right or wrong if there is such a thing here. Each makes their points.

Why isn't it on DVD?
Frontal nudity by Giovanni Ribisi?

Supposedly it's Warner Brothers and they don't license their films to Criterion. Linklater wants the film to be a Criterion edition. However in an interview in 2007, he mentions that it's coming out in september (2007). But it never came out...

So I downloaded the torrent that's formatted for TV. Better than nothing.

12 Free iPhone Apps Store Items

The new iPhone applications are actually, pretty fun. I haven't paid for one yet, but the freebies work decent.

a) First I'm going to guess that the new iPhone software helps battery conservation. I swear the power is lasting longer now. I used to leave the wifi on and boof, the phone is dead. But now it seems to give me some more juice.

b) You can't help but check out the app store button every so often. I used to surf for web apps on computer, but now I don't have to. Hit that button and see what you get for free or on the cheap.

c) The GPS works great. I've already pulled over (yes, we have hands free law in California) many times to see where I'm at and to find where I'm going. It's bailed me out a few times now. I still do it caveman style, I'll map myself, then I'll just look around for the streets I'm trying to find, I'm sure typing it is easier, but I always think I'm faster doing it my way. 

d) The new software update actually prolonged me needing to get the new 3G version. The old one seems fine.

Here's the 12 Apps Store items.

1) AIM, enough said, that's going to work, and it's probably better than meebo. It loads faster too. You still can't get multiple chats going in one open window, and it would be nice if it could stay up while you check email since sometimes that's what chatting is about. You chat, send an email, chat, send another email, etc. Links too for that matter. We all need to get Rickrolled on the iPhone.
2) Remote control your iTunes if you're on a network. Great if you're into music and your laptop is going to be your jukebox.
3) Jott, what was this for? It's some kind of recording software for sound. I tried it and there has to be a better one.
4) Facebook. Yes, this works great. It loads what you and your friends are doing. It optimized just right. 
5) NY Times. Want the news? This loads quick and looks better than the LA Times optimized version. Get on it, my people! 
6) Twitterific. Twitter of course, works great and better. Slowly the iPhone, Twitter, and Facebook are going to bring more people together just by those hourly updates. Will Twitter survive, now that Facebook's little updater is becoming used so much?
7) Ebay. Follow them auctions and again, it loads quick and easy to use. It's no frills.
8) Where - Whrrl - etc. Which one is going to win and become the "social networking" Yelp for Iphone. Or is one of the regulars like Yelp going to step up and take it all away.
9) Aol Radio. When in need, you got radio and lots of it on the iphone. The thing is where can I tune into Jim Rome?
10) Google. Duh.
11) Shazam - haven't tried it yet, but you're supposed to be able to put the phone near a music source, and it'll ID it for you. So when you're in a mall and the muzak sounds great. Raise that iPhone.
12) Phone Saber - yes, turns the phone into a light saber. It sounds like a light saber, looks like one, swing it around and it sounds like one. When you get angry, pull out the saber and slice the padawans down. This is the one I use most.

Estevan Oriol and studio

I met with Mr Revelli of Upper Playground at a studio in downtown. It's not anything ordinary, it's the studio of artist / tattoo artist Mr Cartoon and photographer Estevan Oriol. Conventional wisdom says that it's dangerous there, but no, Estevan is the nicest guy around, and didn't hesitate to show me a cross section of his work including some folks who are no longer with us. He even photographed the portrait for the poster. I'm sure he freaked out the two big stars, since Estevan isn't an ordinary photographer. Part of what you get is his raw style and eye. The weird thing is that a part of his youth was spent very close to my house. His day lived 4 or 5 blocks up, while he lived in Santa Monica. He said, the kids of the old school gangs are back.

See his site and his works.

Here, he shows me what camera he likes to use. It's a simple Canon. He was showing me other cameras too. His first one that he liked using was an old Polaroid. 

That's a Mr Cartoon thing.

Yeah he hates being photographed. The more you hate it, the better it is. This is what a CEO looks like.

The cars... a bunch of them. The studio is like a car shop.

Evidently, Mr Cartoon was in their shop tattooing Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns. The high profile may happen in their new shop on Skid Row. There's an Upper Playground there too.

Money Mark back from the Jack Johnson tour now at Goodwill

Money Mark at the Goodwill. Yeah, that's not the best sounding thing ever, meeting at a Goodwill. Me looking for weird crap, Mark looking at an old piano he wants for a special sound. He took a seat and caught up on what was going on amidst junk. Mark was funny showing me how cool this piano was with ivory keys (yeah, that's bad), and ebony keys. Does ivory sound better? 

The piano shuts down like a box. Mark's been on tour with Jack Johnson. He just got back and is now going to produce some music - for which this piano will work well. If you don't know mark use Google. He keyboarded for the Beastie Boys, wrote many of their best songs with them too, has solo albums, and some cool music videos.

This is neat, he's recording the sound with his cell phone to find out if the tuning is okay. He also said that if you punch in 123456789 - it's a C scale. Is that true?

Yeah, it's his now. After seeing him, we vowed to keep in better touch. 

GRNY show time Le Merde Snaggs and Scrappers

Hard to give this justice until you see it, but the magic of Le Merde, Snaggs, and Scrappers are pretty awesome at GRNY. I have no idea how he makes these and they look effortless and just right. They fit the style, even though they may not be perfectly molded. There's stuff inside them, and he makes that work too. When the world is caught up on manufacturing toys, this dude, Le Merde makes his own.

We decided the guy on the left in back with the racket is the best. 

That's work by Scrappers. He looks like a woodsman and his work is woody looking too.

Finally, this is the work of Snaggs. She incorporates pop culture perfect into her work. It's felt, but it's imagery and certainly means more than what you might think. The kids from Portland are all right.

NY Times and Chinese architecture GR54.

Architecture in China is changing. There's a tiny bit about it in the latest GR54. After looking through the article, it's a great feeling to have just been there and checked all this out and know the scale and grandeur of each of the things they talk about. But actually there's a bit more, and maybe you'll see that in the latest GR. I'll post some photos of my own adventures to these spots really soon. Check out the link.You'll see clearer photos. Mine are pretty good too and I walked right up to the top photo building while in construction!