Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Books - New
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3379: Martin T Pierro, Publisher at Cosmic Times, sent me the 1st issue of this 5 issue mini-series just before its preview at the MegaCon in Florida this past weekend! I've already review blogged Martin's own series, Arthur - The Legend Continues #1, and this is the first mini-series that he is publishing that he didn't create. Here's the publisher's promo on this series: "Set against the backdrop of intergalactic corporate manipulation, Souled follows the crew and passengers of the space-freighter Another Man’s Trash as they uncover a mystery on the edge of the universe that transcends even the barriers of life and death. “Souled” is a five-issue FULL COLOR mini-series from Cosmic Times that made its premiere March 25th 2011 at MegaCon in Orlando." So what is 'My Take' on this series? First of all, I didn't see the Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2010 Edition of this comic book. So for an intro issue to a five issue story arc... I thought that the concept shown here in issue #1, (of 5), was an interesting one. The Splash Page used most of the space to tell us what had happened and what was happening in the future of the Universe of 'Souled'. Which was a good intro, as the front cover showed four individuals that didn't exactly give me an idea of what this series would be about. The 2nd page of the interior pages displayed the credits. It wasn't until the 3rd page that the story actually started. The storyline picked up, introducing the main character and showed the reader what the cargo of the space ship was. The artwork was fine, however the colors at first threw me slightly 'off', until I realized that this spaceship didn't have the brighter illuminations inside that a lot of space stories present. The 'action' sequences of the storyline picked up the pace until all too soon, at page 24, the 'To Be Continued' phrase was shown at the bottom right of the page! The inside back page was a repost of the credits from page 2, but laid out in a different format. Plus there was the messages from the crators with thier thanks to supporting friends & family. The back cover was a 'house ad' for 'Decisions' from CosmicTimes.net. I found the concept presented in this 1st of 5 issues mini-series to be one I would want to follow. The 'set-up' of the future and the main characters was done well by Christopher Faulkner. The pencils by Zach Bassett and the inks by James Whynot meshed well with the storyline. The colors by Kevin Zeigler was the only thing that seemed not to mesh as well for me, but I'm thinking that 'lighting' the interiors of the space ship was what threw me off. I'll wait to see how the planet's colors are shown, in the next issue, before making a final 'call' on that aspect. All in all, I believe this is a fine start for the first mini-series published by CosmicTimes.net that was not also created by Publisher Martin T Pierro. My review rating for this '1st Issue' is a VERY FINE PLUS (VF+) 8.5 out of a 10.0 possible comic book grading scale. For those of YOU that would like to see more of this concept, please check out their Facebook Group Page: Cosmic Times. For the web site of this series, where YOU can purchase a copy of the first issue, please see: CosmicTimes.net My thanks to Publisher, Martin T Pierro, for bringing this new series to my attention! ~Michael D Hamersky
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My dad and I took in a small portion of the panel 'Getting Members for your Anime Club'. I found it interesting, as they discussed many ways to keep it fun and interactive for club members. I also found it prove useful for other kinds of clubs as well. I took some notes just in case they prove use for me. 
We viewed the panel 'The Destruction of Tokyo'. It discussed why the Japanese love to destroy their capital city. The host was quite humorous and greatly described answers to questions related to why they destroy Tokyo. He had a well presented PowerPoint presentation that showed snapshots of some movies that all destroyed Tokyo. It shed some light to the pieces of history that are not usually covered in modern schools. 
The 'Origins of Manga' panel was hosted by Edgar Vera. He showed us a PowerPoint about the history of manga and anime. He was very educated on the subject and I felt I learned quite a bit about manga and anime. As we finished early, he also discussed about his convention he runs about manga. Everyone was interested in attending which was cool, as it shows that they want to learn more and more about manga.
Thanks Vinnie for reporting on Days 2 & 3 of the 2011 Anime Conji!
My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and the archived blog posts, now over 3,375 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!
Welcome to my take on Anime Conji Day 2!
My dad and I viewed a panel about making, using, and wearing props and accessories. It talked in depth about each of those topics, and I found it quite interesting what trouble most of the cosplayers go through to make their costumes. You have to make sure any weapons are equally weighted on both ends, otherwise it will be quite uncomfortable to carry. I also found it interesting when they were talking about proportions, as it made me think of poor costumes I had seen at earlier events due to lack of equal proportioning. A good example would be if one dressed up as Sephiroth from the Final Fantasy series. He has a sword that is longer than he is tall, so when building the sword, you must have it longer than you. A 5 foot tall man will need a 6 foot long sword, but a 6 foot tall man will need a 7 foot long sword to be proportionate to the character. It greatly matters on the proportions. 
My dad and I got the chance to view the game room which was great fun. They had many platforms of games to play, including XBox, PlayStation 2, Wii, and GameCube, all the way to SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). People were also welcomed to bring any handheld games to play with others in the room. They also had tournaments for some of these games, such as the new Pokemon Black and White for Nintendo DS, SSBB (Super Smash Bros. Brawl) for Wii, and Halo Reach for XBox 360. There were many more game tournaments as well; 7 to be exact. However, they did have an entry fee of $2, but they did offer prizes to the winners. 
In the Charlie's Plaza area of the resort, they held a place for cosplayers to walk around and model for pictures if asked. 
The masquerade was fun to watch, and had a wide array of characters spread between the 15 entries. However, the line to enter the room that was hosting the masquerade was extremely long and led outside of the building. It was 46 minutes after it was supposed to start when everyone was finally in the room being seated. 
So yesterday, (Friday), I drove down to the 2nd Annual Anime Conji. Unfortunately it was pouring rain in the early morning drive. Not good for the 1st day of a convention that is held at a hotel setting, where the panels & events are held either in different rooms you have to access by going outside, or events that were scheduled to be outside. But this being my first 'official' Anime Con, I still wanted to go on the first day!
Again, the staff and volunteers made the line workable and those in line where I was, were very understanding. If you are going today, (Saturday), or Sunday, please allow enough time to either get registered or pick up your prepaid membership badges!
After that I took in the 'Steam Powered Giraffe' musical group, which I watched for a short while, after it took a while to set up.