Otakon 2008

A quick head's up: I will be attending Otakon 2008 in August. I'll be going with Erin Ptah, who's helping me with accommodations. If there's any interest in an OO gathering at the con, post here if you're going and I'll try to set up a meeting spot.

I'll be participating in the anime LARP, playing Watanuki from xxxHolic (my first choice of Itoshiki from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was already taken). If you've already signed up, feel free to post what character you'll be playing. Otherwise, you need to wait until the Friday of the con.

OO Round the 'Net

Most of you have probably heard of T. Campbell (his webcomic, Fans!, was one of the first I read). Campbell also runs Webcomics.com, a relative newcomer to the field of webcomic blogging.

Two recent Webcomics.com articles I thought I'd point out: one about Wikipedia, where he mentions OO's newly restored Wiki page; and another with his monthly webcomic rankings, where he notes that he'll now be keeping track of Strange Candy's traffic activity. It's flattering to see a person as well-established as T. Campbell taking note of OO.

Strange Candy Wiki Page is BACK!

Okashina Okashi - Strange Candy

Good news, everyone! Back in June 2006, OO's Wiki page was deleted thanks to the fanatical anti-webcomic efforts of Dragonfiend and other deletionists. Almost 2 years later and their efforts have been successfully undone!

A fan of the comic recreated the page using info from OO's Comixpedia entry. It was brought up for deletion by Dragonfiend (no surprise there), went to to AfD discussion, and when the ruling came in the admins of Wikipedia saw fit to rule in favor of keeping it.

It would've been nice if this had been the ruling back in 2006, but a victory now is just as awesome, especially in light of the mass culling of webcomic articles that went on in 2007. So go forth, readers, and make OO's Wiki page a good one!

Re: Super Tuesday

Several other webcomics have seen fit to weigh in on today, so here's my advice to those voting today (I don't get to vote until April):

To Democrats:

Vote for Obama. I know you hate losing and there's no Republican candidate who can beat him. What he lacks in experience he makes up for in a willingness to learn and ask questions. He also lacks a closet full of vicious skeletons that the Republicans can use against him.

If you want a repeat of Kerry vs. Bush in 2004, vote for Hillary. Republicans are more fractured and unhappy than they've ever been, but she'll succeed in uniting them for another 51% win.

To Republicans:

DON'T vote for McCain. Seriously, guys. Remember 1996? Remember how Bob Dole got his head handed to him? Be smarter than that. McCain's idea of "bipartisanship" is to give everyone all the pork they ask for. You don't want a guy like that representing your party. This is doubly true if the Democrats go with Obama.

If you're really smart, you'll vote for Ron Paul, since he's the only Republican running who appears to have a handle on economics, health care, and foreign policy. Bush Sr. lost in 1992 because he couldn't handle economic issues like inflation. The Democrats are going to trumpet the issue of "universal health care," so you'd better have a candidate who knows something about medicine. And it would be a nice strategy not to turn away the 70% of voters (a good chunk of which are Republicans) who oppose the war.

Still, even if you don't want to go for the optimal candidate, at least try to avoid the worst!

Comic Project Anniversary & 11/29 Comic

For the 11/29 comic: if you recognize who the old guy in the first two panels is, then you've been paying attention to the 2008 Presidential Election in the US. Good for you! I've put the comic on Digg; feel free to bump it up and spread the OO love.

Many thanks to Emi-chan for posting the Create a Comic Project's 1-year anniversary comic and for her help in making the comic project possible. Several other sites posted anniversary material as well:

And Shine Heaven Now
Dr. McNinja
Faking Life
John Su (DevArt)
Krakow

You can also read about it on Fleen. The CCP's 2nd year will be quite interesting!

And in Wikinews...

In an interesting turn of events, Wikinews, the Wikipedia related service that allows anyone to report events, now has an article detailing the mass purge of webcomic articles that occurred back in Jan-Feb of '07: "Wikimedia fundraiser highlights webcomic community's frustration with Wikipedia guidelines."

I recommend giving it a read, since Strange Candy's own Wikipedia article was deleted by the same people (Dragonfiend) who spearheaded the 2007 purge.

It's nice to know some of the big names in webcomics aren't taking Wikipedia's poor handling of webcomic articles passively. It's a proper exercise of capitalist freedom not to monetarily support an organization whose actions you disagree with. Kudos to Howard Tayler!

Geneon USA RIP

According to AnimeNation News, Geneon USA, the third largest anime licenser in North America, has essentially ceased operations. They will no longer supply any new DVD's to the market, nor will they license anymore series. Geneon in Japan is fine, it's just the American branch shutting down.

According to some sources, the main reason for this is because Geneon's Japanese owner, Dentsu, no longer thinks Geneon is profitable. One reason is because Geneon licensed a number of duds, costing them market share. There's also the general downturn in music and movie sales that's been impacting the anime industry, caused primarily by economic woes (not piracy, as the propaganda would have you believe).

One positive trend I've noted with US anime releases is the inclusion of extras with the DVDs. Geneon was doing a fair job at it. The sleek metal case with Black Lagoon vol 1 was great, as are some of the bonuses with Hellsing Ultimate. Those specials are how companies earn their money, since it shows they're willing to put in extra work on their titles and not just give you what any guy with a computer can put on the Internet.

Things are still in the air on what will happen to Geneon's titles. It's likely the most popular ones will be picked up by other companies (hopefully not 4Kids!), but expect significant delays. This means Higurashi, Black Lagoon, and Hellsing Ultimate - all of which were still in the middle of being released - won't be coming out with new volumes for a while. It's also possible that several series Geneon has the license for will revert back to unlicensed status, ending their R1 in-print status.

For Hellsing fans like myself, this development is ironic, given how long it was after the TV series before they started doing a "correct" Hellsing series and all the delays that have plagued the OVA itself. At least there are assurances the voice acting cast won't change.

So, get your Geneon DVD's while supplies last!