Tsukkomi! (Tsukuba Comic Festa) 2011

Tsukkomi! (Tsukuba Comic Festa) 2011 was held this weekend in Ibaraki, Tsukuba.

I attended the final day, Sunday. After a Stormy Friday and Saturday, finally it was actually a very nice day to be at this convention this Sunday.

I went after meeting a few awesome folks back in Wonfes last week. While they had a small vendors and Doujinshi circle section, a lot of the focus was on cosplay- Mainly the Open Area and the Cosplay Fashion Show, as well as the Live Shows that were held after the days events.

Tsukuba is a easy trip from Akihabara, one line- the Tsukuba Express.

Comiket 79 Mash Up Report

Hey gang, what's happenin? Comiket 79 has come and gone, It was one crazy week. I didn't have much time since I had to work immediately after comiket, but I can finally blog now that I'm done with New Years work. Lets get started...

This year, I met up with a couple of fellas. Some from our last venture in the summer, and also some new faces joined our party. Of Course, all otaku-like, we met up in Akihabara. 

Comiket 78 Cosplay (Belated, again)

Pretty Nice Cosplays this year at Summer Comiket~

Taken on Saturday and Sunday :D

Warning: P3 (Picture Packed Post)

Comiket 78 Report (Belated, yes)

Well, again belated, but I should post it for goodness sake.

Comic Market 78, the first Comiket I applied to as a circle and didn't make it in. Might have been a good thing though, I managed to go with bunch of awesome dudes and even got to try out lining up from midnight (that's NO NO kids, you don't line up all night!! *wink*wink*) Anyways, here we go:

Our team assembled at Rinsabers hotel, got a nice view of Ariake from the Daiba Hotel.

Kxela Survived Comiket Report (part b)

Comiket 76 day 3, August 16:

Ahhh so this day I only had one table to see in mind so I took it easy and got to comiket at 7:00.

The wait to get in wasn`t so bad, we were placed on a sidewalk with shade. The final line up to get in was painful though, 15 minutes in the sun and then 5 to get in.

I really had to use the bathroom, so the crowd sorta forced my direction, I ended up going to the commercial booths first. I then found out that you can pretty much go to anyt booth on the third day and get what you want before having to wait in line-

I was able to go to these tables: Leaf, Cospa, Good Smile Company and a couple other animation studios or goods companies.

At Good Smile company all the FumoFumo characters were sold out but I got my hands on this:



Comiket 76 release Nendoroid Hakurei Reimu! XD

I also got:



Leaf`s goods set (mainly for the bag cause I foolishly didnt bring my backpack)
and



K-on! Tote from Cospa~ I used it that day to carry my stuff

Well After wards I went to the west halls to see the table I wanted to see-


A22b- thats RYUSUKE HAMAMOTO`s table. Unfortunately both times I went, the artist himself wasn`t there. But I did get his books:



I also got books from:


RANGE MURATA



and WHITEPAPER

and a bunch of other amazing artists:



I was able to get a sketch again today~



Thats the awesome thing about Comiket: you buy the comics/books directly from the artists and you even have a chance to get original art from them as a gift ^^

...although some tables are super busy (like popular ones) or some just aren`t ready to do sketches (ie they didnt bring materials to do so). I tried three tables today I think, the last one had a eraser by her so I figured she had her drawing stuff with her. Looks like she does original comics, the one I bought was super cute ^//^

...
well that pretty much wraps up my report.
here`s a semi-decent picture of me failing to get the big sight building in the snapshot of myself (its that thing in the middle right hand side) as proof I went there:




by the way Touhou Hisoutensoku is frickin awesome.
GO Sanae, Chirno, Chuugoku!
Theres a fair amount of new characters from what I`ve played :3

well cya!

Kxela Survived Comiket Report (part a)

Well to start, I guess I have to say- There is no place anywhere else on earth like Tokyo Big Sight on Comic Market Weekend.

Well there was only one thing on my must get list: 東方非想天則－Touhou hisoutensoku, aka the new Scarlet Whether Rhapsody by Twilight Frontier. That Circle was at East A28, on Saturday.

But I went all three days. Lets start the madness report now:


Comiket 76 Day 1, Firday August 14th:

Day 1 was pretty much all anime stuff, I went on Friday to learn how to get to Big Sight and learn the layout of the event. Getting there was quite easy, I was only couple of train changes from　where I`m staying. First train- normal. Second Train-alright. Third train:



and by the way, this is only day 1.

Well I actually got there fairly early, 7:00. Comiket opens at ten, but there were quite a bit of people there already. But We got to line up in the 4th section (I think) of the East entrance.



In a few hours, this area will be packed:



Like so.
I brought stuff I needed- a fan, towel, foldup rain coat, cell, food, drinks-



And my DS of course, which saved me from dying of boredom:


Some people on pictochat actually congratulated me on my first time attending comiket lol.

Well, that covers about HOW I waited equally for each day.

........
anyways I really didnt take all that many pictures while I was there but, I`ll only show you how crowded it was ONCE:





So yeah, the bottom picture- thats pretty much how crowded it was EVERYWHERE and EVERYDAY.

Here`s a fun fact, you know that building you see in pretty much all comiket related anime episodes? :



yeah
FACT: that building is only HALF of the entire convention.

...I really dont want to do a minute by minute report so here`s the summary for friday:

First thought: Sea of people, literally. East building was for mainly Anime doujinshin, West side was was divided into two- Bottom floor Doujinshi, top floor was for commercial booths. It was hot. And my legs hurt the entire time. People were moving like water molecules in a river- go with the flow or go with the flow. Comiket is a battlefield.
If I had to compare Comiket with the conventions I`ve been to, then comiket is like the size of Megacon, double the attendance, and then multiply by TEN.

(gets pelted with stones)
okay okay, I know that wasnt the stuff you wanna see.
You want to know what treasures I was able to get :3 hehheh.
well uploading all of them is a pain so here`s one with everything (from　friday):



OKay from the top starting with the stuff I got from commercial booths:
Exit Trance Best 7 CD, Manga Time Kirara Cross Over Comiket Special, Pivix Books- Vocaloid and Touhou. The rest is a mix of K-on!, Touhou, vocaloid, Hidamari Sketch, and others.

Thus ends day 1 of Comiket.
----------------------------------------------------------

Comiket 76 Day 2, August 15:

So- 6:30 was good enough to be on time yesterday, so 5:30 is definitely gonna be early today, right?

WRONG.

Arrival at 6:30- There was more people already there than when I arrived yesterday.
Saturday is bigger, I`d almost double attendance wouldnt be off.




Well, it took about 25 minutes to get in. Notice, we were on the West side this time, which meant I had to hurry to the east side to get to Twilight Frontiers table.

I got there, and there already was a huge line. And I ended up waiting in the wrong line for a few minutes until I realized-


THATS THE SIGN I SHOULD BE LINING UP BEHIND... then what line was I lined up in?



oh awesome, I was behind the original touhou booth, Touhou Project Shanghai Alice. As much as I wanted to stay in that line, they werent my main target. So I changed lines- just before it started to grow into a "snake" line (one that wraps around).



So many people...... I was afraid they`d sell out by the time I get there.

But luckily:



my efforts were not in vain.

I spent my entire day in the Touhou Area.
Well, before going home I went by the Cosplay area #2:



(makes you wonder how big cosplay area #1 was....)

Well, I`ll just post some photos I took:










I went home in the dreaded heat.

Todays Gold Result:


I was able to get a lot of combo packages with fun stuff ^^
Everything I bought today was touhou except those Narcissu ones on the bottom.-



Cream of the crop. Touhou hisoutensoku, Advent Cirno, and ちょぼらうにょぽみ`s book XD



One artist did some nice Tei Books, I asked for a sketch and happily got one ^^



.................
I forgot Sundays Pictures at home.
Guess there`ll be a part b to this post.
Shame, cause Sunday was actually THE BEST.

see you then!

Kxela

Megacon 2009 Chronicles...

Well, I say. The trip to, at, from Megacon is something worth recording down.
Here begins the tale of such a journey to Orlando FL in 2009...

*WARNING EPIC LONG POST*

Friday-(10:00am)
K well, I woke up early ate breakfast and finished packing. I didnt have too much stuff since I didnt have a table at the con this weekend. My friend Dee from Ai asked if my fiends and I wanted to stay at her hotel the weekend so It turned out that I was going to drive up to Orlando with my friend carpooling.
Well, she got up late, our journey started at around...noon-ish.

Friday- (1:30pm)
Stranded in the middle of the highway (I-95), at Mile mark 97, Sitting on a blanket and sunbathing. wait what?
Well we drove an hour on the highway and the front drivers side tire- BLEW OUT. We were on the left lane so we pulled over SAFELY, no one or thing was injured. We attepted to change the blown tire with a spare tire... but we lacked a crank to do so.

Friday- (2:00pm)
well, were were next to a call box, Dee hit it while I did a worthless call to a travel service. A highway patrol came and helped us get a towing service. It cost us $50 to get a TEMPORARY TIRE (aka donut) put on our car. We had to drive to Stuart in order to find a new tire.

Friday- (3:00pm)
We drove to a walmart in Stuart, Who told us that we can get a new tire and have it done in 45 minutes. We spent 20 looking around in Walmart.

Friday- (3:20pm)
Walmart said they couldnt put the tire on because their POLICY says that they cant add tires to cars with custom rims. yeah.... so appearantly Dee's car had custom rims. yes, very tasty BS indeed.

Friday- (4:00pm)
we found a tire shop across the street, saying they could do it with no problems.
Dee called her friend Brian and we had pizza and hung out at Gamestop until the car was fixed.

Friday- (5:00-6:00pm)
Well were were back on track. Only that the car still had problems. It kept shaking and the gas wouldnt work (got stuck) when ever we tried to go around 70 on the turnpike.
We endured it, but it was another problem we had to fix later.

Friday- (8:00pm)
Well after getting lost at Downtown, we finally found our way to the hotel. Simon came a little afterwards (party= 3 ppl) We were walking bout a quarter ways to the con when we hitched a bicycle bench rickshaw peddler, which we rode nicely to the con. Peddling Paul was his name.

Friday- (9:00pm)
We met up with chris (:iconpawpaw:) at Megacon (party=4) , which was of course pretty much over already. We hung out where they had a huge projector and had a PS3 with Naruto ninja storm and had a little tournament we were all forced to join. There was a Pedobear cosplayer who handed out Yo-yo's to everyone, I had some fun messing around with the yoyos.

Friday...er Saturday- (12:00am)
We had dinner at Bahama Beach or whatever the restaurant was called. It was pretty good. I had Shrimp Linguine and Dee and I split a Key lime cheese cake.

Saturday (2:00-4:00am)
WE made Magic the gathering decks from a bunch of cards Dee brought and did a epic 4 player free for all duel. Dee won. Simon was 2nd, I was third, Chris was first out.
We went to bed at four, though it did take about 30 minutes for us to actually fall asleep.

Saturday (8:00am)
Chris had the nerve to wake me up THIS EARLY. We walked to Walgreens to get some drinks and medicine....cause Chris felt a bit sick. We made Cup Ramen with the Coffee machine that we had to ask the hotel to bring to our room (there wasnt one initially).

Saturday (10:00am)
Well, Chris didnt want to walk to the con even if it was less than a mile away so we took the car. We were dressed up. I was Zero (Code Geass), Chris was a Jedi, and Simon was a martial arts dude. We split up there after.

Saturday (til 4)
Well I did some browsing, found some cool stuff, got a gundam model (00Raiser). I went to the artist alley but didnt get to see many familiars that day. I went by :iconsakura02:'s table to hand her a Li book she wanted to get but turns out she was sick. I handed the book to her friends and wished them well.

I played DDR in my Zero outfit (no mask but still)

I ran into a Code Geass Cosplay group, There was a Kallen, C.C., Kaguya, Rakshata, and me Zero. Took some cool pictures. I was gonna have lunch with them but Simon and his new formed party wanted to go to the Costume Contest. I joined. Heard Chris left to the hotel cause he really wasnt feeling well.

Satuday (7:00pm)
Well the Costume Contest... was a costume contest. We waited in line for a good hour to get in. It was ok, not anything special. They did have a raffle for the audience, but of course like hell I would win. With our empty hands we left after seeing who won the frickin Frost Sword.

Saturday (8:30pm)
We went to Mcdonalds. Simon and I wanted Fast food. I had a Quarter Pounder.

Saturday (9:30pm)
Well it was time to part with Chris and Simon, they were only planning to stay on Saturday anyways. They left and Chris also "left" his phone charger at the hotel. We were soon joined by two of Dee's friends Brian (from stuart who decided to come Saturday) and another friend. They stayed at the hotel and hung out, I wanted to check out the Rave.

Saturday (10:30pm)
I almost got in. But the Rave room was packed and they enforced a line to get with all these security guards. I decided to just walk around til the line got smaller but it didn't. I waited in line for a half an hour to an hour to get in. Although I did win a glow stick when they were doing a trivia for the people waiting. I answered correctly "where did the original caramell dansen DANCE come from?" ... haha

Saturday (11:30pm)
I got to rave for a hour maybe. I met a friend/fellow Code Geass cosplayer (no I wasnt in costume for the Rave) that a have met at like all previous cons I've been to. I didnt know she Raved but it was fun to be able to dance around with someone I knew.

Saturday/Sunday (12:00am)
I was out. Beat. Slept as soon as I walked back to the hotel.

Sunday (8:00am)
The four of us went to the lobby to get breakfast. I had some coffee and a apple cinnamon muffin.

Sunday (10:00am)
Check out from the hotel was at noon. We decided to run out early. Dee had to see what was wrong with her car. The other three of us went searching for a Wachovia bank for a whole half hour but only to turn around and go back. I was dropped off at the con.

Sunday (1:00pm)
Well, I did more last minute browsing. I got some manga, some Knightmare figures, and some Higurashi mini figures. After a while I met up with Dee, who told me the other two left already (party = 2) She said she was meeting another one of her friends soon.

Sunday (3:00pm)
well Dee met up with her friend and went off to the dealers room. I read my manga i bought and headed to the dealers room as well. I went to the artist alley again and looked around and found some cool stuff. I saw :iconcetriya: at her table finally, she was gone the last three times I went to see her.

I had to go meet one of Chris's friends and hand him the charger her forgot at the hotel.

I met up with some CG cosplayers again, and we took some more pictures.
the total amount of People that wanted my picture: 70+

Sunday (6:00)
I met up with Dee and three of her friends, we decided to have dinner before going so we went to Houlihans. They had pretty good food. Our other party members were school mates studying Graphic Design. I had a awesome chicken wrap with a couple of beers XD;

After that we met up with friends of their friends and went to friendly's for icecream.
Spent some good time there.

Sunday (9:00)
Well, it sure wasnt the choicest time to be traveling for 4 hours, but I had to get back by today. So we left. A juggle with the GPS and getting lost, we finally found our way to I-4 and then to I-95. It was cold, Dee's car has no heater. But we chatted away and listened to music then switched after a while.

Monday (1:30am)
Running out of gas, stopped at West Palm to fill up. Dee was asleep.
Just another half hour til home.

Monday (2:00am)
Finally home. Said bye to Dee and then was greeted by my brother who wanted to see what I got for him. I unpacked all, put up my toys i bought, read Kekkaishi, and went to bed.

Monday (1:30pm)
Damn, I over slept and was late to class. But I was cool about it. It all turned out well.

Monday (3:00pm)
.........
I'm typing this journal and uh...OMG someones attacking meh.....

JK

well thats the Chronicals of Megacon 2009.
My fingers are numb now cause the computer lab is freezing cold.
and I need some food now.

I will update this journal with links to pics and stuff later.

thanks for reading lol

Mizucon report

End of the year con, two days after Christmas, Mizucon was rather bland.
Sure I wasnt expecting anything amazing from a first time con but it was a bit disappointing, and the facts show they did a couple of things to achieve such a result.

1- date. Yeah, not the best time to have a con. THey thought otherwise according to their site. Plus it was a Sat-Mon con. I think that threw everyone off. They did it probably cause they didnt want to have the event right after Christmas, but I think it might have been better if they did.
2- THere was so little to do there. dealers room, 1 videogame room, 1 panel room, 1 main event room, 2 videorooms, and oh yesh, artist alley. Sounds alright, but the placement of them was a facepalm... They put the artist alley by the videorooms rather than the dealers room. And who exactly goes to the anime viewing rooms?- people who start to get bored, at least to me. The flow of people in the artist alley was terrible, there probably was less than 10 people max in the alley (who werent artists).

....that about wraps it up. I did just barely okay with the booth, no one asked for comissions but the new stuff sold a bit.
I forgot part of my costume on sunday so I didnt enter the contest. THough actually remembering the stress from the last con made me not want to enter in the first place. I was Student Lulu day 1, Zero day 2, and then Student Lulu with the cape and helmet on day 3. I didnt take pictures, but people did. I'll look for them.

The dealers room was pretty cool, not awesome, but they had some decent dealers (saw some friends) and had some nice sales. I got
a couple of import magazines and some fun toys, and 1 Kekkaishi manga.

I didnt even step in the game room.

Food there was typical, wasnt prepare Saturday.

IT was pretty disappointing, even Yasumicon which is free to attend was better than $35 weekend pass Mizucon.

But otherwise as I said I want expecting anything extra extravagant, I had fun seeing fellow friends and artists
After all thats what the point has become- to hang out...
though it could have been better.

Lets try harder next time Mizucon!





ON a brighter note, my next confirmed sorta con is Hatsume Fair
at the Morikami Museums in March. The best part is, I live like 10 minutes away from there. It sounds like its gonna be fun, Morikami's events are usually full of people, and having an anime portion sounds like a great idea.


time to get back to work.

Pre-Mizucon weeekend Madness~

Heading off to Mizucon.
.
.
.
Tomorrow. o_o
Wait what itsnt it friday today?

Mizucon is from Dec 27-29. Thats a Saturday through monday schedule.
Talk about weird. I gotta work today to make up for getting off on monday then -3-
but I needs the money.

LOL I was all rushing this morning printing everything. Then I wrote down the date and was like ".....Dec 26?" then I ran to the postcard ad of mizucon I have on my bulletin board. "Dec 27-29" I just about fainted.

Well at least now I have everything about prepared, I can relax tomorrow morning and head out smoothly.

Speaking of which some weird things happened this morning.
I was at Kinkos and I wanted to get some of my arts printed for prints. Then the lady looks at my stuff and was like "did you download this/get this from somewhere" and then I said "I made it" and then even more she asks "is this your signature" on my works.

-3- I dunno whether to feel complimented or insulted. Either I've gotten good enough for people to think that my work looks like some other pros, or I've been accused of stealing art.

Well, she didnt really look like a Kinkos worker. She was in casual clothes and not in the usual uniform. No wonder she was a bit weird. Cause usually the dudes Kinkos just DO THEIR JOB and MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS instead of sticking their heads where it shouldnt go.

.
.
.
man, I sound pissed. Maybe cause its not con day today :<

oh well. after work I can spend the day making last minute new arts or play Mabinogi (the MMO by Nexon that I've been playing)

Webcomic updation

-3- feeling a little better but still got coughs.

I updated Li today. For this sixth time this Year.
Man thats bad, 1 update a month, 6times for each comic.
where am I gonna go like that!?

Well as I posted I'm going to start update 5-5-5-5
meaning five Li pages, then 5 Nc pages, etc.

that way I'll have my mind on one story for long enough
before I switch instead of having to switch every page.
----
I've taken up using the nib/ink dip pen. It's pretty nice,
...well it comes out nice. Having to dip it every so often and
then needing to clean the pen before taking a rest is a bit
rough but its worth it. The Jerry's near our place sells manga
nibs, nib holders, comic ink, and that stuff, even copics :D <3

I have finals this-next week... for 3D dynamics, I've pretty much have about
70% of it done just gotta get the 30% of my scene done and spend a couple days
rendering. hope my computer holds up.

Mizucon is in few weeks! I need to do more fanart and make prints and buttonzzz X_x