Yesterday was a pleasant start to the public part of NYAF.

I walked around talking to the vendors and Industry and overwhelmingly, there’s a sense of hope, of doing more than just getting by. A number of vendors/industry told me that in the last few months sales have upticked (something that is true for ALC, as well.). It felt very good to hear that, and it’s motivated me to, perhaps, sit in on the State of the Industry Panel. We’ll see.

I am accompanied at NYAF by one of my chief lackeys for Yuricon, Guest Reviewer here at Okazu, Sean Gaffney. I want to say upfront that he is fabulous and, like everyone else on my staff, puts up with unbelievable crap from me. We were going to check our coats, but then didn’t (it was a tad chilly in the hall early on when there were less people). He asked me later if we were going to check the coats and I said no, you can just carry mine. …and being a good boy as he is, he did. So, let me just say right now at the beginning of this – thank you Sean. He later retorted that there definitely was an “I” in “Team Yuri.”. lol

Sean and I walked around the Vendor’s area, said hello and generally killed time. Media Blasters, Vertical and Del Rey have booths, Yen is significant by its absence. We sat in on an Intellectual Property panel, which was run by three lawyers, geared towards content creators. I was pretty impressed by their ability to render it all down into English.

Vertical’s Panel was also pretty good – I’m now looking forward to Yanni and Ed Chavez’s manzai routine. They are 100 years too early to compete with me and Sean. lol Sean tells me that Tokyopop’s panel had a few announcements, which I’m sure other people will blog about. They gave out ramen. :-)

The one thing I want to announce because Media Blasters doesn’t do panels is that Ikkitousen DD is coming out this November! They have a bunch of titles coming….I was going to joke about “Something called “Blade of the Immortal…” but I know that kind of humor doesn’t translate well to text. lol

Anyway, Yuri-ish things aside, so far the title I’m most looking forward to is Peepoo Choo by Felipe Smith. It’s *all* kinds of WTF. I cannot wait to see what Vertical does with it.

I’m in desperate need of coffee and must dash.

I’m spending the next two days in NYC with friends and colleagues at New York Anime Festival. I’m not live-blogging or Twittering, because 14 million other people will be doing that and I want to enjoy the event. 

So, I’ll be at New York Anime Festival this weekend. Not for any reason, just to hang with my friends and colleagues in the anime and manga industry…and to meet you.

Me being me, I like finding a way to meet new people and encourage you to say hello if you’re going to be there too, so….

On Saturday, September 26, from about noon until I leave, if you see me in this snazzy black “I Love Yuri” T-shirt  (this an other styles and colors and goods, available on the Yuricon Shop!), come up, say hi to me, tell me you read Okazu or are a Yuricon Mailing List member, like Yuri, whatever opening gambit you’d like to use and I’ll give you a free Yuri-themed postcard with art by Rica Takashima!

There’s no trick. No conditions either, although I’d like it better if you practiced your best social skills and said, “Hello, my name is…” instead of screaming “YURI!!!!” across the room. :-) I’ll be wandering the Vendor’s Room and maybe hitting up a few panels, so keep your eye out for me. I look just like my picture up there in the right hand corner, with more gray hair these days. lol Think of it like a “Where’s Waldo” sort of thing, only it’s “Where’s Erica?” and you get a postcard as a prize for finding me! :-)

In any case, I’ll see you this weekend at NYAF!

AnimeNEXT, the next generation of anime conventions, will be held this weekend, from June 12-14 at the Garden State Exhibit Center and the DoubleTree Somerset Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey.

And Yuricon & ALC Publishing will be there!

We’ll have a table in Con Row (ask at the Information Desk where that is) and a Yuri Panel at 6PM on Saturday, June 13. We’ve got a bunch of fun stuff to talk about and, of course, I’m more than willing to answer any questions I get that I can answer. :-)

We are planning on being at the con on Friday and Saturday only at this point, so don’t wait until the last second to drop by and get your copy of Yuri Monogatari 6 or one of our immensely popular Yuri Grab Bags!

I’ll look forward to seeing all you Friends of Yuri there!