You are invited to join me on November 5th at the grand opening of Comic Fusion at 42 Main St. Flemington, NJ.

Yuricon staffer and long-time friend Stacy has been running Comic Fusion online for some time now, and she and her business partner have decided to expand from clicks to bricks, with a move into a nifty store in Flemington. I was there this past Saturday helping set up and I have to say it’s a really nice store!

While Comic Fusion is primarily a collectibles and American comics store, they do have a very nice anime toy section, with some lovely items of interest to the yuri fan. I’ll be highlighting some of the great stuff you can pre-order from Comic Fusion all week, but I’ll start off the week by mentioning some of the fun items that they have in stock – just to entice you to drop by and join us. :-)

While setting up the anime section I found this nifty Kanzaki Akari from Battle Athletes figurine. I didn’t even know there *was* an Akari figure. Now if we can only find a Kris Kristopher, or a Mylandah one, huh? LOL

When I saw this Maggie from ROD The TV figurine, I nabbed one for myself. Most of the Maggie figures make her look a little vapid and passive and this one has her in full cool Paper Master mode. Plus you can’t beat the price. :-)

What collection of yuri-flavored figurines can ever be complete without Shimei Ryomou from Ikkitousen, aka Battle Vixens? There’s also at least one Sonsaku Hakufu statue in stock and two, (cooler, IMHO) available for pre-order.

Comic Fusion does do manga pre-orders and they discount pretty deeply online, as well as have contests every month with cool giveaways, so if you don’t have a specific favorite store and want exceptional customer service, discounts and to suport a close friend of Yuricon, drop by Comic Fusion for your cool toy and manga needs! :-)

And don’t forget – I’ll see you on Saturday, Nov. 5th for the grand opening. I’ll be bringing fun yuri giveaways for anyone who shows and says they love yuri!

To quote Paulette Hodge, the co-chair of Onna!, “That was the best con I’ve ever attended and didn’t see anything.”

Seriously. Onna! was, without doubt the most amazing con, full of energy and fun and great things to do and see and buy, and people to meet, and little miracles that just kept happening, that I am still processing it all.

The best thing about Onna!, to me, was how magnificent my staff was. Every department ran smoothly because the folks who ran our committees and the people who helped them gave 149%, and then a little more, because that’s the kind of folks they are.

Sunday night at 3AM when I was wrapping up the video rooms, there were small crowds of kids still hanging about, talking and asking if we were doing it again next year. :-) And this time, the idea didn’t make me nauseous. Mostly because of Paulette, who was great about letting me get some sleep. (I returned the favor the next day.)

Our guests were all gracious, charming and alot of fun, so my thanks to Paige Braddock, Euralis Weekes and Tania Del Rio. They can totally consider themselves invited to anything I ever do again.

Also, big hugs to Tran and her sister from Drama Queen, who rock my world. Thanks for everything.

The new manga talent contest “Be Discovered” uncovered some exceptional artists indeed! Expect to see at least some of our finalists publishing some great work…and soon. :-)

Two miracles occurred in the form of invited masters. The martial arts demo group – the NY Budo Kai – showed up, totally controlled their demo, wowed their audience cleaned up and then wandered around taking in the con. Zero maintenance needed. Deb – your group was amazing. Please come again!!

And the second little miracle came in the form of Anna Nakada, an Ikebana master who was the most *amazing* (by which I mean breathtaking, adorable, talented and elegant artist I’ve met in years). She positively captivated the audience and when I walked in on the end of her workshop I simply went breathless. Her ikebana was indescribably gorgeous. In any future Onna! I run, she will get a bigger room and and longer workshop, and I will literally herd people into it to get a taste of something refined and spontaneous in a way we almost never get to experience. I can only say this – if you did not see Anna’s ikebana creations, your life is poorer for it. I mean that. I feel quite uplifted and enriched having simply *seen* them.

Sigh.

Back to the topic – Onna! was a great success, nearly everyone had a fantastic time (except for those people who come to cons full of dissatisfaction and loathing and whose only joy is to ruin things for other people.)

Lastly, let me thanks all the many, many Lililicious folks who came, helped, partied and basically had the good time I wished I was having. LOL

Bottom line, we hope we’ll be able to do it again. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements on the website.

Well, as of just about 30 minutes from now, I’m off to the yuriest US con of 2005, Onna!.

If you’re still on the fence about coming, see if you can make it on Sunday. Saturday will, no doubt be sold out early, and while there’s lots to do and watch on Saturday (Guest panels, Concert and Cosplay are all going to be popular,) Sunday has even MORE guest panels, the new manga talent contest “Be Discovered at Onna!,” a Harajuku Fashion show, a Gaming Arcade and a dance! As well as all the usual fun games, fan panels and great videos.

If you’re sticking around on Monday, we’ve got a cool panel-video programming connection going on, where the panels we’re running are coordinated with the Video schedule. So you can talk about classic 70s shoujo, then wile away the morning watching it. :-) Or Takarazuka…or Rumiko Takahashi…..

If you’re a reader of Okazu, or a member of the Yuricon ML, or #lilicious or #otenba and we haven’t met face to face, please, please at least catch me for a sec and introduce yourself. It’s always my great pleasure to meet the folks who are my online friends and fans. :-)

Don’t be surprised if I don’t update for the next few days, but I do have a camera, and you never know. I might be bored and insomniac one night.LOL

In the meantime, here is an article about Onna! that appeared in today’s Newark Star Ledger newspaper. In the tradition of all newspaper articles, it is full of errors. LOL But they got the hotel and the dates right in the paper, so it’s okay with me. ;-)

See you all at Onna!!

Onna!, a three-day festival of women’s roles in animation, comics and games, is coming to Newark, NJ. A joint venture between two NY/NJ area organizations dedicated to the promotion of women in comics and animation, Shoujo Arts Society and Yuricon, Onna! will be held in the Newark Gateway Hilton on October 8-10, 2005.

Onna! welcomes guests from the comics, animation and gaming industries:

• Paige Braddock creator of Jane’s World
• Tania Del Rio artist for “Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch
• Euralis Weekes, animator and artist
• Game designer Naomi Clark
• Independent comic artists Sin Comix
• Musical guest Gelatine
• Scanlation/fansub group Lililicious

And guests from the anime, manga, comics, game and live action film industries will be joining us over the Columbus Day weekend.

Men, women and children of all ages are welcome to attend Onna!, enjoy video programming, panels, workshops and even games that celebrate the expanding role of women in these increasingly popular industries.

For information about Onna!,including costs, directions and programming, please visit our website at http://www.onnafest.com. Don’t miss your last chance to pre-register for this unique event!

For infomation about Shoujo Arts Society, please visit their website at: http://www.shoujoarts.org
For information on Yuricon, please visit their home page at:
http://www.yuricon.org

All I can say is – wow. The people at the Cartoonist Alliance and MoCCA were just lovely. Thanks to Denise Ozker, Chari Peres and Angela Entzminger for setting up my talk and being so welcoming – and talented! I had so very much fun. (So much so that I was supposed to leave at 8, but we all got pried out at 10:30. lol)

I am not unaware of the irony of me, a person who cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, addressing a meeting of artists. But I did get to tell them a bit about publishing and call upon my store of knowledge of random artistic influences. It was so great – all the folks at CA have real talent and passion. I look forward to a future of cartoon artists with that sort of drive.

I hope one day to come back for another meeting. In the meantime, I feel like I’d better get back into doing some writing! LOL I feel like I ought at least work at my chosen oeuvre a little harder, after seeing how much effort they put into their work.

If you are in the NYC area and interested in comics, cartooning, manga or animation art:

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA is a work in progress, but it’s got lots of great events, speakers, exhibitions, etc.

Cartoonist Alliance – This is a special interest group of the Guild of Graphic Artists. They meet monthly and are a really cool group of people. Tell them I say “hi!”