Anime Southwest is Coming

Good news (I hope) anime fans! Denver is getting a forth anime convention. Anime Southwest is being held April 29 - May 1st at the Ramada Plaza at I-25 and 120th Ave. This convention is being put on by the group known as Sukoshi Con who have done other anime conventions across the country, so they do bring some experience with them. To some this group may sound familiar, and yes they have worked with Animeland Wasabi, possibly the most controversial convention in town on whether one should go or not. Well while they have worked with them they are a separate group and deserve the benefit of the doubt. So why should you got to Anime Southwest? Well that is always the question.

The panels / events of Anime Southwest include the standard array of costume contest and a dance. For Utena fans there will also be a Rose Ball where you can "Dance the evening away in a rose filled wonderland". The guests will also be holding their own panels. Samantha Inoue-Harte, whom has worked in over 33 anime titles and video games, will have panels about Auditioning for Video Game Voice Acting, Old School Anime Fandom, and what it is like Inside the Japanese Anime Studio. Then we have Blake Shepard who has been working in anime for over 10 years by lending his voice to shows such and Angel Beats, Sacred Blacksmith, One Piece, Air Gear, Elfen Lied and more. He is also a animator and will be doing an Animation 101 panel over the weekend. Kazha is also attending as a musical guest so we can expect to see a concert on the schedule. Lastly we will see two cosplay guests, DugFinn Cosplay and Umbra Cosplay. 

Hopefully we will see more events as the convention closes in. If you want to pre-registers you can do so here for $45.00 for all three days. Look forward to seeing you there.

Jim at Denver Independent Comics Arts Festival (DINK)

This has ended up being a year for a lot of firsts.  First year for a new anime convention and now the first year of an independent comics festival.  The first year of the Denver Independent Comic Arts Festival (DINK) seemed to be mostly successful.  I can't speak to the degree of financial success (either for the artists or the organizers), but there was a wide variety of artists and panels presented.  I had a lot of fun listening to some comics artists talking about autobio comics and the history and future of underground comics.  I also went to a workshop about how to make a zine, which got me out of my shell enough to make a short autobio zine.

I had a lot of fun.  My only regret, was that I did not have the budget to buy all of the amazing comics that I saw.  I hope that this convention can continue for many more years, since its a great change of pace compared to the large, mainstream comics conventions that are typical.

StarFest in Pictures

I love geek conventions. There is always so much to see in such a small amount of time. In order to try and remember everything that happened I let my photographers ADD go wild, and here are results.

These photos can also be seen here.

StarFest - Jim's Report

Hello readers.  As you may have gathered from my Professional Gamer article this week, I’ve been at StarFest this weekend.  More specifically, Crystal and Chris have had a table set up to sell art and plexiglass, and while I have gone to a few panels and talked to a lot fans.  In the end, Chris spent a fair amount of time away from the table to take pictures, so I was often filling in for him to help run the table.  Helping run a table for a whole weekend, is not the perspective that I am used to at a convention.  In this case, it meant that I got to watch the convention crowd walk past me, rather than being part of that crowd myself.

In total, I was able to attend three panels/events.  The first was on Saturday in Avistrum, a kid-friendly Harry Potter themed space.  While I was there, an “instructor” presented a lecture on the History of Magic as it related to lucky charms and talismans.  He talked about the various symbols associated with luck around the world, then provided the kids with materials to craft their own talismans.  The kids all seemed to be having a lot of fun with the whole event.  It is really welcoming to see a convention that is not just kid-friendly, but makes an effort to have dedicated spaces and events for kids.  This was something that I haven’t seen in the other Denver area conventions, but I think it would be worthwhile for more of them to include this type of programming.

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The second panel I attended was about recent and future exploration of Mars.  The panel was presented by Carrolyn Collins Petersen with help from engineers Christopher Grasso and Pieter Kallemeyn.  The panelist discussed recent missions, including Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix and Curiosity, as well as the upcoming mission, Insight.  This happened to be the first time that I had heard anything about Insight, but it sounds like a very interesting and scientifically promising mission.  At its crux, Insight will help us to define the inner structure of Mars.  The mission will include three primary scientific instruments: a seismometer, a thermal probe, and an X-band radio transponder.  The planned mission has a 700 day duration in order to collect the detailed measurements required to characterize the inner structure of the planet.

The third panel that I attended was called “Star Wars as Story”, and included local authors Betsy Dornbusch, Carrolyn Kay, and Lisa Manifold, and was moderated by David Boop.  The panel looked at Star Wars and Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey”, and discussed how the authors applied these story elements in their own writing.  The authors noted that in most cases, these story elements come out naturally in dramatic writing and therefore, authors who push against the norms tend to be more interesting.

Finally, in sitting around and watching the crowds go by I got to see a lot of great costumes.  The most surprising to me was a guy wearing a Starfleet uniform based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  I, like many others, have never been very fond of the movie, but I still enjoy the costume design (at least for the male Starfleet crew and officers.

In conclusion, the convention was well run.  Staff and volunteers were easy to find and friendly.  Being in the Crowne Plaza is a blast from the past (NDK used to hold their convention here).  The fans were fun and full of passion.  I’m planning to come again next year, and hope to meet a lot more fans and creators.

Colorado Anime Fest 2016 Floor Photos

Any geek convention in Colorado always includes a good amount of cosplay. And with it there come plenty of photography opportunities.  Here are the ones that I took from the floor. Expect photos from the costume contest soon.

You can also see the photos here.