Teh Hotness – Otaku Chic at New People San Francisco

Comics 212 has put together a wonderful comparison between the hardcore Otaku stores of Tokyo, the Tokyo fashion district and the New People store which recently opened in San Francisco.

New People Building Exterior. Photo by Ryan Sands, http://samehat.blogspot.com
New People Building Exterior. Photo by Ryan Sands, http://samehat.blogspot.com

Shopping in Otaku stores in Tokyo is like getting lost in the most disorganized comic shop on the planet – it’s all about finding treasure in a dark corner.

Regardless of who you are – it’s a decidedly nerdy endeavor – the dark stair cases and chaotic shelves will put off all but the most dedicated of Otaku.

Contrast that with New People. A clean, crisp and open space. The Apple Store of comic shops.

Hopefully this will bring new people to the wonderful nerdings of Japan, and needless to say, a trip to SF suddenly went up on the priority list.

Teh Hotness – Corey Lewis’ Death of Pink One

Corey Lewis (aka Reyyy) busted out this sweet solo webcomic which really captures ‘The essence of Reyyy’

When Toho sued Pink G-dz-ll-, an incredibly cool games and geekery shop in Seattle, they changed their name to Pink Gorilla – I can’t think of a better way to announce the new name.

Death Pink One

I met Corey at Emerald City comic-con 4 or 5 years ago – and all I could think was “WOW! This guy LOVES making comics.” Full of energy and love for the medium and the craft.

The best part of Reyyy’s work is that the passion he has can be seen in his work. His art and stories have the same frenetic pace and style that Corey carries with him every day.

More Corey Lewis:
Corey’s Homepage (pure brilliance!)

Seedless Webcomic

Twitter:@kenby
Sharkknife:
Sharknife

Teh Hotness – Mochi Coins and Indy Content

Mochi CoinsMochi the popular providers of tracking tools and advertising for Flash Game developers recently introduced Mochi-Coins – a micro-transaction engine that developers can integrate into their Flash games (or comics???)

As any indy creator knows – every revenue option requires some work. Ads are easy, t-shirts are harder and getting set up to process and manage micro-transactions – well, before Mochi Coins, you needed a whole team for that.

Basically – Mochi Coins is to independent digital content developers (movies, music, comics, games, art) what eBay and Paypal were for Beanie Baby Collectors. This literally changes everything.

Have a song playing in the background of your movie? Let people download it for $.99. Want to see a making of video for a video game? Unlock it for $.99. People want an HD version of your webcomic? They can unlock if for $.99.

Tracking whose account has what, dealing with payments and multiple credit cards, etc – that’s all handled by Mochi.

The iPhone App Store just came to the Internet – and I’m surprised more people aren’t excited.

In a brilliant showing, as Mochi-Coins grows, the developers at Mochi are keeping their ear to the ground and are addressing concerns and questions as they come up from the development scene and have addressed these in a recent blog post.

Hip Packs and Hipsters – The Generation Gap at Worldcon

I am currently attending my first Worldcon in Montreal.

For those unfamiliar – Worldcon is the annual gathering of fans and professionals in Sci-fi and fantasy literature. These are the people who write, publish and read SF and Fantasy novels and short stories.

When con-goers first started appearing on the streets a few days ago – I saw what I expected to see. People in their 40’s and 50’s – men with walking sticks, long beards and hair that can only be described as ‘frazzled’. They were joined by women rocking pants-to-high, hip packs and long straight hair (renfair braid optional).

These people are the dedicated core of the SF and Fantasy audience. They are the people you see, all the time, in your book store and used book store. These are the people whose backs the current SF/Fantasy publishing industry was built off of.

These are the people who are worried about the future of their passions. With the print publishing industry shrinking daily – the niche and fringe work of midlist SF and Fantasy authors will soon be impossible to find unless the authors publish it themselves – and many quickly poo-poo the thought.

It doesn’t take Perception + 10 (4th Ed rules) to see that these people are worried. Very worried.

What I didn’t expect was the gap between the Hip-Packs and the the next generation of fans.

There are a surprising number of people here in their 20’s. And while most of them will score a 10/10 on the geekometer – they are also very hip. Hip to the tools and ever-changing available media platforms.

They have an energy, a lack of fear and a solid grasp on the media before them. A grasp that can only be felt by someone who can’t remember a world without e-mail.

They ask questions that make geek-prince Cory Doctorow say ‘Hrmm’ with a knowing smile.

They are meeting people in the halls who they have only met online.

They are working on bold projects and are not waiting to be discovered – they are creating works that demand attention.

The panels at Worldcon are almost exclusively manned by print publishing crowd – the old watch. Some panelists, visionaries like Neil Gaiman and Doctorow, are presenting options for the future, but for the most part, the print publishers come bearing warnings of doom and gloom.

I wonder if Worldcon would be better served by turning the tables around and having the young, self-published (or online only published) brash hipsters share their thoughts?

They are the ones who aren’t waiting for the SF/Fantasy publishing industry to recognize them, they are too busy re-inventing it.