Otakon 2008 - Official OO Meetup!

The Official Okashina Okashi Otakon Meetup will be at the Front Lobby 12:30 - 1:30 PM on Saturday, August 9. Comment here if you'll be attending.

It'll be held after the big premiere by Funimation of the new Hellsing Ultimate OVA. Come and you can meet the guy who helps Emi write all this craziness! It's a great time to share any thoughts, ideas, or comments on the comic.

Also at the meetup will be Erin Ptah, the creator of And Shine Heaven Now. So you can meet two comic creators at the same time! "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

The Sports Arc - What If?

For anyone wondering what OO's Sports Arc would've looked like if it'd been written by a 10-year old, the Create a Comic Project has the answer. Some of the dialogue the kids came up with is better than my own. ^_^;;

Tokyopop: It's not "Stealing" if we have a "Contract"

Tokyopop recently came out with a "Manga Pilot Program," nominally designed to get new artists published.

It's actually designed for the sole purpose of stealing your art.

Bryan Lee O'Malley has an excellent write-up (Lea Hernandez does, too) on how Tokyopop steals art the legal way: by using a contract of such biased and unfair proportions it qualifies as an epic trolling of the art community. Basically, their contract allows them to a) not pay you until they accept your art, b) allows them to use and modify the art without giving you credit for it, and c) allows them to use whatever art you submit to them for free even if they don't accept it for publication.

This means that if you send them a 24 page comic as a sample, Tokyopop's contract would allow them to take that art, strip your name from it, post it and change it anyway they like, and then tell you that it isn't "accepted" so you never get a dime.

The typical contracts I've seen have a clear "we won't use your art if we don't accept it" clause or a disclaimer that they can use the art you submit but will include proper attribution. Tokyopop is taking the position that anything you send them is theirs to do with as they please with no credit or compensation to you. Even when DC and Marvel were making one-sided contracts back in the early days of comics, they at least had the decency to acknowledge the creators.

Some people in the anime industry complain about fansubs and piracy. What Tokyopop is doing here is far, far worse than what any fans have done, because at least fansubs give credit to the original source and encourage people to buy. Tokyopop should feel utterly ashamed for having the gall to pass off such an unfair and immoral contract to up and coming artists. They should, but I doubt they do. They probably just think it's "good business."

Bottom line: if you're an artist, don't EVER go to Tokyopop to get published. Also, take a long hard look at whether you want to continue supporting corporate art thieves.

Otakon 2008

A quick head's up: I will be attending Otakon 2008 in August. I'll be going with Erin Ptah, who's helping me with accommodations. If there's any interest in an OO gathering at the con, post here if you're going and I'll try to set up a meeting spot.

I'll be participating in the anime LARP, playing Watanuki from xxxHolic (my first choice of Itoshiki from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was already taken). If you've already signed up, feel free to post what character you'll be playing. Otherwise, you need to wait until the Friday of the con.

OO Round the 'Net

Most of you have probably heard of T. Campbell (his webcomic, Fans!, was one of the first I read). Campbell also runs Webcomics.com, a relative newcomer to the field of webcomic blogging.

Two recent Webcomics.com articles I thought I'd point out: one about Wikipedia, where he mentions OO's newly restored Wiki page; and another with his monthly webcomic rankings, where he notes that he'll now be keeping track of Strange Candy's traffic activity. It's flattering to see a person as well-established as T. Campbell taking note of OO.

Strange Candy Wiki Page is BACK!

Okashina Okashi - Strange Candy

Good news, everyone! Back in June 2006, OO's Wiki page was deleted thanks to the fanatical anti-webcomic efforts of Dragonfiend and other deletionists. Almost 2 years later and their efforts have been successfully undone!

A fan of the comic recreated the page using info from OO's Comixpedia entry. It was brought up for deletion by Dragonfiend (no surprise there), went to to AfD discussion, and when the ruling came in the admins of Wikipedia saw fit to rule in favor of keeping it.

It would've been nice if this had been the ruling back in 2006, but a victory now is just as awesome, especially in light of the mass culling of webcomic articles that went on in 2007. So go forth, readers, and make OO's Wiki page a good one!

Re: Super Tuesday

Several other webcomics have seen fit to weigh in on today, so here's my advice to those voting today (I don't get to vote until April):

To Democrats:

Vote for Obama. I know you hate losing and there's no Republican candidate who can beat him. What he lacks in experience he makes up for in a willingness to learn and ask questions. He also lacks a closet full of vicious skeletons that the Republicans can use against him.

If you want a repeat of Kerry vs. Bush in 2004, vote for Hillary. Republicans are more fractured and unhappy than they've ever been, but she'll succeed in uniting them for another 51% win.

To Republicans:

DON'T vote for McCain. Seriously, guys. Remember 1996? Remember how Bob Dole got his head handed to him? Be smarter than that. McCain's idea of "bipartisanship" is to give everyone all the pork they ask for. You don't want a guy like that representing your party. This is doubly true if the Democrats go with Obama.

If you're really smart, you'll vote for Ron Paul, since he's the only Republican running who appears to have a handle on economics, health care, and foreign policy. Bush Sr. lost in 1992 because he couldn't handle economic issues like inflation. The Democrats are going to trumpet the issue of "universal health care," so you'd better have a candidate who knows something about medicine. And it would be a nice strategy not to turn away the 70% of voters (a good chunk of which are Republicans) who oppose the war.

Still, even if you don't want to go for the optimal candidate, at least try to avoid the worst!