Get your rain slickers and your hair extensions! It’s time for my favorite anime and manga convention, Kumoricon in Portland, Oregon on September 2-4! Jay and I will have a booth in the exhibit hall and I’ll also be doing a ton of panels and gaming events, beginning with a late-night Mages & Monsters — I mean D&D — game on Saturday night!
SATURDAY
8 PM-midnight (or later)
Chibi Room/Ash
KING OF RPGS 2: THE D&D GAME
A D&D 4th edition tournament torn from the pages of the “manga meets tabletop gaming” graphic novel series King of RPGs! The great city of Gharazak is besieged by an army of ferocious lizard men. Only a group of brave heroes has the chance to save their city from unimaginable horror… or just loot the place before it collapses. Featuring pregen characters from King of RPGs and King of RPGs 2, it’s a bloodsoaked roleplay-and-slash adventure! For 2-8 players.
Then, wake up early on Sunday, if you dare, for the promise of pornographic manga images!
SUNDAY
10:30 AM-11:30 AM
Discovery Room B/C
TENTACLES, CROSSES AND CIGARETTES: CENSORSHIP IN MANGA
(aka The Manga Censorship Hall of Shame)
In 2011, an American was charged with possession of child pornography for bringing dojinshi into Canada on his laptop. In 2010, Christopher Handley, a manga collector in Iowa, was sentenced to six months in prison for possessing obscene manga. In 2009, Dragon Ball was pulled from libraries after a city councilman complained about inappropriate content. Censorship is a fact of life in mainstream manga and anime, both in Japan and America, affecting everything from the Harem no Jutsu in Naruto to cigarettes in One Piece and pot leaves in Shaman King. Why is manga censored, and what do the laws really say about what you can and can’t show? Discussing the legal, moral and business aspects of this complicated issue,
with tons of before-and-after artwork! Ages 18+.
12:00 PM-1:00 PM
Discovery Room B/C
THE FUTURE OF MANGA
When many people today think of comics, they think of webcomics, but Japanese comics still seem like a faraway world of print-based graphic novels and tattered copies of Shonen Jump. But the manga world in Japan is changing fast due to competition from ebooks, cellphones and online comics. How are Japanese artists today publishing their works? What will the manga of the future look like, in a world without Tokyopop and Borders?
Then, before the end of the convention, I’m saving something special. Come join us in the Pine/Spruce room for…
MONDAY
1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Workshop: Pine/Spruce
MANGAKA: THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME
It’s every otaku’s dream: being a manga artist in Japan. Now YOU can walk the road of the heroes of Bakuman, Genshiken and Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga in the world debut of MANGAKA: THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME! Go from a struggling dojin artist or an assistant and become a professional mangaka working in shojo, shonen, seinen or perhaps the dark underworld of ero-manga and yaoi. Face malnutrition, angry fans, carpal tunnel, the disapproval of your parents and the brutal terror of… the Editor!! Will you become the next Tite Kubo, or end up in the gutter babbling about maid cafés? Yes, this is an actual RPG, featuring music and audience participation. DMed by Jason Thompson (King of RPGs). Actual drawing ability not required.
Anyway, those will be my public appearances at Kumoricon, or just come on by the booth any time and say hello. We’ll have King of RPGs books, jewelry and T-shirts and I’ll be showing off my new project! See you there!
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
