I finally finished the intro animation for my Puppy Cow series! Witness "Puppy With a Cow Udder" in its full animated glory!



And check out Monster Cutie for the making of this silly thing.

This Friday night, Super Art Fight invades Baltimore's Ottobar once again with my most favorite band in the universe, Peelander Z, as our special guest! I will be fighting in a tag-team match up of truly epic proportions, the likes of which Baltimore has never and will never see again. Doors open at 9pm. Tickets are $12. It says we're a family show, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna say "FUCK" at least fifty bajillion times.

Oh, and I'll have this weird-ass Tiger Pus painting up for sale if you're interested in really weird shit. Click for bigger pus action.

Amy Chua's Kung Fu Treachery revealed in her Chinese Moms Superior, Western Moms Inferior (say that in your best Soundwave voice) has kind of pissed a whole mess of us off. But I laughed my ass off after reading You Offend Me You Offend My Family's response, In Defense of Amy Chua a.k.a. MILF-y, Angry, Overachieving Chinese Mother. Absolutely brilliant! Mmmm... teenage lesbian sleepovers! Definitely check it out for a humorous spin on this crazy tiger lady.

If you follow my frantic tweets, you know I joined the Webcomic Beacon crew, Ross, Alex, and Mark this past Sunday for their live webcomic newscast. Fortunately, if you missed it, they recorded the audio and it's up for listening!

Among the many news topics is the whole kurtzfluffle (see what I did there) over The Economist article highlight The Oatmeal. The discussion thread over at Daily Cartoonist (my daily source for all sorts of comic drama) of the article kind of exploded when Scott Kurtz weighed in declaring that The Oatmeal is not a webcomic and that its author is not a cartoonist. Kurtz expanded on his thoughts on his own podcast, Webcomics Weekly, and, well, I guess Ross couldn't resist so we took a stab at it as well.

Source: Webcomic Beacon

Amy Chua is a mother who wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. It's not satire. Chua actually believes this drek. I challenge you to read this piece of racist shit without doing this:



Way to be a raging stereotype, lady.

Look, I recognize that every culture has accepted methods for raising children and I understand that people from different countries bring their cultural perceptions of child rearing with them to America. But no parenting method is superior to another.

What's worse is that she holds herself up as a model Chinese mother. This can't be farther from the case. My mother is Chinese and never treated me or my brother like Chua describes. My mom's mother is Chinese from the mainland and never treated her four children in the manners described. The only parenting methods Chua can realistic describe are her own and possibly her mother's. But to claim that she stands for all Chinese mothers is insulting.

I hate it when people claim to speak for an entire ethnicity. It implies that we can all be put into little boxes and categories and written off with a few generalized characteristics. People are not so easy to understand. Minorities already face an uphill battle when it comes to people defining us with generalizations. And now people can point to Chua's article as justification for the Hardass Asian Mother stereotype, "See, she says they're all hardasses just like her! It's true, it's true!" Ugh.

The video that accompanies the article is far less insulting. But I'd like to point out, ladies, that all parents sacrifice for their children.

After SPX 2010, I did a rather long case study of the event going over what I learned and how I approached the convention. As the 2011 con season is already gearing up, I thought I'd do something similar with Katsucon 2011 which goes from February 18th to 20th. Now this isn't technically a report since the con isn't until February. But I thought I'd share some thoughts about what I'm thinking for this upcoming show.

Katsucon Dossier
I've been going to anime conventions since 2000 as an attendee, alley artist, guest, and staff so I've seen anime cons from all different angles. Anime cons have a weird sort of relationship with webcomics. When the scene was in its infancy, anime cons helped cultivate the young webcomics culture. They regarded us as like-minded oddities in need of a friendly haven to grow and prosper. Now that the scene has grown and everyone and their aunt on their father's side has a webcomic, anime cons are more skeptical of us. It's rare to see webcartoonists on any anime con guest list which is why Katsucon is a diamond in the rough for us. Each year, they have a section in their programming and guest list specifically for webcomics. The love is well appreciated. And it's nice to see them remembering their roots. After all, Katsucon was co-founded by a webcartoonist. So here's what I've got on the Katsu:

1. The Artist Alley, Dealer Room Lite
   The Artist Alley is now really Dealer Room Lite. I mean, sure, the Alley has always been the venue for artists to sell their work, maybe pick up a few commissions, show of their portfolio. But the emphasis has sort of shifted from unique art to crass commercialization. Everyone has these big, ugly ass PVC banners to display their latest prints. Everyone has pins or stickers or bookmarks. It's all very much sell sell sell. This leads to the next item.



2. The Draw of Fanart
   Because the Alley has become so commercial, artists now cater their work to popular taste. Fanart is the easiest way to close a sale. Now some cons have instituted rules to curb the rampant fanart, but on the whole, it's becoming increasingly rare to see original, creator owned works. The kiddies aren't looking for new works. Their looking for their Narutos, Pokemons, Full Metal Alchemists, or whatever the hell the kids are watching these days.



3. Popuuuuuular
   It's not impossible to sell original works at the anime con. But it helps to be popular. Celebrity goes a long way at the anime con. The kids go for what they know and if they know you, you'll go far. Fortunately, anime con popularity isn't necessarily the same as mainstream popularity. You can gain popularity just by being at the con year after year or hosting the greatest live art competition in the known universe or running a really good panel. You can crack the anime con popularity game with some hot blooded hard work.



4. Wheelin' and Dealin'
   It's more than possible to make a good buck in the Artist Alley, especially now that the kids are used to everyone and their uncle trying to sell them shit. But the real money is in the Dealer's Room. Kids spend months saving up their cash to specifically blow it all in the Dealer's Room. There's money in them than halls. The trick is getting there. If you have the fortune of being invited as a guest, you may get a free Dealer Room table. If not, you will have to pay and they are not cheap. The cost differential between an Alley table and a Dealer table is quite large. So yeah, the Dealer room is where the money is, but it's takes money to make money. And the popularity rule still applies, sometimes even more so.

SUPAH ART FAITO!!!!
Because I'm rolling with the Super Art Fight crew, I'll be in the Dealer's Room. I doubt I would have been able to afford to be down there if I wasn't a guest of the con. We've got a block of tables down there which will be nice. We'll be able to draw on each other's strengths when it comes to tabling. We'll also have people to watch our stuff when we need to take those much needed pee and wash-your-hands-with-hot-water-and-all-the-soap breaks.

Last year I got to face off against one of my absolute favorite artists, Jo Chen, in the final Super Art Fight bout. She kicked my ass, butt good. Her creepy clown still haunts my dreams. But I had such a great time. That's actually the best part of conventions, meeting fellow artists. I got to pick her brain about the way she creates some of her most iconic images. Totally inspiring. This year if things work out the way we hope, I will be facing off against another one of my art heroes. Turns out I went to the same college! Of course, we all know who's got an exclusive contract with Marvel and who's dicking around on the interwebs. Man, I hope this works out. It should be a mess of fun!

Dah Soich Fah Moa Moneh
I'll be bringing all the stuff I brought with me to SPX. I've got some Pandoom minis that need homes. Mini comics don't do so well at an anime con, but it doesn't hurt to take them along. I will have to get some more Totoro Daruma buttons made. Those were the best sellers at SPX which kind of surprised me and at an anime con, they should do fairly well. Buttons in general do very well at anime cons. Buttons with Totoro on them, well my friend, you best make a shit ton of them. I'll be bringing my two prints which may or may not do so well. That's all the old stuff.

New stuff, I'm not sure. Steve suggested that I do some print runs of the badge art I did for the con. I've got some left over Puppy Cow post cards that could be fun. I'm working with Jim on some Lurvaruma pendants which I hope will be ready for Katsu. Shirts do well at the anime con and of all the designs I've got, I think the Panda shirt might be good to bring along (Although, I think Dave might be there anyway so they'll be at his booth. We'll see). And there's the possibility that a certain Puppy with a Cow Udder may be in my possession by the time the con rolls around. I'll confirm early February just what the hell I'm bringing with me to the con. But I want to get a variety of stuff out there for the kiddies to pick over.

Antici... pation!
The con is more than a month away and I'm already freaking out about this stuff. I've never done well with merch, but I think it's essential for growing ¥P. I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm heading for, but who knows. We might get another gigantic snow storm that fucks the entire area and everything could just fall to shit.

If you are planning on hitting up Katsu and if there's anything specific you'd like to see me bring or make to bring, please drop a line. That's it for now. I'll have a proper con report after the actual convention.

The lads at Epic Meal Time have done it again. This time they head to Wok Cafe to create an Epic Eggroll filled with all sorts of Cantonese and Hunan style goodies.

You know, as disgustingly epic as this is, this is probably the most healthy thing these crazy dudes have put in their faces.

An AZM reader Colleen sent along this link to the Asians Sleeping In The Library tumblr. The tag line of the site extolls our stereotypical virtues as hard workers:

They're better at life and they get better grades than you for a reason. Pictures of Asian students from Universities sleeping in the library and lecture halls. Upload pictures using the link below.

Wow, that's some serious Yellow envy there. On the one hand, I think this is pretty funny, mostly because I find people sleeping in awkward positions horribly entertaining. I also get that it's intended to be a weird sort of celebration of the idea that Asian students work so hard and spend so much time at the library, that they forgo the comforts of their dorm rooms and sleep where they study to maximize learning potential.

On the other hand, this makes me slightly uncomfortable. It's not that I can't take a joke or laugh at myself. I just don't like the idea of being boiled down to a stereotype. There's no context to these photos. Maybe the roommate is banging the shit out of someone and the library is a comforting refuge from the sounds of carnal collegiate activity. Maybe campus housing fucked up again and kicked the person out week early. Maybe they're afraid to go home because of the ridicule and abuse that await them. Maybe they just broke up with their significant other and the heart break is just too exhausting and hurtful to maintain consciousness. Without context, all we have is the assumption of the site that these are studious Asians who'd rather sleep in the library than waste time traveling home to a shower and comfy bed.

The other thing that kinda creeps me out is the voyeuristic idea of stalking Asians on campus and snapping pictures of them when they're sleep. Stalk much? It's like a weird kinda racial upskirt voyeur site that just feels a little squicky.

Of course, you're reading a site that's named after a horrible Asian invective so my populist outrage can only go so far.

I can appreciate the humor of the site. And I'm not going to pretend I didn't laugh. But I probably won't be visiting it all that often.

Nothing captures the spirit or renewal, evolution, and change that comes with the New Year better than the Japanese live-art troupe Rinpa Eshidan. Using video and photography to capture their process, the work that they produce is transformative and fleeting. If you blink, you may miss it. It would be difficult to exhibit their pieces without video because the work goes through so many iterations. Last month, they were invited to use a MINI as their canvas in the middle of the Ginza shopping district. The results are absolutely amazing.

Oh, silly dance music. I can't stay mad at ya. DJ Surge-N unleashed his latest mashup for the end of the year on New Zealand radio combining the powers of Katy Perry and Far East Movement to create something that sounds like... um... well, it becomes a crazy song about cocks and drinking. Now get off your seat and dance!