Citizen Ignites Star Wars Celebration with Exclusive Timepieces

Are you at Star Wars Celebration? Looking for some really special watches that will light up the galaxy hotter than Luke did to the first Death Star (Burn on you, Empire)? Then you’ll immediately want to check out the Citizen booth (Hall C, Booth #2743) when visiting the convention.

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Cheyenne Ewulu on ‘Shades of Cosplay’ and Artistic Expression

Creating an influential and resonating documentary that digs into the heart of cosplay and Geekdom from a Black perspective as her first film wasn’t exactly Cheyenne Ewulu’s plan to begin with. What was supposed to be more of an artistic catharsis to express the frustration with racism and lack of awareness she noticed in the community she called home, became a beacon for Black cosplayers to find hope and admiration in their work.

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‘Shades of Cosplay’ Makes Me Want to Cosplay

Cosplay is an enigma to me. The act of dressing up as one’s favorite character to an almost identical degree shows a mastery of craft-making, make-up, and acting that is rarely discussed in other mediums. Being a fan of a show or a character is no longer a passive experience when you cosplay, it becomes an active response to the work that inspires you.

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‘Shades of Cosplay’ Brings the Black Cosplay Experience Front and Center

Film director Cheyenne Ewulu directed the 2015 documentary Shades of Cosplay about four Black cosplayers and their experiences during the 2015 Anime-Matusuri convention. Using her background as a cosplayer, Ewulu weaves a story that interacts with the world of cosplay and its issues of racism and inclusiveness in the space. Now in the year 2022, the film is being released online for the first time on February 4, 2022 — to celebrate Black History Month.

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Luke Mitchell Talks All Things ‘The Republic of Sarah’

Luke Mitchell portrays Danny Cooper on The CW’s The Republic of Sarah. New episodes of the series air on Mondays at 9:00PM ET. At this year’s virtual SeriesFest: Season 7, which is an international television festival, there was a special screening of the first three episodes of the show as well as a Q&A with the cast.

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What To Do For Anime Expo 2018!

Anime Expo, one of my favorite conventions of the year has come around again and I can’t wait to share the cool things I look forward to doing there with you all! With my writing partner Josephine Chang we’ll be attending for all of the days from July 5 to July 8 so here are the highlights you should most definitely check out:
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Hubris and How Not to Run a CON

By now, most of you know the much-hyped Universal FanCon is “postponed” until further notice. It was “postponed” just days before it was meant to kickoff. How it was cancelled was super shady (really? you gave the venue less than a week’s notice?) and there are still tons of looming questions that have yet to be answered.

Many of us are hurt, saddened, and feel betrayed by the organizers. I’m not sure why I’m writing this post, other than to try to make sense of a grimy situation.  Continue reading “Hubris and How Not to Run a CON”

Good Times at Animé Los Angeles

Hey guys, Edward here. My fellow NOC writer Josephine Chang and I seriously like to geek/nerd out at all the major SoCal conventions, especially the anime ones. So with that being said, it gives us great pleasure to talk to you all about Animé Los Angeles.

Established in 2005, ALA is a medium-sized, community-focused anime convention with a more moderate-paced environment. And these days where many conventions are rather chaotic in size and nature, ALA has become a nice reprieve. If you’re a first timer when it comes to anime conventions, this is the one for you.
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Regarding the Cover to Shaft #2: Dedicated to Darrien Hunt

Originally posted at BadAzz MoFo

No doubt, there will be people debating over the meaning and motivation behind Sanford Greene’s cover to Shaft #2, which came out this week. For the record, the idea for the cover came to me long before the grand jury hearing in the case of Mike Brown, and is not in response to that particular case. If there is one recent ripped-from-the-news incident that really inspired the cover, it was the 2014 killing of Darrien Hunt, the young cosplayer from Utah. Every death that I read about whether it is Mike Brown, or Eric Garner, or Trayvon Martin, or any of the other tragedies that have been playing out with far too much frequency, destroys me a little bit. But there was something about the death of Darrien Hunt that really got to me. You see, if I’m going to be honest, on the path of my life and my career, there was a reasonably good chance I could have met Darrien some day.

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Etiquette in the New World of Comic Cons

In light of recent comments by comic artist Pat Broderick about cosplay and conventions, I think it’s a good time to look at what proper etiquette is like in this new age of pop culture dominance. I won’t only be speaking as a con goer of 11 years, but also as an exhibitor at New York Comic-Con for six years for a major exhibitor. The following is not just con etiquette for con-goers, but for exhibitors as well, to acquaint those who want to purvey goods in this new age.

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Sexism at New York Comic-Con

So New York Comic-Con was held a couple weekends back, and while head-NOC-in-charge Keith was holding it down at the Epic Proportions/SIUniverse booth, there were some shenanigans going on down on the con floor.

Apparently, a camera crew from a local cable show called “Man Banter” got in to the convention hall on SiriusXM credentials and proceeded to racially and sexually harass any and every woman they could find. From cosplayers to journalists to comics professionals, if you were a woman — and got caught in Man Banter’s crosshairs — you were gonna get harassed. Heidi has a roundup of first person accounts from the con over at The Beat.

Our friends at 18 Million Rising have put together a petition to demand SiriusXM fire Mike Babchik, the producer who used his credentials to get his cable access crew into the show. They’ve met about 75% of the signatures needed to meet their goal of 2,000. Info about the petition — and a link if you want to add your name — is available after the jump.

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