(no subject)

[telophase]

Something I forgot to mention last week that I was just reminded of. One day after work last week, I dropped by Borders to skim the manga shelves and see if anything I was reading was out. There were four of us there poking through the manga. All female. The other three were young and slim and very tall and fashionable and looked exactly like manga heroines and would most likely never be caught dead setting foot in a comic shop. The vignette was sort of spoiled when the boyfriend of one of them wandered over, put his arm around her neck and said "Oh this is that MANG-ga stuff. It's all, like, Chinese art" and steered her off in the direction of the sports section, but she was looking at a manga intently enough that I think she'll be back.

That's all rather pointless, except that I had a very nice moment of "This is the market." I'm usually the only one looking at the shelves when I'm there - I'm usually too late to see the kids from th neighboring school, or I'm there at lunch - and it's nice to fianlly see it.

Comments

[the-z.livejournal.com]

It's like watching wildlife, isn't it?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yup. :) Is there a checklist somewhere, like the birding life list? XD

[the-z.livejournal.com]

If not, someone should create it. Especially for Cons. It'd be like a scavenger hunt.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing a promo freebie for Panda Buddha, should that get off the ground (we should talk at A-Kon): a trifold flyer printed on 8.5x11" paper with "FANSPOTTING LIFE LIST" and some sort of amusing graphic on the front and the interior having an explanation of a birding life list on the first flap, and when you open it, you get three columns of fan types to spot, with checkboxes. The back would have "Brought to you by PandaBuddha" and whatever else we wanted. XD

[the-z.livejournal.com]

Ha! That sounds fun! And people who complete them could get a sticker or card or somesuch when they turn it in for verification :3

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Have little spaces next to the type for date, location, and comments, like one of the birding life lists I saw online when looking, just to keep 'em from going away, checking everything off, and coming back. XD

Bird Name. Date First Seen. Location First Seen. Comments

[the-z.livejournal.com]

That and/or possibly collect signatures ^^ Though I know some people are termially shy and wouldn't be able to manage that.

Hmm, possibly in the future we could have a drawing over something like that. Give a ticket as well as a sticker to everyone who's completed their checklist and have a drawing for some cool somethin' somethin'.

Any which way, it sounds fun.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That'd be kinda cool! :) Give out a commission or a book or something.

The raffle thing for artists is getting more and more popular - I've seen it at cons where you put out a sign-up sheet and everyone pays a dollar and whoever wins gets a commission. Win-win situation: the artist usually gets more than the commission is worth, and whoever won gets a commission for $1.

[the-z.livejournal.com]

yeah! I definitely love the idea of raffles. I've been toying with the idea of doing one this year.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I may do it, too. *jumps on bandwagon* Certainly worth a try.

[melster.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was at anime central this past weekend, and my friend daethoniel and I started a punchbuggy-esque game where we (lightly) punched each other for different sights at the con... but that was pretty much all negatives (neckbeards, bathrobe samurais, completely unnecessary swords, etc) rather than just specific types.

Way fun, though. I can post the rules to it if anyone's curious.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not? XD

To the best of my memory...

[melster.livejournal.com]

Punch upon seeing:
-Nerd with sword (if not part of a costume)
-Bathrobe samurais
-Neckbeards
-People cosplaying as a character they have no hope in hell of looking like (this includes bad crossplay)
-Bad anime buttondown shirts

Additional notes/rules:
-You have to call out the rule you see, along with clarifying where said person is either by (subtly!) pointing or description
-No punches in extremely high-density areas
-No punches in the lobby, no matter how crowded
-If a person fulfills multiple categories, they can only be, uh, "used" once, but you have to call out all categories they fulfill
-Each person can only be "used" once

It's also important to note that you oughtn't play this in McDonald's, since the two of us were and a random ninja sat down with us and ended up threatening daethoniel with a banana, saying he (the ninja, not my friend) was essentially here to get laid, hitting on me, introducing us to his friends, and leaving. It was...definitely up there as far as sketchy experiences go, though amusing as well. :p

Now to point my friend over here to fill in the qualifications I'm sure I forgot...

Re: To the best of my memory...

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And there's my Convention Fandom Field Guide (http://www.cant-sleep.net/page.php?id=917).

Re: To the best of my memory...

[melster.livejournal.com]

Hee! :)

[octopedingenue]

That is so cute and awwwwww. (Though the boyfriend is a schmuck.) Manga is going take over the world, and it's going to be the unexpected audience that makes it happen, especially the females.

I always linger longer than I have to at the manga section in Waldenbooks to spy on the other people around my age hanging out there: geekboys and girls to be sure, also average-looking youth, skater kids, you name it, all kinds and colors. I had this total moment of AWWWWWW once when a tiny sleek blonde girl in a cheerleader uniform suddenly shrieked, "KEEE-yo! They have KEEE-yo!" and galloped to the other end of the store to show her fellow cheerleader friend the Kyou plushie. And a slightly more surreal moment of AWWWWWW when a fierce-looking pierced punk Latina chick started squeeing over the "Hot Gimmick" I was buying.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the boyfriend's a schmuck. Shortly before she came over to the manga shelves, he was walking around the Literature section loudly complaining that he couldn't find Shakespeare. I think maybe he finally clued in that perhaps Shakespeare would be over in the plays and not the novels and took off for there, whereupon she went to the manga.

Usually who I see in the manga section is over at Barnes and Noble, where there's always a collection of punk-ass middle school boys reading Hellsing and Trigun and Yu Yu Hakusho and stuff like that. Which slightly intimidates me, for some reason. There's just something about a group of middle-schoolers that makes me want to edge nervously for the exit.

[homasse.livejournal.com]

There's just something about a group of middle-schoolers that makes me want to edge nervously for the exit.

Because they are never up to any good when they are in packs. *nods*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yup.

I certainly never was, when I was a middle-schooler traveling in a herd. :)

[gweniveeve.livejournal.com]

Middle school boys doing something besides playing video games or hanging around the mall looking "cool?" I didn't think it was possible.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

They're usually geek boys. I don't think they could be cool. :) Admittedly, the strange thing is that they're not at the GameStop right next door drooling over the games.

[melster.livejournal.com]

Heh, yep. That's my little brother.

Actually, he's more likely to be off playing DnD somewhere. :p

[anno-domino.livejournal.com]

I realized I was Old when I found myself walking towards a small bunch of thug-dressed white boys just out of middle school downtown - the kind of kids who would have scared the piss out of me when I was their age, & clearly that was the effect they were going for - & my immediate reaction was "Aw, they're so cute!"

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

I constantly see pretty young women browsing the manga section at bookstores. Ah, if only I weren't so shy....