Woo!

Thanks to MangaBlog, I've just found out that the Rurouni Kenshin mangaka, Nobuhiro Watsuki, will be a guest of Viz at the SDCC. Anyone on the friendslist going to the SDCC who can get a sketch from him fangirl him for me, please do so but not if it involves standing in a very long line.

Am most of the way through volume 26 now: the saga's winding to a close. He does have a tendency to story bloat - the Kyoto arc was originally scheduled to last one year and ended up taking two, IIRC. I also like the liner notes where he explains how he based the character designs of various of his secondary characters on Marvel characters. GOSH I'D NEVER HAVE NOTICED HOW THAT DUDE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE APOCALYPSE. XD

Man, now I need a Kenshin icon. And Sanosuke. And Yahiko. rachelmanija? Have you read RK? Somehow I think you'd really like the character of Yahiko, especially as he grows throughout the series.

If three people do it, does that make it a meme?

jonquil and boniblithe are singing the praises of their stylists on their LJs, so I shall join in because I am a sheep baa.

Anthony at Esoterica loves Star Wars, enough that he's indoctrinating his 4-year-old son into the Star Wars love. He's also lousy at selling product, which I appreciate because I hate having product pushed at me. He understands my fine, stick-straight hair and suggests stuff that make it look good, rather than the normal trendy cuts that other stylists want to try to put in my hair. (I have spent years trying to make stylists understand the difference between stylish and trendy, and fighting against their tendency to put something on my head that was featured on Friends.) He loves playing with color, and I'd be coloring my hair more if it weren't for that whole SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY ON MANGA thing. He also raised his prices recently ... but not for me. :D He tells me he's got another client who loves the J-rocker Miyavi, and every time Miyavi changes his hair, she comes in with pictures and has her hair redone in that style, so he doesn't bat an eye at me bringing in lots of photos of Japanese women at examples of the sort of styles I'm looking at (hey - they've all got straight hair, unless it's permed, and thus none of the cuts assume you've got wavy hair to start with). He also wants to buy a copy of Project Blue Rose.

If he's got a fault it's that he loves to style my hair so it's reminiscent of Veronica Lake: i.e., over my eyes and blocking my vision. But I can live with that, because a head toss or two and I can see again.