#convention panels

[subspaceshenanigans]

"There is a lot of literature"

Oooooooh yes. Definitely.

[evandorkin]

Thanks to everyone who came to see me at yesterday's New Dorp Comic Con on my home turf of Staten Island. I had a wonderful time, and appreciated seeing everyone, not to mention all the lovely fan art and the nice gift bag of Japanese snacks (and a pair of Crayon Shin-chan chopsticks, which I will definitely be using). I was very surprised by the turnout and didn't have a moment to myself the entire time, which is the way you want a con to go. At least that's how I like them to go, I can have a moment for myself when I get home. A log moment, preferably in front of a horror movie with my cat on my lap. Or reading. Or asleep.

My friend Ron Hill from JHU Comics in Staten Island was nice enough to provide me with a video of my panel from the convention, which I've made available on my Patreon for all backing tiers starting at $1 a month:

New Dorp HS Con Panel 5/10/25 | Evan Dorkin

Get more from Evan Dorkin on Patreon

Also -- while I'm here: I've been trying to answer my Tumblr messages as best as I can. I don't have a ton of time to deal with them along with my DMs on Instagram, Patreon and questions I get on Bluesky. I wasn't going to answer any of them on the regular but am trying. I'll miss some of them, I'm sure, and I can't promise I'll get to everyone. You can help me out by keeping questions to the point and as specific as possible -- I'm sorry but there's no way I can give you detailed career advice or tell you how to get into comics or how to start making comics (other than you should just start making comics). Please understand I have to work and support myself and my family and everything I do on social media takes me up to eight hours some weeks, and I'm only one person. Doing my best.

[fabrickind]

🌸SakuraCon Panel Lineup!🌸

I'm on three this year!

Undergarments for Cosplay, Friday, 3PM, Arch 305 Eco-Friendly Cosplay (brand new panel!), Saturday, 8:30PM, Arch 305 Bad Anime, Good Time 🔞, with @uvibee and @silencedrowns , Saturday, 9:30PM

Hope to see some of you there~!

[mysticdragon3md3]

Atlus panel at Anime Expo 2025, day 3, July 5.

Producers of Persona 5 The Phantom X on the panel. Shigenori Soejima drew during the panel. Then Lyn Aizumi preformed a song from P5X, then P5's "Life Will Change".

[laf-outloud]

I know we get two comic cons before then, but Creation is smart to do a little extra before their cons go on hiatus until spring. The StageIt with the main panel costs them only the price of tech (probably covered by the tickets), and they'll lose nothing privacy-wise that wouldn't have been shared anyway. Loving this for all of us!

I have a slightly different take on CE's StageIt strategy. Yes, it's smart of CE to do this. Obviously, it's another way for them to squeeze every last dollar out of the SPN fandom. Most panel videos were already available after the convention, so the only benefit is perhaps a better recording, and the ability to see it live.

What the fandom should be concerned about is, if this is successful, CE may just decide to ban all recordings of panels and require viewing through StageIt only, thus ensuring that the only way fans can see the panels is if they pay.

Financially, it makes sense for CE, but it will be a loss for the online fandom.

Of course, this scenario may not happen at all, but it's a very real possibility. I'm glad for those that want to attend, but I do have some reservations.

[zancorvid]

Cosplay Wrestling Federation (Night 2) @ Fanime 2025 (Sun 05/25)

[howtobeaconartist]

Do you think it would be a good idea as an artist to host a panel at an anime convention unveiling a new original work your were doing to promote it?

Nattosoup:  I have hosted several panels, and what you pitch and what the convention is willing to take are often two separate things.  I’ve found that hosting panels is generally an act of goodwill- it hasn’t really helped my sales increase, and means time away from my table, but several of my peers have had better experiences.  Generally, conventions are looking for art panels that teach how to do something, so if you were to host a panel on how you created that piece, they might be interested in allowing you to present.

[tokupedia]

Japan World Heroes: Closing Day Part 1:  The Panels

Made it in time for the Kaiju Kingdom panel to end. (LA timezones still mess with my biological clock). I witnessed a trailer for an indie documentary on tokusatsu kaiju filmmaking coming in 2018.

After some browsing and a little money left, a trio of cheap Legend Rider Astroswitches became mine for only $10 and a pair of art prints were bought to cheer up an artist who was having a rough weekend because of the toy vendors  overshadowing his stand. (For those curious, I got Stronger, 1, and 2)

The Viewing Room’s selection was decent, Kamen Rider Heisei Generations, the Gokaiger and Zyuohger 2,000th Super Sentai Episode special, the latest episode of Kyuranger and.... *ugh* Kamen Rider Taisen.

I then witnessed the first episode of Mystic Cosmic Patrol at its panel, surprisingly hosted by Internet personality Andre the Black Nerd as well as the crew and cast of the production. They were there to promote it and answer questions. I asked if the staff were going to take a potshot at Masked Rider in the parody and they said yes. 

Upon seeing the episode, it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, as some of its cruder humor was not my thing. But I remain optimistic and want to support this independent group’s project.

Next up was Mr. Kaneko’s Panel. He spoke of his time on Gaoranger, including a funny story about shooting an episode with a dog in the middle of winter. He delivered a shock to Rider fans as he revealed he almost became Kamen Riders Kuuga, Agito or G3 but failed to pass the final rounds of audition. We all participated in a group Gaoranger transformation pose after Mr. Kaneko did a demonstration. He thanked US fans for supporting Super Sentai and loved his time in the US as it is opposite to conventions in Japan. In Japan, it is just a cheap mandatory gig and the events just drain him, but being in a new location and seeing so many fans giving him so much love supercharged his energy so much that the excitement of meeting them all kept him up at night.

At Mr. Fukuzawa’s Panel, he discussed his time as the legendary monster Gamera in Gamera 3: The Revenge of Iris.

He and his buddy Michi Yamato talked about the business of being a suit actor. I asked during the Q&A what the most uncomfortable role as a Red Ranger was for him (His favorite of course was Shinken Red due to his samurai sword action training being put to good use). He answered that he disliked playing Go-On Red as Sosuke’s hyperactive personality was difficult for a more reserved person like him to emulate. Even if the director said he got it right, Hirofumi would always feel he didn’t put enough energy into the role or did it properly as he and Yasuhisa Furuhara had differing personalities and to him, it showed on camera.  

He also discussed Power Rangers with Michi and then Hirofumi did several poses at the request of fans such as Gosei Blue, Shinken Red, Gokai Red, and AbaRed and thanked everyone for their support before leaving.

The panels ran a bit off so some were compressed or moved so time became more rushed. The cosplay workshop 101 panel was dropped and the next guest was Dore Kraus from Ultraman Towards the Future, who not only gave insight into the difficult conditions of the troubled show but some good life and acting advice to the younger generations. Great guy, he had a booth for autographs and displayed not-for-sale merchandise from his show. His time there was brief as he had to head back home as his entry into JWH was last minute.

Fujiyama Ichiban I skipped mostly due to the fact my legs were falling asleep from sitting too long.

After stirring up some circulation and interacting with a cute 6 mo. old St. Bernard puppy, I noticed a lot of parents who were attending a Lego Convention upstairs. Most of them were weirded out at the acts unfolding below as they escorted their children to restrooms and decided to politely encourage their kids to stay away from the vendor toys.  *sigh* Some of the Normals are not yet ready for us...

At the final Panel, the scene was winding down as the cosplayers had all gone home and the vendors were ready to pack it in. The TokuNet Crew discussed the heroes outside of Toei’s Super Hero Time and Tsuburaya’s Ultraman. Garo came up and the group was obviously drained from a long weekend of doing panels. When the mention of Garo’s US release came up I reminded them that the home video discs for Season 1 would be complete around the holidays, which people who had never heard of the series showed interest in.

Before I packed it in and prepared for a freebie day of fun tomorrow, I summoned my courage and shut off my social anxiety for about 5 minutes to thank Marzgurl and by proxy the TokuNet team for coming to support the event and introduced myself as an admin for RangerWiki. She thanked everyone who participates on there for their efforts to keep RangerWiki as a credible source and then I said farewell to her and a silent one to the dying magic of the Con.

I know not when this event will rise again, or even if this was just a fluke and will never come to pass for another time. But for one magical weekend, my brothers and sisters of fandom heeded the call and assembled in a little city outside of LA to celebrate what they love. And to all who made it possible, I thank each and every one of you.