dormcat's cubicle, Blogger division

The honored guest of the first day of Taipei International Book Exhibition was Kazuo Umezz (official transliteration; most sources spell his family name as "Umezu"). Unlike most shy mangaka, 73-years-old Umezz-sensei is well known for his love of stage performance and attention. In addition to have danced at the opening ceremony , Umezz-sensei added two additional dances before his autograph session started! The first dance had strong Middle Eastern feel, and Umezz-sensei had long white robes to fit in the theme. At the moment I felt deja vu of his outfit but couldn't name it, only to have realized the likeliness of this colonel . Finishing the first song was far from the end. Umezz-sensei took off the long white robes, revealing his trademark red and white striped shirt. Umezz-sensei said hello to his fans with yet another trademark of his, the gwashi gesture. Umezz-sensei dancing with the music of "Gwashi!! Makoto-chan," related to the 1980 animate...

More than three weeks have passed since the first wave of publicized guests of honor of Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE), and we've got some new updates: Kazuo Umezu, master of horror manga, will visit TIBE 2010 and hold an autograph session. d/books taipei has posted "Range Murata 2010 Combo Pack," thus confirming their role in inviting Murata. Coincidentally, Mardock Scramble , a novel by Tow Ubukata and was planned to be animated with Murata's character designs four years ago and meant to be the 15th anniversary of GONZO , later canceled abruptly in December 2006, was miraculously resurrected as a theatrical movie . I wonder if Murata still taking parts in the new movie edition. Update: Line art of a "China-dress girl" illustrated by Murata exclusively for TIBE 2010. Mighty Media has licensed Pandora Heart and CANAAN but didn't bother to announce at their own official website. Rather, their related merchandises are on sale now. ...

Click here for the album (digital). The anniversary gathering of Bahamut (www.gamer.com.tw) is a real challenge for photographers: heavy overcast and drizzle outdoor; the gaming area is completely packed; the anime/manga area, while backgrounds and lightings were provided for photographers, the arrangement of those equipments were hastily prepared and I'd rather it had none. The most valuable experience I learned from this event was comparing digital and film photographs under the same composition and sensitivity (ISO). Surprisingly, the combination of Konica Auto S1.6 and Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400 produced very high saturation and contrast (see below): Pictures taken by S100FS had to be increased 15% contrast and 30% saturation, respectively, in order to produce similar results.

Album of day 1 Album of day 2 The two days of CWT23 had fine weathers in Taipei's winter. In addition to standard equipment of S100FS + PE-36S, I also brought out my Konica Auto S1.6, which had only been tested once at 44 South Village after being repaired, coupled with Fujifilm Superia Reala, their finest consumer color negative film, and the results were quite pleasing. Furthermore, K-ON! @ Tien Education Center has been uploaded as well.

GNN , Central Daily , and Mighty Media's own official website have all announced the first round of guests of honors of Comic and Animation Hall, Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) 2010 yesterday afternoon. Four names have been announced: Range Murata (conceptual character designer of Last Exile ), Miho Obana (mangaka of Kodocha ), Rie Kugimiya (Shana of Shakugan no Shana ), and Junko Takeuchi (Naruto Uzumaki of Naruto ). Details of autograph eligibility can be read by clicking respective links. Mighty always play big at TIBE (as opposed to Comic Exhibitions in summers); they indeed invest a lot on three guests of honor, all are key figures of their most popular titles, notably merchandise of Shakugan no Shana (life-size pillows in particular). Patients of Kugimiya syndrome are already "burning" right now. On the other hand, Range Murata, who had visited Taiwan three years ago, have little connection with Mighty this year, unless Mighty is looking forward a...

I was really surprised to see another title ( serialized in Gentosha's Web Comic GENZO ) from this couple, whom a "small licensee" had announced "would not publish more titles by them (due to terrible sales)," had been acquired by d/visual taipei. By the way, the couple have another title, Usotsuki Paradox , in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine. I've heard it has some ecchi elements, but can't compare to yet another serialization Sex Nanka Kyōminai in Shogakukan's IKKI (link is NSFW), my second favorite manga magazine (next to Kodansha's Afternoon ). Let's hope there will be licensees willing to take both titles in.

Recent busy works kept be away from organizing my photographs or updating my blogs. Nine new albums have been added to my yam blog , including some that I had shown but not written for. 2009-04-19 Cats along Shen-Ou line ; had written a special blog entry for them. 2009-05-13 A friend's kittens 2009-06-28 New Pingsi Coal Mine ; had written a Part 1 for my visit. 2009-07-12 Locating Hasshaku-mon (八尺門) tunnel 2009-10-17 Matsu 2009-10-25 PF11 day 2 2009-10-25 PF11 day 2 Rin Kagamine 2009-11-08 Tiansongpi Station of Lotong Forestry Line 2009-11-08 Cats in Houtong Photos taken at a K-ON! -only event are the last ones to be organized.