Tuesday - July 24, 2007
[Piro] - 19:08:00 - [link here]
- IF YOU ATTENDED OTAKON, PLEASE READ -
Ah, it's good to be back home. Otakon was a lot of work, as you might imagine. It was especially difficult this year because Sarah stayed home to rest up while Jeff and Hawk and Ananth and Yuko and Mohammed and I took care of the MegaGear booth. Well... I did very little except run around in circles and worry about things (sorry for being so useless guys ^^;;;), but at least I was able to treat everyone to a decent meal at the Cheesecake Factory (they had chicken, so at least Hawk was happy :P) Thanks guys!
I don't have time for much of a write up right now, but i do need to post this: If you attended Otakon, you might remember seeing signs that warned to look out for con artists asking for money. This was part of Otakon's response to the actions of an person that was preying on innocent con goers and doing it partly in my name.
An individual who identified himself as "A.C. Riely" was representing himself as a Marine who was home from Iraq that was attending Otakon and needed help. This is bad enough, but he also claimed to work for the Megatokyo booth, and used this with a variety of stories to scam money off of innocent con goers and fans.
If you were approached by this person or gave this person money, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY.
We were alerted to what was going on when people started coming to the booth looking for "A.C. Riely" and were upset when they found out that he did not work for us. We contacted Otakon Security and they worked hard to try to put a stop to this.
The good news is that the person identified and believed to be responsible was detained by Otakon security Saturday night and was arrested by the Baltimore Police on charges related to these activities. I am not giving out more details than this because i'm not sure what is ok for me to say at this point, since I am a victim of his actions (misrepresenting himself as a Megatokyo employee in order to victimize fans and readers is not something i will tolerate).
I'd like to Thank Otakon and their security staff for acting so promptly after we brought it to their attention. Having to deal with this also sucked because i planned to visit artists alley saturday night after the dealer room closed but had to spend 4 hours dealing with this situation after they apprehended him. If you have any information related to this, PLEASE email me immediately. Unlike many other 'companies' he could have used as part of his scam, most people he probably victimized come to this website on a regular basis and i'd like to show this person that you can't pull something like this on me, Megatokyo and it's fans.
Oh, T Campbell took a picture of the sign Hawk drew up for us that we had posted at our booth. :)
If for some reason you email me and do not hear back in the next few days, my spam filter may have tagged it. Try sending me a msg in the forums.
Right now, i gotta get back to the comic. It's been a week... time to jump back into the fray and start focusing on comics for a while. I appreciate your patience with the past few months.
Tuesday - July 3, 2007
[Dom] - 11:00:00 - [link here]
Anime Expo has come and gone, and as is the case with anywhere I go, I have a huge packet of stories I need to unload before I flutter on to my next subject.
First, I'd like to give a shout-out to our friends at CMX Manga, who were extremely kind to me when I basically ran up and said "Hi, I'm Dom, and now I will ask probing questions about your TenTen fiasco."
They actually had a very thoughtful, very reasoned response to how their business has adjusted in the years after their brush with censorship, and they told me afterward that they were honestly glad that someone had the balls to ask the question. It's apparently the elephant in the room at every show CMX goes to, and often they get flak for it after the fact for not talking about it. Here's a hint: if you want someone to talk about something that's on your mind, ask them about it. You'd be surprised how well a carefully phrased and thorough question can be received, even when it's about a sensitive subject.
Anyway, they were extremely nice to me and even grabbed me for a couple hours to sign autographs with Fred. I like meeting MegaTokyo fans, and it's always fun to sit down with Fred for a couple hours and shoot the breeze, so thanks to CMX for letting me into their booth.
Double-extra-mega shout-outs to CMX for letting me shake hands with "Oh my God it's" Jim Lee. I've been a huge fan of his work since I saw the WildC.A.T.S. TV series as a kid, and it was an awe-inspiring experience just to shake his hand and realize that he has a reason to remember my name.
Thankfully, the fact that Jim Lee was cosplaying Naruto with his kids helped bring me back down to earth. Sadly, I don't have a picture, though CMX may be kind enough to provide me with one if I ask - he was dressed as Asuma, trench knives and all, while I saw one of his kids dressed as Sakura. It's one thing to see one of your favorite artists behind a desk signing autographs and shaking his hand, and it's another thing seeing him pose for costumed pictures with his kids.
Anyway, enough of my babbling about Jim Lee - I also spent a few minutes talking with Omar Dogan of Udon, and we talked about our mutual love of fighting games for a while, while making jokes about Canadia and my own terrible impulse control. The result of my poor impulse control is pictured above, and I'm getting that sucker framed as soon as I can. Go Go Wild Daigo!
Okay, that's enough fanboying for now. I'll continue this rant on Thursday, and hopefully I won't lose interest by then.
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