Recently by James Rasmussen

During Anime Expo '09 weekend I ran into Udon Managing Editor Matt Moylan. I got the chance to interview Matt about the barrage of Capcom comics Udon is pumping out this year, possible future project details, and what we can expect from Udon at Comic-Con 2009.

Both comic book and video game fans should be pleased with the results.

Modern Mythology: So Matt, could you tell us a little bit about your role at UDON, and what Capcom-Comics projects are currently being worked on?

Matt Moylan: My title at UDON is Managing Editor, and I generally oversee production on all UDON's publishing projects. This means making sure stories and artwork gets done on time, communicating with our distributors and printers, helping guide the direction of our comics, and many other tasks. It's a lot of work but also very rewarding!

Currently we have a lot of Capcom projects going! There's our comic book line where we have 3 different series going Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter IV, and Street Fighter Legends. Our Capcom artbook line is also growing a lot this fall as we add new books for Darkstalkers, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Phoenix Wright, and more. We've also got some new Capcom manga series beginning in January, which will be announced soon.

Modern Mythology: Just this week you released news about Street Fighter 3 back stories, and a full blown comic  to be released in 2010. Could you tell us what inspired the team to do a SF3 story, and how long its been in development?

Matt Moylan: We've wanted to do Street Fighter 3 stories for a while, and fans ask about it a lot too. We've been more seriously planning it for at least 2 years. There are a lot of great and unique characters in SF3, and we can't wait have them join our regular Street Fighter cast. But we won't just be added the new characters, but also showing what classic SF characters might be like in the SF3 era. So lots of fun stuff is going to be going down in this series.

Modern Mythology: A couple months ago you said that UDON was determining the new character(s) for the SF Legends series. Any new developments?

Matt Moylan: We're not ready to announce it yet, but we have decided who will be the focus of the next Legends series. I can say it's once of series artist Omar Dogan's favorite characters!

Modern Mythology: Final Fight is a new license you guys have obtained, with the crew showing up in the Turbo main story and also back stories. When will we see the spin-off comic hit stores?

Matt Moylan: Fan response about the Final Fight stories has been huge! We get emails requesting more Final Fight stories pretty much every day now. So it's definitely in the works. We can't do everything at once though, so the earliest you would see a Final Fight series is probably spring/summer 2010.

Modern Mythology: Checking out the new promo ads for MvC2 with the UDON artwork has made fans want a back story or a mini series for MvC2. Is this artwork a hint at a possible MvC2 project? Is there any possibility of all three companies Capcom, UDON, and Marvel coming together to produce such a project?


Matt Moylan: The MvC2 art was created specifically to promote the re-release of the game. No crossover comics are in the works at the moment, but if fans want to see a comic project like that they should let UDON, Capcom, and especially Marvel know!

Modern Mythology: Capcom recently announced that Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom is coming over to the states. You guys have taken on current games like Street Fighter 4, so would a Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom comic be too much to ask for?

Matt Moylan: Well, it would be pretty fun to tackle the Tatsunoko characters. Many of the UDON crew are big Tatsunoko fans, especially UDON Chief Erik Ko. The licensing rights on a Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom would be complex but not impossible. Perhaps it's best to see how American audiences accept the game first before thinking about comics.

Modern Mythology: UDON is translating 2 Mega Man artbooks for the U.S. soon, and you guys said two months ago in the Street Fighter Magazine interview that you are all huge fans of the Mega Man franchise. Can we expect news relating to a possible Mega Man comic to coincide with the releases of the artbooks?

Matt Moylan: Our first translated Mega Man art book was Mega Man Zero: Official Complete Works, which has been a fairly decent seller for us. Now we're doing the two new art books you mentioned for classic Mega Man, and Mega Man X, which is seems like fans are really excited about.

Next on our Mega Man list is - manga! We'll be translating a couple Mega Man manga series that fans have been asking for for a long time. If the manga does well, it could signal that it's time to try some original comics. So, hopefully all Mega fans who want new comics will run out and buy the artbooks and manga first. ;)

Modern Mythology: A few years ago at Comic-Con I remember getting Omar Dogan's limited print Chun-Li. Do you guys have anything rare or limited set-up for this years Comic-Con? What can we expect from your booth?

Matt Moylan: This year we've got all our main Street Fighter artists at the booth - Omar Dogan, Long Vo, Joe Ng, and Chamba - and they'll all be doing sketches, signing books, and selling Street Fighter & Darkstalkers prints.

We're also selling the con-exclusive Darkstalkers Tribute hardcover at SDCC. This 300page book features artists from all over the world celebrating the 15th anniversary of Darkstalkers with all new art pieces. Big names include Adam Hughes, J.Scott Campbell, Jo Chen, Mark Brooks, Yasuhiro Nightow and of course, the whole UDON crew! This book turned out even better than last year's Street Fighter Tribute, so fans will not be disappointed!

Modern Mythology: This year in October Long Beach will host the first ever Long Beach Comic-Con. What are your thoughts on the Con, and are you guys going to attend? If so, then are you planning anything special for the inaugural event?

Matt Moylan: Seems like the show has signed up some fun guests! We won't be attending this year, but we do try to pay attention to new shows to see if we might want to attend in the future. So maybe next year!

All photos courtesy of Udon Entertainment
www.udonentertainment.com

Gainax, the company responsible for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Neon Genesis Evengelion, held a focus panel after their American debut of the first Gurren Lagann movie where they took audience questions and feedback from the movie, and where they also made a surprise announcement for a new series they are currently working on with Mobile Suit Gundam 00 director Seiji Mizushima and video game company Square-Enix. Seiji Mizushima made a surprise guest appearance at Gainax's panel for the debut of the trailer. Fans cheered at the thought of two of the industry's best giant robot minds possibly colliding for one amazing scifi project.

Instead, the audience found out that the equation of: Gundam plus Gurren Lagann equals cute little girls that look something like the Powderpuff Girls, combining forces to destroy over-sized stuft pandas.

The animation looks top-notch as expected from Gainax, and director Mizushima  commented that with this project he wanted to make an anime that appealed to a wider audience than previous shows.

At first look this trailer might not be very impressive, but it is just a sneak-peek into what the teams are collaborating on. They did not give a release date at the panel, and I couldn't understand what the title of the anime was since it was in Japanese. So little is still known about this project, but with three dominant figures in the industry collaborating on it, the show is definitely on my list to check out.

Update:  After consulting a friend who could read the Kanji, I found out that the show is called Hanamaru Kindergarten, and the anime will be an adaptation from Square-Enix's slice-of-life comedy manga series.

It's round two for Anime Expo 2009 at Los Angeles Convention Center July 2nd- 5th. This will be the second year that AX has been at the LACC, and the convention is growing bigger each year. All the ingredients that make AX one of the biggest conventions of it's kind world-wide have returned including: concerts, industry panels and of course, cosplaying.

AX is hosted by the non-profit Society for Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) and whose current mission statement is: "to popularize and educate the American public about anime and manga, as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans."

Since the SPJA took over in 1992 Anime Expo has grown each year and hopes to continue to grow in 2009. Last year's attendance was up 5 percent from 2007, with the convention bringing in 43,000 attendees. This year attendees have a lot to get excited for. Main events include a concert by all-girl band Morning Musume, and AX Idol.

Morning Musume's story began in 1997 when Japanese producer Tsunku held auditions for a female rock vocalist for his band SHARAN Q held on the Japanese TV show ASAYAN. With the five runner-ups from the contest, Tsunku decided to create an all-girl group that sold 50,000 copies of their demo CD single "Seed of Love" and became MORNING MUSUME. While switching members in and out for the past 11 years Morning Musume has emerged as the top female band in Japan.

AX Idol is another fan favorite in which contestants enter the singing or voice acting competitions. The singing competition works similar to American Idol in which contestants sing tunes from anime and get critiqued by the judges, and the winner gets to record an album. The voice acting competition is a little more unique and has the contestants dub over part of a Japanese anime in English with the winner gettting a contract with Bang Zoom Entertainment to voice act.


Last year attendees were waiting to see if the L.A. Convention Center would be a great place to hold AX. All the rumors of the area not being safe turned out to be false. That area of downtown next to Staples Center, LACC, and the Nokia Theatre has great lighting, and is within walking distance of all the hotels. A walk back to your hotel even at 2 a.m. doesn't feel dangerous. The most dangerous thing that I saw last year was everybody jay-walking across Chick Hearn Court from Nokia Theatre back to the LACC after a main event was over.

Sadly the Nokia Center will not be used this year. The official AX statement is, "Due to evaluation of 2008 usage, and planned programming for 2009, Anime Expo® will not be utilizing Nokia Theatre for main events in 2009. All major events including Opening/Closing Ceremonies, Concerts, Masquerade, AX Idol and AMV¹s will be held within the Los Angeles Convention Center." This is an interesting move with attendance always increasing, and the Nokia Center packed last year, but during these economic times I assume it was too expensive to rent out this year.

Anime Expo 2009 kicks off this Wednesday, and we'll have any ground-breaking news that comes out of the industry panels, and main events. So if you're in L.A., and you love anime, manga, or video games be sure to stop by North America's largest anime convention during the July 4th weekend.

For more information regarding Anime Expo 2009 check out the official site at
www.anime-expo.org.

Recently we had a chance to get some questions answered by Marvel writer Greg Pak about his main projects: Incredible Hulk, Skaar Son of Hulk, and War Machine. He also told us about how some of these ideas came about, and some of his plans for the future.

Modern Mythology: I've read that you're coming back to being a regular in the "Hulk" series with issue #601. What can you tell us about the direction you're going to take with the characters?

Greg Pak: This is the culmination of a crazy plan the Hulk office has been cooking up since the end of "World War Hulk." I can't say too much for fear of spoilers, but the story launches out of the climactic conclusions to Jeph Loeb's "Incredible Hulk" #600 in July and my own "Skaar" #12 in June. It's a whole new world of smash and a perfect jumping on point for "Planet Hulk" and "World War Hulk" fans as well as brand new readers ready for a shocking new direction, massive emotional payoffs, and multiple megatons of gamma powered smashing.

Modern Mythology: And how is it working with artist Ariel Olivetti?

Greg Pak: Ariel's been fantastic to work with so far -- wait until you see the cover to issue #602! He's justifiably renowned for his amazing work on "Punisher War Journal" and "Cable" drawing giant guys fighting, so that makes him a natural for "Incredible Hulk." But he's got a great touch for little emotional details and funny, human moments -- he's making every element in the book really come alive.

Modern Mythology: Perhaps you answered this in the last question, but I hear your last Skaar issue is #12 -- Will he figure into your new Hulk run, and if not, any hints on how will Skaar will figure into the Marvel Universe now that he's in the neighborhood?

Greg Pak: Skaar will indeed play a big role in my "Incredible Hulk" run -- that's definitely him behind Banner on the cover to #601. I'll just say he's about to have a massive impact on his pop and just about everyone else he meets in the Marvel Universe.

Modern Mythology: Do you like taking certain characters that you are personally interested in, and revitalizing them? Or does Marvel pitch the idea to you?

Greg Pak: Sometimes a Marvel editor will approach me with a character and pitch that I just can't say no to. "Magneto Testament" was like that for me. I've always thought Magneto was a fantastic character, but for one reason or another I hadn't independently come up with many stories featuring him. But when editor Warren Simons approached me about telling Magneto's origin story as a boy during the rise of the Nazis and the Holocaust, I was immediately hooked and knew I was going to do everything I possible could to write that project and do it justice. And then there are characters that I've been itching to write forever and have basically lurked around waiting for my shot. My first run on the Hulk came about that way. I bonded with editor Mark Paniccia while working on a completely different project, and at every opportunity, I'd shamelessly tell him how much I dug the Hulk. And eventually when it came time for Marvel to pick a new Hulk writer, all those hints I'd been dropping must have paid off.

Modern Mythology: Where did you get the idea for the direction of the new War Machine series?

Greg Pak: The idea was actually editor Bill Rosemann's. I heard him pitch the idea of Jim Rhodes as a one man army taking on the world's worst dictators and madmen at a Marvel creative summit two years ago and couldn't get it out of my head. I asked him if he had a writer; he grinned and said no. And within a few weeks, we were off to the races.

Modern Mythology: What's coming up in War Machine this year?

Greg Pak: Everything changes for Rhodey this year. Even as we speak, he's finally brought his fight against madmen and monsters to American soil. He's fighting to save the country -- but he might just end up branded a traitor in the process. Key issues are #7 and #8, in which we learn about his target and see how he reacts to a high-octane intervention from his former teammates in the West Coast Avengers. Then at long last there's a War Machine versus Iron Patriot showdown in issues #9 and #10 -- and only one man will be standing at the end. It's a massive turning point for James Rhodes that might just tear the heart and soul out of the Marvel Universe. I'll say no more.

Modern Mythology: How was the Marvel Comics retreat? Were you surprised by anything that happened there?

Greg Pak: Something surprising always happens at the creative summits. My non-disclosure agreement prevents me from saying much more, but there were a lot of big smiles at the end of this last meeting.

Modern Mythology: Finally, how does writing for comics compare to your work as a film writer-director?

Greg Pak: Writing comics can often be more time consuming that writing a film script. Film writing tends to be very stripped down. A screenplay is read by all kinds of people, not just the folks involved in actually making the movie -- so I never overexplain visuals. The idea is to write simply and evocatively in a way that allows any reader to "see" the movie while reading.

On the other hand, comic book scripts are generally read only by the people who are actually making the comics. So I fill them with what in the film world would be my director's notes. In a comic script, I'll break each page down into panels, which would be the equivalent of breaking each scene down into different shots in a film script. I may give very specific visual direction, directly address editors and artists and letterers, or maybe even digress for a minor treatise about the visual look of the whole book. As a result, my film scripts tend to be a bit more elegant, a touch closer to a satisfying literary read in and of themselves. But the comic scripts probably provide a better window to an outsider into the actual workings of the creative process, since they're chock full of practical details of creative choices.

Modern Mythology: Any plans for new film projects in the coming year?

Greg Pak: I just got greenlit to direct a new short film entitled "Mister Green," which should be a blast. I should have more info about it soon at www.pakbuzz.com.

Pictures courtesy of Marvel.com and pakbuzz.com

I know if I'm going to start a monthly series then I should keep up with it, right? Well sorry for the delay but to make up for last month I'm acknowledging two amazing action-packed scifi anime series.

First up is Macross Frontier which marks the 25th anniversary of the Macross anime franchise. It is a direct sequel to the first Macross series and Macross 7, and follows the lives of Alto Saotome, Ranka Lee and Sheryl Nome on board the spaceship Macross Frontier.

Frontier is in ways one part Battlestar Galactica because humanity has a war against the Zentradi aliens, and are forced to spread across the universe in order to ensure its survival. The Macross Frontier fleet is part of a effort to spread and maintain the culture of humanity.

There is also the familiar Robotech feel to this show with planes transforming into giant robots that kick some series alien butts. These space battles are action packed and beautifully animated. It is obvious that the budget for this series was higher then average. The original Robotech was a compilation of three Japanese animated series, and adapted for American release. Fans of the original Robotech will definitely find Frontier appealing.

The final part of Frontier that amazes me is the music. The soundtrack is a dominate factor that pushes the story forward every episode. The music wasn't an after-thought here, Yoko Kano, the musical director, did a fabulous job casting singers that give Frontier an extra dimension that few animes achieve.

Sadly there are currently no plans to bring Macross Frontier to the U.S., and there are no free streaming sites that I know of that have the rights to this show. However, each anime store that I've been to in Los Angeles have more than a few copies of the Japanese dvd's and BluRay in stock. I encourage any scifi or Robotech fans to check this anime out, it does not disappoint.


Next up is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. The series takes place in an alternate reality where the Holy Empire of Britannia conquers Japan and designates the island "Area 11." The Japanese, now known as elevens, are repressed and stripped of their culture.

Lelouch Lamperouge, a genius Britannian student that disagrees with Britania's politics, accidentally comes into contact with a unique girl named C.C. She bestows the gift of Geass upon him, which is the power to control others. Lelouch now has the means to enact revenge on the Emperor of Britannia for the murder of his mother, and free Japan from Britannia's grasp.

This anime is a thrill to watch. It takes you on an action packed roller coaster with lots of twist and turns, and brutally shocking moments. The main protagonist Lelouch is a little hard to relate to, and many people won't like him, but with top-notch bloody mecha battles, and great character development this series is definitely worth checking out.

And the best news is you can check the whole first season out on the official Bandai youtube site or crunchyroll.com for free, or buy the first season since it is out in the U.S. on dvd. The second season dvd's are being released at the end of June, so now is your chance to catch up on the first 25 episodes.

This past Saturday kicked off the Street Fighter Tribute Art Show "Jab Strong Fierce" at Gallery Nucleus just outside downtown Los Angeles in Alhambra.

From the press release:

"Gallery Nucleus and I am 8-bit are proud to present, with support from CAPCOM, a Street Fighter tribute group art exhibition. In celebration of Street FIghter IV and all things Street Fighter, they have created an exhibition of Street Fighter influenced art that all Street Fighter, video game, and art fans will enjoy."

During the kick-off party there was a Street Fighter 4 tournament, cosplay contest, a house DJ spinning music all night, and of course walls full of Street Fighter art. The front of the gallery has an area where you can purchase prints of each piece of art, and also official art books from Capcom or Udon, who publish an assortment of Street Fighter comic books and manga every month.

These are just a few of the pieces of fan art that are on display at Gallery Nucleus. 

The art exhibition runs from April 25, 2009 - May 11, 2009 and is free to attend.

Gallery Nucleus information:
210  East Main St. Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 458 - 7482