Friday, 31 July 2009

Angry Reader--that's my name, uh, uh, uh

I wouldn't make a great Quick Kick because I don't do the barefoot thing even though I'm Asian. I prefer to wear Lugzs all the time, even to the shower.
"Quick Kick is angry, too. Why does he have to be bare-chested all the time? Even on an episode of G.I. Joe when he's fighting the enemy outside and it's snowing?"

--one of my favorite quotes from angry asian man

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I'm honored to be angry asian man's Angry Reader of the Week.

Here's a sneak peek of the Q&A:
I'm Filipino.
And this concludes the sneak peek. Juicy, huh?

Peep the Q&A now. Thanks, Phil.

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Jam masters, sketch faster: Secret Identities' San Diego Comic-Con '09 jam piece


At Comic-Con, Secret Identities fans were asked to go on a con floor scavenger hunt to collect 10 signatures of contributors from the book and then enter their names into a drawing. The winner of the drawing would receive a jam piece of Asian American superheroes drawn by artists who participated in the book, or in the case of Larry Hama, almost participated (but has given the book his blessing and even lent his mug to a cartoonized version of himself).

Jimmy J. Aquino prepares to sketch June Park for a jam piece. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Either Parry Shen or Keith Chow invited me to jam. I practiced my jam piece contribution on a separate piece of paper before getting to work on the actual jam piece. Keith was kind enough to help shoot footage of me with my tiny Aiptek HD camcorder while I sketched (this pic is actually a capture from the footage). The camcorder, which doubles as a still camera, particularly fascinated Ming Doyle and Keiko Agena's husband, who told me he'd now like to have a similar camera.

'Sampler' heroine June Park by Jimmy J. Aquino.
At first, I tried to sketch out an Asian American version of Batman, but it looked terrible (I stuck a yin-yang symbol on his cowl), so I opted to draw "Sampler" character June Park instead.

Drawing June is something I rarely do--I prefer to leave that task to the professionals--so I had to pause for a few minutes and brainstorm how June would look on the jam piece. While I'm brainstorming during the camcorder footage, Keith can be heard joking, "This is riveting television."

The final result, a collage of drawings by Hama, Ming, Bernard Chang, Benton Jew, Tiffanie Hwang, Jerry Ma, Gene Yang, Sonny Liew and myself, looks dope and was inked by Walden Wong.

The Secret Identities San Diego Comic-Con 2009 jam piece, illustrated by Bernard Chang, Jimmy J. Aquino, Benton Jew, Tiffanie Hwang, Jerry Ma, Ming Doyle, Larry Hama, Gene Yang and Sonny Liew and inked by Walden Wong.
Top row: Asian (and most likely lactose-intolerant) Hulk by Bernard and June Park of "Sampler" by yours truly.

Center row: Jimson Po from Jeff Yang's "Driving Steel" by Benton, a Ninja Turtle by Tiffanie, a character whose name escapes me by Jerry and X-Men member Jubilee by Ming.

Bottom row: Snake Eyes by Hama, the Monkey King by Gene and a trademark Sonny Liew pairing of a kid and a robot.

Congrats, Orange, California resident Cecil DeClaro, the proud owner of our jam piece, which is already a collector's item because of the debut of Asian Hulk ("Mr. McGee, don't make me hungry. You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry.").

[Via Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Blog]

Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Crime TV on DVD (Jul 28)

Upcoming DVD releases of detective and crime TV shows, including several British entries, a Charlie's Angels 'best-of', complete series sets from Homicide: Life on the Street and The Unit, and more. Updates on TVShowsonDVD:

The Beiderbecke Tapes (mini-series) Sequel Mini-Series Comes to DVD

Bones
Box Art Appears for Season 4: Body Bag Edition on DVD and Blu-ray
4th Season Release Date and Details for Blu-ray Disc and DVD Formats

Cagney & Lacey Finalized Press Release for The Menopause Years Box Set

Charlie's Angels Immediate Re-Release for 5-Episode Best of Charlie's Angels DVD

Criminal Minds Early Details on Season 4 Bonus Material

C.S.I. A Better Look at Blu-ray and DVD Box Art for The 9th Season

C.S.I.: Miami Lots of Extras on the Season 7 Set

C.S.I.: NY Bonus Material for Season 5 Uncovered

Dollhouse A Preview of 'Epitaph One'

Flashpoint
New Details, Possible Cover Art for The 1st Season on DVD
The Canadian Show, Starring Enrico Colantoni & Amy Jo Johnson, Comes to North American DVD

Foyle's War
Packaging Picture of the From Dunkirk to VE-Day: Sets 1-5 DVDs
' From Dunkirk to VE-Day' Collector's Edition Compiles All 5 Previous DVD Sets

Harper's Island
Packaging Finalized for Harper's Island - The DVD Edition, Starring Christopher Gorham
Details on Extras Emerge for Harper's Island

Homicide: Life on the Street Repackaged Release of The Complete Series Coming this Fall

The Middleman Shout! Factory Leaked Some Sneak Preview Video Clips for The Complete Series on DVD

Midsomer Murders
Get a Gander at the Package Art for Acorn's Set 13 Release
Acorn Media Announces Set 13, with 4 More British Mysteries on DVD

The Sopranos Could a Canadian Amazon Listing Show a Season 1 Blu-ray Release Date Good for the USA?

Traffik (mini-series)
Box Art is Now In for Acorn's Remastered 20th Anniversary Edition DVD
Original '89 Mini-Series is Getting a Remastered 20th Anniversary Edition DVD

The Unit
Box Art Debut for Season 4 DVD & Blu-ray; Full Press Release for Season 4 and Complete Series
Package Art Scoop for The Complete Series Gift Set on DVD
Fox Informs Retailers to Expect a Complete Series Gift Set on DVD

Van der Valk '70s Mysteries Series Crosses the Pond from the UK to the USA & Canada

More crime TV news:
Mr. Monk and Season Seven on DVD
Shalhoub on MONK: 'Everything does come to an end'
T.J. Hooker: "Terror At The Academy" (Minisode)
T.J. Hooker: "Vengeance is Mine" (Minisode) (Leonard Nimoy!)
'Monk' returns for final season Aug 7
Mr. Monk and the Final Season
Crime TV on DVD (Jun 4)
The next 'Level' of thriller fiction
Watch WALLANDER online
Watch CASTLE on ABC

Sunday, 26 July 2009

One day of San Diego Comic-Con '09 is all I can take

'Exterminate!' is what I wish I could say and do to haters of the Asian American ComiCon who are these 'I don't see race' types like Stephen Colbert's onscreen alter ego and who post on message boards that there shouldn't be an AACC. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Like angry asian man blogger and Secret Identities booster Phil Yu (more on him later), I picked only one day to attend San Diego Comic-Con '09, and one day is really all I can tolerate of the overwhelming, overcrowded and smelly Nerd Prom.

My favorite aspect of Comic-Con is not the panels--I wasn't able to go inside any of the ones I wanted to see--but unexpectedly meeting writers and bloggers whose work I've enjoyed for several years, such as Phil. Here's my recap of Comic-Con Friday in pictures.

Pinoy Optimus Prime. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Hey Optimus, why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?

Jimmy J. Aquino and Debbie Huey. Photo courtesy of JJA.
I didn't know Bumperboy creator Debbie Huey and I worked for the same university newspaper 12 years ago until my older brother pointed it out to me recently. We never met each other because her department of City on a Hill Press never really interacted with my department. I also didn't know Secret Identities approached Debbie to contribute a story, but she had to decline. I'm glad to see another alum from the paper doing well as an author (Azadeh Moaveni is another alum from my period at the paper who's had quite a career as an author).

Cosplayers as Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, Justice Society-era Flash, Harley Quinn and Green Lantern. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
From left to right: a group of cosplayers suited up as Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, the Golden Age Flash, Harley Quinn and Green Lantern.

Jimmy J. Aquino and Javier Grillo-Marxuach. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Here I am with Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who looks like he's pointing at me and saying, "Who the hell is this guy?," but actually, he's looking at another camera. The underrated Middleman TV series--one of my favorite shows that debuted last summer--may be cancelled, but it's having one hell of an afterlife at Comic-Con (Javier and the cast reunited to promote both the debut of a "series finale" in graphic novel form and a fully loaded DVD box set). It was also cool to unexpectedly run into one of the series' biggest boosters, blogger and Newark Star-Ledger TV critic Alan Sepinwall, at Javier's booth. Javier's next TV series will be the post-apocalyptic NBC drama Day One.

Clone Stormtroopers. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
These Clone Stormtroopers are so lazy they don't even notice the guy's flashing a peace sign and outing himself as a Galactic Republic sympathizer. Quit falling asleep on the job, you goosestepping test-tube babies!

Jimmy J. Aquino prepares to sketch June Park for a Secret Identities jam piece before pencilling the actual drawing. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Jimmy J. Aquino prepares to sketch June Park for a jam piece. Photo courtesy of JJA.
At the booth shared by Secret Identities and the Epic Proportions studio, I signed a few copies of Secret Identities for fans and then decided to challenge myself by doing something I rarely do, which is draw the character I scripted, "Sampler" heroine June Park (I prefer to have artists who are way more skilled than I am--like Erwin Haya--visually interpret June). I did a pencil drawing of June for a jam piece, the grand prize in a Secret Identities scavenger hunt.

'Sampler' heroine June Park by Jimmy J. Aquino.
I had to sketch out June first before doing the final drawing on the jam piece. Here's the rough sketch I made before redrawing it on the jam piece. JLA and Justice League Unlimited comics inker Walden Wong did a nice job inking the final drawing.

Jimmy J. Aquino and Erwin Haya. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Erwin and I finally meet face-to-face. He said he didn't do the final lettering on "Sampler," which contained a few typos, and if he had gotten to do it, the typos wouldn't have appeared. I'm glad to see Erwin's artwork in "Sampler" has been getting positive feedback. He told me people have said to him that they want to see more adventures with June.

Arcee, Transformers: Animated version. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
The recession's been so tough for Transformers' token female bot Arcee that she's had to moonlight as a bodyguard for the constantly pawed-at Olivia Munn.

Keiko Agena, Jimmy J. Aquino and Ming Doyle. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Former Gilmore Girls co-star Keiko Agena and the talented--and lovely--Ming Doyle worked on the clever Secret Identities story "Learn to Share," about a blind Thai girl whose powers make Daredevil look like Don Knotts.

Mockingbird. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Avengers member Mockingbird prepares to use her battle stave on nerds who don't shower.

Captain America, Jimmy J. Aquino and Mockingbird. Photo by JJA.
I could use a utility belt like Captain America's. I'd rather rock that than a camera murse.

Firestorm. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
It's Firestorm, back when he was white and into Seinfeld puffy shirts.

Spy vs. Spy cosplayers. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Ebony and Ivory live together in perfect harmony. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
The Spy vs. Spy feud started when Black Spy dissed White Spy during "Pull Your Skirt Up."

Psylocke. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Psylocke ought to use her psychic knife to shut down fake psychics like Dr. Girlfriend soundalike Sylvia Browne. Does Sylvia Browne smoke cigarettes or does she just eat them?

Beach Joker and Harley Quinn. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
The Joker (with a bikini-clad Harley Quinn) refuses to join the spray tan bandwagon.

The Wonder Twins. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
"Jayna, did you tell Gleek to take a shit in the bucket again? That shit's not funny!"

A G4 booth babe promotes the reality show 2M2MM. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Nine is the same amount of people who watched Kings on NBC. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
A G4 booth babe promotes the network's new reality show Focus Group, in which people are locked in a room where they're forced to watch nothing but G4's reruns of Cheaters.

A Paramount Pictures booth babe snaps a photo for a fan. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Paramount Pictures booth babes pose with a congoer in front of the new Enterprise bridge backdrop. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Paramount Pictures booth babes take it to the bridge.

Flaming Carrot. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Only Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot and Fluid Man from Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles can pull off the scuba flipper look.

Gene Yang, Gail Simone and Jeff Yang at a San Diego Comic-Con '09 panel about diversity in superhero comics. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
From left to right: Eternal Smile author Gene Yang, Wonder Woman writer Gail Simone and Secret Identities editor-in-chief Jeff Yang discuss the growing numbers of non-white or female comic book buyers at the SDCC panel Jeff moderated, "Four Color Reality: Making Comics Relevant to Readers Across Cultures."

Jimmy J. Aquino and Dwayne McDuffie. Photo courtesy of JJA.
During the "Four Color Reality" panel, Milestone Media founder and Justice League Unlimited writer Dwayne McDuffie recalled being the second African American to ever write a Marvel comic, as well as Milestone's efforts to tap into an underutilized talent pool of writers of color (Dwayne noted that Valiant was the only other comics company at the time that had an equally diverse staff). Yes, I know I look like I represent the Lollipop Guild, Daly City Chapter.

Dwayne McDuffie and the Secret Identities editors. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Dwayne stands with the four Secret Identities editors who followed his example (from left to right: Jerry Ma, Jeff, Keith Chow and Parry Shen).

Dwayne McDuffie and Janice Chiang. Photo by Jimmy J. Aquino.
Dwayne briefly reunites with letterer Janice Chiang, who worked on his issues of Iron Man and Hardware. Thanks, Janice, for introducing me to Dwayne, as well as past Spider-Man letterer and current Tales from the Crypt artist Rick Parker, former Marvel editor and current Papercutz editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup and '90s X-Men writer Scott Lobdell.

Derek Kirk Kim, Jimmy J. Aquino and Phil Yu. Photo courtesy of JJA.
The highlight of the day was hanging out late at night with the likes of Jeff (who took this picture for me), Keith (not pictured), Amulet creator Kazu Kibuishi (not pictured), who contributed the "Go" pinup to Secret Identities, Eternal Smile artist Derek Kirk Kim (left) and Phil of angry asian man (right), whose shirt says "My Ninja!" and whose blog I've been following for several years.

I wasn't aware Phil and I both hailed from the South Bay. The first and last time I talked to him was via e-mail during the early years of his blog (I don't remember what we talked about in our exchange--I bet it was about Asian American movies). I was jazzed to learn from Phil that he's been checking out my blog, but I had to admit to him--and another guy in the room admitted this to Phil too--that I can't read his blog on some days because the hate crimes or moments of verbal Asian-bashing that he reports really make my blood boil.

I told Phil I'd like to be part of his blog's Angry Reader of the Week section someday (hey, my new friend Kate Agathon is the Angry Reader this week!), though one question might make me nervous: "What makes you angry?" I'd be nervous trying to answer it because the list of things that make me angry would turn the Angry Reader of the Week post into a three-parter.

Now added to that ever-expanding list: the long lines and claustrophobic Exhibit Hall at Comic-Con.

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Added on July 27, 2009: The Facebook version of this gallery contains some different photos. Also, almost all the captions for the pics on the Facebook version are completely different from the captions I wrote on this post. Check out my alternate silly captions.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

I'm shipping up to Nerd Prom

I'm shipping up to Nerd Prom to find my Middleman eps. Wow, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray look really different now.
I originally wasn't planning on attending this week's sold-out San Diego Comic-Con (on my Twitter page, I joked, "I'm not much of a fan of crowded comic cons anyway. In fact, San Diego C-C isn't even a comic con anymore. It's now the TCA Press Tour."). But at the last minute, someone invited me to the con, and then I changed my mind about not going.

I'll be at Comic-Con for one day only--Friday. It'll be a Phil Collins-performs-"Sussudio"-at-Wembley Stadium-for-five-minutes-and-then-flies-off-to-Philly-to-perform-"Sussudio"-again kind of trip, except much less douchey.

The first time I attended Comic-Con was in 2007, when I saw a bunch of booth babes in cheerleader outfits unenthusiastically pass out copies of the Heroes: Season 1 DVD box set packaging to all the Ballroom 20 audience members at the Heroes season 2 cast and crew panel. The cheerleaders were glum probably because they already saw season 2.

My second visit to the con will be Friday. It'll be my first time there as a professional.

If you feel like saying hello to me, I'll be hanging around the Secret Identities booth, a.k.a. Jerry Ma's Epic Proportions booth (#1735), for most of Friday. My Secret Identities page neighbors Keiko Agena and Ming Doyle, the duo behind "Learn to Share," will be signing books at the booth at 2pm.

Which feisty half-Asian British chick would win in a fight? Psylocke or Alexa Chung, who's adorable despite the fact that she needs to eat a sandwich?
For those Fistful of Soundtracks listeners who are headed to Comic-Con, I'm re-airing the 2004 Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Superhero Worship" today at 10am and 3pm.

Tuesday, 21 July 2009

Mr. Monk and Season Seven on DVD

Fans of "defective detective" Adrian Monk preparing for his final season can catch up on past adventures with the DVD release of Monk: Season Seven, in stores today (July 21). The set features all sixteen episodes, including guest stars Brad Garrett, David Strathairn, Eric McCormack, Sarah Silverman, Hector Elizando, John Turturro ... not to mention the all-star 100th episode, "Mr. Monk’s 100th Case!"

Bonus materials include: "Mr. Monk Buys a House" Video Commentary with Creator/Co-Writer Andy Breckman, "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever" Video Commentary with Writer Hy Conrad, "Mr. Monk Is Underwater" Video Commentary with Writer Jack Bernstein, "Mr. Monk Falls in Love" Video Commentary with Writers Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan, "Mr. Monk's 100th Case" Video Commentary with Writer Tom Scharpling, "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized" Video Commentary with Writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross, plus "Monk P.I." and Anatomy of an Episode.

The eighth and final season of Monk kicks off August 7 on the USA Network.



Related links:
Shalhoub on MONK: 'Everything does come to an end'
'Monk' returns for final season Aug 7
Mr. Monk and the Final Season
Mr. Monk and the Finished Manuscript
The stars shine for MONK 100
ADRIAN MONK: The face of OCD
Crime TV on DVD
The next 'Level' of thriller fiction
Watch WALLANDER online
Watch CASTLE on ABC

Monday, 20 July 2009

Hello San Francisco: Snapshots of Secret Identities at Giant Robot SF

A masked admirer and Jimmy J. Aquino. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Giant Robot SF and Secret Identities editor-in-chief Jeff Yang assembled some of the novel's Bay Area-based contributors--"Just Ordinary" artist Alexander Shen, "Justified" artist Tiffanie Hwang, "Gaze" inker Walden Wong and I--for a spirited two-hour July 16 signing session at the Shrader Street store that flew by faster than a morning jog with the Flash.

"S.O.S." writer Tanuj Chopra and "The Blue Scorpion & Chung" writer Gene Yang didn't make it to the signing. Gene, whose collabo with Derek Kirk Kim, The Eternal Smile, recently hit stores, couldn't be with us because he was busy with his day job (teaching computer science at a Catholic school).

Jimmy J. Aquino, Walden Wong, Tiffanie Hwang, Jeff Yang and Luke Martinez at Giant Robot SF's Secret Identities signing session. Photo courtesy of JJA.
From left to right: myself, Walden (who has his own recap of the signing here), Tiffanie, Jeff and Giant Robot SF manager Luke Martinez stand in front of Jeff's Secret Identities slide presentation. (Not in the picture: Alexander.)

Jimmy J. Aquino signs a book. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Instead of signing each copy of Secret Identities with the same message, I wanted to challenge myself by writing a different message in each copy ("Thanks for supporting Asian American/Pacific Islander superhero comics," "I don't know you, but I love you for being a Secret Identities fan," "Stay cool. It's so damn hot out there," "Everybody in the store gettin' tipsy").

Jimmy J. Aquino, Martin Genova and Dan Genova. Photo courtesy of JJA.
Here I am with one of my older brother's former roommates, Dan Genova, and his son Martin. Dan's known me since the days when I visited my brother at his university and I tried to write the Great Asian American Novel, which I never completed (elements of this unfinished story live on in my webcomic The Palace). The Genovas' visit was a wonderful surprise.

Added on July 23, 2009: The next several photos were taken by Giant Robot. The magazine/boutique store franchise posted their complete gallery of the event here.

Jimmy J. Aquino, Martin Genova and Dan Genova. Photo by Giant Robot.
Jimmy J. Aquino takes a digital video of Jeff Yang giving a Secret Identities slide presentation. Photo by Giant Robot.
Jeff Yang gives a Secret Identities slide presentation. Photo by Giant Robot.
Jeff Yang plugs the Secret Identities booth at San Diego Comic-Con. Photo by Giant Robot.
Jeff Yang, Jimmy J. Aquino and the masked Secret Identities fan from the photo at the top of the post. Photo by Giant Robot.
Jimmy J. Aquino with the Secret Identities fan from the photo at the top of the post. Photo by Giant Robot.
Walden Wong, Alexander Shen, Tiffanie Hwang, Jeff Yang and Jimmy J. Aquino at the signing table. Photo by Giant Robot.
Many of the readers at this signing--my second signing--hadn't read Secret Identities yet but were genuinely interested in our novel. While they left Giant Robot with signed copies of our book, I left the store with a copy of Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings, which has nothing to do with superheroics. If I knew how to draw better, I'd sketch a Batman/Shortcomings mash-up in which I'd turn Ben Tanaka and Alice Kim into the Frank Quitely version of Batman and Robin. Benman would come to the rescue of a white chick, of course, while Miko Hayashi would look on disapprovingly, and Robin would be busy spitting game at another lesbian.

Thanks, Giant Robot and the Bay Area fans who came to our signing!