One of the great things about Comic-Con is hooking up with people that you know. It's a meeting place for folks with similar interests.
Giant Robot is one of my favorite booths.
Giant Robot is a magazine, a store and a state of mind. I wrote for the magazine years ago when they were doing most of the work from their home. Now they are a slick, gorgeous mag with an innate sense of cool. The magazine, shop and the booth at Comic-Con are run by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong. They focus on Asian pop culture: film, music, art, toys and more. Check out their booth for some awesome toys and collectibles. I also recommend picking up back issues of their magazine. I remember years ago they wrote about the Cambodian donut cartel and after their article came out, NPR did a story. They also feature fun, insightful interviews. Visit the
Giant Robot store on line as well. And their booth is Giant Robot, not "Ant" Robot. That's my bad, I cut out two letters. They are booth number 1729 in the Small Press Area.
Another booth to visit is Tartan Film, USA. After dealing with Tartan's Debbi Berlin for years by phone and by email, I finally got to meet her in person at the Tartan booth. Tartan runs a DVD brand called Tartan Asia Extreme. They have a library of great titles with some of my all time favorite Asian films, including the Park Chan Wook Revenge Trilogy and Johnny To's Election . Tartan delivers beautiful film transfers and great bonus features. You can check out their titles and enter a raffle for a chance to win some of their DVDs. Tartan's theatrical division also deserves kudos for the specialty titles they distribute, films ranging from Mysterious Skin to the recent Romanian film 12:08 East of Bucharest. Show your support for Asia Extreme Cinema! You can visit Tartan online as well. Their booth number is 5511.
It's off to see George Romero's panel now. Let me know if there are any booths I need to check out.
