Hello again! Kate here to share what’s been going on in Comicslandia this past week, and what seems to have been going on is a lot of con stuff and people stuff. That’s cool. I like cons. And people. Mostly.
The top story I saw last week was all about Anime Expo’s COVID-19 policies. AX was a Formative life experience for early 20s Kate in the pre-weaboo era when I identified as an “otaku” and took Japanese for my college language requirement. I was young and stupid and probably would have gone to AX with or without this policy and so early 40s Kate is very, very glad that this generation is smarter than I was and able to pressure AX into reinstating their proof of vaccination requirements.
As someone who is high risk, vaxxed, double boosted, and still paranoid AF about getting COVID, I also appreciate this from a public health standpoint. I know everyone is dying to start going to cons again but it’s only been a month since a woman died after getting COVID at PAX East where she was a volunteer. REEDPop (the org behind PAX, C2E2, NYCC, and Emerald City Comic Con) has continued to deny their responsibility for public safety at these live events. Yes, there is absolutely a fun time to be had at a convention. I have gone to a lot of them. But I don’t know when—or if—I’ll feel comfortable going to one again since the world has devolved into social darwinism: plague edition.
But just when I’m about to lose all hope about humanity, I see something nice happen from something tragic. To wit-Vault Comics hosted a live online auction to raise money for the Hero Initiative as a tribute for the late George Perez.
Today at 4E/1P!
Our first ever charity auction!
Original Art by @ErykDonovan , @TimDanielComics , @lianakangas , and @DarickR plus JLA/Avengers and CGC 9.8’s!
All proceeds benifit @heroinitiative in honor of George Pérez on his birthday!https://t.co/Jn9VcDRdCQ pic.twitter.com/XuW45Qbosg
— Vault Comics (@thevaultcomics) June 9, 2022
I hope they’ll announce how much they earned at some point, but it is the weekend, so I’ll cut them a little slack. Faith in humanity restored.
One more happy thing to end the day. San Diego Comic Con is just around the corner (okay so it’s like 7 weeks away but still) and while the Eisner voting is over, the Eisner Award Ceremony, live and in-person, will feature Annie Koyama being presented with the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. Koyama is probably best known for being the founder of Koyama Press, which ceased production in 2021. Now, Koyama runs Koyama Provides, which specializes in microgrants for artists, which is even more cool.
AND Koyama is also being honored with an honorary doctorate from OCAD University.
Exciting news! On June 17, #OCADU will award honorary doctorates to five outstanding individuals: Rosalie Favell, Michael Fukushima @em_fukushima, Annie Koyama @AnnieKoyama, Judy Matthews and Norman Triplett White. https://t.co/hfge1c68Wk pic.twitter.com/uvB8gVeYSX
— OCAD University (@OCAD) June 8, 2022
Sometimes, good things happen to good people. So, it seems like this week, the comics industry, and its fans did good things? For once?
Nobody tell me if something bad happened.
