The Ninja Legion

So here I am packing for AUSA 09. Yes thats right....its 2AM and I'm packing, or rather doing laundrey. See, I have this nasty habit of waiting until the night before con to get ready...and...well...I work best under pressure. The more pressure I have on something the better the results *usually*.

Anyways, I still have to pack the Legion PS3 and all of my "General" stuff (no pun intended). Though I'm thinking of what to talk about in the panel. So far I think I have a semi decent list to get the audience interacting.

Hmmm, also thinking I may have to do some script writing while at the con but that shouldn't be too horible. Also I'm looking forward to finally meeting up with Steve Blum, J Michael Tatum, and the Clockwork Dolls. It should be some exciting times if we're able to chill with them (not interview them....chill with them. Yes I'm crazy like that).

Gods I think the 1 liter of mountain dew (which I have no right drinking in the first place since that last kidney infection) is starting to wear off. Sleep for now, will post more tommorow!

~General Neko Oni

All and all, AUSA 09 wasn't a bad con. It had it's great point like *ahem* ..host club. It had it's more frustrated moments like poor timing of events, and trying to get information to one another via cell phones (reception in that hotel sucks)

In most, we all really had a great time together as a legion and it was another really great convention for us.


Also, and this is totally off topic, if anyone is trying to reach me though facebook, my account had been hacked wile I was at con and temporarily disabled. Hopefully it will be back up soon. But please don't worry I'm not mad at anyone for those who think I had deleted. my account.

This also really sucks too because I can't upload things to The Legion's facebook page for all to see. Really hope o get my account back soon

Well It is safe to say, that I have blown away my budget for the month of August. I have ordered upgrades earlier in the month for my media center PC, in the form of two 1TB hard drives from my favorite website in the whole world; Newegg. I also just finished ordering from Amazon on items we were discussing on last nights show, below is what i ordered:

Delivery estimate: August 31, 2009 - September 2, 2009

1 "Dissidia Final Fantasy"
Video Game; $38.99

1 "The Sky Crawlers [Blu-ray]"
Rinko Kikuchi; Blu-ray; $22.99

1 "Sword of the Stranger [Blu-ray]"
Yûki Chinen; Blu-ray; $21.99

Now, I am not going to get Dissidia until after it comes out, but at least I will have it for the trip to DragonCon; which brings me to the expense of that. Just for the Hotel expenses it will cost me 200.10 and that is for 5 days and it is split between 10 people. The reg fee is 100.00 and that not to mention dealers room, food, gas. DCon will be very hateful to my budget. I hope to have enough to pay for power at the Legion Halls

Sorry it took me so long to get this up I've beeen working pretty much non stop since AUSA.

I was fortunate enough to get to have brief interview with the very talented Jo Chen at AUSA. This was probably the most exciting part of the convention for me because I am a huge fan of her artwork. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ms. Chen's work she was the artist responsible for the AUSA t-shirt art this year, she has also done cover art for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Runaways Comics as well as for both Fable and Fable 2. to check out some of her art visit her website at http://www.jo-chen.com

Of course the most important thing to know is the medium that an artist works in and for Ms. Chen it's a mix of both traditional and modern starting off with pencil and in for the basic piece then using photoshop and painter to apply the finishing touches.

Comic books are a fairly large part of Ms. Chen's portfolio including Buffy, Runaways, Streetfighter and Racer-X so naturally I had to ask ho she got started into that industry, what her first work was and what her favorite project has been. The story of her start into the industry is a actually somewhat comical forgive the pun. A Christmas card she had done was actually her gateway piece into the world of comics almost seeming coincidental. The first art she did for comics was covers for the Racer-X series moving on to do work for Streetfighter and working with Joss Wheadon on Both Buffy and his series of books for the Runaways. Every artist has their favorite projects and favorite characters they have done and I was actually very surprised to find out that Ms. Chen's favorites mirrored mine with her favorite comic she had done being Runaways and her favorite character being Niko Minoru aka Sister Grimm from that series.

Her most well known pieces are probably the covers from the popular X-Box series Fable and so I wanted to know how she was fortunate enough to have her artwork featured on such a widespread and popular game series. The relationship she had made with Joss Wheadon and her personal website were the primary ways she was able to get that job.

It being several months later I can think of a few more questions I'd like to ask Ms. Chen if i am lucky enough to get to speak with her again but I do consider myself very fortunate to have been able to interview such a talented artist. Once again I highly suggest you check out her website http://www.jo-chen.com and also awing by your local comic shop and pick up some of the comics she has done art for, my personal favorite being Runaways. Also I would like to thank Ms. Chen once more for her time and kindness.