Today I have convention coverage to share! My report on manga industry panels at the New York Anime Festival has gone up, this year over at Johanna Draper Carlson’s Comics Worth Reading. As I mention in my report, publisher panels are my primary focus at anime conventions and though they seem to be happening less and less frequently at all the conventions I regularly attend, there was plenty to get excited about this year at NYAF, especially from Vertical, whose newly acquired licenses I rave on rather tirelessly about over in my report. With so many bloggers on the task, none of the new license information will be news to anyone at this point, so my coverage is intended as one blogger’s take on the licenses themselves, including some commentary on my experience in each of the various panels.

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A little bit of news I keep forgetting to share here is that this blog is now available for subscription on the Kindle! If you’re a Kindle user and reading this blog for free online is just not convenient enough for you, check it out. Subscriptions are cheap ($1.99/month with a 14-day free trial period to start) and while you’re there, check out the other manga-centric blogs that are turning up! Lori Henderson has a list at Manga Xanadu here.

I was waiting to talk about Anime Boston here until the panel schedule was up, but since the con is just a few days away with no schedule in sight, I’ll just keep it general. I’ll be at Anime Boston for all three days (schedule pending) and though I tend to be a bit of a shy loner at cons, I’d love to say hello to any of you who might be there! The one place I you can be sure I’ll be is sitting on our PCS panel, “Please Save My Manga,” at 10:00 am on Friday. Other than that, it’s all TBA. Feel free to stop me for a hello if you see me (here’s a photo with my current hair–please note that head tops a roly-poly body) or drop me an e-mail if you want to be more formal about it. Hope to see you there!

Happy Friday, everyone, Good or otherwise. I was hoping to manage a review for this blog last night, but other than a few minutes spent watching the new Fullmetal Alchemist anime (I look forward to it getting through its setup and on to the manga plot), I ending up using the entire night finishing my coverage of ConBust at Smith College, which is up now at Manga Recon!

I enjoyed the convention immensely, and I can’t emphasize enough how gratifying I found its focus on female fans and creators. Those of you who follow me on Twitter probably recall some frustrated tweets about some (fairly infuriating) comments made about manga during the con, and I do address that at the end of the article, but I really hope that will not overshadow the essential awesomeness of the con and the Smith students who put it together every year.

Follow this link to read my report, and if you’re in the Pioneer Valley or thereabouts (and especially if you’re a sci-fi and/or fantasy fan) I hope you’ll consider attending ConBust in 2010!