February 13-15: Katsucon 15 anime and manga festival

On February 13-15th, Katsucon 15 anime and manga festival is in Arlington's Crystal City at the Hyatt Regency. As of this writing, they have slightly less than 3,000 spaces open, or half what they started with, so get cracking! The cost appears to be $50.

Upcoming Anime Con

The Anime USA convention, "For Otaku, By Otaku", is coming up at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA over the Columbus Day Weekend (October 10-12, 2008).

http://www.animeusa.org/

Guests include Robert DeJesus, a pretty big name in manga circles, and local yokel Jo Chen, who does covers for Runaways at Marvel and the vast majority of the Joss Whedon-verse titles at Dark Horse, among other things, plus Allison Strom, who does manga work at Seven Seas Entertainment, Matt Herms, who works at Archie, and webcomics artsts of Paradox Lost and Applegeeks.

As with all of these Anime conventions, the price of admission is steep -- $40 through the end of September, and then I assume it goes up. I guess if you're going for the whole experience, that might be more reasonable than if you're me and just want to see the folks I just mentioned above!

Chris Oarr, former Silver Spring resident, on ADV Manga

Chris used to live just outside of DC in Silver Spring, frequented Big Planet Comics and organized SPX. And he left the area to run the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Here's a story about what he's up to now - "ADV Manga Is Still in the Picture," By Brigid Alverson -- Publishers Weekly, 6/23/2008.