San Diego Comic Con Panel: Giant Robot Pioneering Asian American Pop Culture
While sitting and waiting for our panel to begin to promote the upcoming book, GIANT ROBOT: 30 Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture, published by Drawn and Quarterly, a Comic Con representative began to introduce me. I assumed she was a person who is introducing the panel to the audience and I wondered if this was standard procedure. Then she stopped and awarded me an InkPot Award. This award comes with a gold card that allows a lifetime entry into Comic-Con and Wonder-Con for myself and immediately family. Thank you San Diego Comic Con.
I asked Tom Devlin after the panel if they set this up and he said "No, they pay attention." I'm amazed and honored and am glad to join a few folks I know and tons who I don't know in having this honor. It's an award I share with the staff and crew that brought me here. Like any award I've received, this will end up mixed somewhere among my things - neither overly coveted nor ignored.
Although I appeared on panels before, including moderating one with Jillian Tamaki, and three with Katsuya Terada, this was the first time being a subject on a panel at San Diego Comic Con.
The panel begins and it becomes a fun discussion with myself, Martin Wong, Lynn Padilla, Beth Accomando, and Luke Chueh, moderated by publisher Drawn and Quarterly's Tom Devlin. It went quickly and after 50 minutes, it was over. Easily, it could have gone for another hour and maybe one day, we'll have that opportunity. There is a video on YouTube but the audio from the crowd was echo'ey unfortunately, but hopefully someone will release a new better video.
There are so many stories that'll never reach the surface, this includes the journey of an unlikely zine to a full fledged magazine which changes the world. Maybe it's the story of a small business that spans 30 years and breaks the rules of retail and creates a style that's followed by similar stores in major cities everywhere. Or how about the art part that becomes a new sub-genre helps the careers of 100s of artists with art exhibitions in museums? And... more? Nah, didn't really touch any of it.
We had a decent crowd, and far better than the 25 folks I assumed who'd be there. It was a much larger room than I expected and am thankful for each person who gave us the chance and showed up. I see old friends and even family of friends.
Below is a photo of myself and Lynn Padilla at the Giant Robot booth 1729 and below that is a photo of all of us signing: Luke Chueh, Martin Wong, myself, and Lynn Padilla.
