Hello all!  I was fortunate enough to join the Semantink boys on another convention outing yesterday back to Long Beach, for the Long beach Comic Expo!  The Long Beach Comic Con kicked off its first year just a few months ago, and a second year is coming in October, but the good people behind the LBC’s comic craze decided to give us a one day sort of midpoint break in patience.  While yesterday’s event was only a miniscule sampling of the glory that is the Long Beach Comic Con proper, it hailed a haughty list of talent:

• Amanda Dawn Wolf
• Bernie Wrightson
• Beth Sotelo
• Brian Haberlin
• Cat Staggs
• Christian Beranek
• Christian Meesey
• Chris Moreno
• Dan Brereton
• Dan Wickline
• Dan Taylor
• David Wohl
• Drew Johnson
• Dustin Nguyen
• Eddie Nuñez
• Eric Basaldua
• Eric Canete
• Frank Mastromauro
• Gus Vazquez
• J.T. Krul
• Jim Daly
• JJ Kirby
• Joe Benitez
• Joe Rubinstein
• Jordan Raskin
• Josh Dysart
• Lauren Perry
• Joshua Hale Fialkov
• Livio Ramondelli
• Lou Ferrigno
• Mark Dos Santos
• Mark Roslan
• Michael Lopez
• Naomi Baker
• Norm Rapmund
• Peter Steigerwald
• Philip Tan
• Ray-Anthony Height
• Richard Starkings
• Rick Basaldua
• Rob Levin
• Scott Lobdell
• Stan Sakai
• Steve Niles
• Tim Bradstreet
• Tim Vigil
• Todd Nauck
• Tone Rodriguez
• Tony DeZuniga
• Tony Fleecs
• Trent Kaniuga
• Trevor Goring
• Vince Hernandez
• Whilce Portacio

Sgt. Angle and Benjamin Glibert give R2 the “what’s-what.”

Ben, Sgt. Angle, Ash, Admiral Eo and I made our way up to Long Beach in the wee hours of Saturday morning and pushed through minimal traffic-resistance, arriving at the Convention Center just after doors opened at 10am.  We were greeted by a few cars resembling entertainment icons and pushed past a group of Clone Wars veterans into the expo.  Now this event was not in the main hall, as the convention was, but in a smaller room to the side of the main entrance — but it worked.  There was enough space to get around and sample each of the vendors/artists/writers/publisher’s tables without feeling to cramped.

Admiral Eo and James Ninness don’t mind Huey Lewis, but hate the News.

Once we had our wristbands, we leisurely strolled through the hubbub and ran into Mike Mignola and Steve Niles (both incredibly personable) — not a bad start.  After a very lovely discussion with Tone Rodriguez (who told me that he was in DEXTER, something I did not know), we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.  One of the booths was selling everything at 40% off, so between the five of us, a few hundred dollars was spent and everybody went home with goodies galore.

Admiral Eo, James Ninness and Ash think Anakin acts like a girl.

Cosplay was ensuing, with quite a good many fantastic costumes, and a few not so good ones…  But it was great to see fans out in force, enjoying each others geekery.  While I wish that there was more, I understand that this was a $10.00, one day event and I’m not complaining, I just wish there was more to see or do.  There were no panels (understandable), no contests (again, understandable) and no incentive to stay after doing a couple laps around the showroom floor.  It was, as one would think it to be, simple.  We went, talked to some amazing people, met some courageous fans, and bought some fantastically priced merch — a fine time.

ZBladeXX scares Sgt. Angle

I look forward to the Con-proper in October (assuming I’m invited again) and have to hand it to the Long Beach organizers, MAD Event Management and the Long Beach Comic Convention, they made a lot of people very happy on an otherwise plain February afternoon — so a very special thanks to them!

Talk to you guys soon!

James Ninness

PS:  The response to MYTHOI has been overwhelming — thank you all!  I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Hello fans of fiction!

My name is James Ninness, writer of Mythoi, lover of the Bootie and closet fan of Heroes (don’t tell Mr. Wolff).  I’m flattered that Ben, Mr. Wolff, Ash, Street Fece and Akatzen have asked me to write a little something-something in preparation for our departure to Long Beach for the first annual Long Beach Comic Con this weekend!  Ben tells me that we’re getting t-shirts to wear with the Semantink logo, so if you see us meandering about please feel free to come up and say hi!

I’ve known Benji for a while and I knew that he’d been talking about starting/running a publishing house for some time, but I was honored, elated and nervous as hell when he asked MYTHOI to be Semantink’s premiere property!  I’ve published a few short stories and some poetry here and there, but writing comic books has always been a dream.  All I have to do now is make out with a midget and I can officially die a happy man.

I was born and raised in San Diego, California, but I got my degree in English: Creative Writing from Cal State University Long Beach.  I did a bit of traveling and-  Okay.  This is boring.  How’s this:  Once I hog tied a crazy, drunk girl and threw her in a trailer because she threatened to stab me in my sleep.  True story!  She wriggled her cell phone out of her pocket and called the cops, but didn’t know where she was.  When I checked on her an hour later she was still on the phone with them so I took it and found out that several cop cars and a helicopter had been scouring Irvine looking for the motor-home she was in!  I gave them my address and when they showed up they asked me to keep the girls phone so she didn’t bug them anymore.  What does that have to do with comic books?  Nothing.  But it’s more fun than knowing anything about my education, publishing history and/or travel experiences.

So, as you’ve hopefully heard, I’ve got this title coming out through Semantink called MYTHOI.  I actually wrote MYTHOI almost four years ago while I was in college.  The idea for the premise came out of my fascination with mythology, legends and all things supernatural.  So, I picked elements from my favorites and created my players…  Combining ghosts, Buddhism, dragons and yeti, I got Yuki (our only femme fatale).  Vampires, werewolves, mummies and zombies gave me Vito, the oldest 10-year-old-bodied vampire ever.  The Terminator movies, Universal Soldier (yeah, Lundgren and Van Damme), anything post-apocalyptic and ninjas helped to create Touch.  Wiglaf arose from ancients texts like the Bible, Beowulf and Norwegian texts.  And last but not least came Taros, birthed out of my love of Greek/Roman mythology.  Now take all of those parent-ideas and all of the concepts, ideas and beliefs about each of them, throw them in our world, right now and shake it up — that’s MYTHOI.  Actually, let me introduce you to one of the minor characters, Cat — This is a sketch from my amazing artist, Jed Soriano (ironically, Cat is a werewolf):

MYTHOI is 60 issues long.  That’s it.  After 60 issues the story is done.  And while I can’t give away too much of the plot, I can lead you with a few questions…  If all gods ever conceived actually existed in today’s world where they are forgotten and cast aside, don’t you think they’d be a little upset?  If so, who would protect us humans from the big, angry gods?  I should also tell you that there are no superheroes in MYTHOI.  That’s it.  I’m afraid I can’t say anymore.  If you want to know more you’ll have to pick up issue #1 here.

If you haven’t already bought you tickets for the Long Beach Comic Con then you should do so immediately.  Even though it’s their first year, they’ve rounded up a pretty kick-ass line up:  Stan Lee, Jim Lee, Thomas Jane, Berkeley Breathed, Seth Green, Tim Bradstreet, Jeph Loeb, Jon Bogdanove, George Lazenby and many, many more!  I’ve been poking around the people who set the whole thing up and I have to say, they seem like a good group to be throwing this shindig.  I’m sure Benji will do a write-up of the whole event when we return, but if you care at all for comics and are anywhere near the Long Beach area you should definitely roll out this weekend (10/2 — 10/4).

I think that’ll do for now.  I hope I’ve piqued some of your curiosities about the comic and haven’t bored you too much.  If you want to write me, feel free to at jamesninness@yahoo.com.  Otherwise, enjoy MYTHOI and I hope to meet you soon!

James Ninness