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The Ramen crew attends the annual Jpop Summit Festival in SF Japantown and Union Square. The festival celebrates not just the genre of Jpop music, but also anime, manga, cosplay, and Japanese culture. Also this year, they introduced the Ramen Festival this year which packed-in the crowds.
Way back in the 1980s when Mirage Comics published Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s creation The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, nobody had any idea how big these green turtles would get in pop-culture. From all the movies, cartoons, toy lines and other merchandising, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are still here today kicking butt.
On July 12, 2014 in Alhambra, CA, Gallery Nucleus and Nickelodeon presented an “official” TMNT art exhibition for the 30th Anniversary. Over 30 artists were involved showcasing TMNT artwork. Also featured, were production stills, memorabilia, storyboards and many other neat things from Nick’ cartoon series. In collaboration with our LA outfit Project 760 Productions we give TMNT-fans a glimpse of what happened at the event.
More cosplay fun FanimeCon 2014. We are again up late, roaming around the convention floor, because you know, that’s the ‘con experience’ – 24 hours of anime and no sleep! Ramen host Jonelle spots 2 cosplayers cosplaying from her favorite Nick’ series – Avatar: Legend of Korra.
If you’re an experienced ‘con-goer then you know it’s a mad blitz of fun all day all night. Like at Fanime – you never sleep! Our Ramen & a Half crew roamed around the late evening around the convention floor and our cosplaying host Jonelle spotted these 3 interesting cosplayers. Meet cosplayers Ashley Fee, Christine Deatrick and Jessie Blaufus as they get inventive with their cosplay outfits. These custom French Maid-inspired costumes are from the hit anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.
This past weekend Kidrobot released The Art of War dunny series. The toy design theme for each of the 14 artists involved was to design a dunny figure based on Sun Tzu’s warmongering strategy novel – The Art of War. Our Ramen & a Half hosts of Eddie Ballar and Ramon Angel stopped by Kidrobot SF for the artist signing and release event with Frank Kozik, DrilOne and Huck Gee. We grab a quick interview with each about their dunny figure in the series and their upcoming projects. We also go unboxing a case with fellow dunny collector/artist Big C.
We find more cosplayers at FanimeCon 2014. Ramen & a Half host Jonelle spots a cool One Piece cosplayer. All the way from Reno, Charmie Sweets is cosplaying Nico Robin from the anime/manga One Piece.
Here’s more videos from FanimeCon 2014! Interview with Hayashi from Akai Sky an indie-American Jrock band.
FanimeCon 2014 had their own mini-Street Fighter Tournament over at Stage Zero. Ramen & a Half host Eddie Ballar grab Julio Fuentes aka MMG Julio for a quick interview on plans and prepartion for EVO Championship Series in Las Vegas, July 2014.
Our Ramen & a Half host Eddie Ballar does a mini jam session with the talented Anton Bex. We sit down and talk about his latest project, the fan film Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope. Anton plays “Future Gohan” in this YouTube web series.
Just what does it take to become a Comic Artist? Tomas Overbai explains everything to Ramen and Half‘s host, Eddie Ballar, what got him into comic art and eventually comic story telling with his upcoming Book One of ICHIDO – a post apocalyptic science fiction fantasy comic where a threatened Empire goes to war utilizing the traditions of kung-fu fighting and futuristic advanced robot warfare. The comic is like the battles of a Shogun Empire meets Robotech! 
LINK: http://www.fallensunasylum.org/ facebook/TomasOverbai twitter/TomasOverbai
At FanimeCon’s Artist Alley we find artist Ben Costa with 2 published comics already. His Xeric Award Winning Web Comic follows Pang, a Shaolin Monk in 17th Century China.
If you ever wondered how Pokemon animals would look like in real life? Well, artist RJ Palmer draws many of the Pokemon animals in a real-world realistic way. A mix of art, imagination and paleontology by artist RJ Palmer.
Our host Ramon Angel interviews RJ Palmer at FanimeCon 2014.
You can follow RJ’s work at: arvalis.deviantart.com
Ramen & a Half host Jonelle interviews her favorite cosplayer idol Yaya Han at FanimeCon 2014. Yaya kind of admitted that this might be her last appearance at FanimeCon. She also talks to Jonelle about Heroes of Cosplay tv show and cosplaying in general.
In revamping the successful Tomb Raider franchise – we got a re-boot! Just when we thought Lara Croft would move forward from her ninth adventure to another artifact finding mystery, we get to find out about her – the origins of Lara Croft. We’ve all read her back story, but where was the episodic adventures that led to the skilled, acrobatic, and duel pistol-drawing heroine – Tomb Raider?
Meet the Power Girl from Vegas – Vegas PG! We swung by her booth and asked if she could give our Ramen and a Half crew a shout out – Mary Jane Watson style! She happily replied, “Well of course I can”.
If Vegas PG is not enjoying the comic convention strip, you can find her being as spokesperson for events and entertaining the world commercially or artfully as an actress.
I usually do a Viral Video Friday, but this is our Viral Video Friday – a video tour of FanimeCon 2014! Our Ramen & a Half crew takes you around what is the biggest anime convention in NorCal every year – FanimeCon. We take to the Dearlers Hall, Artist Alley, Game Room and more! We also interview Vice-Chair of FanimeCon 2014 Gary de Guzman and the man in charge of Stage Zero – Wendell Nacnac.
Our Ramen & a Half crew of Eddie Ballar, Ramon Angel and Jonelle recap the NorCal anime extravaganza that is FanimeCon! No long lines this year, now that’s a big plus! The team reviews their adventure and we throw in some cosplay highlights as well.
I know I was just the camera operator at the scene, but after Ramen and a Half’s host Eddie Ballar interviewed Mike Mignola, I started to pick up on some very correlating personality traits between Hellboy and it’s Creator, Mike Mignola. Here, we find out what’s in store for Hellboy after it’s 20th year anniversary and if there will be another upcoming film on the comic superhero?
Los LINKS: Art of Mike Mignola facebook/MikeMignola twitter/MikeMignola
For our first Cosplay-Cut, Valerie Perez portrays DC Comics Zatanna at Big Wow! Comicfest. She’s one of our favorite continuous Cosplay models who does a perfect Wonder Woman by the way. In this video she impersonates the Penguin, using her Zatanna wardrobe as a duo-character outfit for a photo shoot!
Valerie Perez: facebook/ValeriePerez
One of the most popular Marvel cartoons was X-Men: Evolution which lasted 4 seasons (52 episodes) on Kids’ WB from 2000-2003. Our Ramen host Eddie Ballar interviews well-known artist Steven E. Gordon who was the Character Designer of Evolution. The show that gave birth to X-23, Steven talks about his role and what it was like working on X-Men: Evolution.
Build your very own paperboard designer toy figure with Square Headz. Square Headz made its debut at the Big Wow! ComicFest 2014 showing off their simple and fun product. Just a warning – there is assembly required and you need a stick of glue.
When I started out with comics all I cared about was the artist drawing the issue like the Jim Lee’s and Marc Silvestri’s of the world, and I could care less about the writers, inkers or colorists. But as I developed my comic book knowledge, I began to learn about writers, inkers and colorists I liked too. Our Ramen host Ramon Angel got back into comics not just because the art, but the inking by Matt Banning aka BATT on his Green Lantern runs.
I’m kinda of still recovering from the 4-day anime extravaganza in NorCal – FanimeCon 2014. In the coming weeks ahead, our Ramen & a Half team of Eddie, Ramon and Jonelle will bring us video highlights, recaps, interviews and everything in between from FanimeCon. Look for it on our website here on Retrenders and our Retrenders YouTube Channel.
“Who hasn’t grown up with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – and what parent hasn’t dealt with their kids mimicking an acrobatic Power Ranger?”
At Big Wow! Comicfest – “The Eddie” interviews two of the most down to earth Power Rangers, Alison MacInnis – Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue and Steven Skyler – Power Rangers Samurai. We wanted to know what they loved best about being a Power Ranger… and of course, if they knew anything about Lionsgate‘s upcoming production of the reboot Power Rangers movie?
Over the years reading comics, you begin to find writers you like to read from, and one of them for me is Greg Rucka. I really enjoyed his Oni Press comics Whiteout and Queen & Country and Greg’s various Batman runs over at DC Comics. Our Ramen host Eddie Ballar interviews Greg Rucka at Big Wow! ComicFest.
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