Walter Amos' Homepage
The picture of me below was sketched by none other than
Noboru Ishiguro
during the
Legend of Galactic Heroes
discussion panel at
Anime Expo 2000!
He was just doodling during the
panel and unexpectedly
handed this sketch to me afterward, before sitting for the
group photo of
everyone who attended! Needless to say, I was floored! Not many people can
boast having a sketch of themselves made by the director of almost
ALL of their favorite anime SF series, including
the one that got him hooked on anime in the first place!
Last modified: Fri Apr 26 14:59:41 CDT 2002
My Rant
Welcome to my little quick and dirty homepage. This page's only purpose at the
moment is to provide links for some stuff I want to make available to
people. As such it has a very simple hand-coded design without any frames,
CGI scripts, Java, or other bells and whistles. That's the way I like it.
There are too many meaningless bells and whistles clogging up Net bandwidth
and not enough real information to go with it, and I'll be damned if I am
going to contribute to the problem.
In addition to making stuff available to others, this page is also
designed to allow me to make stuff available to myself when traveling
(since it is a lot easier to remember the URL for my personal home page
than a dozen URLs for other services I need.) Links falling into this
category include:
- AT&T Web services, where I have an
alternate email address. When using web mail on
public terminals, always remember to Log Out!
- Here is my dump directory for digital
photos
That's my rant. Please feel free to peruse the stuff below. Enjoy.
- On Tuesday, August 8, 2002, the director of Giant Robo,
Yasuhiro Imagawa, gave a talk at University of Houston. I grabbed a collection of screen shots
from the video I took of the presentation. These are mainly from the
autograph session afterward, including myself handing him a print of
Bill Mimbu's photo of
several of the "Experts of Cosplay" at Anime Expo 2002. Also there is a
shot of the opening of G Gundam (which Imagawa also directed)
where he mentioned he inserted himself in the scene in Star Trek
uniform!
- My page of scanned photos from Anime Expo 2002
scans courtesy of Martin J. Lollar
Here are scans of my photos from
WorldCon 2001, the Millennium Philcon!
I was able to fulfill a dream I've had for several years recently: to
promote my favorite anime SF series,
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
at the this year's World Science Fiction Convention, the Millennium
Philcon (see link above). I believe there is an audience for this
thoughtful and complex series in the US, but it is mainly to be found
among literary science fiction fans moreso than among pure Japanese
Animation fans. When I first envisioned attempting this, though, I
couldn't have imagined my good fortune in that the producer of this
series, Mr. Yukio Kikukawa, would be coming to the convention as well as
a part of the Japan in 2007
Worldcon bid committee.
Furthermore, to support this effort, Mr. Kikukawa supplied an English
subtitled print of the first "LoGH" film,
My Conquest is the Sea of Stars
, translated by Takayuki (Taka) Karahashi, who also translated for him
live at the convention.
We had 3 events at the convention focused on "LoGH".
First, on Friday, Aug. 31, we had a 2 hour discussion panel to be
moderated by me with Mr. Kikukawa answering questions with translation by
Mr. Karahashi. Unfortunately Taka was delayed and couldn't be there
Friday, so most of that panel consisted of me blathering on, with a few
questions fielded by Mr. Kikukawa with translation supplied by some
other members of the Japan 2007 committee.
Fortunately Taka arrived Saturday, Sept. 1, carrying with him the
video material to present, a "Making Of" video for LoGH, and
the "Spiral Labyrinth" side-story episode about the
Battle of El Facil (both subtitled) and the English dubbed
episodes from the end of the second series about the Battle of
Vermilion. In the brief breaks between these shows Mr. Kikukawa
answered questions from the audience in the video room, with translation
provided by Taka. Lastly, on Sunday morning we had the 35mm film
presentation; a great thing to see on the big screen!
2001 World Science Fiction Convention Photos
| (L to R) Ronni Katz (aka "Rein"
on the
LoGH mailing list) in Imperial costume
with Mr. Kikukawa, before the video screenings
|
| Mr. Kikukawa again with translator Takayuki Karahashi,
answering questions during the "LoGH" video
screening Saturday
|
| Here's a shot of me with Mr. Kikukawa at the discussion panel Friday.
|
| ...and another similar shot.
|
| Here I am filling time on the panel by explaining who all the
characters are on the wall scroll behind me, in response to a
question from a panel attendee.
|
Here are some scans of a few of my photos (the ones that came out half decent, anyway :P)
from Anime Weekend Atlanta 6! Click on the thumbnail
to view the full image. (Thanks to Sandro Sarang for
scanning these pix for me!)
AWA 6 Photos
| Splendid costume of Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell! You should have seen the blinking light guides (and the costumer was cute too!)
|
| I call this picture "The Two Novas":
Amy Howard (the voice of Nova in Star Blazers Series 1 and 2)
and Corrine Orr (Nova in Series 3, not to mention "Trixie" in a little show called Speed Racer!
|
| Someone did a clever costume of my favorite villain from the
PowerPuff Girls
on Cartoon Network, MOJO JOJO!
|
| And a costume of the least clever PowerPuff villains, the Amoeba Boys...
|
| Several members of "Cosmolist Yamato" in the lovely gardens at the Atlanta Crowne Plaza Ravinia
|
| A superb Nadia costume from Nadia of the Mysterious Sea. (
I hate people like this, who just look exactly like the character they're portraying naturally!)
|
| My only photo from the wedding gift presentation to
Amy Howard and Dave Wilson III
at "Dessloktoberfest 2000" to come out well.
But that's OK, since it is the best one.
Pictured at center is the fancy Japanese gift envelope from
us "Cosmolist" members
|
| Two more great costumes from the AWA halls. The guy at left did a super job on the costume of Van Fanel from
the recent anime movie "ESCAFLOWNE: A Girl in Gaea"
|
| More recruits for the Reich! This girl was dressed up in an uniform of the Imperial fleet
from Legend of the Galactic Heroes!
I made her day at the con when I complimented her costume, and she was so happy to find someone
else at the con who knew what she was supposed to be!
|
Here is an HTML-ized version of my article for Dave Merrill's Cosmo Zine, describing
what it was like back in the old days of anime fandom and how Star Blazers
helped make Japanese Animation what it is in the US today, called
Life in the Before Time.
Photo Scans
General Photos
- Here is a picture taken in early January 98 at
the Fort Lee, NJ Yaohan Plaza of
(L to R): Robert Fenelon (note the Charlie Brown as Desslok T-Shirt),
Amy "Nova" Howard, and yours truly.
- Here is a picture taken during Anime Expo 98 of
Yukio Kikukawa, producer of the Legend of Galactic Heroes anime, after
his panel talk Saturday morning. Note he's holding a Reinhard cel!
Galactic Heroes Cel Scans
Below are scans of the Legend of Galactic Heroes animation cels I
aquired at Anime Expo 98. The first one I got for free just for asking
a question at Mr. Kikukawa's cool panel! The others I purchased as a lot at the
Charity Auction on Sunday.
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