This movie looks pretty awesome. Eva is set in the not-so-distant future (2041), in which humans live with mechanical creatures. Alex, a renowned cybernetic engineer, returns to Santa Irene -after being away for years- to build a child robot.

The most recent synopsis says Alex’s brother David and Lana have a ten-year-old daughter, Eva, a very charismatic little girl. She and Alex have a special connection from the first time they meet. From the trailer, we see that she is curious about robotics, or at least what Alex is up to in his workshop.

The following may be a spoiler, considering it’s from an older website, not included in the new one, and is quite different. A previous synopsis says that Eve became an amnesiac after being the only witness of a tragic accident where her mother dies. Eve enters the world of robotics with Alex to try and find her identity. If this version is correct, it is not hard to guess at least one of the plotlines. Either way I look forward to this film.

[END SPOILER]

Eva will premiere in December 2010. See the trailer here (with high tech awesomeness!). Production pictures from an older site here.

The Imagen Awards will celebrate its 25th anniversary on August 15th in Los Angeles. These image awards were created specifically to “honor positive portrayals of Latinos and Latino cultures in entertainment.”  This year some of our favorite genre Latinos are nominated. Sadly, the TV show LOST is no more and Wizards of Waverly Place will only go on for one more season so we have major losses of Latinos in genre productions. The cancellation of Flash Forward (not nominated here) also had us lose Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford). We also never got to see the rest of the Gina Torres (Felicia Wedeck) story in Flash Forward. Here are the relevant categories, with genre shows in red.

Best Primetime Television Program or Movie-of-the-Week:
One Hot Summer (Lifetime Movie Network)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
Lost (ABC)
Cold Case (CBS)

Best Actor/Television:
Jorge Garcia, Lost (ABC)
Nestor Carbonell, Lost (ABC)
Danny Pino, Cold Case (CBS)
Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Desperate Housewives (ABC)

Best Actress/Television:
Sofía Vergara, Modern Family (ABC)
América Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Alana de la Garza, Law & Order (NBC)
Selena Gómez, Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie (Disney Channel)
Caitlin Sánchez, Dora the Explorer (Nickelodeon)

Best Supporting Actress/Television:
María Canals-Barrera, Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie (Disney Channel)
Paola Turbay, The Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Family)
Naya Rivera, Glee (FOX)
Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation (NBC)

Best Children’s Programming:
Dora The Explorer (Nickelodeon)
Handy Manny (Disney Channel)
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee (Nickelodeon)
The Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie (Disney Channel)

Best Actress/Feature Film:
Ana de la Reguera, Backyard (Maya Entertainment)
Lisa Vidal, Dark Mirror (Cut Glass Prods.)
América Ferrera, Our Family Wedding (Fox Searchlight)
América Ferrera, The Dry Land (Maya Entertainment)

See all the categories and nominees at the Imagen Awards Website. Let’s hope our genre shows represent! I’m especially rooting for LOST, as I also mourn.

They had previously held this contest in their province, and this year it will extend to all schools in Argentina. The goal of the contest is to develop students’ interest in science, science fiction, and creative writing. The winners, to be announced in December, will get their short story published, three books (one for their school) and other prizes. The contest is open to schoolchildren ages 10-18. Can you imagine being a published kid recognized nationally? And in sci-fi? Way to go Argentina! More of this please.

Set in Los Angeles, the story begins when Chicano virtual reality game designer Beto Orozco uses bio-nanochip technology to revolutionize religion and bring an AI god to life. He appropriates this technology created by Mexican friend Xochitl Echaurren, originally for use in belief system research. Things go terribly wrong in Beto’s weird science experiment and he winds up possessed by Tezcatlipoca. Meanwhile in Mexico, Xochitl is hounded by monotheist fanatics due to her god-creating program.

During the ‘Dead Daze’ celebration, where permissiveness and violence are the norm and the mediasphere is always watching, Tezcatlipoca or ‘Smokey’ as he is nicknamed, finds fertile ground to begin his reign of chaos. Smokey topples a gang leader, and as the gang’s new boss, he has direct access to its corporate sponsors. In this world, corporations have adopted gangs and integrated them into LA society. Previously the gang’s main job was to patrol their turf for people who didn’t have their sponsors’ latest apparel- a type of aggressive Fashion Police. With Smokey at their head, the gang members become unwitting minions of a malicious god. The gang helps Smokey gain followers for his hypnotic music and personality cult, while hopped up on the drug of choice ‘Fun.’ ‘Smoking Mirror Blues’ is the name of Tezcatlipoca’s hypnotic song set to dominate the world via mediasphere.

Besides AI technology, the author presents a future LA where races are mixed and celebrated. The author calls it a ‘recombocultural trimili world’. You can easily switch races and alter your appearance through cosmetic technology. Other interesting technologies in the book are robotic guard dogs, a Toshiba sonic immobilizer, and a tranquilizer-infused ‘Peace Foam’ used for crowd control.

Ultimately the story is about how Smokey manipulates peoples’ desires and the media to gain power. The book Smoking Mirror Blues, just like Tezcatlipoca, is a bit chaotic. It constantly shifts from one point of view to the next, even of secondary characters. The style is literary shaky cam. Some people might like this, but I must admit that shaky cam makes me nauseous. There are also constant plot interruptions: hallucinations, news station coverage, explicit sex scenes, detailed travel time, and the monotheist cult’s surveillance. I would have preferred a more focused story. Still, I enjoyed the futuristic technology and the idea of an Aztec god running amok in modern times. Also, Smoking Mirror Blues really brings the diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation of the characters.

Eric García (Repo Men) wrote three novels about the dinosaur detective Vincent Rubio: Casual Rex, Anonymous Rex, and Hot and Sweaty Rex.   Detective Rubio is a velociraptor, not a Rex, so I suspect that the author wanted a catchy and suggestive title.

In Rubio’s world, dinosaurs have not died out, but remained disguised members within human society to protect themselves from the humans that would hunt them down if they knew of the reptiles’ existence. Maybe they watched too much V series and took it to heart. Because dinosaurs are at all levels of society, they can tweak paleontological data so that dino research ‘proves’ their extinction. If a human isn’t fooled or discovers the true nature of the disguised dinosaurs, dinos have full authority from ‘the Council’ to kill them.  Most dinosaurs, including Rubio, look down on humans as inferior beings. This comes as no surprise if you can fool them for millennia into thinking you are extinct.

In the novels the dinos are costumed as humans and interact with them normally in their daily lives, even as children. It is a very difficult premise to believe in, even for this reader who ‘accepts’ holosuites and hidden schools of magic. The costumes are so wrong- the high tech suits are made of latex and are supposedly so authentic-looking that it looks real even when the dinos are naked. The dinosaurs keep their snouts and tails in check with straps and buckles! I can ‘accept’ that evolution made dinosaurs smaller –even human-sized– because the story offers the plausible explanation that the fossil record has been severely tampered with. But the hiding in latex thing (and hiding for centuries pre-latex) was really hard to get past to enjoy the stories.

Thankfully in the TV movie Anonymous Rex (2004) the technology used to disguise dinosaurs included high tech holographic images as far as I could tell. Except they could feel their transformation and their bodies’ volume changed (?!). I’m still unsure what they did about their tails. I admit that I never really got over the ‘dinos in costume’ idea, but that didn’t make me hate the storylines. Although flawed in practice, it is an amusing premise. The dinosaur society quirks are amusing too. In their world, for example, dinosaurs get addicted to herbs like basil, whereas alcohol has no effect. Dinos can identify one another through pheromone scents, and tend to sniff one another on the back of the neck when they meet. Here’s a summary about each book in the series and the TV movie.

Casual Rex (2002) was written after Anonymous Rex (2001), but it is a prequel so I’ll cover it first. It introduces us to Vincent Rubio and his partner Ernie Watson of Watson & Rubio Investigations. Although Watson has a terribly unoriginal name, he is the sweetheart of the two and infinitely more likeable than Rubio. Watson is a T-Rex, fatherly, and wiser than the younger Rubio. He’s obsessed with his ex-wife. Vincent  is obsessed with his clothes and drug (herb) habit.

In the story, Watson & Rubio investigate a dinosaur cult called ‘The Progressives,’ in which dinosaurs strive to connect with their primitive  side even though they grew up as human as possible to fit into society at large. ‘Progress’ entails becoming more of a natural dinosaur. The problem is not this philosophy, but when the Progressive leaders take it to the extreme.

The TV movie Anonymous Rex was based on the Casual Rex novel, and not the Anonymous Rex book. The movie plot is similar to Casual Rex but the core conspiracy was at a much smaller scale in the film.  The movie adds a daughter (Stephanie Lemelin) for Ernie Watson (Daniel Baldwin) who is mostly there to get rescued. Vincent Rubio is a much more likeable character (being Sam Trammell helps of course). The book has two amusing subplots sadly missing from the movie: an investigation for the detectives’ landlord and a great costume maker/drag queen called Jules that I would have loved to see in the movie. Both the book and the movie deal with Vincent’s ambiguity towards the ‘Progressive’ cult ideas. Something refreshingly toned down in the movie was the constant intolerance towards humans and ‘lesser’ dinos- Compys being the lowest of the low- it made Rubio that much more unlikeable. Another problem with the book is that some of its humor is dated.

The second book, Anonymous Rex, is definitely the best of the trio. If you read just one book in the Rex series, make it this one. The story is about Vincent Rubio hitting rock bottom: bereft of a partner, doing herbs, and not being able to get out of debt because the agency isn’t taking on enough jobs. He had recently been thrown out of the local Council, which unlike the movie, doesn’t play Mahjong to make decisions- they fight it out (sometimes literally). He manages to land a job at a big detective agency, Trutel, and while investigating the case of a nightclub fire, finds it links back to what happened to his old partner.  This book covers more dinosaur idiosyncrasies like how they get hospital care without blowing their cover, the taboo world of sex with humans, how dinos procreate, and black market guises.

The third book, Hot and Sweaty Rex: A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery, is about a recovering herbaholic detective Rubio who finds himself enmeshed in a mafia war between Velociraptors and Hadrosaurs down in South Florida. Rubio is coerced into working for the Tallarico (Velociraptor) family. In this case he’s working with Glenda Wetzel, a Hadrosaur, previously introduced in the series as a detective friend.  To complicate matters, Vincent is friends with the Hadrosaur family boss. (This book is where the Anonymous Rex movie gets its Mahjong idea- it’s what the Raptor mobsters play.) I’m not into mafia books or films so I’m  biased here but I found the story quite boring. It is definitely the weakest of the three for me, although it had its fun moments.

Summing up, I would recommend seeing the Anonymous Rex movie and the Anonymous Rex book for campy fun. Read Casual Rex if you want more of partner Ernie Watson and dinosaur alt-history, and skip Hot and Sweaty Rex unless you really like your mob stories.

This weekend I made it to the Karibukai Animation Festival. I say “made it” because it was raining constantly this past week and I waited until the very last day of the festival for drier weather.

I got the chance to meet Carlos Goméz Nicolás (Nikodemo), creator of the funny animated series from Spain Cálico Electrónico. Niko was freshly arrived from a (wet) tour of El Yunque rainforest. Poor guy came to normally sunny Puerto Rico and barely saw the sun.  He was nice enough to autograph stickers of his Cálico series for free. Cálico Electrónico is about a short chubby janitor/superhero that fights (or tries to fight) bad guys in Electronic City. Some videos the Cálico website are dubbed into English so if you can’t understand Spanish you’re in luck.

I saw Dig Comics, a pro comic book reading documentary with writer/director/host Miguel Cima (of Argentinean heritage).  From what I saw, Cima is very much a comic book fanboy and this documentary is a labor of love.  Made me smile.  There was a second documentary about comic books called Comic Book Literacy. It was a longish but very educational. I learned something of the history of comics in the United States.

Of the Japanese anime I saw, I found Gundam Unicorn to be the most interesting and will be looking for the DVD. I hadn’t seen any robot anime since Voltron.  I thought it had ruined me for anything else.

The shorts contest was disappointing not because of the quality but because of the quantity. There were only three contenders, and three prizes, so it wasn’t exactly a fierce competition. Hopefully next year we’ll get more entries. Here were the winners:

1st place ($250) and Viewer’s Choice award ($150). Fried, Elena Montijo Capetillo. This was a cute dark humor story about a little girl who loves her chickens but each bird is a bit crazy (and the girl too). I voted for this entry because it was the one I liked best. Having it created by a woman was a nice bonus. Check out her promo video at the link. It shows a bit of the winning short starting at 0:37.

2nd place ($200). Boricuas Beyond: Happy Hour, José Luis Collazo. This animated short from the Puerto Ricans in the future series Boricuas Beyond was the one I least enjoyed. Although the animation is excellent, I didn’t like the crude humor.  It uses local pop culture and slang heavily so it would be hard to get if you’re not a Puerto Rican living on the island.

3rd place ($150). Ventana, José Vázquez. I’m not sure Ventana was a story, it was more like a look at past and future Puerto Rican cartoon characters, some corporate logos and others from comics and webseries. Vázquez also presented a short called Mad Taíno about a native couple who fight Spanish conquistadors.

I really hope more animators and  film producers participate in future Karibukai events. It’s great exposure and the money isn’t bad either. Here’s to next year not having such foul weather that keeps people home. I really enjoyed the event and hope the Karibukai Festival will become a yearly tradition.

Recently I received a press release with interesting news about an animation festival that will take place for the first time in Puerto Rico next weekend. Here are the details: The Karibukai Animation Festival will take place from May 27th to the 30th at the Puerto Rico National Filmotheque in the north wing of the Cuartel Ballajá, near the San Felipe del Morro Castle in Old San Juan. Karibukai will feature full-length animated films along with a contest for local animated shorts. According to their website, Karibukai is the Japanese word for Caribbean.

Some guests attending:

• Carlos Goméz Nicolás (Nikodemo)- creator of the animated series from Spain Cálico Electrónico
• Panel discussing the challenges of local animators with:
  • José Luis Collazo (Wewex)- Boricuas Beyond series
  • Reynaldo León- Guabamán series
  • Tommy González- Manny el Manatí series

International productions that will be shown include:

• Japan: Vexille, Evangelion 1.01, Robotech: Shadow Chronicles
• United States: Halo: Legends; Justice League: Crisis on 2 Earths; Tales from the Black Freighter; documentaries Comic Book Literacy and Dig Comics
• Israel: Waltz with Bashir

Karibukai is organized by Paquines, a nonprofit organization bringing animation, comics, and film fans together in Puerto Rico. Check out the Karibukai official website for more details, film listings, and contest info. I’m looking forward to checking the festival out so if you can’t be in beautiful Old San Juan next weekend, I’ll let you know what went down.

Variety advert funded by LotS fans

Recently Karen Méndez of IBG Inc. contacted me about the Legend of the Seeker renewal campaign. She is co-organizing efforts to bring about season 3 of this ABC series based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth book series. I personally love the show; it is beautifully filmed in New Zealand and has an excellent cast. It would be a shame to see it cancelled after only two seasons. Check it out if you like fantasy epics like me. The Save Our Seeker campaign gathered enough funds for advertising in top industry magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter- a feat that any TV show follower who’s been in a fan-driven movement can appreciate. The campaign is now bent on making sure as many public libraries as possible have the Legend of the Seeker DVDs. Their DVD campaign will end on May 30, so donate now. If you’re already a fan, there’s no confession necessary.

Here’s what Méndez said:

To date, we’ve published the two ads. There’s also a wide range of other campaigns in conjunction from fans coming together trying to do anything and everything to save our seeker. We email and snail mail to various networks, as well as ABC/Disney. We also have significant ‘Legend of the Seeker’ related items sent in, along with the letters.

One of the biggest boosts we at “Save Our Seeker” have had has been the support of Terry Goodkind, best selling author of the ‘Sword of Truth’ book series which the show is based on. He has graciously offered to collaborate with the “Save Our Seeker” campaign and we are currently working with him to launch a new campaign in the next day or so.

The season finale is [this] week and we hope to change our current situation to an announcement of ‘Legend of the Seeker’ being picked up for a third season.

All of us Legend of the Seeker fans wish the campaign every success. We’d love to continue the adventures of Seeker Richard Cypher, Mother Confessor Kahlan, Mord Sith Cara, and Wizard of the First Order Zeddicus. Find a way to support the campaign- its website SaveOurSeeker.com has several ideas on how to do this.

Title: Deepest Fears Project
Publisher: Self-published
Creator and Artwork: Keishla M. Rodríguez
Inking: Keishla M. Rodríguez, David E. Morales
Story: Keishla M. Rodríguez, Alexis I. Ríos, Xaymara Rodríguez, David E. Morales
Text Editing: Keishla M. Rodríguez, Alexis I. Ríos
Website: myspace.com/DeepestFearsManga

Shiro Raikkonen of 'Deepest Fears Project'

The Deepest Fears Project Vol. 1 introduces a story about three friends who are like siblings that move to Puerto Rico in search of a safer life. It is set in a future where genetic manipulation has crossed animal and human DNA, and some people are part beast. The three main characters, besides being a mix of nationalities (German, Puerto Rican, Finnish, Chinese), are part wolf and panda. You can see it at first glance- they have animal ears and tails. Although this new breed of humans is openly part of society, some pure humans consider them abnormal and abuse them. Deepest Fears Project is written in English, but it may be translated to Spanish soon.

I spoke to the creator and self-taught artist Keishla Rodríguez about how Deepest Fears was developed, and future plans for the series. She and her team are all from Puerto Rico. Ms. Rodríguez definitely embodies promising young talent creatively, artistically, and entrepreneurially. Here’s the interview:

How was the PRCC for Deepest Fears?
It was my first time going to a convention and people really supported us, and we were able to recoup most of what we invested. I didn’t realize there was so much interest in manga in Puerto Rico, even though some people, particularly adults, weren’t familiar with it and we had to explain.  It was super! Our writing team was there, all of us helping out with the setup.

The artwork is great! How did you learn to draw? Before Deepest Fears, had you worked on any other art projects?
I mostly learned to draw on my own, taking web tutorials and experimenting instead of formal training. I have two other mangas, but didn’t publish them.

How did the Deepest Fears Project originate?
It began as an RPG I was in with a friend. We developed our characters and thought of creating a comic strip. But when I took a course in Media Administration as part of my Communications degree I talked to my group and we decided to develop a manga as our final project. The title ‘Deepest Fears’ refers to the central character Shiro, who has made a deal with Hades and is trying to run from what he is, his fears, and inner darkness. Certain songs I listened to helped me come up with the title.

Tell us more about Shiro.
Shiro is the eldest sibling so he’s been taking care of the other two. Shiro and brother Paku were abandoned and grew up in an orphanage, and sister Kirsi had parents but they died. They were friends before the death of Kirsi’s parents, and were bonded even tighter when they did die. Shiro as the oldest feels he needs to be the strong one, yet inside he is afraid of failure and what he’s become.

Who are the ‘Disfigured Saints’ mentioned in the book? Are they the bad guys?
They are like army sergeants commanded by Hades. Each one has their own contingent watching over people according to their sin. They rid the Earth of evil yet ironically are evil themselves. Hades is a dictator type and dominates the planet, although there is someone above him.

How many volumes will the story end up having?
It’ll be eight volumes, possibly with other stories outside of the main story arc but in the same world. We’re working on the second volume now and it should be out around September, depending on how well the first volume sells.

What other products do you have in the line?
We make our own shirts, key chains, stickers, and posters. We plan on making figurines and stuffed toys- whatever we can think of! It’s a job I’m passionate about and once I graduate I’d like to continue making books and publishing them. I plan on finishing the series in Puerto Rico. I don’t know if in the future I’ll go on to formally study about making comics.

Thanks to Ms. Rodríguez for the interview! You can read more about Deepest Fears Project at their MySpace page here. Soon they’ll be up on Facebook. Order requests for Deepest Fears Project merchandise can be sent to DeepestFearsManga AT gmail.

This weekend the Puerto Rico Comic Con (PRCC) held its annual two-day event at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan. I visited on the first day. The PRCC is a small convention that is almost entirely a huge dealer’s room with comic book and toy vendors.  Their best feature is that the local comic book and manga artists come in person with their new material (which they all signed for the price of the book). It was great meeting them; you could tell they love what they do. Most attendees were teens and young adults interested in anime and manga, a growing trend on the island. There were plenty of cosplayers at the event along with game tournaments and a few out-of-town guests. These included Twilight actor Chaske Spencer, anime voice actor Spike Spencer, and comic book artist Michael Golden.

Hopefully next year the convention will add more panels and have an event schedule and booth map available on site. There was only one panel with Chaske Spencer limited to 300 people a day, and it cost an additional $40 to get in (daily tix were $16). So most attendees never saw the arguably biggest star of the event, and that’s a shame. While not being a Twilight fan, I would have gone out of curiosity and who knows? Maybe I would watch the movies if I was charmed by one of the actors. Spike Spencer did have a Q&A session but it wasn’t moderated; it took place in the main dealer’s room so it didn’t have the greatest sound quality. However, the actor did his best to answer questions and entertain everyone so- disaster averted.

I got the latest local comic books and talked to many artists, so in future posts I will share my thoughts about the books and whenever possible, interview the artists and writers. I’ve posted pictures of the event on the SciFi Latino Facebook page.

UPDATE 4/26/2010: More event photos by attendees at the Paquines.com and Cinemateria forum. You must register to see them, but it’s free. Click here!