 On O.C. 16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things that matter to tech and to Hawaii. I'm Lise Anderson. And I'm Anu Hitul. For a show this time, we'll take a look at the Comic-Con Conference that just took place at the Hawaii Convention Center. Comic-Con Honolulu, also known as Hoku-Con, is a three-day all-genre conference that takes place annually at the Hawaii Convention Center. It's a family-friendly festival of comics, costumes, fantasy, sci-fi, and all the things that attract nerds and nerddom. This year it was held in late July and debuted with more than 5,000 unique attendees with a visible outpouring of support from local Hawaii artists and fans. After all, the conference is organized by local people and it's designed for local people who support the nerd community or who are nerds themselves, whatever their fandom preference is. More specifically, it's for people who love comics, costumes, books, movies, and everything in between. And it's fashion to provide a safe haven for them to meet and learn and discuss their passions with like-minded individuals. Watching them engage with each other is an experience all in itself. SART is an important opportunity for artistic expression. We've done a number of shows and commentaries on the subject and we're delighted to see this art form in play at the recent Minimakers Fair and certainly at this Comic-Con event. This year's conference featured artists and visitors from the comics, gaming, television, and movie industries, along with our local artists, vendors, and fans. We found fandoms of all kinds and their collective enthusiasm filled the room. My name is Robert Welch. My store is the armchair adventurer. And we're here in the tabletop game room because it's game store. Nothing electronic, everything you play on the table with other people. So we're here in the tabletop gaming room to show people what we have and yeah, generate some interest in board games. So we've got board games, we have role-playing games, we have magic. In fact, we'll be doing drafts all three days. So magic is still super popular. You can jump right back into it. We're in the Dull Canary and we have specific nights throughout the week where people can come in and you know, board game night, Star Wars night, role-playing night. And we also do tournaments and events. We just had a huge charity event for a Wounded Warrior project. We'll be doing events throughout the year, probably about once a month. We have one big event. The best thing is on our Facebook page, The Armchair Adventurer, we post, it's very up to date. Or they could go to our website, TheArmChairAdventurer.com. And we have a calendar of events there. I'm Van. This is the tabletop gaming room. We have a large gaming library running events all day, different types of tournaments, different types of miniature gaming. We have large games. There's a room with a clue over here doing a puzzle room, a small puzzle room. We're also doing some other events like staged events. We're doing live readings of some different staged board game written radio plays. And we're also doing large games like Cardboard Mega Brawl, Giant Jenga, Giant Connect 4, things like that. We made an organization called Tabletop Oahu for this, but we do both of the conventions. We do Kawhi Khan and Kamikhan Hanlulu. So the library belongs to both of the conventions. And it just grows every year. We also have a play and win section so people can play games and then possibly win them at the end of the convention. A lot of publishers support too. We have a meet-up group for that too called the Oahu Board Gamers. They meet up once a week at Armchair Adventurer. There are also other places like Other Realms that they do meet-ups on Tuesdays, Armchair does it on Thursdays. And we do random events throughout the week too, so sometimes on Saturdays. So my name is Anthony DiTucci. And I'm cosplaying as a sleeper agent from the video game Tom Clancy's The Division. Basically it's a game where it takes place in like after a bioterroristic attack in New York. We're activated to help bring stability to the city. Our SHD logo over here. And I got pretty much basically, I was just activated so I grabbed my gear, put it on and my head out. We got our gas masks to help prevent us from the virus that spread throughout the city. Hi, I'm Tony Young. I'm a filmmaker and I'm also a member of Last Outpost Hawaii. We're a science fiction club of Hawaii. We've been around for quite a long time. At this current incarnation, we host quite a few panels at local conventions throughout the weekend, including Dr. Hu on Russell Davies versus Steven Moffitt, Star Trek's 50th anniversary. And tonight I will be as part of Pacific Invasion Media, I'm preparing my premiering, my feature film, Mickey's Summer Resort, which I shot in California. I planned, we plan on some online distribution afterwards. We're still kind of tweaking the special effects and getting a PR campaign so that we can make posters and stuff. It's still very much a do-it-yourself, even though we do have a, we have distribution contacts in LA and this is how it kind of evolved from that group through Cinema Epoch. But we're kind of going on our own right now. Hi, we're Legacy of Life Hawaii. I'm Julie. I'm Cheryl. I'm Paula. Gay. And we're here raising awareness for organ and tissue donation. Currently there's 435 people on the waiting list in Hawaii alone and we're trying to let them know that we're here signing up donors for them. So my name is Chad. We are crappy kids and pretty much our whole goal is to prove that if we can sell crap to someone and become successful, then no matter how silly your dream is, it's not as silly as ours. Like we just want to prove that, you can literally do whatever you want to do and it doesn't matter what it is because if we're out here just selling something as ridiculous as this, then anything is possible. As long as you put in enough hard effort and work into it. We have a few graphic designers that help us out. They don't like to do the conventions, you know, just like stay at the house or whatever. But then like I come up with the concepts and I just give it to our graphic designers and we all work together and you know, come up with all different concepts and characters. We mainly do a lot of local events like pop-ups and stuff like that. Like, you know, the conventions like this. And then we also do our website, thecrappykids.com. They can get them over there. If anything, they can also follow us on social media, atcrappykids. All of that kind of stuff, yeah. We do a lot of updates on there. I'm Jason Lee and I'm here to, you know, get myself out there as an artist. Usually comic book art, you know, things like Ghost Rider, Batman, Superman, Captain America, Iron Man, things of that sort. Sometimes I'll do a sort of tribal art, like a mixture between like have a piece here. That's Doctor Who in tribal. I'm Shannon. I'm Julie. We are making crocheted beanies and Amigurumi stuffed animals and bowls. So we do craft fairs, but we try to make superhero themed stuff just for this event. Hi, I am Daria Rao. I'm a cosplayer and artist, jewelry designer. I make these cute sushi pillows. They're over there. We can get them later. And earcuffs, which are fun like ear accessories. They hook around your ear so I do a lot of like fun wire work, lots of gemstones and stuff. Been traveling around a lot lately so I didn't get to make a lot of stuff. So I'm doing it now while I'm here and hanging out with friends. I was from Hawaii. I recently moved to California. So my favorite thing is really just hanging out with all my friends here because I love everyone here in the community. It's so wonderful and nice. And everyone's my friend, so. And she's my best friend. You're my wife. So I am a professional cosplayer. I like to play dress up way, way, way more than a grown woman should. So what I do is I create or buy costumes from a bunch of the different fandoms that I'm a part of. And I work promoting those fandoms and just kind of sharing the nerd love. My name is Vincent Kukua. I am a freelance illustrator. Just basically getting my name out there. He's an aspiring comic book artist. I'm selling prints of my prints of Hawaiian gods and goddesses. I'm selling original art and also doing sketches and commissions at the show. Primarily for networking. I came here last year for the very first show and I'm kind of loyal to the organizers here. So I want you to come back and just help support them in the show. I have a Tumblr, which is what I update the most. And that is one sketchycharacter.tumblr.com and also my Instagram, which is instagram.com slash vkukua, which is K-U-K-U-A. Well, my name is Sasha Yoselani. I am a fine artist and an illustrator. It's my first time in Honolulu or Hawaii period. And I'm here just to check it out. And I'm here at this convention, as it happened to fall at the same time as my trip was. So here I am. Most of my work is my own ideas. I don't do too much fine art unless it really inspires me and feels right. And my work, it's just inspired by nature in general and dreams. And it's pretty personal. I have plenty of social media outlets, but if you go to my website, SashaYos.com, I have everything listed there. And the link is up on my banner, actually. I keep saying, say, say, don't listen to the names they call. Yo, I got spotlight. You're just missing out. So my name is Derek. My brand is Seven Sketches. And I basically do character designs. So I do sometimes my own, my original characters are parodies. So I now match them up too. And what I love doing is I like taking two different elements that either they might go well together or maybe they're very different, like juxtaposed, but together they just look, you know, like together they look really, really nice. The easiest way to get a hold of me is through Instagram. So my Instagram is basically my brand name. It's at Seven Sketches. So that would be probably the best. I also have other social media too on Facebook, Seven Sketches and Twitter's Seven Sketches as well. My name's Tio Dodalau. I'm here at Comic-Con Honolulu. We're selling our fan art prints. We got table work of fine art. And we also got like stickers and t-shirts of all the stuff that people like. People like in their shows and their video games. If I was in Vending, I'd probably be up in the video games upstairs because they always got the hallway scene for like competitive stuff. He's always on the watch. We got, we always got our guests for like autographs and signatures like that. I know a few of them. There's like cartoon voice actors. There's Granny Mahara from Mythbusters is here. There's also the video game orchestra upstairs later tonight. So I'm definitely gonna check that out. We got Instagram, we got Facebook. We also got an online store. Usually I give them all business cards that has all that information on top. My name is Mark Rulona. I'm the creative director of Level 50. And we're making an app that allows you to watch videos, discover deals right from any sort of print media. And I guess this is what it looks like. So you have the poster. And when somebody walks up to it with their phone, you can actually watch a video. And you can go in, out. And you can actually interact with it too. You can buy tickets, you can visit social media. You can do all kinds of digital stuff. It's called augmented reality. And it's the, it brings together the physical and the digital world. So things exist, seem to exist in the physical world as if they're real. It's like a hybrid of the two worlds basically. And if anybody plays Pokemon Go, that's the same technology they're using in that. So to be able to catch Pokemon as if they were in the real world. You can use, there's all sorts of uses for this. There's educational uses, there's medical uses. There's, but we're just starting from the ground up. We want to introduce it to Hawaii. Well, my name is Michael Cannon, like it says on the banner. Local artist, I work for the government during the day and I like to draw comic stuff at night. So it seems like a good picture. So I've been drawing for, you know, 45 years. I have a boy page particular. I am on DBNR and I'm on Facebook also. RTELDON on both those, ART, I-L-D-A-W-N. The program guide for Comic Con was a work of art in itself. A kind of comics treatment of all the many offerings of the conference. Here are some of the pages from the program guide. In terms of activities, the conference included artist and fan panels and artist gallery, a manga library, video games, tabletop games, a costume contest, a vendor room and photo shoot and autograph opportunities for everyone. Yes, it was a celebration. The panel discussions range from one side of the comics world to the other. There were panels on avatars, cosplay sketching, creating memorable characters, drones, drones, drones, history versus the Marvel world, lip sync battles, Lord of the Rings lineage, the Manoa Medieval Combat Club, and so many more. In the process, the conference brought a number of celebrity guests to Hawaii and exposed them to our local artists and, of course, to the Aloha spirit. It was a meeting place for creative people from Hawaii and everywhere. There were some famous and fascinating personalities who spoke and also provided autographs. These included George Decay from Star Trek, Colin Ferguson of the Vampire Diaries, Comfort and Adam from the Unique Tales, Grant Imahara of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel, Sean Astin of Lord of the Rings, Kristen Bauer of True Blood, and quite a few others. It was amazing. You had to be there. Want to know more about Comic-Con Honolulu? See Comic-ConHonolulu.com. And if you didn't make it this year, why don't you plan to stop by next year and catch up? And now let's take a look at our Think Tech calendar of events going forward. Think Tech broadcasts its talk shows live on the internet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Then we broadcast our earlier shows all night long and some people listen to them all night long. If you missed a show or you want to replay or share any of our shows, they're all archived on demand on ThinkTechHawaii.com and YouTube. For our audio stream, go to ThinkTechHawaii.com slash radio. Visit ThinkTechHawaii.com for our weekly calendar and live stream and YouTube links. Or better yet, sign up on our email list and get the daily docket of our upcoming shows. Think Tech has a high tech green screen studio at Pioneer Plaza. If you want to see it or be part of our live audience or if you want to participate in our programs, contact Jay at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Help us raise public awareness on ThinkTech. Go ahead and give us a thumbs up on YouTube or send us a tweet at ThinkTechHI. We'd like to know how you feel about the issues and events that affect our lives in Hawaii. We want you to stay in touch with us and we'd like to stay in touch with you. Let's think together. To speak out on an issue or event, you can. We love the First Amendment and we love hearing from our viewers. You can come down to our speaker's corner and make a video statement on the web. See ThinkTechHawaii.com. And you can also call in and join our talk shows live. While you're watching any of our shows, you can call in at 415-871-2474 and pose a question or make a comment. Call in. We look forward to hearing from you. I'm Elise Anderson with this ThinkTech commentary. Having just returned from several weeks in Europe, I'd like to say a brief word about drinking in the streets. While Hawaii's buckling down more strictly than ever on the public consumption of alcohol, my beach club doesn't even offer plastic cups anymore, Europeans freely buy and sell alcohol in plain sight in disposable, transportable cups every day of the week at all hours of the day. After touring Lisbon's ancient Fortress Belém, for instance, I was surprised to find colorful stands openly peddling fresh squeezed orange juice infused with port wine, rum or vodka, and it was one o'clock p.m. In Portugal's fairytale enclave of Cintra also, one can buy a shot of liquor and a cup made of chocolate for just a dollar. And guess what? While American and British tourists are falling and fouling every other corner, you almost never find a horribly drunk Portuguese. These trends extend, perhaps to a lesser extent, throughout Europe. Hawaii should move in Europe's direction and not just because it's fun to wander everywhere with a cup of spirits in hand. Reason's abound. First, the easy availability of alcohol removes its alluring taboo. When society and its elders sanction a substance in plain sight, it no longer offers a veil of rebellion. European children and teens may consume more alcohol earlier, but they reach and overcome the experimental stage before leaving the protections of home. More sheltered, the consequences of early binge drinking in Europe are far less dangerous. Quantities consumed, too, are more moderate. Second, because open availability of alcohol allows one to integrate drinking into a day's routine, alcohol does not become an activity in itself. Instead, it merely supplements other activities. Because of this, the drinking pace in Europe is slower, and the effects of intoxication are less severe. You rarely find an obese European, in part because the ambulatory consumption of alcohol discourages bar stool and sofa lifestyles. As European revelers walk around, they work off the calories consumed and thus remain miraculously fit despite their toxic intakes. Finally, an open alcohol culture would stimulate our economy and allow Hawaii to reclaim its streets. Rather than buying large crates and bottles from supermarkets, locals would be encouraged to spend small premiums on the vendor experience. These premiums would be less than those of bars and restaurants where prices reflect Hawaii's astronomical rents. Street consumption would also encourage locals to mingle more with each other, too, perhaps breaking down some of the cultural barriers that painfully divide us today. One also notices very few homeless people sleeping on the street corners in Europe. I'd maybe count two or three in an hour's walk through municipal centers. If Hawaii's sidewalks were saturated with citizens enjoying their leisure time and law-abiding businesses conducting their commerce, homeless and criminal elements would be more incentivized to either join the mainstream or exit the city centers, a natural, justifiable, and far more enjoyable process than our current sweeps. For these and other reasons, I encourage Hawaii to embrace the public consumption of alcohol. Why not shine daylight on an activity that will otherwise involve less convenient, communal, and fitness-friendly conditions? Drinking, at least for the foreseeable future, will happen inevitably. Let's make it happen the right way. We'll be right back to wrap up this week's edition of Think Tech. But first, we want to thank our underwriters. ["Think Tech"] What's up this week's edition of Think Tech? Remember, you can watch Think Tech on OC16 several times every week. Can't get enough of it just like Anu does. For additional times, check out oc16.tv. For lots more Think Tech videos and for underwriting and sponsorship opportunities on Think Tech, visit thinktechhawaii.com. Be a guest or a host, a producer or an intern, and volunteer to help us reach Hawaii. Thanks for being part of our Think Tech family and for supporting our open discussion of tech, energy, diversification, and globalism in Hawaii. You can watch this show throughout the week and tune in next Sunday evening for our next important weekly episode. I'm Elise Anderson. And I'm Anu Hital. Aloha, everyone. ["Think Tech"]