San Diego Comic-Con Goodies (at least two)

For you lucky and crazy dogs going down to San Diego this week for Comic-Con, the THE event of the printed image year, I give you a couple clues for booths to go to in order to fill your goodie bag.

One of this year's most anticipated manga is Vertical's first release of Osamu Tezuka's medical thriller, Black Jack.

Vertical knows this will be a huge release of a long running series, possibly the most anticipated by the Godfather of Manga so far in English. A very nice and concise intro and 22-page pamphlet containing a complete Black Jack short-story will be available at Vertical's booth. EDIT: It seems Vertical doesn't have a booth, but the preview is available at the Comic Relief booth.

Dark Horse is sending a big crew to Comic-Con this year. Say "hi" to Mike Gombos or Jacq Cohen from me if you see them them there. Appearances by a load of state-side creators will be happening, but I am also excited to see that Trigun's Yasuhiro Nightow and the amazing Vampire Hunter D artist Yoshitaka Amano are also scheduled. The picture below shows some of the goodies you can get at the Dark Horse booth. They have at least one big announcement for Japanese media fans this SDCC, so keep your ears open. The "dog-tag" necklaces are all-metal and pretty cool. They come in red, green and blue. There are also a variety of Dark Horse pins. The My Name is Bruce one might be my favorite design, but I really like the jumping Domo, as well as the Gantz and D pins, too. There are other pins at the booth not pictured here...