Guest of Honor
Matt Hill - voice actor
Matt Hill is a seasoned veteran in the voice acting business, his voice being heard in over 50 cartoons and anime shows for the past 15 years. He is best known to anime fans as the voice of Kira Yamato in the mega-hit anime series Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED DESTINY. His other major roles also include Kero in Cardcaptor Sakura, Ryo Sanada in Ronin Warriors, Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Arthra Penn in Dragon Booster, and Korey in Being Ian.
When Matt Hill isn't voice acting, he trains and competes in international Ironman Triathlon competitions.
Website: http://www.matt-hill.com/
Special Guests
Scott Ramsoomair - webcomic artist
Scott Ramsoomair is the creator of the very popular webcomic VG Cats. His comic has been online ever since September 9th, 2001. His clean and colourful style depicts both the worlds of videogames and the players involved in them.
Litter boxes and videogames together at last? That's VG Cats. An online comic taking jabs at the video game industry with the help of two lovable cats. Leo the carefree, airhead tabby and the quick-tempered kitty Aeris. The two are based off of the authors own cats in classic Garfield fashion
Also filling out the cast is the lord of the unpleasant Krug, the card crazy Galka Ternaldo, and the defender of undergarments PantsMan. Proving once and for all, you can look manly wearing underwear on your head.
Plot? We don't need no stinking plot. Leo and Aeris take on the role of the characters in videogames. From there hilarity ensues, usually. From Asteroids to Zanzibar, VG Cats has something for every gamer. Even you retarded chocobo inbreeders.
Check out VG Cats today at: http://www.vgcats.com/
Irulanne - singer & amateur voice actress
Irulanne is a young woman who lives in Laval, Quebec. She graduated from the University of Quebec in Montreal with a Master Degree in Biology and currently works in a pharmaceutical company in Montreal. She was first known on the internet for her great knowledge about Sailor Moon and her unique French website about the series. For many years, she's been involved in all kind of anime-related activities, traveled to Japan twice, and became the leader of the most productive fan dubbing group of all time (Chorale Sailor Productions). As an amateur voice actress, Irulanne also improved her singing abilities beyond her expectations and began to record her own renditions of popular anime and J-pop songs, which were then distributed all over the internet. Her plan for the future is to find more time to sing and eventually record her own original material.
Irulanne has been involved in anime and sci-fi conventions before but this will be her first time as a convention guest. It will also be the first time that she will be singing songs in Japanese in front of a live audience.
Website: http://www.irulanne.com/
Claude J. Pelletier - editor of Protoculture Addicts
Claude J. Pelletier studied history, wanted to be a librarian, but ended up publishing a science-fiction fanzine named Samizdat (in French), several Quebec Science-Fiction anthologies (in French) and, finally, an anime and manga magazine. Protoculture Addicts was created in Fall 1987 as a Robotech fanzine, but quickly evolved into a general anime and manga professional magazine dedicated to keep fans informed about what is going on in the anime industry (in Japan and in North America). Each issue introduces several anime (with overviews, character & mechanical files, episode guides, etc.), anime-related products (videos, DVDs, manga, CDs, models kits, toys, etc.) or events (festivals, conventions, etc.) and elements of Japanese culture (live-action movies, books, music, etc.). In 2000, he published Anime: A Guide To Japanese Animation, which is a 300-page filmography of the first thirty years of the anime industry in Japan, listing over 1200 titles from Astroboy to Akira!
Website: http://www.protoculture.ca/Proto/index.htm
Christopher Macdonald - editor-in-chief of Anime News Network
Originally a network administrator, Chris's interest in anime lead to his involvment with Anime News Network. Eventually the small website turned into a very large website, and the hobby turned into a full time job. A fan of anime and manga since 1989, Chris is now one of North America's foremost experts on the anime industry and runs one of the largest anime media outlets, online or in print, in the world.
Website: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/
Yume Dream - manga artist
Born in Baie-Comeau, Quebec on February 11th, 1985, Yume Dream (Joany Dubé-Leblanc) spent her childhood there, but it was in Laval, Quebec that she reached adulthood. A self-taught artist, she started writing her own stories before practicing her drawing, and it was her love of both these arts that naturally brought her to comics. Deeply passionate about manga, she tried from the very beginning to create her own style while respecting the genre as much as possible. Ryshtahio is her first publication, one of the main stories of Yume Dream magazine, which helped her launch her own publishing house in 2004, Québec Manga.
Website: http://www.yumedream.com/
Sara E. Mayhew - manga artist
Sara E. Mayhew or SEM is the writer and artist behind Ztarr Manga Studio's titles. In spring, 2005 she was awarded the IMAF “Best Teen Comic” by the International Anime and Manga Festival for her first series Secrets of Sorcerers: Lela, Death & Rebirth.
SEM's current works are Secrets of Sorcerers and Love Pet, both being published by Ztarr Manga Studio. Secrets of Sorcerers is a story about a girl who, through the bracelet given to her by her boyfriend, wakes up at night in an ancient sorceress' body. Love Pet is a story about a cat that wants his owner to find a boyfriend. What happens when his wish is granted?
Born and raised in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, SEM is proud to be a Canadian mangaka and a part of the growing North American manga industry.
Her mangas can be read online at http://www.ztarr.net/
Emru Townsend - editor of fps magazine
Emru Townsend has written about animation for a wide variety of magazines, newspapers and websites over the last 19 years, pausing just long enough to write about technology for a mostly different variety of magazines, newspapers and websites. He happens to consider animation to be the sixth food group (right after chocolate), and is the architect of the Unified Animation Theory, which connects all forms of animation to each other. In 1991 that belief led to him founding Frames Per Second magazine (otherwise known as fps), devoted to the art and industry of all forms of animation. The Frames Per Second website encompasses the magazine (which is now downloadable), several blogs, articles, photo galleries, reports from animation festivals around the world, and animation-related podcasts. Check it out at http://www.fpsmagazine.com/
Tamu Townsend - fps magazine
Tamu Townsend is a technical writer by day, fps publicist, marketing/sponsorship coordinator and events producer during the early morning, lunchtime and at night. Long-suffering sibling of fps editor Emru Townsend, she shares his love and enthusiasm for animation. She is often mistaken for a cartoon character.
Website: http://www.fpsmagazine.com/
Delphine Levesque Demers - artist
Delphine Lévesque Demers is a 22 year old professional self-taught artist from Quebec, who has been creating art since she first learned how to use a pencil. She specializes in Fantasy and Horror art, and winged creatures such as fairies and angels, but her passion is for dark fantasy, romance and anime characters. She began her career at the tender age of 16 by selling her original artworks on the internet. At the age of 19, she was signed by one of the best well-known licensing/wholesale company in the United States. Delphine was selected in 2004 to be part of "The New Masters of Fantasy Volume II", a collection of the year's best fantasy art. She is also an official "Bettie Page" modern pin-up artist and has created a large collection of fine art pin-ups.
Her original artworks are highly prized throughout the world and are a part of countless public and private collections, since each of Delphine.s pieces depicts a story that comes from her inner self and stimulates interest for her viewers.
For Otakuthon she will exhibit a large collection of over 50 different artworks, as well as some of her official merchandise, and she is definitely going to be dressed as one of her mysterious characters for the occasion!
For more information feel free to visit her official website: http://www.zerick.com
To find some of Delphine's Bettie Page pin-ups check out: http://www.bettiepage.com/index.php
Boxed Rice Productions - cosplay group
Boxed Rice Productions is a cosplay (costume-play) group situated in the Toronto area that participates in masquerade performances at a variety of anime conventions. Our most frequent venues are Anime North, which is held in the Toronto area every May and CNAnime in August, which is located in the heart of downtown Toronto. Members of BRP also appear in various stage performances and charity functions, so please give us a shout if you see us!
One of our most well received skits was "Ten Commandments of Anime Conventions" at Anime North 2004's skit contest.
BRP would like to thank Otakuthon for inviting us, and we hope to help make this first Otakuthon become a memorable one.
You can find photos of past conventions at: http://brp.hidoshi.com/
Gisèle Lagacé - webcomic artist
Gisèle Lagacé is the co-creator and artist of the popular webcomic Penny and Aggie which revolves around two teenage girls, their lives, their friends, their boys and their hatred for each other. Her collaborator is co-creator and writer, T Campbell. The strip began its run in mid 2004 and is syndicated online at Keenspot.com.
Penny and Aggie has also been collected in comic book format through AliasEnterprises.com and is now available in trade paperback format through Lulu.com.
Gisèle's previous work was as creator/artist/co-writer of the very popular webcomic Cool Cat Studio which was syndicated online at Keenspot.com between 2000 and 2002. In 2001 she won the Web Cartoonists Choice Award for Best art and in 2002 the Friends of Lulu "Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent".
Born and raised in New Brunswick, Gisèle also lived in Montreal and has now settled in the Ottawa region.
Website: http://www.pennyandaggie.com