Special Guests

"The 404s" are returning to Otakuthon, bringing with them their own version of improvised comedy with an anime twist! This travelling comedy troupe has performed their hilarious, interactive, unrehearsed comedy show across Canada and the United States, creating sketches and scenes based on audience suggestions and direct participation. The 404s are very excited to bring their unique comedy stylings to Montreal - and remember, audience participation is mandatory!

Website: http://www.the404s.com

Founder and editor-in-chief of Protoculture Addicts

As a child, Claude J. Pelletier dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. Later, because of his love for books and writing, he wanted to be a librarian and novelist. Ironically, he ended up publishing other people’s stories—a science-fiction fanzine (Samizdat, in French) and several anthologies of Quebec science-fiction (Sous Des Soleils Étrangers, four volumes of Orbite d'Approche and three collections of short stories by Daniel Sernine, all in French). In 1987, after completing his master’s degree in Roman history, he founded the Robotech fanzine Protoculture Addicts—which quickly evolved into the general anime and manga magazine it is now, more than twenty years later.

In the early 90s, as a publisher, he also contributed to the publication of a few comic books and role-playing games (alternate reality Cyberpunk, Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles). In 2000, he published Anime: A Guide To Japanese Animation (a filmography of the first thirty years of the anime industry in Japan, translated from Italian). In 2005, joining force with Anime News Network, he relinquished his position as Protoculture Addicts' publisher but remained its editor-in-chief. His proudest achievement is to have kept the magazine going and constantly improving—it is the longest running anime magazine in North America and the best guide to anime culture.

Anime is the source of MiniKim’s passion for drawing. As a young girl, she invented stories inspired by Japanese anime characters. Much later, during her adolescence, she chose to fully devote herself to drawing, studying animation in Luxembourg. After working part-time jobs for some years, she moved to Paris and got her first contracts in illustration, animation and video games in 2007. It was also during this period that she rediscovered comics, and attended her very first festival - d’Angoulême.

She met Mathieu Mariolle via the Internet, who then offered her the scenario of AltaDonna. In parallel to this project, she started to publish comic strips and columns in the magazine Tchô. In 2006, the comic series project AltaDonna caught the eye of the publishing company Dargaud.

In 2007, “Job Academy” with MagicFred and PoP (Ed. Glénat) and “Il était une fois” with PoP (Ed. Carabas) were published. In 2008, Tome 1 and 2 of “AltaDonna” were published with Mathieu Mariolle and PoP (Ed. Dargaud).

MUSEbasement is a comics/manga/doujinshi circle founded in 2005 by Simon Gannon and A.E. Prevost, who have been making comics together since 2001. The Montreal-based studio is nearly a dozen artists in number and whose collective influences and interests span Eastern and Western styles. The team works on multiple projects, both original and fan-based.

Site: www.musebasement.com

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In the beginning, Kyowa Québec was formed by artists with a single interest: to publish a fanzine. After the publication of Mangue A, our very first common booklet, we have evolved into a starter publishing company to edit ourselves! Since then, we have been focusing on our collections "Mangues", publishing Cactus +16 and recruiting new artists!

Born and raised in Montreal, and having a passion for anime and manga, David Coacci is honored to be invited to Otakuthon. He's been an avid webcomic enthusiast for many years, and has been drawing for much longer.
 
While studying art at the CEGEP of St-Laurent, 7 years ago, he began work on "Renaissance", a cyberpunk fantasy webcomic. He soon realized that the only part of art that he actually enjoyed was drawing and graphic design. So, he dropped out and enrolled in the International Academy of Design and Technology, where he was able to expand his artistic and design skills, thus improving his artwork.
 
Today, when not working on the comic, or at his job as a web designer, David spends his time playing video games or stopping pucks at the local hockey rink. 

Website: www.renaissancecomic.com  

Timothy N. Hornyak moved to Japan in 1999 after working as a freelance science and technology journalist in Montreal, Canada. He has worked at the international desk of Kyodo News in Tokyo, and has written about Japanese culture, technology, and history for Scientific American, Far Eastern Economic Review, and other periodicals. He has also written for Lonely Planet and National Geographic News. A graduate of McGill and Carleton universities in Canada, Tim lived in South Korea while he did research for his graduate thesis on the issues involved in the reunification of South and North Korea. He has traveled throughout Japan and East Asia as a writer and photographer. His interest in robotics was sparked by a chance encounter with a Sony robot dog in a Tokyo showroom. Struck by the sophisticated technology and lifelike behavior of the robot dog, he began researching robotics by attending robotics conventions and interviewing prominent roboticists. As a result of this research, Tim came to believe that the engineering of Japan's robotics is only one facet of the country's "robot culture," which also encompasses anime, manga, and other media. He then began investigating why the Japanese are so comfortable around robots and why the Japanese are so willing to accept robots as their partners and friends. The foundations of this love affair are complex and span fields as diverse as doll-making and demographics. Loving the Machine explores this relationship and explains why Japan will become the world's first society in which robots will work with and help people in their everyday lives.

After studies in graphic design and a boring part-time job as an animation colorist, Sirkowski became a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and animator for ad agencies and a regular artist on Starship Titus. He is now working on Sister Wulfia Focka, for Slipshine.net. Sirkowski is most known for the Miss Dynamite anime and manga, created in 1990. Miss Dynamite "follows freelance terrorist Eva Sirkowski and her bisexual assassin associate Blackie Chin on their 'action packed, mostly weird' adventures.

Félix was raised on comics, cartoons and video games, but with time became more interested in making them than reading them. As the cliche goes, he's been drawing for as long as he can remember. However, he first tried studying to be a computer programmer. Deciding that wasn't really his cup of tea, he went and studied Animation instead, further improving his drawing skills and subsequently finding a job in the field.

Today Félix works in the video game industry in Montreal as a flash animator, and spends most of his free time drawing and creating for the sheer fun of it. A lot of that time goes into his webcomic, Flaky Pastry, which gathers in one place much of the crazy characters and situations his brain likes to crank out, in a mixture of science fiction, fantasy and adventure in a light comedy crust.