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Stan Lee, Felipe Smith to Appear at Comic-Con Int'l
posted on by Heather Skinner
The North American manga publisher Viz Media announced that pop culture icon Stan Lee will be appearing at the Shonen Jump panel at San Diego's Comic-Con International to discuss his current series Ultimo on Saturday, July 24 at 10:30 a.m. He will then make an appearance at the Viz Media booth for a signing of Ultimo volume 2 at 1:15 p.m. Lee is also attending an Ultimo signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in The Grove at Farmers Market in Los Angeles, on Friday, July 16 at 7:00 p.m.
Ultimo, a collaboration between Lee and Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King), is about two robots named Ultimo (a representation of good) and Vice (a representation of evil). The two were created by Dr. Dunstan 1,000 years ago in order to see whether good or evil is stronger. Ultimo volume 2 is currently available in stores. The series is also serialized in Viz Media's Shonen Jump Magazine.
Another manga publisher, Vertical, has announced that Felipe Smith will be attending Comic-Con International and Baltimore's Otakon in celebration of his Peepo Choo manga's release in North America. He will also have a launch party for his series between the two events.
Smith is one of the few successful American manga artists working in Japan. After winning second place in Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga in 2004, he went on to publish three volumes of MBQ. In 2008, Smith launched Peepo Choo in Morning 2, a monthly magazine published by Kodansha in Japan.
