Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

With an impressive turnout for its first year, multimedia pop culture convention Comikaze Expo labeled itself as the ‘Comic-Con of LA.’ Its attendance suggests that there’s a lack for pop cultural events in LA. Major sponsors and exhibitors weren’t present and the expo floor mostly consisted of vendors and autograph hawkers. As it grows, the event organizers -- a group of friends and family -- will hopefully learn that even though the celebs and noted artists are the center of attention that doesn’t mean they should be in the center of the floor. That leads to clogged aisles which makes it difficult for vendors to earn back their space rental fees.

Some panels were excellent, though, there was a lot of competition as all were held in the same hall, separated by black cloth. One panel I attended had a cheering match with the one next door (or cloth, rather). Panels that offered advice on breaking into the biz -- such as the one held by Brandom M. Easton and Geoffrey Thorne -- were extremely informative. A nugget of advice for new writers from an Indie Comics panel: for newly hired writers, build up your stamina and prepare to stare 20 hours at a page so as not to burn out and not finish your first assignment.

One of the more memorable panels was a Q&A featuring former Star Trek series cast members, where Star Trek: Voyager’s Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim) said that the creators and producers of his series told all the actors playing human characters to tone down their expressions to a minimum. It would make the alien characters less relatable, they explained. Star Fleet, while evolved, is still a militaristic institution. Wang was forced to re-shoot about 10 takes in his first season; Kate Mulgrew had to do 30.

Wang excelled at being bland and wooden and that perhaps is how Wang -- as well as George Takei, his Star Trek predecessor -- gained a reputation for being a not-so-great actor of which, I may add, I beg to differ.

Wang feels that he seldom had a chance to break out and let loose with his role, especially in a comedic manner. Wang is extremely personable, passionate, and compelling as a story teller. And quite brutally honest to the point of igniting a feud on par of the Takei-Shatner level. He recounted how he only just met William Shatner last year at a convention and was met with a limp wrist hand shake as if he was greeting the Queen of England expecting a hand kiss. Wang: “I hate William Shatner.”

He said it.

The attendee who sat in front of me has it recorded; I suspect it will be on YouTube soon. Though, I would gather that it probably wasn’t the first time Wang has uttered that.