Anime conventions are running hot and cold this year.

IVC2 reports that Anime Expo, currently the nation’s largest anime convention with over 40,000 in attendance last year, will be moving back to its original home at the Long Beach (CA) Sports Arena on June 29 through July 2.  A highlight of the show is sure to be the return engagement of "AX Singing Idol" — details can be found at the AX website.  Be sure to pack the sunscreen!

We used the word "currently" up there because Reed Exhibitions, the people who brought you the New York Comic Con, have been busy organizing the first New York Anime Festival, to be held at the Javits Center on December 7 through 9.

According to Reed’s press release, the con will "span the complete breadth of anime pop culture including exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, and sessions with the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America. The event will also explore the Japanese cultural experience with a showcase of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese cuisine, apparel, and lifestyles." Dress warmly for the late fall!

And if you simply can’t wait until then, particularly if you live in the Northwest US and aren’t all tired out from the Emerald City Con, don’t forget that Sakura-Con 2007 ("the oldest and most well-attended Anime Convention in the Pacific Northwest — non-profit, all ages, all volunteer and ‘for the fans by the fans’") starts tomorrow, April 6, through Sunday the 8th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle.

Logos for each of these three conventions are pictured at right.  That’s a lot of anime, but really just a small cross-section of the actual anime con circuit, which is easily as impressive as the mainstream comicon circuit…

Two good reports on cartoonist meetings, complete with pictures:

Howard Cruse details a get-together in Massachusetts of some Pioneer Valley cartoonists, and Mikhaela Reid talks about the Women, Action and the Media (WAM) conference in Washington DC, where she and fellow cartoonists Stephanie McMillan (who also has a review) and Jen Sorensen presented a "Resistance through Ridicule" panel and slideshow.

Fun fact from Stephanie: "When cartoonists get together, it takes a maximum of about ten minutes for the conversation to turn to Photoshop and/or font programs."

Congratulations to Aaron McGruder and company for garnering Peabody award for the Boondocks cartoon episode "The Return of the King!"  The awards committee calls this "An especially daring episode" which "imagines Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reviving from a 32-year ‘coma’ and outraging Americans of all colors and creeds by confronting them with truths that he, at least, still holds to be self-evident."

The full list of 66th Annual Peabody Award recipients can be found here.

Joel Silver, who makes movies where things blow up real good, says he’s planning to remake the 1976 science fiction classic, Logan’s Run. 

"I love the original material but I think that version is a bit silly," he told reporters in Barcelona where he was promoting his latest film The Reaping starring Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank.

The original starred Michael York, Peter Ustinov, Farrah Fawcette and Roscoe Lee Browne.  Directed by Michael Anderson, it won an Oscar for its visual effects.