Chesterfest Tokyo

A few people have e-mailed over asking when I'm going to post pictures from Chesterfest Tokyo, as rumors of the event seem to have filtered back to the Western shores. The truth is that there aren't a lot of pictures I can show you. The party was divided into two events; first we had a smaller dinner party, then the second party was a larger, and much wilder, drinking affair where beer, sake and whiskey flowed freely. Some of the attendees have asked that I protect their identities, privacy and dignity by not posting the mostly drunken photos from the second party, a request I will respect. But sometimes I think they just don't want to acknowledge that they know me. :)

But here are a few pics snapped at the dinner party...


From the left, that's Tommy Ohtsuka, artist of Slayers and the upcoming Marvel Mangaverse; Tetsuya Aoki, designer of various incarnations of Ultraman, Masked Rider and the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, among other things; Ben Dimagmaliw, colorist of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; Aki Yanagi, Japan's leading authority on Amercian comics, Marvel's main translator and coordinator, and my long lost Japanese brother; Mitsuko Mitsuoka, webmistress of planetcomics.jp, where I've found a lot of the talent I've used over the years; and Kunihiko Fujiwara, who does more things in the Japanese manga and anime industry than can be listed here.


And here, from the front moving back, is Sana Takeda, the amazing artist of my upcoming Drain comic series; the host and guest of honor, Chester himself; Kei Kobayashi, whose art blew everyone away and who I predict will be one of the biggest artists in Japan and the states in the coming years; Franck DuBois, owner of Blister, Japan's leading retailer of American comics and pop culture, now with an unbelievable new store in Shibuya; and Fujiwara-san again, who works so hard he's had himself cloned.