Heavy Metal

Monday, January 26, 2004

WHAT’S ON MY BRAIN

Can you say JET LAG? I can. The funny thing about flying to Japan is it’s a 12 hour flight from LA to Tokyo, you leave at 11:00am on a Sunday, and land 12 hours later, but the following day, a Monday, at 4:00pm. Crazy. Where’d the day go? They’re 17 hours ahead there, so even as I write this, around midnight on Monday the 26th, it’s already 5pm there, the end of their day. When we flew back, we left at 4:30pm Tokyo time, and landed at 9:00am the same day back in LA. At least I found the day I lost going there, but I think my brain is still floating over the Pacific somewhere. It’s taken a few days to try and get back on schedule, and I’m getting close, but not quite there yet. More on that next week.

If you’ve never been to Japan, I hope you get the chance to see it someday, as it is really a wonderful place, the people are amazingly nice, and the city is like New York, except it is really clean. I mean REALLY CLEAN. The weirdest thing about the place, is that everything is written in Japanese. I know you’re thinking "DUH Kevin, you’re in Japan!" but it’s weird because if you’ve ever been to another foreign country, say Europe, even though the languages are different, French, Spanish, Italian, etc., at least they’re all made up of "letters" you can understand. So if you’re wandering around a city with a map, you can still figure out where you’re at, sorta, and carry on. There, everything is symbols, so if you try to venture out on your own, map or not, you’re pretty much fucked.

Coming in from the airport, I snapped this shot, picture one, which was the first clue you’re not in Kansas anymore. Funny, out of all the images in the photo, the only thing you can make out is the little "golden arches" on the bill board on the lower left.

The next shot is my "Suite" at the Tokyo Century Hyatt. Yes, you do have to leave the room to change your mind. They had a nice gym, up on the 28th floor with a pool, so I got to work out some. The fun part was renting some shorts to swim. The first day I did, I asked for a large pair, and didn’t realize what I was getting into, until I was getting into them in the locker room. They got as far as a few inches above my knee before they got stuck. Went back out to try and get a larger pair, and twenty minutes later they figured out what I needed, and gave me another pair—extra large—in which I basically looked like a sumo wrestler in a speedo. Luckily no one was around to take a picture of me in them.

The first stop, the first day there, as we had the morning free before work, was "Kiddy Land!" Hey, get your minds out of the gutter, and don’t let picture three fool you. Kiddy Land is a 7 story toy store, where you can find the coolest things, and things you can find only in Japan. The craziest toys you’ve ever seen, and most likely will never see here in the states. I spent about two hours there, and a small pile of yen. When we were leaving, Joe Pearson got these two young ladies to pose with me, who had no clue what was going on, and did it for laughs anyway!

The next shot is the side of a theater near the hotel, "Return of the King" is still kicking box office ass there, and we heard "The Last Samurai" was doing pretty good as well. I wonder what they really thought of it?

Here’s Joe (picture five) hanging out on one of the side streets trying to blend in…or not, I can’t remember. The side streets were more interesting than the main streets. Most of the main streets were more typical "city like" but once you cruised down an alleyway you felt like you were heading into the real heart of the city, where the locals hang.

And that’s where we found it folks—yep, to my horror was the long lost origins of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!" As if I’d seen it in a dream, a vision back in 1983 when I drew the first one, there it was! To try and cover up the situation, I had Joe snap a picture of me with the "Japanese 7-11-ish" store front, and stumbled off down the alley claiming I’d get our lawyers right on this "clear" rip off!

Shit—I’m carrying on a bit this week—I’ll blame it on the jet lag, but either way, I’m running out of space. So, I told you last time Joe Pearson and I were going over to meet with Mad House animation about a project, but I’m going to make you wait till next week, which will include more pictures from the trip, to tell you what’s going on.

For now, I’ll tell you there’s all new update to all the main channels going up this week, and the newest addition to the store is Luis Royo’s "Conceptions #2!" If you love Luis, you’ll love this new edition that’s a must have to your book self. I also want to mention the "Artcore Books #1 and #2" that were added to the store a month ago. Great stuff from the German company "Art Fantastic" these books are Heavy Metal, but Hardcore. Worth a look too.

Lastly, this weeks special is "Frezzato’s Originals" book. This killer limited edition of 500 copies, is signed and numbered, 13 x 17 inches in size, the same as the original artwork, and reprints all of issue five without the word balloons. Just art, no words! This is regularly $100 bucks, but this week only, we’ll let you take it home for half price!

Okay, I’m outta here—talk to you in seven days.

Best, Kevin

PS, Here's a couple nutty bonus pictures from the trip! In case you haven't seen the Coronial lately, I found him hiding in the back streets of Tokyo! Also found the Eiffle tower too! Four feet shorter than the original in Paris I'm told, and this one is painted "Red!" Crazy.