News
Otakon Announces New Guests
posted on by George Phillips
Otakon's American Guest List expands to include Jan Scott-Frazier (First American Anime Director), Robert Dejesus (Studio Capsule), Fred Gallagher (Megatokyo) and Steve Bennett (I.C. Entertainment)
Jan Scott-Frazier, animation director - http://sockfairy.com/scott
Jan Scott-Frazier's importance to the American anime community is hard to deny. In 1989 Jan became the first foreigner to work in the production department of an anime studio and over the years has worked on such anime as Bubblegum Crash, Moldiver and Genocyber. After a stint working for the U.S. leg of Production I.G, Jan moved on to work for Trimedia East, the makers of RETAS, an award-winning software that aids in 2D animation. On top of this, Jan Scott-Frazier has also written extensively about the anime industry as a regular columnist for the popular online magazine, EX.
Robert Dejesus, artist - http://www.robertdejesus.com
Robert is an Indiana born, self-taught artist. He got his first break in 1990 in Antarctic Press' anthology, Mangazine, and from there was asked to work on other AP comics, most notably the Ninja High School series. Eventually moving on to freelance work, he teamed up with Adam Warren on Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair and co-produced a portfolio 'zine with Steve Bennett. His art has also attracted invitations from several Japanese artists, including Kenichi Sonoda (Gunsmith Cats) and KoKoMai (PlayStation character designer), to do work for their own personal dojinishi circles. Robert has also done work for comic companies, major magazines, an animated TV show, a major toy manufacturer, and a prominent video game developer. His most recent work can be seen in an upcoming issue of Anime Invasion, and with the help of his wife/partner-in-crime, Emily, he has recently started his own company, Studio Capsule.
Fred Gallagher, artist - http://www.megatokyo.com
Artist, writer, and driving creative force behind the immensely popular Megatokyo manga, Fred Gallagher is at the vanguard of the webmanga movement. In addition to the online version of Megatokyo, I.C. Entertainment is currently publishing the manga in print form. Otakon 2003 will mark Fred's third appearance as one of the convention's most popular guests.
Steve Bennett, animator - http://www.ic-ent.com
Steven R. Bennett IV is the co-founder of I.C. Entertainment. In the early 1980's, Steve worked at Studio Pierrot in Tokyo as an apprentice animator to Noboru Furusei (New Dominion Tank Police, Lupin III) on projects such as Cat's Eye and Urusei Yatsura. In 1997, Steve co-founded Studio Ironcat L.L.C. with the help of Japanese manga artist Masaomi Kanzaki. In 2002, Studio Ironcat was reborn as I.C. Entertainment, and the company has taken a new focus on domestic manga, which resulted in the 2003 publication of their AmeriManga and Megatokyo titles. Steve has recently been working on character designs for a video game currently in development.
Jan Scott-Frazier's importance to the American anime community is hard to deny. In 1989 Jan became the first foreigner to work in the production department of an anime studio and over the years has worked on such anime as Bubblegum Crash, Moldiver and Genocyber. After a stint working for the U.S. leg of Production I.G, Jan moved on to work for Trimedia East, the makers of RETAS, an award-winning software that aids in 2D animation. On top of this, Jan Scott-Frazier has also written extensively about the anime industry as a regular columnist for the popular online magazine, EX.
Robert Dejesus, artist - http://www.robertdejesus.com
Robert is an Indiana born, self-taught artist. He got his first break in 1990 in Antarctic Press' anthology, Mangazine, and from there was asked to work on other AP comics, most notably the Ninja High School series. Eventually moving on to freelance work, he teamed up with Adam Warren on Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair and co-produced a portfolio 'zine with Steve Bennett. His art has also attracted invitations from several Japanese artists, including Kenichi Sonoda (Gunsmith Cats) and KoKoMai (PlayStation character designer), to do work for their own personal dojinishi circles. Robert has also done work for comic companies, major magazines, an animated TV show, a major toy manufacturer, and a prominent video game developer. His most recent work can be seen in an upcoming issue of Anime Invasion, and with the help of his wife/partner-in-crime, Emily, he has recently started his own company, Studio Capsule.
Fred Gallagher, artist - http://www.megatokyo.com
Artist, writer, and driving creative force behind the immensely popular Megatokyo manga, Fred Gallagher is at the vanguard of the webmanga movement. In addition to the online version of Megatokyo, I.C. Entertainment is currently publishing the manga in print form. Otakon 2003 will mark Fred's third appearance as one of the convention's most popular guests.
Steve Bennett, animator - http://www.ic-ent.com
Steven R. Bennett IV is the co-founder of I.C. Entertainment. In the early 1980's, Steve worked at Studio Pierrot in Tokyo as an apprentice animator to Noboru Furusei (New Dominion Tank Police, Lupin III) on projects such as Cat's Eye and Urusei Yatsura. In 1997, Steve co-founded Studio Ironcat L.L.C. with the help of Japanese manga artist Masaomi Kanzaki. In 2002, Studio Ironcat was reborn as I.C. Entertainment, and the company has taken a new focus on domestic manga, which resulted in the 2003 publication of their AmeriManga and Megatokyo titles. Steve has recently been working on character designs for a video game currently in development.