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Manga Creator Kia Asamiya Receives San Diego Comic-Con International's Inkpot Award

San Diego Comic-Con International awarded its Inkpot Award to manga creator Kia Asamiya on Thursday. The convention surprised Asamiya with the award during his retrospective panel "Kia Asamiya: 40 Years of Imagination and Visions." In his acceptance speech, he joked that since this is the second award in as many days for him, it must mean he will die tomorrow.

Asamiya created the Silent Möbius, Steam Detectives, Compiler, and Junk: Record of the Last Hero manga, among others. He provided character designs for the Martian Successor Nadesico anime (which he later adapted into the Nadesico manga), adapted the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace film into a manga, and wrote and drew the Batman: The Child of Dreams comic. Many of his manga have been adapted into anime.

As Asamiya noted in his acceptance speech on Thursday, he had just learned the day before that the Japan Science Fiction Convention had given him the Best Artist award for the second year in a row. Asamiya is also scheduled to appear with Udon artists Edwin Huang, Jeffrey Cruz, and Long Vo at "The Artistry of Anime and Game Art" panel later on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

Source: "Kia Asamiya: 40 Years of Imagination and Visions" panel