MY COMICS ART TRAVELS: Japan

animation, character design, comic art, Comics, Japanning, printmaking, Travels November 1, 2021

This post features one of my many visits to Japan to study and research anime, manga, comics and cartoons…not to mention fashion and food!

Doctor Comics in Japan, outside of Takadanobaba Station…under the railway tracks (see steel girder supporting a section of the tracks above the mural at top of photo). Here, near his former Tokyo Studio, is a memorial mural to the anime and manga artist, Osamu Tezuka, October 2016. (Photo by Louise Graber)

Japan is sometimes referred to as the Character Kingdom. This is due to its massive merchandising of manga, comics, film and anime figurines and collectibles. (Photo by Louise Graber)

Doctor Comics recognises Anime and Manga characters designed by Shigeru Mizuki, in the toy store, Yamashiroya, in Ueno, Tokyo. (Photo by Louise Graber)

Doctor Comics studies an original scroll in a window of the bookshop area of Tokyo called Kanda. (Photo by Louise Graber)
Another print shop in Kanda… (Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
In a shop window in Kanda Doctor Comics finds figurines of characters from Shigeru Mizuki’s manga and anime KITARO. (Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
A beer ad with cartoon figures (Doctor Comics often enjoys a beer whilst reading manga).
(Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
…and D.I.Y. printmaking, at Ogawamachi Railway Station. Here one can print the station logo on a post card at the stamp desk provided for passengers -see below.
(Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
Stamp and stamp pad plus work desk await.
(Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).

The ON MY TRAVELS… posts form part of my graphic based material. This includes painting, printmaking, cartooning and scrapbooking plus the odd bit of animation.

(All text, photos and artwork-©2021 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).

 

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Co-creator and former Director of the Master of Animation, Master of Design, and Visual Communication Design courses at the University of Technology, Sydney, Dr. Michael Hill has a Master's degree in animation plus a Ph.D. in comics studies, prompting his introduction on ABC Radio as “Doctor Comics”. A member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Comic Art, and former member of the Comics Grid Journal of Comics Scholarship and the Advisory Committee of the Q-Collection Comic Book Preservation Project, he has delivered public lectures on Comics, Anime and Manga and held academic directorships in Interdisciplinary Studies, Animation, Design and Visual Communication. Having retired from academia and completing the donation of his collection of research materials on Australian alternative comics to the National Library of Australia, he is now active in the artistic domain, writing, drawing and printmaking, creating art postcards and prints and his own graphic novel: Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.

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