This guy,
to be exact. No, he`s not Japanese. He`s from Finland, like me. His name is Jii Roikonen, and he`s the maker of Jasso-comics. I`ll start this story from the beginning of it, because there are some of you in the crowd, who like to start stories from the beginning.
It was a not-so-hot, bright springday in the year 2005. I was at Kemi (Findlands comics-capital) in a comic-festival (not like an American Comiccon) with my dad and sister. We spent there a few hours, and it was nice. There was for example an exhibition of Viivi and Wagner, and a clown whose performance kids were watching. Me and my sister included. And there was also a few artists (I`d guess. I`m not sure though, `cause my memory is a little hazy.) in there, sitting in chairs. I dont know who they were. But there was one empty chair. If I remember correctly, there was a paper in it, and there was letters Jii Roikonen written in it. I had seen and read a few of his albums, and had noticed to like his style of making stories. So I decided that I wanted his autograph. I asked from one of the guys in the chairs something like this: "When is Jii Roikonen gonna come back?" "After a few minutes." or something like that, one of the guys said to me. So I went and bought (Or had I bought it before?) one of Jiis books, so that he could sign it. I waited with my dad and sister. Dad wanted to know if we really had to wait, and I said yes. We still waited. After some time, Jii was there. One of the guys said, smiling:"Hey Jii, there`s a fan of yours here." Well, he was smiling too, in that chair. I goed near it, and gave him the book. I was in no line. There wasn`t one. He started drawing. He asked: "Would you want that I draw a Jasso-flower in it?" Or something like that... I said that I did. He drew that one too. Then, when he finished, he wrote a word balloon to the pic, in which Jasso said hi to me. I thanked him, and goed away. Outside, I was really happy. Dad (or my sister, who said nothing) didn`t understand what was so great about meeting a really great comics-person.
That`s my memory about it. The first comics making guy I`ve met. Too bad that I don`t even remember if he was bald...
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