People at Katuscon 4 might like some artists, but they love Fred Perry, especially in his home state of Virginia. On his return from military duty during Operation Desert Storm, Perry started to create the characters now featured in his Gold Digger series. When Ben Dunn of Antarctic Press moved toward Warrior Nun comics, Perry carried the Ninja High School universe into his Gold Digger world.

Already a small-press comics success with his manga-styled work, Perry dreams of taking his characters to the next level and turning them into animated films using Japanese production studios. His goal is to create a short demo Gold Digger film. I can use this to show people what I want to do so I can get backers and develop it into a full-fledged 20-minute or 30-minute animation," said Perry. To achieve that, Perry has redesigned his characters so they're easier to animate. Brittany Diggers' cheetah spots will have to be minimized because they're difficult to draw from cel to cel, for example. 

Perry has even worked on a Gold Digger computer game. He spent months on a prototype, only to find he had written himself into a corner with a stubborn programming bug that made him drop the code he had written and start all over again. Perry said he's found that getting a break in the world of computer games seems tougher than braking into comic art.

Perry's fans exchanged ideas with the artists, asking Fred to create new stories for their favorite Gold Digger characters. He had a hint on the direction one character will take: "Brianna is going to strike out on her own. I'm going to team her up with the Northern Guards. She's on a personal mission. She'll have a chance to get out from the shadow of her sisters," Perry said.

The enthusiasm that bonds Perry and his fans draws many people to the larger world of anime and manga. Steve Pearl of the Atlantic Anime Alliance has been one of the leaders in organized fandom for years. He has brought anime clubs together in the alliance, including a club from Portugal. Pearl also maintains a wealth of anime information on the Internet, including a group of definitive FAQ's.

Technically intrepid anime fans try to bridge the language gap between the Japanese language and their native English by creating their own subtitled versions of new releases from Asia. Pearl said he is all for fansubs, as long as no one tries to make a profit from the tapes - and the producers drop their fansub projects when an American production company gets the rights to a Japanese series.