There's little that's exactly like the Japanese world
of doujinshi in North America. The Japanese practice of amateur fan comics
dwarfs the professional comics scene in most countries. And few top-level
American comics professionals would put the effort into fan works as do
many Japanese artists. Hitoshi "Dr. Comet" Natsume is one of those professionals,
who started with fan art then graduated to character design work on games
such as Suikoden. Elin Winkler Radio Comix said he's become one of their
most popular artists, especially for their "furry" books like Furrlough.
Dr. Comet has a big portfolio of what the Japanese call "kemono" art, and
he was selling three CD-ROMs of that art through the Radio Comix booth
at the Project: A-Kon dealers' room.
Dr. Comet's artistic talents first were used to design
buildings. "In the beginning I was an architect. There are a lot of children
who dream of being an artist, and that was the way I was when I was a child,
when I liked drawing pictures." He got his wish when he started designing
game characters for Koei, leading him to create characters from all eras
- from the days of the samurai and ancient China to the U.S. Civil War.
"I'm free with my action game designs to do what I want to do," Dr. Comet
said, saying that he saw some similarities between the U.S. Civil War and
conflicts between China and Japan. A typical game design commission takes
him two or three months to complete, and that means a cluttered desk for
this artist. "I have so many things piled up in my workspace that I barely
can sit down. If there's ever an earthquake, I'll be buried. I'd rather
work at home."
Fans got a hint of what leads Dr. Comet to draw furry
art when he told how his game work involves mostly male characters with
few of the females in his kemono drawings. "Everyone who works with me
are all males. Other than some women being forced into arranged marriages,
all of the samurai work is male oriented. I'm not that fond of always depicting
male characters all the time. I'd like to show females, but it's hard to
find work on creating those illustrations." Dr. Comet emphasized what other
Japanese artists previously have mentioned; the company commission comes
first when it's time to get paid, and he doesn't have much flexibility
in creating what he wants.
