Saturday, March 1, 2008

Who is Ninjatron?

Hey everyone. I'm running the show around here. My name's Dylan. G., and around the Internet I go by Ninjatron. I'm from Toronto Ontario Canada. This is just going to be a little post for those who are interested to show who I am and why I do what I do.

I love anime, manga, comic books, cartoons, video games, monster movies, toys, and pretty much anything else cool like that.

I'm an artist looking for my big break. I like working in anime style and digitally coloring in Photoshop, but I also consider myself pretty versatile. I hoping to get into the comic book business soon, but eventually my goal is to tell my own stories with my own characters and someday see them realized in animation.

You can check out my personal website SykoGrafix.com for more about me. I've got artwork, articles, music, my blog, and a whole lot more crazy stuff.

SykoGrafix.com
For more artwork, you can look at my deviantART account.

I do often accept commissions and if you're interested in getting some custom artwork made, please check out my commission page.

Ninjatron's Commissions
I'm a big Transformers fan. Shortly before the release of the 2007 Transformers movie, I was interviewed by the Associated Press for an article about Transformers fans. In 2006 and 2007 I drew an 8 page comic that was included with the convention program at TransformersCon, the Canadian Transformers convention in Toronto.

For many years I worked as a teacher, giving lessons about how to draw anime and manga to students of all ages on weekends and after school. As part of my lessons I would make sure that everyone learned a little bit about the history of anime, and how important it is for artists to learn about Osamu Tezuka and other important creators. It was at these points where I would often be pleasantly surprised at how many students, some of them being really young kids, already knew and loved AstroBoy. Unfortunately, there wasn't always a lot of easily obtainable information out there, especially for youngsters, and so many of them only knew of the character through reputation. I took it as an honor to be able to show them some of what the history and culture of anime and how it relates to what they like now.

In 2002 I had the fortune of briefly meeting Mr. Takayuki Matsutani, President of Tezuka Productions, while he was in Toronto as an invited guest at the Anime North convention. He participated in a ceremony honoring Osamu Tezuka for his contributions to anime, and exhibited a number of rare animations, and answered questions from the audience. I made sure I took the opportunity to talk with him about how important it was to me to share Tezuka's work with my students. He was very friendly and gracious, so I was surprised to find out much later that he's considered to be a very ruthless businessman! He even gave me his business card, which I somehow stupidly lost.

Mr Matsutani and Ninjatron
As an anime fan and artist, I think it's imperative to learn about the works of Osamu Tezuka. I grew up with the 80's AstroBoy series, and it was probably the first anime I ever saw. But as I got older and delved further and further into the vast scope of anime for the sake of my own artwork, I understood and appreciated AstroBoy so much more. Now I use this character as a personal source of inspiration. That said, Astro isn't my most favorite of Tezuka's characters. No, that distinction goes to Black Jack. What can I say? I just relate better to the quiet bad ass characters!

I like to think that I know my stuff, but I'm not really in any position of authority. I'm just another regular fan who's happy to spend some time and share some knowledge and enthusiasm about AstroBoy and other related topics. Please feel free to talk to me by leaving a comment here on AstroBoy World, or by sending me an email via the contact heading on the right side of this blog.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the site and please let me know what you think!

Sayonara.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just want to say that I recently discovered your blog here, and I think it's great. I'm also a Canadian Tezuka fan who grew up with Astro Boy, and other anime/Manga works.

Keep up the great work!

Adi Keren said...

HI,i`m too,i`m Astro boy fan...!!
ow, i look your Blog is very Good..!
i can take your blog link in my Friend`s Blog..!

www.imajinasi-unik.co.cc
(ID language and Translator Inside)