Sunfire & Wolverine by Peter Nguyen

My friend, Yoshimichi, and I (well, mostly Yoshi) were helping a group of comic artists visiting Japan get around the Tokyo, and Yoshi had set up a small table for them at the First Annual International Comic Book Festival (held there on Sunday, Nov. 18) and I ended up assisting animator and comic artist, Peter Nguyen, and, for a little bit, his friend, Jim Cheung (I sat beside him as he took about two hours to work on an Iron Man head sketch where he used all of this beautiful and intricate crosshatching which upon completion made a grown Japanese man jump up and down while clapping his hands) as well, translate and handle the money transactions while they drew sketches and commissions for their Japanese fans. Peter, in particular, really worked hard doing sketches as well as more-detailed copic marker commissions.


There was one unfinished sketch of Sunfire and Wolverine that Peter had started on a Japanese "shikishi" art board that he meant to do before the event as an example of his copic marker commissions, but did not have time to get around to it. I told him that if he had time to work on it, I'd buy it from him. However, when all was said and done, he was so busy drawing for his Japanese fans that, at the end, a Japanese manager at the Tokyo Big Sight (which I thought was spelled "Site") Exhibition Center actually came up to the table and told Peter, "Stop drawing!" (Hey, in Japan, the trains run on time and there is a schedule to be kept, dammit!)



Later, after we made it to the after-party to which we were all invited, Peter, to my protests, got out his pencils and markers and finished the Sunfire piece as well as a sketch of Bullseye that I had paid him to do for another friend. As he was finishing it up, Jim Cheung looked over his shoulder and said it was the best thing he'd seen Peter do all day (I wasn't quite sure if he was just ribbing him a little -- they had been sending each other good-natured barbs all day, but, hey, since it ended up being mine, I'll take Jim at his word on that one).