"Akira" creator Katsuhiro Otomo will make a guest appearance at this year's San Diego Comic-Con International convention.
The event, also known as Comic-Con, was a pioneering comic convention and, with an attendance of more than 100,000 visitors, it is one of the largest pop culture events in the United States. It will be held in San Diego, California, from July 11 to 15.
Tsuneo Goda, creator of the "Domo-kun" stop-motion animation series, was invited last year. Critically acclaimed manga artists Moto Hagio and Yoshihiro Tatsumi have made appearances in the past.
This year, Otomo is one of 14 nominees for the Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame, which has been recognizing artists who have made outstanding contributions to the comic book industry since 1987.
Hall of Fame inductees include Osamu Tezuka, Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima, Stan Lee, Winsor McCay, Charles Schulz and Jean Giraud.
In 2012, Rudolph Dirks and Harry Lucey will automatically be included. Voters will cast their ballots to select four others from the 14 nominees.
In addition to "Akira," Otomo is known for manga works such as "Domu: A Child's Dream," the animated feature adaptation of "Akira" and the "Steamboy" animated movie. “Akira,” in particular, had a significant influence on artists and creators in the United States and Europe in the 1990s.
This is the 30th year since the manga started serialization in Japan and speculation about a live-action Hollywood adaptation continues.
A retrospective looking at Otomo’s career will start in Tokyo from April.
For more information about Comic-Con, visit (http://www.comic-con.org/cci/index.php).
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