Nathan Maurer is Double K

That red eye is really his laser vision

                One of the best parts of going to the expo was getting to chat with Nathan Maurer aka Captain Osaka of DeviantArt who I previously blogged does Double K.

           Double K is wonderfully done fan comic that takes the Gurren Lagann Universe into a 70's cop buddy movie. Double K gets it's title from the two buddy cops and big players of Gurren Lagann Kamina and Kittan. The manga could have been also called Blue and the Blonde or Double B if you think about it. Just joking, Double K is the perfect name. The doujinshi manga has only recently caught up to Kamina and Kittan teaming up. Kamina was teaching the rookie Simone how to bust Johns. Yes, Simone was dressed like a hooker.

                   I got to the booth before Nathan even set up.

            One of the guys from Mecha Fetus was kind enough to tell me Nathan was having car trouble and would be late. I was worried. Nathan didn't even make it to last years expo because he got sick right before it started. I left a note with  Mecha Fetus' Ouendan to give to Nathan and reserve me a copy of Double K.

           I went off for a time and returned to a fully erected booth and one last copy of Double K. Later I found out KK sold out in 40 minutes. Nathan only brought 25 copies.

           I was saddened, yet happy to meet the creator/artist of Double K. I really wanted a copy of that book. Nathan had only one left and needed it to show representatives of  the licence holders of Gurren Lagann in America.

            Meeting Nathan was simply great. While talking with him we were constantly interrupted by fans saying, "Hello" and thanking him for making such a great series. Any time I passed his booth I could hear sad cries of, "Oh, Double K is sold out!"

           Whilst talking with him I learned that drawing is just a hobby, his real job is being a accompanist pianist. Yup, he draws and plays piano. If anything happened to his hands he's probably kill himself. Just like a brain surgeon who has his hands broken from gambling debts. I'm guessing he would have less funds to drink away his life as said surgeon and painfully go down a road of regret and sadness becoming a alcoholic eventually taking his own life.  Anyway the guy can play piano. So next expo you see him take out a synthesizer and make him play something.

        I asked some simple questions about his life and work. I asked about any influences and he mentioned how much he was influenced Bryan O' Malley's work on Scott Pilgrim. He told of how he won the Tokyo Pop Rising Star competition and Pop released his Atomic King Daidogan. Atomic was a 70's style robot manga.  On how he draws he explained he is a perfectionist. He will spend 3-10 hours on one page of Double K. That perfection works as he gets between 1,000 and 5,000 page views a day on deviant art.

          Back to Double K. Nathan says he has a whole story planned out. It's not a whatevers on his mind process. Hopefully, Nathan got through to some of the people who own Gurren here and a published and backed version of Double K will hit bookstores and Amazon.

I just had too