After 3 long years of graphic design for two different area newspapers, I decided my life needed a change. A big change. Newspapers never really held much appeal to me. They were just a solid paycheck in the field of commercial art, while I kept laboring away at my comic strip, waiting patiently for that one door of opportunity to creak open even the slightest. But I got tired of waiting for it to open in the Delaware-Pennsylvania area.

So I moved to Hong Kong.

China.

I figured it'd be far enough away to wipe the slate clean, and start all over again. At the time, it seemed like the neatest thing to do. I had forgotten what starting "ALL" over again entailed.

I'm still working in newspapers, but this time I'm an editor and not an artist. Which is taking some getting used to. Instead of creating maps and charts, I have to create a spreadsheet of invoices for my paper's downloads of Associated Press photos. Which seems utterly boring, and right now, since I've never created "invoice" spreadsheets, it seems like an insurmountable task. In other words, I'd rather be given a map to draw.

One of the allures of moving to the Far East, and the reason why I'm writing this so-called column, is Japanese art. Manga and Anime, over the past four to five years, have created a solid niche in the style and look of US comics. And I felt it'd be easier to get an idea of the Manga-craze by being "closer to the source." And Hong Kong is much closer to Tokyo than Delaware.

To give my cultural journey a boundary, or more to the point, to give my quest purpose, (and this column a theme) I decided to create a goal for myself. That was the easy part actually. There is something specific, and manga-related, that I wanted. And I figured Hong Kong would be the perfect place to start.

In 1998 I went to the San Diego Comic Convention to shop my comic idea around, and to experience for the first time "The Big Show." The convention both disappointed me, and surprised me. At the time everyone wanted comic book ideas involving Playmates or former Playmates or some other scantily clad woman. My quaint idea of a Superhero satire involving strong suburban iconography and loads of pop culture related humor just didn't go over too well. Oh well, eventually I'll put together a simple enough marketing package to illicit interest from even the most dense fanboy. In the meantime, I have my quest ...

You see, while wandering the showroom floor that week at the SD con, I passed by a booth that had the coolest 12" Gatchaman action figures I'd ever seen. Gatchaman, which I remember from my youth as Battle of the Planets, was the Japanese imported cartoon starring a team of bird-garbed techno-ninja superheroes. And I thought it was the coolest. And these action figures were the niftiest action figures I'd seen in ages. But, because I had no money on me at that moment, and because I was late meeting my friend at one of the panel discussions, I kept moving, figuring I'll find them later when I'm better prepared. But, as fate would have it, they disappeared. I tried to find them the rest of my time there. But every Japanese imported toy dealer I went to came up empty.

So ... I've vowed to use my time in Hong Kong to locate GATCHAMAN MERCHANDISE. And hopefully, the very same set of action figures I missed the chance at in San Diego. And, along the way, I hope my quest leads me (and those who follow my little misadventure in this column) headfirst into a cultural exchange with Hong Kong and Japanese comics, toys and collectibles.