Prepare for...final AKIRA art drop!

Published on June 28, 2023

An end of an era...our legendary AKIRA color guide art drop is coming! From series colorist Steve Oliff AND creator Katsuhiro Otomo!

We debuted this special AKIRA art on our site in 2016 and over the course of five drops, have sold over 1000 pieces. Every single one we've ever had. We have been 100% sold out. This week, we will have our FINAL art drop for AKIRA of this magnitude. Outside of a few Steve is holding for exhibition purposes (his work will be featured at the Comic-Con Museum this fall), this is it. There will never be another opportunity for this many pieces again.

While we work on prepping this sale, get caught up with the short documentary video we shot with Steve seven years ago:

STEVE OLIFF: Coloring AKIRA with KATSUHIRO OTOMO

In 1989, veteran colorist Steve Oliff was personally selected by Katsuhiro Otomo to color his seminal manga, AKIRA. This video documents their working relationship, including Otomo's trip to Point Arena, CA to collaborate with Steve on developing the color scheme. We're grateful to Steve for sharing his archival materials, including his personal pictures with Otomo and his family. A must-see for die-hard AKIRA fans!

Also enjoy this interview with manga expert Deb Aoki:

AKIRA in color with Steve Oliff

But it's not just Steve's work that will be offered...we're also going to have pieces by manga god KATSUHIRO OTOMO.

As anyone who has attempted to acquire any manga art knows, it's a near-impossibility. It simply isn't available. Let alone anything from something as significant as AKIRA. These will be simple color pieces that Otomo provided to Steve as color samples. But they come from the hand of Otomo himself.

In Steve's own words:

Even before I was chosen to work on the book, Otomo had worked out some rough color schemes and concept ideas about how he wanted the coloring on AKIRA to look. So he began coloring the black and white printed edition by hand to get an idea. But the colors bled on the newsprint, and he was unable to be as precise with the colors as he wanted. Also, he was unable to make any notes. So he then printed out large copies to color with marker. And those were given to me.

We are very proud to be able to offer these original color pieces from Katsuhiro Otomo. Our previous Otomo piece sold for $3250 to benefit our charity, the Lu Family Fund. Please note that Otomo only did a handful as reference for Steve; we will have a VERY limited number available for sale. Thanks to Steve for making them available!

About Steve's own color guides:

Steve Oliff is a comic book colorist who has worked in the industry since 1978. His company, Olyoptics, was the first to use computers to do color separation. In 1989, Steve was personally selected by AKIRA creator Katsuhiro Otomo to color the seminal work. Steve and Mr. Otomo worked side-by-side at Steve's studio in Point Arena, CA to develop the color scheme that would be used throughout the series. The guides were printed at Mr. Otomo's studio in Japan on 10"X14" heavy-stock artist's paper and then sent to Steve, where he hand-painted them using some combination of airbrush, felt pens, gouache, cel animation paint, colored pencil, Pantone film and more! These are not your typical color guides; each piece presents beautifully as its own work of art and is suitable for framing (although as with all colored art, best to keep out of direct light). Felix Comic Art is excited to present this rare opportunity for fans to own an original piece from this seminal work.

Drop time announcement will be shared in the next 24 hours exclusively with newsletter subscribers. Please be on the lookout for it. Until then, check out this fun unboxing video created by collector "Manga Hoarder" from our very first drop:

AKIRA COLOUR GUIDES / UNBOXING

That's all for now...talk again soon!