The next day, all of our professional responsibilities were done so we had fun! Above is the photo from the climax of it all--a great dinner at Sukiyaki, the restaurant that inspired the 1960s pop song of the same name and also helped introduce Japanese cuisine to the United States. It was so much fun! It was the Morrison crew and the guys from 50 Kaitenz (Japan's greatest punk rock band) drinking and partying! But let me digress... 

 

The day began when we met 50 Kaitenz for a shopping trip. Here we posed for a photo below a famous tourist landmark... I'm not sure what the landmark is supposed to represent. Danny is showing off the PUNK Magazine book we gave him earlier. Like I said before, he's also a great cartoonist, so he truly appreciated it, as you can see--he's so happy he's about to explode!  

 

There were all kinds of little tourist things for photo-taking. This one had something to do with crying, so we all got a little bit teary-eyed... By the way, that's Dory (bass guitar) on the left, Bogie (drums) on the far right and Danny (lead vocals and guitar) in between us.

Check them out!

Their MySpace page. 

They're AMAZING. They remind me a lot of the Dead Boys: same sense of humor, energy level, and appreciation and knowledge of rock 'n''roll.  In fact, Danny reminds me a lot of Stiv Bators. Never a dull moment, high energy, funny, great guys.

 

Even though 50 Kaitenz are a punk band they are also wildly popular! Yes, Japan is the land of opportunity, where punk is not an impediment. So when stopped off for a few beers before dinner and some fans recognized them, we took a photo with them. As you can see, the fans were so happy! I think ti was the highlight of their life. (Honest!)

 

When we arrived at Sukiyaki, we were ushered into a private room, where we shared great food and many beers and drinks! As you can see, I had many serious discussions with the 50 Kaitenz guys about punk rock, the Situationist movement, anarchy, environmental politics, East/West trade relations, and many other important topics. 

 

The Sukiyaki serving staff wear the traditional garb of the geisha, which makes the restaurant such a favorite of both tourists and the Japanese people.  

 

The next day, we had lunch with Ena and Ray from Poni-Camp, and we gave them personalized copies of the PUNK book. (Don't forget--the biggest and best edition will be out soon! So keep an eye out for signing events!)

 

Anyhow, we owe them both many thanks because they put together the wildly successful show at Shelter! Thanks, Ena! Thanks Ray! Thanks Poni-Camp!

Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you the best part: Poni-Camp wrote and performed a song about PUNK Magazine!!! It's the first song ever about PUNK magazine! So thanks again, Poni-Camp! (I wish I could tell you the lyrics, but they sang it in Japanese!) They rule! And I ended my trip with a big crush on Ena. 

So check this out:

Poni-Camp's Myspace Page

After that Taka took us shopping, to a part of Tokyo that had so many amazing comic book shops and toy stores, where I saw so many action figures and manga and robots and... then... I saw a young woman in a French maid outfit giving away post cards. I've always had a fondness for women dressed in French maid outfits, even as a little kid! I don't know what it is but anyhow, Taka had read my mind! He took us to French maid heaven! 

 

I didn't know this beforehand, but there are clubs that cater to fetishes like mine! In this building, there were six floors devoted to different theme clubs: one for French maids, another for nurses, etc. etc. Of course, I am not allowed to tell you what happens behind closed doors.

 

Okay, Okay! You twisted my arm! The young women dressed in French maid outfits serve ice cream drinks and sing songs when they do. No touching, of course--this is Japan! For the big climax, they bring you and your party to a small stage, dress you in bunny ears and paws, take your photo, and then draw cute little things all over the snapshot. Nothing sexual at all, just pure, clean fun. Man, do I ever love Japan!

Oddly enough, just after we sat down a couple of Sumo wrestlers arrived, and we talked them into joining our photo. On their request I PhotoShopped their faces so they can't be recognized, but the crazy thing was how big they were compared to the tiny, young, Japanese French maids. The photo doesn't do the whole experience justice. These guys are bigger than NFL players, and Japanese women are all around five feet tall. Anyhow, it seemed fitting to end my trip on a bizarre note like this.This was even more crazy fun!

 

At the end of the night, it was time to say good-bye... Taka-san (Our Boss Man) took this photo of Suzuko-san (The Young and the Charming), Yuki-san (Our Translator and my new best buddy, who's busy showing off the back of the "Official Morrison Crew Jacket"), and Motohiro-san (wing man extraordinaire, who also works as an actor in his spare time). Man, this trip was the most fun I ever had in my whole life. It was even better than being on the Sex Pistols tour in 1978!

 And yeah, I know it was probably an ordeal to get through my whole travel story, but honest there's a method to the madness... Stay tuned! This was an important event.

 

The day after our wild party I was a bit fuzzy, after all we'd had a wild party! But the Morrison Crew wanted me to meet up with the Rudie's crew, so we got together and took the subway to a wayout neighborhood, which Yuki san and Suzuko san described as "The East Village of Tokyo." I saw a badly-dressed drag queen on the way to Rudie's, and figured they were telling me the truth!  

Eventually we made our way to Rudie's, where Taka san (black cap on left) and Satoshi san (blue cap on right) run the business. These guys work so hard they skipped our party, but to be honest? I could relate to that. Like these guys, I rarely go out, I am always working at home, and I'm rarely in a club at 2 am. (But I have to admit, I do enjoy partying when I can do it!) Anyhow, we went to a bar where had a real cool time.

So when we did finally meet up, we had an amazing meeting of the minds! I did a really cool drawing of a skeleton on a wall in their shop (again, check out the Punk Invasion MySpace page, they show me drawing a skeleton on their wall which becomes kind of historic... Rudie's has been using my skeleton guy for all kinds of stuff!

 I'll be posting this stuff soon, so stay tuned! 

 

All the banners were in place and they began to let people in. This was the stage backdrop.

 

  Before the show started, we hung out backstage. The sign above was displayed prominently, it warns people not to break anything or otherwise mess up the club. I've never seen a sign like this in an American music venue, but anyhow 80,000 yen is around a thousand bucks. So we decided not to break anything.

 

 The musicians began to show up. These guys had a lot of beer and some very cute girls with them. Seemed like nice and friendly people, too!

 

 Actually, they're the Radiots! They and 50Kaitenz are very popular punk bands in Japan, which I could see from their merchandise. By the way, 2800 yen is around 35 bucks! That's a lt for a t-shirt. But they sold a lot of them. On the far left is at-shrt featuring a funny comic strip written and drawn by Danny from 50Kaitenz, who's a very funny guy and a talented cartoonist as well!

 

Above: Taro, a co-host from Good Morning Garage, helps me to give our raffle prizes.. 

Honest, we gave away a lot of amazing stuff! 

Unfortunately, none of my photos from the show came out. You can watch the video on the Invasion of Punk Magazine MySpace page. The top video is actually from Roberta Bayley's trip, which is Volume Two, you can see the video with the Radiots, Poni-Camp and 50Kaitenz just below that. Below that is a video that shows me signing a bunch of weird stuff: t-shirts, pants, cell phones, a motorbike, even a Ramones record.

 

 Above, a pretty girl gave me a sneaker to sign. That's an interesting fact about these Japanese punk bands--they attract a lot of young, pretty women to their shows. They're also more interested in entertaining than in performing music. I think they're a lot closer to the original spirit of punk rock than what passes for punk in the USA today. Anyhow, I must have autographed hundreds of things that night.

 

After the show, the Morrison crew held a private party with an open bar! The bands, the Morrison crew and our friends from Moussy, Chubbygang and all of our licensees hung out and partied all night and into the early morning! It was a real cool time.

 

 

 

September 30, 2009 was the date for our live punk rock show at a club named Shellter. The club was located in a residential section of Tokyo that was supposedly a bit downscale, but it looked like a nice neighborhood to me. Three bands had been booked: The Radiots, Poni-Camp and 50 Kaitenz. George from "Good Morning Garage" was supposed to host but he couldn't attend, so his faithful co-host took his place.

 

 Taka, the boss of Morrison, (above--his real name is much longer but would probably confuse most of USA readers), ran the show. I wish all my fellow cartoonists could work with a boss like Taka, he did such a good job. PUNK magazine stuff was promoted in every way possible all over the club: magazine covers, stickers, posters, t-shirts, coffee cups... Thanks, Taka! You da man!

And I sure wish all of you reading this who are PUNK magazine fans could have been there.

 

 Moussy had an amazing table set up with the PUNK coffee cups and caps, and most of the cool people who work there who I had just met. (I wish they had brought some of those rice crackers as well, but I guess those were made especially just for me!)

 

 The Moussy table. 

 

I don't know if Moussy was able to sell a lot of PUNK t-shirts, but they were out in force!

 

 This was the most professional promotion I had ever seen for PUNK magazine.

Of course the bands also had a merch table.The t-shirt at the top left features a very funny comic strip by Danny of 50 Kaitenz, which is a really professional drawing. Well, I have a lot more to say about 50 Kaitenz soon... Stay tuned!

 

This is what the stage looked like before the show... Everyone was a bit nervous about how things would go. Anyone out there who has performed or promoted a show knows the feeling: "Will anyone bother to show up? Will people have a good time or will we suffer some kind of disaster?"

Hello everybody!

 I know I haven't updated for a long time, but that's because the "Best of PUNK Magazine" book suddenly took over my life. I will be updating the site and punkmagazine.com with more information as it happens. 

 

In other news, I can't do a hand-lettered blog anymore. My apologies to any and all who enjoyed that aspect to this site, but it was just too time-consuming to write, hand-letter, then scan the art and all.

 Okay, on with the show!