Abandoned Kansai

About three years ago my dear friend and colleague Kit asked me who my favorite superhero / video game character was. I didn’t want to go down the well-known roads like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, and I had picked up urban exploration two years prior – since I was a big fan of the first Dead Rising game and thought it would be a great fit, I said “Frank West”! Six weeks later, I had almost forgotten about the short conversation, I found a picture attached to an e-mail Kit had sent me – a drawing of myself as Frank West, with zombies and *Nara Dreamland’s* Aska rollercoaster in the background. I couldn’t believe it! That was by far the best present ever, and common consensus was that Kit outdid himself; not only nailing the looks, but also both characters. From the next day on I started to use part of the drawing as my online avatar, proudly, with a smile on my face every single time I saw it.
Back then, in 2011, Abandoned Kansai was a tiny blog with less than one tenth of today’s readership – but with the 3 year anniversary of my avatar and the 5 year anniversary of *Abandoned Kansai* coming up, it’s finally time to say Thank You in public:

Kit, you are an amazing artist and I loved your drawing from the second I laid eyes on it! Thank you very, very much!

Over the years my avatar became a conversation piece and I know that some of you guys out there like it, too – if you want to see more of Kit’s amazing work, check him out on *Facebook* and *DeviantArt*. He’s already hugely popular, especially on DeviantArt, but nothing would make me prouder than turning some of my followers into his fans, too!