Yamato USA Welcomes Legendary Fantasy Artist Luis Royo to the San Diego Comic Con International

TORRANCE, CA, July 15, 2009. Yamato USA is pleased to welcome Luis Royo to the San Diego Comic Con International, and invites those in attendance to a very special and rare autograph session with the artist. That's right, legendary fantasy artist Luis Royo will be at the Yamato USA booth to greet fans and sign autographs at the following dates and times:

LUIS ROYO AUTOGRAPH SESSION

Yamato USA Booth 4429 (Between Warner Bros. & Toy Growers Courtyard)

Friday, July 24 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Friday, July 24 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Saturday, July 25 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Saturday, July 25 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Times Subject to Change

Yamato USA will also have on display current and upcoming pieces from its Fantasy Figure Gallery, its groundbreaking collection of resin quality PVC statues, bringing together the unrivaled talent of Asia's foremost portrait sculptors with the leading fantasy artists of Europe and the Americas. On display will be pieces from Luis Royo, Dorian Cleavenger, Boris Vallejo, and Julie Bell featuring the sculpting talents of Shungo Yazawa, Shunji Hagii, Plant-jzero Moekichi, Tobe, and Shin Tanave.

For more information, visit us at www.YamatoToysUSA.com. See you at the show!

ABOUT LUIS ROYO

Luis Royo was born in 1954 in Olalla, a small town in Teruel. In 1972 he starts painting and exhibiting in various forums. In 1978 he begins his career as a comic-book artist. In 1983 he goes to illustration, where he will harvest his greatest successes.

In 1992 his first book, Women, appears, followed by Malefic (1994), Secrets (1996), III Millenium (1998), Dreams (1999), Prohibited Book (1999), Evolution (2001), Prohibition Book 2 (2001), Conceptions I (2002), Visions (2003), Prohibited Book 3 (2003), Conceptions II (2003), Prohibited Sketchbook (2004), Fantastic Art (2004), The Labyrinth Tarot (2004), and Conceptions III (2005). To these titles we must add the publication of six series of collector cards, six portfolios, posters, and two packs of Tarot cards, The Black Tarot and The Labyrinth Tarot.

The growing popularity of his pictures has allowed us to find them as well in postcards, calendars, packs of cards, T-shirts, CD jackets, videogames, and even on some sculptures.

With this large production, Royo becomes a true mass phenomenon. His books have been edited many times, being rendered into French, German, English, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese. Magazines such as Stampa, Airbrush-Action, or Penthouse publish articles about him in their pages. Festivals, art galleries, or stores specializing in art and comic-books continuously organize exhibitions and tributes to him. He has received, among others, the following awards: Silver Award Spectrum (USA), CartooMics (Italy), and The Pilgrim (Russia).

Royo's success is nothing but the acknowledgment of his original work which has come to revolutionize the world of illustration.

ABOUT YAMATO USA

Yamato USA is the wholly owned subsidiary of Yamato Co., Ltd with headquarters in the otaku capital of the world, the Akihabara district of Tokyo, Japan. For over ten years, Yamato USA has proudly served otaku on this side of the world with a wide offering of miniature collectible figures, PVC and die-cast action figures, as well as poly-resin and PVC statues inspired by the hottest titles in Japanese anime, manga, and video game properties. Yamato's original collections include Story! Image! Figure! collectible miniatures and trading figures and Story! Image! Figure! EX PVC statues, as well as its newest lines, Creators' Labo and Sculptors' Originals, highlighting the talents of the leading artists and sculptors working in Japan; The GN-U, a tribute to transforming super robots; and the explosive Project Dynamite. Nor to be overlooked are Yamato's Scopedog, Garland, and Motoslave engineering marvels from Armored Trooper Votoms, Megazone 23, and Bubblegum Crisis, some of the most impressive collectibles you will ever own! And now Yamato USA adds its own line of collectible figures with its Fantasy Figure Gallery, a groundbreaking union of East and West as the leading sculptors of Asia bring to life the vision of legendary fantasy artists from Europe and the America to create resin quality pieces at PVC prices.