Izumi Matsumoto was one of the GOFA Guest of Honor at Anime Expo 2011. He held two autograph sessions, the first of which was scheduled to occur during AM2's Shimogasa & Yamashita panel. From what I heard, Matsumoto would only sign a pre-printed sheet at the first session. But the second session, which occurred during the Open Autograph session on the last day, Matsumoto took some time and sketched.

After being pushed into one of the first slots in the Maon Kurosaki line, I rushed over to Matsumoto. I had wanted to go to Matsumoto first, but when these autograph sessions occur, pushing your way through the crowd to get to the other side of the room doesn't happen.

Not many people were lined up for Matsumoto, probably because KOR was released long before many of the convention's attendees were born. Matsumoto was in the front drawing, and was looking very fatigued. Although a couple of us in line were concerned that he was pushing himself too much, we were amazed that despite his condition, he was pushing himself to continue drawing for attendees.

Most attendees were asking for Madoka, but by about 10 people in line, the Madoka sketches were becoming more simplified due to the amount of work that character takes to draw. The guy in front of me in line and I decided to ask for Hikaru as it would take less work for Matsumoto to draw. When I was two away from Matsumoto, his marker died, so the guy in front of me allowed Matsumoto to use his COPIC marker for the remainder of the sketches.

Don't forget to check out DrScorpio's sketch of Madoka before you leave.


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