Kevin Yamagata

Kevin Yamagata (ケビン·山形, Kevin · Yamagata), also known by his Japanese name, Kinji Yamagata (山縣金持, Yamagata Kinji), is a comic artist working for the publishing company Marble Comics. He is the first key character of Billy Bat.

Personality
Yamagata possesses an intense passion to draw, and has dreamed of becoming a famous comic artist since he was a child. He is very diligent in his work, and stresses a level of realism in his art, particularly the settings and background. This has led him to chide his assistant, Chuck Culkin, on multiple occasions for not being able to draw certain things realistically enough. Despite this, he puts a great deal of trust in Cuklin's artistic abilities, even to the extent of letting him draw the comic while he ventures to Japan to sort out the possibility of having subconsciously stolen the idea of Billy Bat from another artist.

Because of his father's experience with having an idea stolen from him, Yamagata strongly believes in the importance of authenticity in his works, leading him to travel back to Japan in order to find the original author of a manga greatly resembling his own comic, and if possible, ask them for permission to continue drawing Billy Bat.

Appearance
He is a tall thin Japanese-American man with curly black hair. It's mentioned multiple times that Yamagata resembles actor Ryo Ikebe.

Background
He was born and raised in Orange County, California on November 26, 1923, his parents were both originally from Niigata. His father worked for a farmer and protected his orange trees. There as a baby Kevin met his master/teacher for the first time. We can see that Billy Bat communicated with him since he was a child and that he drew comics that Billy Bat had told him about.