Misako Rocks!

Hi Everyone! I'm going to join this Manga Festival on May3rd at Elizabeth Library NJ.
This will be a great Teens's(12 - 18 years old) comic fan event for sure^_^
If you are interested in/don't have a plan yet, please come and join us!

Here is the schedule of events:
1 - 1:45 Panel1 Comics as Careers by Ali and Janna

2- 2:45 Drawing workshop by ME! Yeah-- I bring my original art works and hand out some prints for ya!

Simultaneous workshop Q&A for librarians, teachers, parents by Ali, Janna and Kimberly

3 - 3:45 Japanese Culture by Me and Stepehn and two local high school students -- I'll show you my fun photos from Japan, illustrations! I bet you will laugh at them for sure^_^

3:45 - 4:30 Book signing, snacks.. -- I'm going to sell "BIKER GIRL" and "Rock and Roll Love" there.

Here is the address:
Elizebeth Public Library
11 South Broad Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07202

It's about 15 -20 minutes train ride from Pen Station.

I hope kids and their parents enjoy this event!

Yesterday I appeared on a cover article of Japanese-NY newspaper, "NY Japion"!
You know what? It's my first time to be picked by Japanese media. I was very excited.
And and... the lady next to my article is MIHO HATORI! My favorite band, CIBO MOTT!!!
I felt honoured to be on this newspaper next to her^_^

The article is about ipod and me. They asked me to shuffle my ipod and picked first 5 songs which were selected.
The interviewer was pretty surprised to know my nerdy music selection. Actually she doesn't know most of my favorite music. This newspaper is written in Japanese, so let me tell you what music was picked!

The theme song for ME is.... RGB by Capsul!! Of course I have to pick this one for me. This music always give me a good mood and doesn't bother my work.

Shuffle music
1 Happy Life Generator by Capsule
2 Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson
3 Suzzzzzy by Plus-tech Squeeze Box
4 radio active man by Yukari Fresh
5 Little Kitty by Copter 4016882

Do you know some of these music? Of course everybody knows Michael!

I'll add this article on my bio page soon!

Look at my face-- FUNNY face I made. Am I talking or smiling??

Today was my last day to teach a comic drawing workshop at the 96th Library Manhattan NY. I had a really great time with a lot of kids past three weeks! Thank you so much for coming to my class!

When I went there, I loved the architecture instantly. Susan who is a librarian there told me that it was build in 1905! Man... that's why it has a nice curve/classic-retro patterns. I've been looking for these kind of rooms and buildings for Detective Jermain vol2. I want to have them as a background at some panels. I took a lot of photos after my class.

Next week I go to 42nd Library to take a lot of photos too! The building is so fantastic too!

Last weekend I was doing book signing/comic workshop/panel discussion with Archie comic at Javits Center NY!
It was very fun and busy.
And of course I met a lot of new creaters there. It's always inspiring to meet new people, you know.

In June, I'll be at MOCCA here NY. My publisher Hyperion will set up book signing there for me again.

So now I'm back'n my comic life. I'm working on Detective Jermain vol2 as usual and start writing a new script of Kumi Tamura's story for Archie. This will be Episode3.
Besides me, one more new writer joined Archie.
If you want to check out, please go to this site.
I have never worked as a writer like this. So it's great study and I feel very honoured to be a part of Archie comics crew!

OK--- I gotta go back'n work!!

My most favorite band, "manman" came back to NY last night! Tickets were of course sold out! Kurirn and I bought ticekts in advance--! manman's opening band was "The Extraordinaires". They were amazing!!!!!! Now I love their music as much as manman. I think they must love RAG time music. Their piano melody was so beautiful. They were selling handmade VD booklet. I know a lot of musicians make books/comics which has CDs. But I have never seen such well-done book CD. When they come back to NY again, I'll go there for sure! I wish they can go on a tour with manman again!

The Extraordinaires






And--- after we waited almost two hours, MY(!!) manman showed up!!!! This show was competely packed and I was very excited too! Their new album "Rabbit Habits" was beautiful drawing inside. They played a lot of their new songs from the album and other awsome songs from their previous albums. They were craizer/wilder/amazing more than before. Everytime I see their show, they are getting better every time.
After they finished, they came outside! People were in a line to talk to them. But I was too shy to talk to them..
When I go to London next month for comic convention, I found out that they are going to have a show there! So if I have a time, I'd love to see their show again. I wonder how London kids think about their show!





Look at this packed bowery ballroom! People were diving, jumping to each other. When I was younger, I used to do it..

4.7 is my birthday, also Buddha, Jackie Chen and Astro boy's birthday. How lucky I am!
So Kuririn took me to "THE NY BIRTHDAY DATE!" It was just wonderful---. I have never had such a romantic and fun birthday^_^
Let me show you what we did today!


We got on a boat to look through a whole Manhattan! The boat ride takes 90 minuets. It was cloudy but it's still fantastic!


Yeah-- I'm touching(squeezing?!) the head of Statue of Liberty! This' a great shot!


My face looks funny--- Long and big?! But Kuririn looks cute. So that's good.


We went to Guggenheim Museum after the boat ride. Right now an amazing exhibition is open.
Cai Guo-Qiang's art works are taking over a whole museum! These cars are hanging from the ceilling! And look at those crazy lights!


And they are not real wolves. Don't worry.  Oh my God.. About 100 wolves are running toward a transparent wall.
This exhibition was just amazing... I feel like as if I was walking together with them.
Also there is another animal exhibition. Tigers who were stubbed with bunch of arrows! They made me almost cry actually..
But if you have a chance, please check out this show. It's open until May!



Kuririn took me to a vegetarian restaurant GOBO tonight! Oh man.. I never ever forget about this dinner. It was sooooooooo good! First one is a fresh roll with a lot of veggies, herbs. The sauce was the best! Second one is seitan BBQ! I wanna go back tomorrow again-- Arghhhhh




We ordered layered chocolate cake and apple pear crisp! And they are vegan sweets. So they look pretty heavy and rich. But they are pretty light in stomach. And they are too delicious!




And of course THIS IS THE NY!!! Empire State Building! Yeahhh where is King Kong?! It was cold but but we're amazed by this NY night-beauty... When we got there, we said "Man.. we live here." It made me realize how lucky I am to live here and excited to explore this city more!

It was a fantastic birthday date for me! I wanna do it again!

As for DJvol2 and vol3, I've read three books and searched internet in order to make the story. I can't tell you what kind of information I've been looking for.
Volume 2  focuses on characters'(Teenagers) emotion and relationship. I think anybody can share Jermain's feeling when you read this!

Last night I sort of finished making panel works^_^. So from this weekend I am going to look back all pages and make some collections. Then I transform these panels to real papers---!!
I am planning to finish this book by the end of this year! (I hope....)

My publisher Hyperion opened a booth at Kids Comicon on March 29th! It was such a fun event^_^
We did a ruffle in order to win my books. Many kids joined this and it went pretty exciting!
I hope they enjoyed my books. If you read my blog and won my books, let me know what you thought!
Also my new NY friends Fran and Juliana came to see me. They used to come to my comic class in a library in Manhattan. It was so nice to see them!


A lady on a right is Ann. She helped me a lot at this event. Thank you!!


I had some workshops there. I joined manga workshop for a short time.


Juliana and me! Thank you so much for coming!

Next month I'll be at NY comicon. I'll do autograph on April 18th at 6:00pm to 7:30pm! I hope you can come!