007. The Nut and the Tree

The exciting finale to Jimmy Cha's adventures in North Korea - at least for now. It's time to get back to things that didn't happen a month ago. I'm planning to get back to normal, 3 panel, college-themed comics and I have a few ideas in the works, so stay tuned.
I'm also working on an illustration for the opinions section at Ka Leo, who will be running a story about SOPA and PIPA and, more generally, about government attempts to censor the internet and free information. The article is being written by the ever-awesome opinions editor, Boaz Rosen, so it should be a bangarang.

So why would Jong-un show Jimmy his cloning vat?
In this strip, Jimmy finally uncovers Jong-un's plan - but the dictator revealed it by choice. I'm hoping that people pick up on the subtleties in this strip to understand that Jimmy's life is in serious danger here. Jong-un claims to "know what Jimmy really is." Well Jimmy is a spy, which would mean certain death.
But is that what Jong-un is talking about? Or is the dictator just interested in Jimmy personally? The answer could mean the difference between life and death for Cha, and the success or failure of his mission to uncover Jong-un's plans for the future - plans that include clones. Lots of clones. Hope you like it!

Zippity-Doo-Dah!

Oh what the hay. Since I just drew a cartoon about Chancellor Hinshaw, I guess now's as relevant a time as any to post another one from way back when. Printed back in the summer of 2009, when I was about to be a junior, this comic was my initial reaction to what was the first wave of serious financial crunch for the school, and the Chancellor's lack of response. It seemed like all she ever did was go to football games!

Chancellor Birdshaw feathering her nest

This illustration was written to accompany a very good article by Contributing Writer Daniel Hugo.  In it, Hugo blasts University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw for being largely ineffective and concerned predominantly with helping herself. Unfortunately, Hugo also predicts that our next Chancellor will be no better as he or she will come out of the same corrupt, nepotistic and self-destructive process that came up with Hinshaw as top choice to lead our campus 5 years ago.

So why is she a Bird?

Starting over a year ago, we at Ka Leo noticed a distinct Avian-like appearance to the Chancellor in many of her photos.  We are still unsure as to whether it's some trick of the camera that picks up her subtle bird-qualities, qualities that are otherwise overlooked by the naked eye, or whether  we just happen to be really lucky and take pictures of her at the exact few moments in her life when she looks the most bird-like.  Either way, she totally looks like a bird in at least two thirds of the pictures Ka Leo has taken of her.
Starting with the fall 2011 Welcome Back issue, I began drawing an avian version of Hinshaw, though I kept it subtle and in the background and never actually labeled the bird as her (though that distinctly horrid haircut of hers is definitely there).  For this article, I simply decided to re-draw Birdshaw, but nice and big, for all to see.

The Unballad of Tad the Sad

Here's a special comic I made for Halloween 2010 about a young lad named Tad and a nasty spirit that eats happiness. 

Right click to open in a new tab and zoom in.

006. Dear Leader, Part 2

I know I said I'd have this whole North Korea thing done before school started again. I have no idea why I thought that would be possible considering I was in California and Las Vegas for most of break with no way to make comics the entire time.  So apologies for that.  I think I'm going to end the arc after either one more, double length comic or two regular ones (haven't decided yet). Either way, Agent Jimmy Cha will finally find out what Jong-un is up to. You won't want to miss the evil genius revealed.

The Messy Monster - Cover Art

Here's a cover design I did for a potential children's book written by Lauren Tsugawa.  The story is really cute and funny and I had a blast drawing this cover. It would be totally awesome if my artwork was featured in a published children's book, especially one written by such a talented writer!

At the moment I don't have permission to post the story as well, but if I do get it, I'll put it up too so you all can read the story that inspired the artwork.

I also included some sketches I did for various scenes from the story below:

Abercrombie's Mind Trick

I decided to put up an illustration of Neil Abercrombie today since I just heard about the first few legal same-sex Civil Unions being performed after the stroke of midnight on December 31st, 2011.  Since Abercrombie is the one who signed the bill that allowed that to happen into law, I felt it was appropriate.  

I also felt it was appropriate since the writer for whom I did this illustration had been following the Abercrombie-Hannemann campaigns as they prepared to face-off in the democratic primary of 2010, and had been particularly interested in gay rights and which candidate was more willing to make that a priority in the campaign. 

So here's to Abercrombie for doing the right thing, here's to the couples who can now, finally, be legally recognized in Hawaii as couples, and here's too another step along the path to actual equality in America, or at least in Hawaii.

Civil Rights - 1, Ignorance and Prejudice - 0

So why the hell is Abercrombie in a Jedi robe?

Interestingly, this illustration didn't have anything to do with the Democratic Primary or Gay Rights and was created after Abercrombie had already been elected. It was originally created to accompany an article that former Ka Leo Opinions Editor Christopher Mikesell wrote back before the Birthers (thankfully) fell away into the abyss known as "Who-gives-a-shit?"