Audra Furuichi's nemu*nemu
Do you ever wish you could go to Comic-Con in San Diego? Or even attend Kawaii Con here in Hawai’i? Then you’ll dig the Mini Con that’s coming to McCully-Moiliili Public Library on Saturday, October 23!
Kevin Sano
In celebration of Teen Read Week 2010 (October 17-23), Mini-Con will feature local artists, lots of animation and free prizes to attendees. This event is completely free and will run from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, so be sure to come early and stay for the whole three hours!
The three local artists featured are Kevin Sano, Audra Furuichi and Jon J. Murakami.
I haven’t previously heard of Kevin Sano, but according to the HSPLS news release, he is described as “a T-shirt design artist” who has been with Crazy Shirts since 1991. Recently he’s started creating tops and baseball caps with designs of Kikaida 01 and Kamen Rider. You can check out his creative work at kevinesque.deviantart.com.
Audra Furuichi is the inventive creator and artist of nemu*nemu, one of my favorite web comics! If you haven’t read nemu*nemu then you’re in for a treat as it’s one of the cutest and funniest comics around. It’s about these two girls, Anise and Kana, who have these stuffed pups named Anpan and Nemu who come to life, get into fantastic adventures and say adorable phrases like “Oh My Pizza!” You can check it out at nemu-nemu.com.
Jon Murakami
Jon J. Murakami is another talented local artist who has been involved in a number of projects including local comics and numerous picture books. One of his signature series are the wonderful, illustrated keiki books about geckos. We recently reviewed the latest in this series: Geckos Up Geckos Down. He is also the designer of a successful line of greeting cards with Maile Way Products. Speaking of which, I have something cool to show you:
About two weeks ago a friend and former co-worker of mine sent me a present of old Aloha Airlines greeting cards. These days, anything with the Aloha logo is treasure for former employees, so I was extremely ecstatic to receive them. One thing I’ve never noticed was the artist’s name in the bottom right-hand corner. When I glanced at it this time around, I saw that it was Jon J. Murakami! Now I know why I dug these cards so much, they’re done in Murakami’s signature style and are incredible! I scanned them so that everyone can check out how cool they are:
Neat, yeah? Anyway, these three talented artists will all be at Mini-Con this Saturday! You should definitely go, especially if you’re interested in cartoons, comics, manga, or animation in any shape or form. Hawaii Book Blog will try our best to drop by at the 10am start, despite having all kinds of places to go that day. So, if we can squeeze it into our schedule, so can you!
Mini Con is appropriate for ages 10 and older and is sponsored by the Friends of the McCully-Moiliili Public Library, Hawaiian Graphics, and Collector Maniacs. For more information you can contact McCully-Moiliili Public Library at 808-973-1099.
*All images are courtesy of the Hawaii State Public Library with the exception of the Aloha Airlines cards.
