The Great New Year Monkey

Aww, look at SAM being all pessimistically optimistic back in 2003. 2004 was decent. Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim started their killer run on Lost and Far East Movement was working their asses off. Meanwhile guys like Yao Ming and Ichiro Suzuki were soaring into super stardom. All in all not too shabby. Although there was the nightmare of a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Happy Secret Asian Holidays

Thought I'd post a little early since tomorrow everyone will either be in a sugar frenzy or a food coma or both. This one is for people who feel bad that they don't have money to spend on gifts. It ain't about the gifts. Get creative and people will appreciate it far more than a dancing Santa that drops his pants. Well, most people will. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Old School Wednesday: Racial Justice Lego Style

Poll results: Women rule

So women came out the clear winner (68%) of the SAM poll asking what Presidential first we can expect next. I'm inclined to agree. There's a great interactive map at Rutger's Center for American Women and Politics that shows where women are/have been/or never have been members of state legislature, Congress, or a governor. If you click on the states it'll show you the detailed stats for that state.

Notably, out of the 129 total votes, not a single person chose Muslim as the next likely first. Wonder how that makes Muslims politicians feel. There have been a couple of Muslim Congressmen and a Mayor.

Pride or Pay?

Cloaked Alien Ship Near Mercury? WHAT?!

I love conspiracy type stuff like sasquatch, living megalodons and UFOs. How the hell did I not hear about this?! What are the chances of this being an actual space craft? Maybe there are sasquatches in it!

Applying for College? Don't Check Asian!

Normally these guys do a lot of world news/celebrity stuff so it was refreshing to see something close to home (having mixed race kids and all).

Old School Wednesdays: Asian Holiday

That reminds me, I've got to get to Target for their Meeting of 9 Evils Day sale. They have these really cute cupcake holders.

Captain Feathersword = Flava Flav

We've been listening to a Wiggles LIVE CD in the car with our 2 year old. It's like audio crack. As I'm listening to the psychopathic antics of Captain Feathersword it hits me that he's the hype man for the Wiggles. He is Flava Flav. I think they should switch jobs just for a year and see how many people will tell the difference.

Presidential firsts

I've long thought that I'd never live to see the first Asian American president. But then again I never thought I'd see an African American either. We've had some notable first already like Buchanan was the first unmarried president, Kennedy was the first Catholic and George Washington was our first white president. I'm pretty sure we're going to see another broken barrier at some point in the near future. What do you think it'll be? Let me know in the little poll on the right.

Jedi George Takei

For whatever reason George Takei is really hitting his stride, becoming a pop culture icon far beyond the boundaries of playing Sulu. More power to him. He's doing some amazing social commentary is his own wonderful way. His latest calls for Star Trek and Star Wars fans to unite against a common threat. Awesome.

I'll Take a Large Simon with Pepperoni

A Weird Visual Journey

This started as an observation about Newt Gingrich's wife Callista. She really reminded me of John McCain's wife Cindy McCain. Then Cindy McCain made me think of Arizona governor Jan Brewer who made Iggy Pop jump into mind and finally ended up at Ron Paul. I stopped short of finding a photo of Magneto next and the snow owl came to mind at the end there. So what's the point of this? Not sure. I guess that Ron Paul is a descendant of snow owls?

FreeScore.com dudes

It bothers me how all three FreeScore.com guys are totally generic looking white dudes. Was there a decision made to cast them like this? I'll give them the benefit of the doubt but then again... I suppose at least the bad credit score guy being white too is some consolation.

Unfortunate Name

So I was watching the footage that Fox News used of riots in Greece saying they were in Moscow when I got completely distracted by this guy's name. Soooo many names to choose form. Why "Tiny"? Poor little guy.

Spy on the Shelf

The Elf on the Shelf. I never heard of this tradition until this year. I think it started the same year the Patriot Act was signed.

Basically you get a little elf guy who and put him somewhere in your house and tell the kids that if they're bad the elf will tell Santa and he'll send the gifts to China or something. The idea is to move it around so the kids never know where it could be. To be honest it kind of creeps me out. I half expect it to show up taped to the bottom of the toilet lid or suddenly see it in my rear view.

Tomo Anthology

I have a 12 page SAM story in an anthology called Tomo ("friend") from Stone Bridge Press to be released March 2012. It features stories relating to the earthquake and tsunami all from young adult's POV.

The story is titled "Kazoku" which means family. In this alternate universe, a 16-year old SAM comes to terms with his American upbringing and his ties to Japan.

Sale proceeds to benefit relief efforts in Japan. Here is an interview about it. Check out a 16-year-old me in a kimono.

Old School Wednesday: Pearl Harbor vs. Atomic Bomb

Here's one that got a lot of undies in a bunch when it came out.

On the one hand, we have the tragic deaths of 2400+ US soldiers at a military base who were (as we now discover) allowed to be raided in order to give president Roosevelt a reason to enter the war against Germany and Italy. One the other hand we have 200,000+ civilian deaths (men/women/children) over several months resulting from the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two very different events occuring at the beginning and end of the US's involvement in WWII.

Both are horrible tragedies in their own right but as a Japanese American I have very personal and conflicted feelings about them. Is there a difference in "value" between servicemen and civilians? How is it that a military mission that was well broadcast against a military target a sneak attack and the mass bombing of hundreds of thousands of civilians was justified and necessary? We send drones out to take down terrorists all day long and I doubt we send an invite before we do so.

Despite my apparent lack of patriotism please give a thought today to those who lost their lives in Pearl Harbor.

Too Proud to Work?

If you got laid off/downsized out of a decent job and was having trouble finding something of equal pay/stature would you be too proud to take a job bagging groceries or delivering food until you did?

ComicaziCon - Badass Bazaar

I'll be at the Comicazi Con Badass Bazaar all day Sunday with plenty of DigBoston gear, SAM books and good times. It all goes down at the Dilboy VFW Hall in Davis Square, Somerville from 10am-4pm. Lots of local artists selling their wares. Come out and support!

Akira Final Cast Announced!

Looks awesome! Neo Beverly Hills is about to explode!

My X-Mas List

I know there are at least a few of you billionaires out there waiting to blow some cash so here's my short wish list for Santa. Bonus points if you can somehow combine all three in one sweet suit.

Old School SAM: A Racist is a racist is a racist

Yeah, I've been called a racist (among other things). And depending on whose definition of "racist" you go by they may have a point. But I do differentiate people who do things for their race by harming others versus doing things for their race by supporting their own. If that makes me a racist sign me up.

Extreme Moderate

All my life I've had this unshakable instinct to explore multiple sides of things. Almost to a flaw. To some it comes across as a lack of conviction. But when it comes time to make a decision I tend to not have a problem taking sides.

Old School Secret Asian Man: Wise Old Chinese Lady

Seven Billion People

Presidential Social Networks

So I did a little legwork and came up with this graph to illustrate something. It started as pure curiosity of how many Facebook likes and Twitter followers each of the candidates had. Clearly Obama blows everyone out of the water. Left wing spin is "It's because he's that good!" Right wing spin is "He's cheating a la Acorn!" But after compiling this info I started thinking about another trend.

I realize social network popularity is NOT an accurate depiction of the country at large. It merely shows who likes/follows a specific candidate among those who use the internet, who bother using social networks, who bother liking/following candidates. So instead of focusing on who had the highest numbers, I started thinking about what this data reveals about social network users. Looking at the numbers it seems social network users fall heavily into the left side of the spectrum. Even all the GOP candidates added up don't equal 10% of just Obama's numbers.

If this is true, then left-leaning people may also be more open to having their personal information available to the public. I definitely know some folks firmly on the right who stay away from social networking like the plague for specifically this reason. This mirrors the stereotype of lefties being more trusting of government to be capable of solving larger issues and righties distrust of leaving things to other people.

But I guess all this makes sense since Al Gore birthed the internet...gross. I have to go wash my eyes of that image now.

Old School Wednesdays: Social Food Chain

Sorry for the late post. Strip dated November 13, 2000. Think things are still the same?

The Hobbit Video Blog

I've been nerding out to behind the scenes footage of The Hobbit. This video blog with Peter Jackson is pretty sweet and the technical aspects of this boggles my mind. I like when Peter Jackson starts talking about the 3D, 48 frames per second filming and says it's like someone cut a hole in the front of the theater and you're watching reality on the other side.

Meme Killing: Occupy Cop Edition

I bet the music in his head was righteous.

Diversity Training

This morning while I was in line at Dunkin' Donuts I heard a couple of guys behind me lamenting the diversity training they had to go through. Having never taken anything like that it made me curious what it must be like. Anyone out there go through it?

I can see how some of it could be cringe-worthy. And the thought of diversity training conjured the image of a superhero group. There's the Amazing Wheelchair Man, Ms. Latina, the Mysterious Ambiguously Ethnic Lady and The Black Guy.

As I started to think about what the diversity training Danger Room would look like, I watched the two men get their coffees from Chinese Lady and their food from a Middle Eastern Man and wondered if they even realized the awkwardness of that situation.

Suburban Asian Man

Raking, mowing, clearing gutters. It all comes with the package. But I just keep telling myself "These are MY dead leaves on MY lawn. MY clogged gutters." Sigh.

Old School Wednesdays: US vs. China

From December 6, 2006. This was one of those strips where people were confused why SAM said "we'd" be outnumbered 4 to 1 thinking he represented China and was not speaking as an American.

Occupy Unemployment

Affirmative Action Poll Results

Looks like it's pretty definitive that most of you guys don't think affirmative action works or at the least, it shows unfair favoritism. There's a very basic logic that using race as a basis for any sort of benefit can be construed as racist. I think most people acknowledge that. But it's like while most people agree killing is wrong, many can justify war. Now that I've equated supporters of affirmative action with people who like war, I'll just shut up and sit in the corner.

Old School Wednesdays - Secret Asian Man on Anime

This one is from waaaaay back in December 3, 2001.

Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Charges

Anyone think this is purely a left wing attack machine in action? Did an anti-Cain right winger leak the story to Politico? Is Cain trying to derail his own campaign himself realizing he might actually and up the GOP candidate?

More meme slaying

Another take on things I see on Facebook.

Occupy Halloween!

My heart goes out to all the dedicated people showing the world what they think of our screwed up financial and political system. Happy Halloween.

Affirmative action

Over the years I've struggled with the concept of affirmative action. I fully understand the need to give a helping hand to those who are in a situation that they would otherwise find it VERY difficult to rise above. On the other hand there's something fundamentally unfair feeling about it.

Here's an interesting opinion at HuffPo.

This week's poll poses the question: Does affirmative action work? Please answer in the poll to the right.

Old School Wednesdays: SAM strips from way back

I've been playing around with the idea of publishing my old strips (from, like, 10 years ago) into a book and include some new material as well. So I thought it might be a good idea to start posting these strips for people who have most likely never read them. So I'm instituting "Old School Wednesdays". Enjoy!

Halloween costumes

I was doing a little research on costumes for next week's strip and noticed something kind of messed up when I did image searches for boys and girls. I suppose I should be relieved to have two boys?

Welcome home

I drew this

A good friend of mine has been going to and organizing scooter rallies for years. I've done several illustrations that were used for patches (every rally has an official name and associated patch that people slap on their jackets).

Here are some others I did:
Resurrection Rally
Wicked Pissah Rally
Midnight Ride
Scooter Addict National Convention
Cocoa Beach Rally

Go check out some other sweet scooter patches here.

Tommy or Tammy

This is a pretty loaded story. I have to admit, this is a tough one for me to figure out. Basically an 11 year old biological boy is being given medication to delay puberty so he will have more time to decide his gender. My immediate reaction was giving hormone delaying drugs to an 11 year old kid sounds pretty messed up. But I had to take it with a grain of salt since I know nothing about this drug in terms of how damaging or beneficial it could be. I definitely don't agree with the analogy that it's like "performing liposuction on an anorexic child." That doesn't even make sense. Also interesting that the boy having lesbian parents is introduced immediately.

It sounds like the kid has several issues going on at the same time (threatening self mutilation of genitals, speech impediment, gender identity disorder…). Just not sure adding medication to the mix is a hot idea.

Thoughts? Would love to hear from people who have similar personal experiences.

McDonald's Never Tasted so Good

And your pundit president is...

Jon Stewart by a landslide. From the get go Stewart lead the pack and just kept pulling away. Coming in second was a bullet to the head. I was most surprised with Limbaugh's numbers compared to Hannity and O'Reilly. And right towards the end Maddow really pulled in votes. Not sure how to explain that one. There were definitely people I didn't include like Beck, Coulter and Olbermann but I get the feeling the final results would have been the same with Stewart on top. Thanks to everyone for voting!

More Meme Killing

Thanks for Sharing

I little while ago I posted on Facebook about all the recent posts that have featured text within images to make them more visually appealing. So I thought I'd take a stab at some of the more popular ones I've noticed and...uh...tweak them a bit.

Simon's Release Day

Pundits are just unelected politicians without any balls

I listen to a lot of political pundits go on about whoever they're hating on that day. Namely I listen to Limbaugh, Maddow, O'Reilly, Stewart, Hannity, Matthews, Colbert, Maher,...pretty much everyone (except Glenn Beck. I tried. Can't do it.). Sure I agree with some more than others but over and over again I'm reminded of one common trait they share: they have ALL the answers but NONE of them have the courage to run for office.

This may sound like some weird endorsement of politicians but at least politicians have the balls to put their name on a ballot and let the public make up their minds. This would explain the recent trend of politicians choosing to become pundits instead of pursuing political office (Palin, Spitzer, Huckabee...). Think of the perks! You can't get voted out of your job, you're encouraged to make outlandish statements, you are put in a king-maker position and you can make a ton more money.

So this all leaves me with a burning question: Would your favorite pundit make a good president?