I really love the taxi service in Japan. I really don't love the price though! Looks like Hachiro doesn't either. Maybe his family will give him money for his birthday?
If you like this comic, you should LIKE my FC&S FACEBOOK FANPAGE!
Hachiro is such a good friend! Or, he's forced into being one. Either way, Hachiro should help Karl get back home after throwing an expensive birthday party. Usually, everyone splits the bill and demands that the birthday person doesn't pay for a anything. That can get pretty pricey in Japan with all of the food and drink!
This is the cover for my latest graphic novel, Tales of Tritoria: YOUNGBLOODS. I'm the writer and artist but it's a very different story than Fried Chicken and Sushi. It's a vampire action/adventure with a mix of American and Japanese Manga styles. I actually wrote the script when I was living in Japan and absorbing all the manga I could handle!
Thank you to those of you that purchased it, read it, enjoyed it and spread the word! This book is over 200 pages and took me over four years to complete from start to finish. A labor of love that I hope I can convince you to take a chance on and read. You can BUY IT HERE or just click on the cover art above. Here's a quick synopsis:
When fourteen year old Jackie’s father and sister are killed by a vampire gang, she must fight her way through the deadly streets of Tritoria city to get to her surviving family. Armed with only her father’s baseball bat, she’s lucky to get help from a mysterious gang called the Youngbloods. Together they must reach the edge of the city before dawn in order to save Tritoria and themselves.
Admit it. You wouldn't try to stop Ryan from crying. We know J is the best man for the job. Ryan just needs to look in the mirror and repeat positive affirmations to himself over and over again to feel better. He should know that he's good enough, smart enough and gosh darnit, people like him! Let's hope he can fully accept the reality of the situation and move on.
Cheesy joke, I know. Couldn't resist it. I suck at Origami so this is about as good as it gets. None of my Japanese students were impressed.
As you probably figured out, there's no such thing as an Osaka Foreign Relations Bureau. I thought this was a humorous idea for a dream but it would probably be funnier if they actually existed. Don't you think it would be funny if foreigners were being regulated in this way to keep the expat population low? How many people from each race would be allowed into each city? If something like this happens for real in Japan, I'm going to be so mad! Of course, living there can make you feel like telling any other foreigners you see, "Hey, great job! You got in!"
There's no law against it. I felt that way when I didn't see any other black men walking around in Japan. It's not that crazy to think they would limit the number of foreigners in a certain city. Remember, Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world for over two hundred years. It's going to be great to have these two black guys in Osaka. Let's hope it's a smooth journey for J.
Who's going to Japan? J is! Yaaay!! What? You're not surprised? No, wait, you're upset because it's not a funny twist or who you least expected? Well, sorry to disappoint you but it is J. Too bad this makes things more difficult for J and Beverly. Maybe there will be more to this turn of events than you might think? Stay tuned and find out!
J and Ryan have their own idea of who will be picked to go to Japan. Do you? The best thing is, I'm not going to make you wait weeks to find out. The answer will be in Thursday's comic so make sure to come back and check it out!
Check out this amazing fan art by Jamie Lynn Lano! Aren't Karl and Tanuki cute?! She even made Karl look a little awkward. Just like he is! ;) You can read her awesome blog about living and working in Japan called LIVING TALL IN JAPAN. One of my favorite series of posts she writes is about her experience working as an art assistant on the manga Prince of Tennis. Very interesting reading about how things work in a real manga studio in Japan from the eyes of a foreigner. Check out the list of those posts here or just click on her fan art above!
I guess the loud rap music didn't go over as well in the classroom. Instead of looking cool, Karl and Sato sensei became the crazy old couple dancing to their crazy old music. Students can be so easy to horrify.
If you don't remember the comic with MC STANKBUNS in it you can read it HERE. Oh, that Principal Glossy Gleam, always shocking us with his strange coolness.
I know it's not that simple to feel rap music if you're not really into it but turning up the volume does help. This comic didn't really happen but I thought that it would be hilarious if a whole office of Japanese teachers started dancing all at once to rap. It was an image in my head that I couldn't get rid of and decided to make a comic about it. You see how silly my mind is?
Happy New Year! Maybe you thought Tanuki would be new and different this year. Guess not! I wish you all the best year ever! If you're in Japan, I hope you're enjoying a few days off and laying around doing nothing. Many of you expats are probably traveling to another country and having crazy adventures. Live it up! Thanks for reading FC&S in 2012 and stay tuned for all the big things that will happen in the comic this year!
The truth always comes out when you talk to Karl. Usually, it comes out in a loud and awkward way. Most of you know that. I have a feeling you all knew what he was going to say in the last panel before you even read it. You know Karl well. Let's hope there will be a woman who will want to get to know him.
Merry Christmas to all of you out there that celebrate it! Even if you don't, go out on a date with your girl and eat some Christmas cake. That's what most Japanese people do! I think J's Christmas present is getting noticed for doing great work on his job. Way to go, J! It's still tough to balance it all because Beverly is getting left behind. Maybe J should focus on her during meditation!
It truly upset me every time I hit my head on that toilet room door! Why are the doors for the toilet rooms so short in Japan?! Of course, I was living in a pretty old apartment so maybe mine was just small. The other doors were taller in my place, still not quite tall enough for me, so it was difficult to remember to really duck down low to get in to use the toilet when half asleep. It's a good thing Tanuki ended the comic when he did, Karl was pretty "vocally" angry.
I hate to admit that this happened to me several times! When I do something out of habit, I don't always pay full attention to everything going on around me. It can be easy to miss things like a rainy morning. Of course, there were those times when I knew it was raining but I needed clean underwear so I had to wash clothes and hang them up inside. It would be easier to live like Tanuki and run around naked but I don't think the people at work would appreciate that. If you're living in Japan, remember to look out of the window before washing your clothes!
I had to give up humor for story but there's plenty of action in this comic page. Everyone's been upset with J and his stressed out behaviour so it's nice to see him get back to meditating. Let's hope this will help turn things around for him. This page was really fun to draw because working in Manga Studio, long pages like this are much easier to create. The colors were done in Photoshop. I really wanted it to feel like a Pokemon episode so I gave some of the people in the crowd crazy hair colors like green and orange. It was difficult to decide what Ninjoggle should be screaming at the end. At first, I wanted him to just yell "Ninnnnjoooggle!" when Kissup hit him with that powerful blow. I changed it to "AAAAAH!" so that it would transition well to J waking up and yelling "AH!" I think it worked out pretty well. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading.
I had to share this piece of fan art created by my friend, Christopher Jones! It's the first piece of fully colored fan art I've ever received and I couldn't be happier. He did a great job drawing the characters! I love that Karl is holding a bucket of fried chicken and lifting up sushi into the sky. Give some love back to Chris and click on the image above or THIS LINK to check out his Deviant Art Page. Thanks Chris!
Fried Chicken and Sushi is a Blog and humorous comic strip about living in Japan and Japanese pop-culture.
© copyright 2010 - Khalid Birdsong All Rights Reserved.
