Skip to main content

Punchkinhead, the Never-Give-Up Boy

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
by Tomoki Kawada
That line never made that much sense to me until this past year. I've definitely been through some ups and downs in my life but never so far up and so far down and never in periods so close together. Besides going through some severe life changes, early this Fall I lost two very dear relatives. I'm separated from their families by a whole planet, but contact through the internet kept me in the loop. I still felt helpless because I couldn't physically comfort or be comforted by those I love. It was an awful crushing helplessness, the kind that try men's souls.
by Awai
In the midst of all that I had learned that my cousin's little baby boy was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). Following his progress on Facebook, I learned that he was continually suffering through tests and treatments and I could only imagine how tough things are on him and his family. However, looking at pictures of him, I saw smile after smile after big, goofy, wonderful smile!
Bang!! It hit me like a ton of bricks, if he could go through all that and still have enough smiles to go around, then I could sure as heck get off my lazy whiner butt and do something. Thinking about what I could do, I first looked at what resources I had at my disposal. I create characters, I write stories, and I have a huge network of creative people that I can ask help from. That was the answer, I'll make an artbook/children's book and sell it online! The proceeds would go to the charity Holden's Hope which was set up to help ease the financial burden of leukemia treatment. I did some research and found that self-publishing was the way to go. I was inspired by little smiley himself to create a character that epitomized that never-give-up spirit. I sent out a call for help to all my creative friends and within a month, I had a story, 35 illustrations, and the first draft of Punchkinhead, the Never-Give-Up Boy.

By Yuki
Punchkinhead is a little boy who loves to do little boy things and with his best friend Happy the Cat has all kinds of adventures. He visits the dreams of kids all over the world and shares smiles with those who need them. I wrote the story after I got the art because I didn't want to limit the artists' creativity. The result makes me so proud to have such wonderful and talented friends. And Holden- that brave little boy - his never-give-up spirit makes me proud to be part of his family.


Punchkinhead, the Never-Give-Up Boy, story by Patrik Washburn, art by J.A.M.A.D. is 40 pages with 35 amazing full-color illustrations by some of Japan's most amazing artists. And now it's on sale!! All profits made from every copy sold will go to Holden's Hope and I hope that the book itself will bring a smile to those who come across it.
By Yoshiko
This whole experience has showed me that distance is a trivial thing and that people can really make a difference when they put their hearts and minds behind an idea.
To show my appreciation for the hard work of everyone who contributed, I'm having a page set up so that people can visit the homepages of the artists whose art graces the book. The homepage should go up in a day or two: http://patokon.com/jamad
Since I couldn't credit all the illustrators at once, I decided to make a group name that embodied the spirit of this endeavor - Japan Artists Make A Difference (J.A.M.A.D.). Please show your support for the artists by dropping by their homepages and checking out the fantastic work they do. Also, drop me a line with Punchkinhead in the subject line and tell me how you like the book. And SPREAD the WORD!!

Cheers!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Karate Kid, IF "Similar" and SCBWI Tokyo Art Show

The Karate Kid changed my life. The movie, of course. Not the Legion of Superheroes comic character. I'm watching it right now as I type this blog and I was thinking about how many of my perceptions about karate were shaped by Mr. Miyagi. I was never big on "sports" movies, I never saw Rocky. But I knew what it was like to be the little guy. The new kid on the block. And I knew what it was like going up against an institutionalized system of separating the "winners" from the "losers". Luckily, I had friends in and out of school that liked me for who I was and not for who I desperately thought I wanted to be. It took me a little while and Karate Kid 2 to realize what I did want. The summer that KK2 was the summer where I decided to take control of my life and stopped worrying about what the @$$holes thought. It wasn't even a gradual thing. Once I had made that decision, suddenly things started changing around me. I had confidence and that made it ea

Illustration Friday "Wise"

This week the Illustration Friday's theme is "wise". I was going for a wise old pirate, but I think wizards are do "wise" better. I actually need to get working on other things, but I thought I'd get this up. Need to balance creating with promotion. Doing the illustration friday makes me do both. I'm teaching tomorrow. I wish I wasn't. I'd rather be drawing, sketching, or working on my craft. As soon as I finish I'm zooming back home to finish up some roughs for the Tom and Jerry book. All struggling artists go through this, I know. Having to work at something they don't wanna do in order to do something they do wanna do. But sometimes it eats at my soul. Deprives me of the energy I need to do my best. What do you do? You have to find your fuel. My fuel is a mixture of fear, anger, hope, pride, and desire. Fear of mediocrity, anger at my own complacency, hope that I will be discovered, pride in what I've accomplished so far, and desir

Int'l Comics Festival Tokyo 2013

 I'm home from Tokyo Big Sight and my feet are set on "hurt like hell", but I had an amazing time. I got to meet some greats, sold a good number of books, promoted the Hexenringe webcomic (http://hexenringe.blogspot.com, still promoting :c) ), made some contacts, and picked up some great books! This was the chaos that was the "patokon" booth.  Jim R. really helped out with the boothing and stuff.  Tomoko Hirabayashi, the artist of Hexenringe, and I gave out sketches to people who purchased the Preview Book    Her sketches are the really tight ones. I sold out of the American Comic Sound Effect Dictionary again (woohoo!) and the preview book did really well, but the Zombie Alphabet book didn't do great. It could have been the price and the fact that there's no Japanese (or maybe the art, but I don't wanna go there).  After the event, there was an After-Party and I got to talk to two of my favorite Euro comic artists - Guarnido (Blacksad) and dePins (