Translated versions of The Five Dysfunctions are here!

I just got a copy of the translated version of the graphic novel I illustrated titled The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Manga Edition. The first one is in Portuguese. The second one with the variant cover is the Bahasa translation.

La-Te Sketch

For those not familiar with the "JAVA!" series, La-Te is one of the main characters. She's Java's closest friend and side kick who makes sure that Java doesn't get too out of control. This is a quick sketch image of her checking her time as Java is once again behind schedule in delivering the coffee beans to the depot station.

"Java! Recaffeinated" Promo Art

I'm posting the promo art for JAVA! Recaffeinated.

Get 10 Dollars off at the Piggy Back Shop!

Basically, as the title suggests - Add the promo coupon code, GIVEMETEN at your next purchase at the Piggy Back Shop for an instant 10 dollars off. Hurry, as this only will last until the 29th. Sorry about the last minute posting.

Artwork sold at New York's Big Bar

Gooooood morning all! I'm almost fully recovered from two weeks of long hours of illustrating frames and boards at Saatchi and Saatchi. I keep forgetting how it takes a couple of days for the body to "wind down" and "reboot". Today is my official first day back in the studio from a three day weekend vacation.

Some news updates:

1. Stephanie Seliskar and I sold our first collaboration piece at the BIg Bar. You can visit our collaboration website at www.koss2.com. Both of us are very excited about this. The client was staff from the United Nations who wanted something that would remind him about the New York lifestyle.

2. I will be a exhibiting at Brooklyn's King Con Comic Book Convention in November 7 and 8 from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. I've listed the information bellow.

Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
www.brooklynlyceum.com

Photo from last weekend's Manga Class

I've posted a photo from last weekend's class in Columbia, MO. It was a lot of fun - including my first experience riding on a propeller turbo plane on my connecting flight from Memphis. Saturday I taught a Manga class. Sunday I taught digital coloring on Photoshop using the local university computer lab.

These past couple of weeks have flown by faster than ever before. I've been sketching frames for Saatchi and Saatchi on an almost everyday basis. While it's been terrific fun and a great experience, I feel completely exhausted (especially having to catch a 6AM flight right after a past midnight deadline crunch). Today's my first day off in a couple of weeks and then I'm back at Saatchi on Monday.

NEWS: Next year's MOCCA has been announced to be in April. Unfortunately, they are sticking us back in that Armory again. Hopefully, it won't be as hot as it was last year when it was in the summer.

Happy Sunday

After making my first couple of trips to the new Brooklyn Ikea, I couldn't resist. Working at Saatchi and Saatchi tomorrow :)

A Saatchi and Ikea Summer

It's been a busy summer working with Saatchi and getting used to a new location in Brooklyn. Much apologies with the lack of updates on the blog site. Actually, it's been very exciting making several trips to the new Ikea store in Brooklyn. My friends and colleagues, Mark Smylie, and Naser Subashi, have been generous with their time in helping me carry the heavy load (no pun intended).

Pretty good day at Saatchi with hurdling another tight deadline. Unfortunately, I had to miss a meeting arranged by my rep to meet client Draft FCB. Hopefully will be able to attend their next meeting.

San Diego Comicon 2009!

Well it's that time again. I just arrived in San Diego after having to delay my trip for a freelance project with Saatchi & Saatchi. There's still more frames that need to be illustrated, but for now I'll have some fun in the sun (well more like being in front of my lap top and wacom tablet). I'm looking forward to meeting with colleagues and meeting new inspirational artists.

My new studio in Brooklyn has yet to settle in. I feel as if this whole entire month has been quite exhausting. Quite a lot going on right now. I went for a figure drawing session this past weekend for the first time in weeks just to get back into the groove of things.

No Sleep TIll Brooklyn!

Sorry for the delay in postings and updates. I'm starting a new phase in my lifestyle by recently moving into Brooklyn! I'm very excited about being a New Yorker once again after living in Jersey City for close to ten years. This has meant a complete overhaul in my studio and layout.

This past weekend, I did a signing and panel discussion at the first Asian American Comicon. It was interesting getting to meet various artists who had a range of creative styles.

An illustration image from the Piggy Back Project..

Cafe Press store is open.

Hello all. I've revamped my cafe press a bit. For now, it mostly has the characters from the Piggy Back series. Later on, I'll be adding in the characters from JAVA!.

Click here to Enter.

MOCCA Festival is here!

Day one at the MOCCA has launched here at the Armory in New York City. For those of you unfamiliar with this unique event which is in it's 5th season, this is one of the few comic book conventions which features comic book creators (what a concept!) More and more, comic book conventions have become flooded with non-comic book related companies and vendors. Shows such as the San Diego Comicon has become a media related mass frenzy where the floor has diminished presence of comic book creators and lending itself more an more towards Hollywood and television stars and shows. Thus it's very hard to find shows where fans show up just to see what other artists are doing and creating.

This show was a debut of the series called "Piggy Back" about an artist pig trying to "make it" in the big city life.

Launch Party Tonight in NYC

Currently working on last minute printing materials to prepare for the event tonight. Would love to see y'all stop by and say hi! 75 East, 7th Street at the Big Bar. If you know of any art directors, please pass this information along. Stephanie and I are very excited about tonight.

KOSS2 Launch Party Tomorrow Night in NYC

Well, I'm very excited about the part tomorrow. I've been working with Stephanie Seliskar in making sure that things run smoothly.

Equally as pressing, I've been preparing for the MOCCA exhibit coming up this weekend for Sat and Sun at the armory in New York City. It's such a relief not having to worry about traveling far for some of these shows (too bad I can't say the same thing for San Diego Comicon!)

My table is number 216 on the exhibit floor at the 26th Street and Park Avenue. The shows start at 11 AM. Hope to see you there!

On a side note, I just am amazed how expensive printer inks are. I just got the set for my wide set printer, Epson 2400. It ran me over 100 bucks?! I smell a government conspiracy here!

KOSS2 Launch Party on 6-5 in NYC.

Me and my colleague, Stephanie Seliskar, are having a launch party on the 5th of June. I've attached a flyer with this blog posting. Please feel free to circulate the image to your friends (especially art directors) by right-clicking your mouse over the image and "save."

Advertising Storyboards

Hope everyone had a great long weekend! Just finished doing a five day on location drawing stint with advertisement giant, Saatchi and Saatchi. It was a lot of fun and challenging cranking out close to fifty illustrations. Unfortunately, due to disclosure issues I can't post any of them (I really wish I could - sorry). It was quite busy working during the weekend, but I fortunately didn't miss two BBQ parties with a former student and another close friend.

KOSS2 Launched!

A Beautiful day in Manhattan area. I'm pleased and very excited to announce that Stephanie Seliskar and I have finally launched KOSS2 Illustration website. It's a joint project where photography meets illustration. You can visit it at www.koss2.com.

Illustration photography jury

Days are getting warmer which is a good thing!
I was part of a jury for a students' art show in Hillsborough, NJ organized by veteran illustrator, Kevin Murphy who has just opened up The Art Academy of Hillsborough. You can visit their site at www.artacademyofhillsborough.com. I had the chance of meeting up with a good friend and classmate, Graig Kreindler, from School of Visual Arts.

Piggy Back Project

It's been quite the raining week this week. Not a single day has gone by without a rain. I've been juggling projects this week from advertising to the personal. I've picked up a side project about a pig (why not?) It's an semi auto biographical series of illustrations about myself as a pig. I'm hoping to get a compilation of this by MOCCA this summer.

A great weekend at the Brookly Botonical Garden

Had a great weekend at the Brooklyn Botanical garden. Sunday was quite the rain day, but Saturday turned out to be quite nice and sunny! Thank you all who came and stopped by at the table. I sat close to an awesome artist, Kate Williamson, who has a great line art and color style which is reminds me of the wood block illustrators in Japan.

Some Japan Photos

I just returned from Philadelphia on a weekend vacation. Stephanie and I are slowly putting together the pieces for the new KOSS2 website. Stay tuned for www.koss2.com!

I've opened up a facebook page to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. I must say, however, I'm not quite used to having personal interactions over the web. I guess I'm old fashioned in that regards.

Upcoming Event: I will be doing a drawing lecture at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in the first weekend of May.

I'm very pleased to announce that I am now a proud father . . . of a mac book pro! I've been waiting for this for quite some time. I'm looking forwards to finally being mobile with my work.


At a Akihabara Unagi Restaurant

Can you believe that Ramen Noodles now are served in a can?

The busy streets of Ginza!

On the top of Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. Funny story behind this one. I was told to meet some acquaintances underneath this statue of a spider. However, "spider" can also mean "cloud" in Japanese. Needless to say when I asked for directions at the police station, they were very confused.

Here above I'm at an art opening at Ginza. One of my relatives, Kato Yutaka, who is a graphic designer is on my left. The artist is on my right.

...and yeah, if you thought driving through New Jersey was crazy try navigating through a small section of Nakano in Tokyo. Now imagine this being the layout for the entire Tokyo region!

Back to NY Mode

It's nice to be back in USA. Japan was a great experience and in some ways, a culture shock. One interesting thing that I noticed is that people are polite and expected to be sensitive and considerate to the surrounding public. For example, usage of mobile phones are not allowed on public transportation. You must set your phone to "Manner Mode (essentially vibration)." Another interesting thing is that a lot of the men have the same haircut. It's the disheveled long hairstyle which you would typically see worn by your favorite anime/manga character. Veerrry interesting!

On the creative side, I met up with one of my editors, Doug Jackson, with whom I worked with on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He introduced me to folks at Eat Creative. I also got to hang out with one of my relatives, Kato Yutaka, who is a graphic designer and a Japanese match collector. We visited couple of art openings in Ginza where his friends were having an art gallery opening. I also met a Japanese illustrator, Yasumistu, who's illustration style is very distinctly Japanese (especially where he uses the Japanese wood block tecniques.)

I will be posting photos tomorrow. For now, it's trying to cope with my jet lag which is proving to be more difficult that I initially anticipated!

Writing from Japan

Well, this past week has been quite the culture shock. Among many other things, using a internet cafe has been most interesting. They offer 24 hour web browsing while you can have your private room, countless selections of manga titles, and free beverage service. They also offer free shower, shampoo, and soap. Another place I went to has a 24 hour service kitchen and offers a free complimentary hard boiled egg (with a side of mayo.)

Digital Java

Well, as it turns out, I'm still in the US. I had a very painful ankle sprain which was just as mysterious as to how it all happened. I'm heading out to Japan this week now that things are much better. I was on crutches for the first time in my life for the past couple of weeks (nice to build up that weak upper body of mine!)

Here's one of my first attempts at trying to incorporate digital and traditional.

A transitional month

Ny Comicon was another spectacular event. The floor just gets large and larger each coming year. Wiley Singapore sent over a package of promo material which arrived in perfect timing.

I had a great productive meeting with Stephanie Tuesday. We're both very pleased and excited with our joint portfolio project we're putting together. A dedicated website which features our combined works is currently being designed and will launch shortly.

Rarely, do I post a personal note on my blog. However, I feel excited announce that I'm making a two week trip to Japan next month. It's been over ten years since my last visit and I'm very excited and at the same time a bit nervous. I look forward to visiting relatives. I'm also making some visits to colleagues that have worked with me on my recent projects. It will be nice to finally see them face to face as opposed to chatting over Skype.

On a transitional note, I have made the decision to move my Kearny Studio back into Jersey City. While my time at Kearny has been great and productive in many ways, I feel that bringing back the studio to Jersey City, will provide an opportunity to mentally organize and structure my work load as I am planning on working on a wide range of projects in various mixed media.

Well that's it for now. More to follow (sorry about the long delay.)

Snow vacation in Chicago

Yup - I'm in Chicago visiting my college best buddy. AND IT IS FREEZING!!!! There's about a foot of snow right now and powdery flakes continue to sprinkle from above. My friend's laptop says -25 degrees wind chill forecast for tomorrow when we're supposed to visit downtown. I sure know when to pick my days to go out midwest!

I'm on my last three pages for Deep Salvage. New York Comic Con in coming up fast. I'll be in the artists alley again for year three.

First post of the year!

Welcome to the New Year! I'm very excited about this year - it's going to be great! (Not to mention the new Apple MacBook Pro 17 inch machines that was just announced today. I've been waiting for this for almost a year!)

I found a recent review by a communication strategist, Lee Hopkins, in Australia for the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Manga that was released in October.

Here's the full link:
http://leehopkins.net/2008/12/29/the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team-manga/

I’ve just read Patrick Lencioni’s brilliant book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, now out with Manga-style graphics. It is superb!

Kensuke Okabayashi adds value to an already great book with wonderful illustrations, making the book an absolute joy to read.

I strongly recommend you nip out and pick up a copy of this book. It will take you all of a couple of hours to read it, but the insights, coupled with the team exercises at the end, are MORE than worth your time!