American Mangaka in Japan
Japan Expo in 2011Roland Kelts wrote in the Daily Yomiuri, “Felipe Smith was born to a Jamaican father and Argentine mother in Ohio, raised in Buenos Aires, trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, and discovered while living in and creating comics about Los Angeles. At 32, he has lived in Tokyo for 2-1/2 years, publishing his series Peepo Choo (Pikachu rib-poke) first in Japanese with Kodansha Co., then in English with Vertical, Inc. [Source: Roland Kelts, Daily Yomiuri, October 29, 2010]
“It helps that he walks the walk: Smith is an autodidact who learned to speak Japanese fluently in Los Angeles via a Japanese roommate, a job in a karaoke bar, and sheer will. Now he writes at least some of his original text in the language, the rest of which is translated by Shiina. Smith discovered manga in a Japanese bookstore in Los Angeles, attracted to the size of the books and the scope and range of the stories, though he's hardly an avid fan.” "What drew me to manga was that there wasn't this template," he told Kelts. "It wasn't so much the content, but the diversity of styles. There is no single drawing style for manga. That's why I'm here. What's being sold to the rest of the world is very limited, but here [in Japan], you can do all kinds of things." [Ibid]
“In 2003, Smith won the "Rising Stars of Manga" contest, the brainchild of U.S. publisher and distributor TokyoPop's chief executive officer and founder, Stuart Levy. "Felipe's art really stood out," Levy recalls. "Each and every page was filled with details, from the backgrounds to the characters's facial expressions, and his line-work was polished." [Ibid]
TokyoPop published Smith's first series, the three-volume MBQ (which he now describes as a seinen, or young man's, manga set in Los Angeles), in 2005, garnering the attention of agent Shiina, who helped land his current editor at Kodansha. Smith's is an exceptional story, to be sure, as is the story of Peepo Choo itself—a U.S.-Japan culture clash comedy mocking and celebrating pop culture fans in both countries, drawn in riveting and sometimes surrealistically violent graphics. His achievement would seem many a foreign manga fan's dream.
“But unlike the salarymen in his adopted homeland, Smith is determined to transcend Japan's Galapagos mentality. He wants his work to be read and appreciated worldwide. "We have to get beyond these silly classifications of manga and comics, Japanese or American. The hardest thing is trying to make it a global thing, not just for the reader here, but everywhere. It's definitely possible, though, and I think it's necessary. It's just really hard." [Ibid]
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