I Think I Am In Friend-Love With Yumi Sakugawa's New Book.

I have a confession to make.
I think I am in Friend-Love with you.

What's friend-love?
It's that super-awesome bond you share with someone who makes you happy every time you text each other, or meet up for an epic outing. It's not love-love. You don't want to swap saliva; you want to swap favorite books. But it's just as intense and just as amazing.



I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You is one of the sweetest little books I've ever seen and would make a fabulous Valentine's Day gift for anyone with a BFF (of the same sex or opposite gender).



Originally published online in Sadie Magazine in 2012, comic-book strip artist Yumi Sakugawa's charming illustrated tale has been published as a hardcover book by Adams Media.



The 128 page book is perfect if you've ever fallen in friend-love and want to show that person how much you love them...in a platonic way, of course.




PRAISE FOR I THINK I AM IN FRIEND-LOVE WITH YOU

"Look around. You won’t find anything sweeter than this lonely little book anywhere in your immediate vicinity. Unless for some reason there’s, like, a bunny knitting a scarf for a puppy. That might be sweeter. Aside from that, this book is definitely your best bet." —Avery Monsen, coauthor of K is for Knifeball and All My Friends Are Dead

"This is one of my favorite comics ever, a sweet ode to platonic love that will echo through the ages." —MariNaomi, author of Kiss & Tell

"Funny and beautifully drawn, I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You is the bittersweet tale of friendships in the age of social media in which many can relate.” —Esther Pearl Watson, author of Unlovable

"The warmth of Yumi’s soft brushstrokes and vulnerability of her words make me feel less alone in this weird world. I think I am in book-love." —Lisa Hanawalt, author of My Dirty Dumb Eyes

"Yumi Sakugawa’s small, sweet hardcover I Think I am in Friend-Love With You (Adams Media) feels so necessary. Sakugawa’s one-eyed, vaguely socklike protagonist fantasizes a future of book-swapping, Tumblr post–reblogging, coffee-sipping platonic love, but reveals the most simple of needs in the book’s simple black-and-white illustrations.” - Bitch Magazine

“I Think I am In Friend Love With You…chronicles a bashful cyclops with a good old fashioned friend crush. Sakaguwa’s comics, while being hilarious, are imbued with a quiet magic that somehow makes a glowing computer screen as ripe with beauty and mystery as a night sky full of twinkling stars.” - Huffington Post Arts

The comic…expresses all the delightful, little things we hope our best…pals will do for us…. [Yumi’s] work has an eerie, wondrous quality to it, blipped with panels that will make your heart soar and dip and soar again. Themes of space and love pull readers into a pensive world of fantastical creatures.” - NPR’s Code Switch


Yumi Sakugawa is a comic book artist and illustrator based in Southern California. A graduate of the fine art program of University of California, Los Angeles, Yumi is a regular comic contributor for The Rumpus and Wonderhowto. Her illustrations and comics have been featured on Buzzfeed, Lifehacker, PAPERMAG, Apartment Therapy and all over Tumblr. Her short comic story "Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years" was selected as Notable Comics of 2012 by the Best American Comics anthology editors. I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You (Adams Media, Dec 2013 release) is her first published book.

Visit her on the web at www.yumisakugawa.com.



Buy I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You

LEGO X THE SIMPSONS Launch Minifigs, House Construction Set & Special TV Episode.

This week the LEGO Group announced a new partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products to produce a construction set and licensed LEGO® minifigures inspired by the iconic television series, THE SIMPSONS. In addition, FOX is scheduled to air a special LEGO episode of THE SIMPSONS in May 2014 featuring Springfield and its cast of characters in LEGO form.

The Walking Dead Guitars & Accessories From Peavey With Artwork By Charlie Aldard.

A big hit at the Long Beach Guitar Expo and The NAMM 2013 Show was the newly licensed product line from Peavey Electronics® featuring graphics from The Walking Dead, the award-winning comic and TV show.

Original Art With A Side Of Fries. 38 Painted McDonald's Fry Containers by Ben Frost.

Australian artist Ben Frost is known for his kaleidoscopic Pop Art, mash-up paintings that take inspiration from areas as diverse as graffiti, collage, photorealism and sign-writing.




One of his fun series of works consists of acrylic paintings on McDonald's French Fry packaging. Happy Meal to Super sized, the familiar red and yellow Golden Arches containers feature hand-painted pop culture icons, Super Heroes, images reminiscent of Lichtenstein's pop art, Cartoons, Japanese Manga, Universal Iconography and more.





By subverting mainstream iconography from the worlds of advertising, entertainment and politics, he creates a visual framework that is bold, confronting and often controversial. With a blatant disrespect for the signifiers of our visual culture, Ben creates multi-layered surfaces of refreshing intensity.







About Ben Frost:


He has been exhibiting throughout Australia and internationally over the last 10 years, including solo shows in London, New York and San Francisco, as well as group shows in Beijing, Mongolia, Amsterdam, Berlin and Singapore.

A selected artist for the 2002 Primavera exhibition at the Sydney MCA, Ben was also guest speaker at the 2008 Semi-Permanent and AG IDEAS conferences throughout Australia.

His work has appeared in countless magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Oyster, WeAr, Monster Children, Ok!, HQ, Eyeline, Australian Art Collector, Broadsheet, and Art Monthly.  Television appearances include Rush TV 2010 (ABC3), The Apprentice 2009 (channel 9), The Barefoot Investor 2009 (CNBC), Sunrise 2008 (channel 7) and Today Tonight 2008 (channel 7).

In 2006 he co-founded the online art portal StupidKrap.com and also began and runs the international paste-up event ‘Paste Modernism.’

He currently lives in Sydney and operates Stupidkrap Studios, a multi-displinary art collective of 10 established and emerging artists in Annandale.

His work is in the collections of Kerry Stokes, Art Bank, Griffith University and numerous local and international locations.

text and bio from Ben Frost

Ben Frost Is Dead (his official website)

Two Comic Approaches To Breast Cancer Awareness. I Don't Mean Funny, I Mean Superheroes.

The news has just broken that Marvel Entertainment will be launching a month-long campaign in support of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with special variant covers on select October titles and educational material on Marvel.com.




Clad in Pink versions of their famous costumes, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Wolverine and more will be helping to increase awareness of the ways to fight—and reduce-- this risk of this disease.



The comic books, on-sale in October (US and Canada only) that will feature the special Susan G. Komen variant covers: AVENGERS #31, CAPTAIN AMERICA #18, CAPTAIN MARVEL #5, FANTASTIC FOUR #611, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #526, MIGHTY THOR #21, UNCANNY X-MEN #20, WOLVERINE #315

Nobody's Immune To Breast Cancer


I can't mention 'Comics' and 'Curing Breast Cancer' in the same breath without sharing this wonderful ad campaign by DDB Mozambique with you.

Illustrated by Maísa Chaves, this four ad print campaign features famous female superheroes (She-Hulk, Wonder Woman, Storm and Catwoman):





The above ads feature the copy “Nobody’s immune to breast cancer. When we talk about breast cancer, there’s no women or superwomen. Everybody has to do the self-examination monthly. Fight with us against the enemy and, when in doubt, talk with your doctor.”

Full campaign credits:
Advertising Agency: DDB, Maputo, Mozambique
Creative Directors: Anderson Lima, Zeca de Oliveira
Creatives: Sara Vale, Christiano Vendramine, Erick Vasconcelos
Illustrator: Maísa Chaves (me)
Graphic producers: Faruk Issufo, Mauro Mussagy
Planner: Cristiana Oliveira
Accounts: Vasco Rocha, Christine Ramela, Fernanda Neves
Media: Khida Ismael"
Graphic producers: Faruk Issufo, Mauro Mussagy
Planner: Cristiana Oliveira
Accounts: Vasco Rocha, Christine Ramela, Fernanda Neves
Media: Khida Ismael"



Help support finding a cure, visit Susan G. Komen For The Cure and find out how.

Fictional Magazine Covers Combine Retro Superheroes and Pin-Up Girls.

Illustrator Des Taylor, who has a self-professed obsession with retro film and 50's pin-up girls, combined these interests to come up with a collection of fictional magazine covers.

All My Friends Are Dead. The Book, The Video, The Authors.

Released by Chronicle Books on August 1st, All My Friends Are Dead is a funny and bittersweet illustrated book by two young guys with a wonderful twisted sense of humor and a love of the absurd; Avery Monson and Jory John*.



If you're a dinosaur, all of your friends are dead. If you're a pirate, all of your friends have scurvy. If you're a tree, all of your friends are end tables. Each page of this laugh-out-loud illustrated humor book showcases the downside of being everything from a clown to a cassette tape to a zombie. Cute and dark all at once, this hilarious children's book for adults teaches valuable lessons about life while exploring each cartoon character's unique grievance and wide-eyed predicament. From the sock whose only friends have gone missing to the houseplant whose friends are being slowly killed by irresponsible plant owners (like you), All My Friends Are Dead presents a delightful primer for laughing at the inevitable.








The book is getting lots of buzz and already sold out/back ordered at Chronicle. But can be purchased here

A companion video by the authors:


*About the Authors:
In addition to writing books, Avery and Jory have a site (combination blog and online store) named Big Stone Head which sells shirts, books, cards and pillows... all with their witty illustrations and sayings.

You can see from the following t-shirts, they had a few designs in mind for the lonely Dinosaur which ended up gracing the cover of the book. These are presently available as t-shirts on their site:



Buy the above t-shirts here.

Other examples of their collaborative items:
Greeting cards:

Ira Glass Pillow:

Other t-shirts:


Shop Big Stone Head.


above left: Avery Monsen is an actor, artist, and writer; above right: Jory John is a writer, editor, and journalist.

They are friends, and neither is dead. Yet.