• How did you chose the topic of this book?
  When the Black Lives Matter protests started in 2020 elevating discussions on race, not only in the United States, but around the global, moves towards showcasing marginalized voices and raisin awareness of systemic discrimination and oppression of Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous voices gained momentum. As awareness increased of the differences in society for marginalized groups, the Transgender community came into focus as violence towards Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Non-Binary people, especially Transgender Women of Colour gained traction. At the time I am writing these words, in 2020 alone, more than 44 Transgender and Gender Non-Confirming people were fatally shot or killed in acts of violence for just daring to be their true selves. In January 2021, Puerto Rico declared a State of Emergency due to Transgender violence. Cries for Trans Lives Matter and representation in film and literature were elevated with an urgency becoming a call for change exposing the lack of safety for Queer People of Colour. graphic noiz features a Bisexual character in writer Shiro Ijima, a Transgender Woman in Shiro’s hairdresser sister, Jade Ijima, and the main character of the story, Noiz, a Mixed half Japanese and half Black and Indigenous artist who struggles with acceptance and identity. I wanted to add my voice and write an original Own Voices story elevating representation.

When I first started writing the graphic noiz series in 2018, I wanted to feature a powerful a diverse cast. As the character Noiz evolved in the third manga in the series, I wanted to showcase Wolf “Noiz” Tadashi Begay and his Indigenous heritage as  a citizen of the Navajo Nation which was hard hit by Covid-19 as I was unable to find stories like graphic noiz and it spurred me on to tell Noiz’ story and his Mixed intersectionality.

As a Mixed-race Queer Person of Colour and Transgender Androgyn, I have personally had to navigate the same “Otherness” and being an “Outsider” like Noiz in the story having to straddle multiple ethnicities within a society that treats Noiz in the story as “not Japanese enough” because of his tanned skin and dreadlocks, and also “not Black enough” because he is Mixed and Indigenous. The initial response has been very positive and I am glad that the story has been well received.

• Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured in this book? If so, please discuss.
  The main character in the story, manga artist Noiz, is the son of a Japanese mother who is a Shojou manga artist and his father is an officer in the United States Air Force who is African American and Indigenous who was stationed in Japan. In the graphic noiz novellas and previous manga, the story focused on Noiz’ Japanese heritage, in this volume I wanted to introduce his Indigenous background which was further highlighted in the light novel prequel work in progress “Spirit Warrior Online” which uses Navajo spirituality and culture as a basis for the plot. Noiz many cultures background shapes his personality and the story focuses on how he navigates the world through the lens of his multi-ethnic background.

When I first developed Noiz, I was exploring my own mixed background, and graphic noiz allowed me to explore my identity as Noiz as a character grew and evolved. My childhood nickname, is an Indigenous world for “Sun” was one of the few things that I carry with me as part of my Native background. Yet my parents focused on raising me as a child to be “American.” This erasing of much of my cultural background created a sort of blind spot growing up. I had not realized as a child that I was different from my classmates until the fifth grade when I was face with bullying and being called many times “Half Breed” which was not used as a term of endearment at the time. This brought me to realize and want to explore more the feelings from my past of being different and society seeing me as different. Writing graphic noiz allowed me to explore these feelings through Noiz and the diverse cast of the story to reclaim a part of myself.

• Who did your cover and what was the cover design process like?

I create the covers for all my books, including the cover for the graphic noiz manga using Photoshop and InDesign. Having gone to art school to study animation, I am familiar with these programs and have also worked as a professional graphic designer on websites and storyboards for animation. The first few chapters of graphic noiz manga were originally written in Japanese, with the last second half written in English. The signature design element in the covers of the graphic noiz novels and manga is the red circle which is used for all the books. The initial manga cover was the Japanese version.

As previous manga in the series were BL not Yaoi, I wanted this volume to be more intimate. After experimenting with the white background typical for previous volumes, I decided to add a dark city skyline in the background and add the cherry blossoms to highlight the intimacy between Shiro and Noiz highlighting their relationship. The originally line art features the characters in close-up profile adding a hint of their intimacy without being overtly sexy. The Japanese cover went through seven iterations five with white background, then two with dark that became the final Yaoi version pink sakura for love (ai), and the Teacher edition with blue flowers for friendship.

• What inspired you to write this particular story? What were the challenges in bringing the story to life?

The main inspiration for this story was the desire to showcase the Biracial and Mixed experience which was something that I had not seen get much representation in Yaoi and BL novels and manga. With #BlackLivesMatter showcasing Black and PoC voices, I felt that Mixed voices also needed more visibility. As I saw more stories of the Black and Latino experience, there were discussions I started seeing about Biracial and Mixed-race was different and was interested in understanding misconceptions about being Mixed. Having grown up being called multiple Mixed slurs, I always found the experience inn America to be different than when I was in other countries mostly in Asia. It was not until returning to America that I experienced a certain “Otherness” as a Person of Colour.  The inspiration behind creating graphic noiz was to educate and show how Noiz navigates the world that doesn’t truly understand his experiences. As the population becomes more diverse, we need to embrace understanding and people’s differences. We cannot put people in boxes that creates conflict or causes people to deny part of who they are to belong. I hoped writing graphic noiz to showcase the beauty of identity and embracing self-acceptance.

• What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell us more about her.
  The character I would love to explore more is Jade Ijima, the fierce transgender Japanese immigrant in graphic noiz. Jade is a professional hairdresser and makeup artist and is in love with her fashion designer boyfriend, Regalia Ansalerio. The idea behind Jade came early in the graphic noiz series. She is a crucial character in graphic noiz 2 and ena les me to showcase a strong transgender woman and comment on the transgender bathroom debate, safe schools for LGBT gender queer and trans students, and Jade is a voice to affirm transgender identity and that transgender women are women. I hope the explore more with Jade in upcoming graphic noiz volumes as she is a strong female character that deserves a heck of a lot of airtime. She is a powerful voice and hopefully a fierce female trailblazer and role model for young YA readers.