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Kiku

@kikuhughes.bsky.social

2.5K followers 270 following 2.3K posts

I'm Kiku Hughes (she/her), a mixed-race Yonsei (4th generation Japanese American) cartoonist from Seattle. I'm the creator of APALA honor title and Eisner award nominated comic "Displacement."

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · Feb 12

Hi I'm Kiku Hughes, a comics artist and organizer in Seattle.

🎏 Website: kikuhughes.com
🎏 Read my comics: kikuhughes.com/short-comics
🎏 Support on ko-fi: ko-fi.com/kikuhughes

✊ Check out groups I organize with at tsuruforsolidarity.org and laresistencianw.org

Cover of the graphic novel "Displacement" by Kiku Hughes. It depicts a mixed race Japanese American girl looking back at another Japanese American girl who is standing with a violin case. Behind them are barbed wire fences and a guard tower.

A 3 by 3 grid of nine different images. The center image is a photo of a woman with pale skin and buzzed brown hair. The surrounding images are all illustrations.

Digitally drawn comic page with four panels. An androgynous figure with spiky red hair, blank white skin and a green jumpsuit is seen outside the panels, narrating. Panel one shows a spaceship in space, with a huge geodesic dome window. Panel two shows people in a park, with greenery, buildings and a train in the background, but the sky is black with stars. Panel three shows a zoomed out view of a city courtyard with green fields behind it, and again the sky is the black of space. Panel four is a small panel with just space and stars. The narrator's speech bubbles travel throughout the page, saying "I like Science Fiction because it allows us to exaggerate the absurdity of the present. So, here is something absurd. These people were born on a generation ship, hundreds of years into its journey. It's a massive ship that houses millions of people, schools, farms, museums. It is also a bomb."

Comic page with two panels. The first panel is tall and narrow, showing a woman with pale skin and short blue hair in a yellow shirt. She says "Sorry, there was a fly. What did you say?" She is waving her hand as a fly buzzes off. The second panel shows the same woman sitting at a bar with another woman, this one with tan skin and a blonde beehive. She says "I just asked what you've been drawing lately." The bottom of the page shows the first woman's hands opening a bag and taking out a tablet, which has a frowny face on it. The woman says "Oh god, actually, you're good at computers right? I haven't been drawing because my tablet won't turn on like, at all."

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 8d

So sad to hear about Ken's passing, his were some of the first books about JA incarceration I read as a kid. Glad he's being honored in many places <3

Debbie Ridpath Ohi @debbieohi.com · 12d

R.I.P. Ken Mochizuki, whose BASEBALL SAVED US (illus Dom Lee, @leeandlow.bsky.social ) and THOSE WHO HELPED US: ASSISTING JAPANESE AMERICANS DURING THE WAR (illus @kikuhughes.bsky.social , Chin Music Press) shed light on experiences of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during WWII.
#KidLit

Children's Bookshelf @pwkidsbookshelf.bsky.social · 12d

“Ken’s books bravely told stories that needed to be told”: Japanese American author, actor, and social activist Ken Mochizuki remembered following his death on September 20. See our tribute: buff.ly/i8mDGQv

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 8d

thank you!

Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 8d

i will be taking at least a month, hopefully two, to devote purely to comic making and organizing, and im just hoping i can get back into the swing of art so i can continue, but realistically i will be looking for a job again soon lol

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 8d

buy my comics? geniusbee.storenvy.com

Geniusbee's Shop

Welcome to Geniusbee's Shop

geniusbee.storenvy.com

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 8d

still avoiding social media bc it's actually doing wonders for my brain, but my last day at my day job is next week and it's exciting but also terrifying so

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 12d

Great to see you too! I'm letting DB break the curse

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 16d

Are you inside or outside???

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 19d

i see everyone is being normal on here as usual, so i will disappear again. everyone being so normal about things.

Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 19d

got my antidepress dosage upped so. horray. :|

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 20d

i have been having a bad september

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 20d

luckily they were turned in. just a look into my twisted mind.

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 20d

lost my keys for a panicky hour bc they fell out when i went outside to cry briefly

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 20d

made it to 4pm in the work day before having a complete mental breakdown

Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 21d

what are we DOINGGGG

Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 21d

also what is with the racist caricatures that look like they're from the 1960s??? what are we doing

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 21d

the camps are a big part of our history but i dont want to see guard towers on a bus celebrating our heritage. i want to see mine okubo or yuri kochiyama. the guard tower is not OUR heritage, it's white peoples' lol

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 21d

Saw an APIAH bus today and i gotta say. Not a fan.

Photo of a bus with a mishmash of illustrations including: the crest of the 442nd regiment and a quote "go for broke," some cherry blossoms, an origami crane and a guard tower from the Japanese American incarceration camps

Another side of the same bus now showing cartoons of three men in straw hats with stereotypically closed eyes

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Kiku @kikuhughes.bsky.social · 21d

His campaign history is full of nothing but losers. Are we supposed to be impressed that he led campaigns for Kerry and Edwards?

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 21d

trump’s numbers are tanking and there is a palpable desire in the electorate for a real alternative and yet the only money in democratic politics is for doing starmerism