#marinaomi

[lgbtqreads]

January 2026 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction Author of WAKE UP, NAT & DARCY and YOURS FOR THE SEASON Kate Cochrane‘s PULLING THE GOALIE, book three in the Puck Struck series, a sapphic hockey romance in which a championship-winning goalie agrees to train a Hollywood actress for her breakout role in a sports biopic, hoping it will help her overcome a fear of returning to the ice after a nasty injury—until sparks start flying,…

January 2026 Deal Announcements

[smashedpages]

Happy birthday to MariNaomi!

[pigs-in-art]

Genetically Modified Organism (available--$300) by MariNaomi Via Flickr: 1/20/07 Acrylic on canvas 24'' x 18''

[acaseforpencils]

MariNaomi.

Bio: I started writing and drawing comics in 1997, and my first published comic appeared in Action Girl Comics. Since then, my comics have appeared in more than eighty anthologies, I've published seven books (four graphic memoirs and a young adult graphic novel trilogy) and have an eighth along the way in November, a gag book about erotic fruits and veggies called Dirty Produce. My comics have appeared on The New Yorker's Daily Shouts, The LA Times, The Rumpus, Razorcake Magazine, Bitch Magazine, and The Comics Journal. Earlier this year, one of my memoirs, Turning Japanese, was translated to French.

In addition to making comics, I'm the founder and administrator of the Cartoonists of Color, Queer Cartoonists, and Disabled Cartoonists databases, which I created to help elevate the voices of marginalized cartoonists. I'm a Bay Area person currently living in the Los Angeles mountains with my partner and a menagerie of animal rescues.

Find this Daily Shouts piece here!

Tools of choice: I never thought I'd say this, but I do most of my work on the iPad these days. I never used to enjoy doing art digitally, but the Apple Pencil (even though I have complicated feelings about Apple as a company) really changed the game for me. I still sketch out roughs on scrap paper and play around with traditional pens, pencils, paints, and paper, but Procreate has allowed me to delve into color and collage in ways I've always wanted to, but were too tedious to do by hand.

Tool I wish I could use better: Oil paints. I love the final product when others use it, but uggggggghhhh it looks so bad and is SO MESSY and uncontrollable when I've tried to use oils.

Tool I wish existed: A pen or pencil with a fast, easily adjustable nib size, especially if it were a brush! The iPad comes close, but wouldn't it be amazing to have something like this in physical form? I have some tools that come close, such as a mechanical instrument from Japan that has four settings I can switch between (ink gel, eraser, 05 pencil lead, and 03 pencil lead), but it's clunky and imprecise.

Tricks: When lettering my comics, I've found that drawing on a graph just can't be beat for ease and speed. Procreate has a drawing guide I use, but when I'm using IRL paper, I have many different sizes of graph paper specifically for this purpose.

A trick for when I get creatively stuck is to have other projects to turn to, and to take lots of breaks. When I'm really stuck on something I need to get done right away, I find it effective to go do something that lets my mind wander, such as going to a hot tub solo, a swim in a pool, or a road trip (without the distraction of audiobooks). Nothing gets the creative juices flowing better than not being able to write down your thoughts!

Misc: Tips for folks just starting out: Take all the gigs that interest you, even if they're not necessarily in your perceived wheelhouse, so you can find out what you like and what you're good at (assuming you haven't sussed that out yet). Experiment within (and outside of) the medium. Keep pushing forward and trying new things. Don't burn out—take breaks, don't quit your day job, DON'T take to heart what people tell you you should and should not be doing. Follow your passion! Be punctual, don't flake, be polite, but don't be afraid to ask for what you're worth (there are lots of ways to find out what you should be charging if you google it). Reach out to fellow creators, but not if you're just going to ask for favors. Give more than you receive. Most importantly, don't compromise your values.

Websites:

Website

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

I also founded and run these databases:

cartoonistsofcolor.com

disabledcartoonists.com

queercartoonists.com

—–

If you enjoy this blog, and would like to contribute to labor and maintenance costs, there is a Patreon, and if you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee, there is a Ko-Fi account as well! I do this blog for free because accessible arts education is important to me, and your support helps a lot! You can also find more posts about art supplies on Case’s Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!

[yourdailyqueer]

MariNaomi

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: Born 1973

Ethnicity: White, Japanese

Occupation: Graphic artist, cartoonist, entrepreneur, publisher, writer 

Note: Founded and publishes three online databases of cartoonists: the Cartoonists of Color Database, the Queer Cartoonists Database, and the Disabled Cartoonists Database. The opt-in per creator database Queer Cartoonists contains 775 entries as of May 2018, and has been reported to be helpful in the professional careers of upcoming cartoonists.

[thoughtportal]

[sdpubliclibrary]

Said While Talking

[annakrzton]

My comic recommendations for magazine “Fabularie”.