Ryohei Kills It

I first met Ryohei (pronounced "Yo-Hey") when we were both freshmen at CCAC back in 1995. He lived in the apartment/dorm room right across from mine. I think the first thing that really stood out about him was that his bed was completely covered in artwork and stuff. When I asked him where he slept, he pointed under his bed. We were pretty good friends just about right away and he did a lot of illustration for my zine, Mr. Nice Guy. He could draw so fast and so well. He also was just a generally fun and funny guy.

Throughout the years we have worked together on a lot of projects. Our collaborative film noir was conceived, story-boarded, shot (in super8), and edited in about 7 non-consecutive days. It was the smoothest film production I've ever been a part of. Check it out in its entirety (about 4 minutes - starring Rob Sato):

We also continued to work on zines together, participated in some group shows, and even played some of his music at an opening at Gallery AD as The Apartments. After 10 years as an American, Ryohei moved back to his hometown of Tokyo about 3 or 4 years ago. He continues his massive artistic outpouring of paintings, drawings, comics, videos, prints, music, and his amazing papercut artworks from Japan, with updates on his blog. He also finally got a website up.

His papercut artwork, made by simply folding a piece of paper in half and cutting it with scissors into all sorts of creative monsters and scenarios, had made such a lasting impression on Narangkar and I that one of our first publishing projects with Rowan Morrison was a little book of his cuts. Then, about two months ago, that book came out: Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes by Ryohei Tanaka. The book has sold really well through our online art bookstore as well as our distributor, Last Gasp. And we haven't even launched a direct promotional campaign yet. You should get yourself a copy.

Anyway, Ryohei recently sent us a little package from Japan and I'm pretty psyched about it so check it out. It has some Japanese print promo stuff for the Simpsons movie, some snapshots from my bachelor "party" two years ago (we went to a baseball game), and the 2008 Ryohei Tanaka Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes Calendar! Plus an awesome letter. I really miss Ryohei.




The calendar features 6 all new papercuts.


It looks like it is screenprinted on construction paper.


I hope all the dates are right this time. His "Mark & Cindy" calendar (with Kris Chau) had a few months off and threw me into temporary chaos for a minute.

We have been making plans to get to Japan and hang with Ryohei on his home turf for many years now. Maybe this is the year...