Mitzi Akaha

Mitzi Akaha is a girl who simply loves to draw. She was born in the Midwestern US, raised along the California coast and currently lives with one foot planted in New York with the other stretching toward Tokyo. Her drawings feature not-quite ugly, not-quite beautiful girls and other strange entities born from her mood at the moment. 

 

She is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Kuzu, published by Japanese comic book press Big Ugly Robot. "A comics debut of style and confidence," its 44 pen-drawn pages tell the story of Card, an ornithofecal (bird poo) expert on the tiny island nation of Bomei. While his wife Lott grows restless and unhappy, he becomes obsessed with a new species of plant. How will their marriage survive island superstitions, invasive plants...and bird shit?

 

Her full-color 60-page book So Lo is the product of years of hand drawing and self-curation (the strictest of all). It comprises portraits of fictional humans, known and reimagined actresses and historical figures as well as self-reflections in English and Japanese, with one child's limerick and a midday martini recipe thrown in for fun.

The Pocketbook of Pretty People is 44 black and white staple-bound pages of her prettiest portraits. It features friends, fictional characters and some faces you'll recognize (Bjork, Winona, Mr. Franco) to fit perfectly into your pocket or hip little (hip) bag when there's nothing nice around to look at.
 

If you'd like to own any of her characters, some of them live on postcards and in the above books in her  Etsy shop or on products sold through society6