Seattle Samurai: A Daughter’s Love Letter to Her Father
By Bruce Rutledge
NAP General Manager
Kelly Goto’s new book about her late father, Sam Goto, and his popular comic strips that ran in this newspaper from 2012 to 2018 will be unveiled at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington’s (JCCCW) annual Tomodachi Gala on September 19.
Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience is a lovely tribute to Sam and his humorous and wise comic strips that depicted the lives and stories of early Japanese settlers and their American-born offspring. Through his work, he captured elements of culture, nostalgia and history, while infusing his characters — Shigeru Tomo and his alter ego Samurai Shigeru — with the samurai values of courage, respect and continuous improvement and compassion.
The hardback book comes in regular ($39.95) and limited-edition ($199) versions, and proceeds go to the JCCCW. National launch of the book starts on Oct. 22 with events in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Bellingham. For more information on the book and events, go to https://www.seattlesamurai.com.
The JCCCW’s Virtual Tomodachi Gala will be streamed live on YouTube from 6:15 on September 19. Join the fun at www.youtube.com/c/JCCCWA/.
Goto is a design researcher, educator and author of industry classic, Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works. She lives on Mercer Island, Washington, with her family.