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Award-winning Maui-born artist ‘never set out to be big’

R. Kikuo Johnson becomes first graphic novelist to win Whiting Award

By Dakota Grossman 5 min read

Maui cartoonist and illustrator R. Kikuo Johnson received a call from the Whiting Foundation last week out of the blue, and for the whole conversation, he "struggled to speak through my tears."

Johnson had just become the first graphic novelist to win the Whiting Award, which is given annually to 10 emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The awards of $50,000 each are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come, according to the foundation's website.

"The kind of comics I make aren't lucrative, but I make them because they are the books that I want to read," said Johnson, who now splits his time between visiting family in Wailuku and in Brooklyn, where he teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. "I never expected this kind of recognition, so the news was overwhelming.

"In my own lifetime, comics were so looked down upon by most of American society that many of my cartoonist heroes died with shame around their careers," he added. "I feel very lucky and indebted to the generations of great cartoonists who opened the doors that I now get to walk through."

Johnson was born on Maui in 1981, and grew up within walking distance of Makawao Elementary School until his family moved to Wailuku.

Though he had a passion for art, the Seabury Hall graduate never expected to make a living from it. He worked at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Wailea and then in Manhattan for 11 years before he garnered enough money doing commercial illustration to support himself after graduating high school.

"I never set out to be 'big,' and I still don't see myself that way, but my passion projects and commissions have slowly grown in scale over the last 20 years, and I feel incredibly lucky to be where I am," Johnson said. "I dreamed of a career in art, but I never thought it would happen this way. I just love to draw, and I'm so grateful that I get to do it everyday."

His most recent book is the 2021 graphic novella "No One Else," which was awarded the LA Times Book Prize. Last year, his work earned the American Society of Magazine Editors Best Cover, Lucca Comics Award, Ignatz Award and the Lynd Ward Prize, in addition to many others since his first accolade in 2006.

"No One Else" captures a Maui family in the aftermath of loss. It's the work he's most proud of because he dreamt for years about telling a story about a local family set among the Valley Isle's sugar cane fields.

The novel is the long-awaited follow-up to Johnson's acclaimed debut graphic novel "Night Fisher," which is also set in Hawaii.

"Eventually, I just had to put the rest of my career aside to make this short book, and it has been the most creatively fulfilling period of my life so far," Johnson said.

And that says a lot considering that his award-winning drawings and stories regularly have appeared in books, advertisements, periodicals, animation and on the cover of The New Yorker, such as the depiction "Delayed," which was published in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic during a wave of anti-Asian violence in America.

Some of his other clientele includes Apple, Nike, Puma, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Nickelodeon and many more.

He also does hand-drawn lettering for a variety of personal and community projects, including a print that illustrates the 1901 Puunene Sugar Mill.

"I always start with a story that I want to tell," he said. "I'm often most attracted to stories that make me feel many conflicting emotions at the same time."

For Maui youth looking to pursue a job in the industry, Johnson advises to just get started and to find a voice.

"Do you love to draw? Can you do it for days alone without getting bored or distracted? When it's going well, do you feel a rush of joy? When it's going poorly, do you feel compelled to work through it? Do you have a passion project that you dream of someday making? If the answer is yes to all these questions, my advice is to start your dream project immediately," he said. "Don't wait. I can't promise that if you just draw your drawings and make your comics that great success will follow, but there aren't any artists who became great without first finding their voice by pursuing their passion. You will never regret making your art exactly the way you want to make it."

The Whiting Award has given Johnson time to think about what project he wants to tackle next.

"For now, it's back to dreaming," he said.

For more information about Johnson's work, visit www.rkikuojohnson.com.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.

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