Today's comic contains a special extra treat! The two conversing characters, Mia and Chris, are originally from my first comic strip, "CultureSHOCK!"

Click on the banner to view the (incomplete!) CS! collection

CultureSHOCK! first ran in the University of Hawaii at Manoa student newspaper, Ka Leo o Hawaii in 1998. Many of the strips were based on real-life experiences and observations, albeit somewhat exaggerated! Mia is my alter-ego, who often narrates the story.

The comic ran for a couple years, and during its run, garnered some national attention. In 1999, I was the recipient of the Charles M. Schulz Award for College Cartooning! I had the opportunity to fly to Cincinnati, Ohio to attend the awards ceremony, courtesy of the Scripps-Howard Foundation. It was one of the biggest honors I've ever had the opportunity to experience!

I had planned to have all my old strips re-scanned and cleaned up for online viewing by the time I ran this strip, but didn't quite have the time to get through all of them. I have the first 20 or so up in a make-shift gallery. (Just select "next" to see the following comic.)

I'll be adding more strips as I find the time to fix them up!

Anyhoo- Mia and Chris are no longer in college, and thankfully not still sporting those late 90's grunge flannels and high-waisted pants! It's good to have them back and it seemed appropriate for the two comics to finally "meet" in Hawaii!

Enjoy!