Client Story

On Being Yukiko - Hardcover Graphic Novel

Jeff Chiba Stearns

www.meditatingbunny.com | @meditatingbunny

Jeff Chiba Stearns is an Emmy® nominated and Webby award-winning animation and documentary filmmaker, as well as an acclaimed author and illustrator.

Jeff’s short and feature length films are broadcast around the world, screened in hundreds of international film festivals and garnered dozens of awards.

After becoming a father, Jeff wrote and illustrated his first picture book MIXED CRITTERS (2018), an ABC book inspired by his own children’s mixed Japanese backgrounds. Jeff’s second children’s book, NORI AND HIS DELICIOUS DREAMS (2020), features a Japanese Canadian boy named Nori who dreams of sleeping in foods from around the world.

In 2021, Jeff wrote and illustrated his first graphic novel ON BEING YUKIKO. The book is a collaborative project created with artist Lillian Michiko Blakey and features an intergenerational story addressing both themes of Japanese Canadian history and mixed identity. The book is currently being used as a teaching resource in schools across Canada and is on its fourth printing.

A passionate educator, Jeff travels to schools across Canada, educating students and inviting meaningful conversations about the injustices faced by Japanese Canadians during WWII; when families were forcibly removed from their homes, robbed of their possessions, and interned or forced to work on sugar beet farms by the Canadian government solely because of their ancestry.

Through Jeff’s visual storytelling, passion, and education, this difficult chapter in Canada’s past is preserved and shared—helping ensure these injustices are neither forgotten nor repeated.

MCRL has been privileged to print Jeff’s hardcover printing of ON BEING YUKIKO (2021), his first graphic novel created with artist Lillian Michiko Blakey and his two children’s books, MIXED CRITTERS (2018) and NORI AND HIS DELICIOUS DREAMS (2020).

When I learned about MCRL, I was excited to work with them and I liked that they are based in Canada since transactions can be in Canadian funds. After receiving a few quotes from other printers, MCRL came in over 25% cheaper overall. As well, the team at MCRL were incredibly helpful and supportive throughout the entire process from file delivery to shipping.

The quality of the books are fantastic and are even better quality than the first printing. Rich colours and really well trimmed and bound. They even offer FSC paper stock.

– Jeff Chiba Stearns