MariNaomi

MariNaomi's has been drawing comics since 1997, starting out as a zine creator.[1][2] Her comics are usually autobiographical. She talks about the search for her roots, her status as a mixed race queer woman, as well as her feminism. Her article "Writing People of Color" discusses how people of color should approach writing about people from a race that is not their own.[3] MariNaomi stated "I feel like race is such a sensitive issue that I wanted feedback and I wanted to know how better to do it and to share that information.".[2]

MariNaomi wrote an article It Happened to Me: I Was Sexually Harassed Onstage at a Comic Convention Panel for XOJane in 2013 describing her experience of being harassed on stage as a panelist at a comics convention.[4] She did not name her harasser, but Scott Lobdell later came forward and issued a public apology for his actions.[5][6]

MariNaomi founded and maintains three online databases of cartoonists: the Cartoonists of Color Database, the Queer Cartoonists Database and the Disabled Cartoonists Database.[7][8][9] In 2014, she began the Cartoonists of Color Database and created the Queer Cartoonists Database soon after.[10][11] In 2019, she launched the Disabled Cartoonists Database.[12] The opt-in per creator database Queer Cartoonists contains 775 entries as of May 2018 and has been reported to be helpful in the professional careers of upcoming cartoonists.[13] Librarians and archivists specializing in comic book studies have also highlighted the need for open access databases like these.[14]

MariNaomi has written and drawn comics columns for several websites, including The Rumpus and SFBAY.ca.[15][16] In 2016, she was featured at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center conference on imagined futures.[17]

Since 2017, she and fellow author Myriam Gurba have been hosting an advice podcast called AskBiGrlz Archived 2021-11-26 at the Wayback Machine where they answer listener questions.[18]

In 2021, MariNaomi created a Stop AAPI Hate mural in Garvey Park in Rosemead, California. The comic-strip inspired 60-by10-foot mural covers the side of a recreational park building.[19][20] Connie Chung Joe of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles said the mural is "a wake-up call that Asian-Americans in this country have been scapegoated. Not just by this pandemic, but time and time again in American history.”[21][22]

Her mother is Japanese and her father is a Caucasian American. Born as Mari Naomi Schaal in Texas in 1973, she grew up in Mill Valley, California and later moved to San Jose, California.[2] She began using the name MariNaomi in 2003. She worked in illegal hostess bars while she briefly lived in Japan.[23] She wrote about those experiences in her memoir, Turning Japanese.[24]

• Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011) ISBN 0062009230
• Dragon's Breath and Other True Stories (2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014) ISBN 1941250017
• Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016) ISBN 1937541169
• I Thought YOU Hated ME (Retrofit Comics, 2016) ISBN 1940398495
• Losing the Girl (Graphic Universe, 2018) ISBN 1541510445
• Gravity's Pull (Graphic Universe, 2018) ISBN 1541545265
• Distant Stars (Graphic Universe, 2020) ISBN 1541587006
• Dirty Produce (Workman Publishing Company, 2021) ISBN 1523513314

• Personal website
• Cartoonists of Color database
• Queer Cartoonists database
• Disabled Cartoonists database