By Kelly Goto

Nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the category of "Best Graphic Album — Reprint."

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association 2026 Shortlist nominee

Between 2012 and 2018, Sam Goto drew over 250 multi-paneled Seattle Tomodachi (“friend of Seattle”) comic strips for The North American Post. These comics chronicled 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.

Design researcher Kelly Goto reflects on her father's legacy as she brings his work back to life in this collection so that others can be inspired and informed by his witty and wise look at the world.

Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience

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Kelly Goto is a design researcher, educator and author of industry classic, "Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works." Goto currently heads up gotomedia, a global leader in research-driven strategy and solutions for digital products and connected experiences. She lives in Mercer Island, WA, with her family. Sam Goto was the creator of the Seattle Tomodachi cartoon strip that describes the experiences of Japanese Americans in the 20th century. The strip ran for five years in The North American Post. He passed away in 2017.

Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience

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