Hi everybody, we’re joined today by Aki, the trilingual creator behind the webtoon canvas series Villainess for Hire. She has lived in China, Canada, and Japan, and is no stranger to making comics that elicit deep thought and emotion, like her viral short comic Nine Lives you might have come across on Tumbler in the past.

It was a blast to unpack Aki’s story, learning about how her knowledge of Eastern and Western cultures informs her approach to shaping stories, her involvement in the Tonari no Young Jump competition judged by Assassination Classroom’s Yusei Matsui and how it kicked off her creative portfolio in comics, and her pragmatic approach to making comics that you can potentially use to have fun and enjoy the work.