Da Blalas: Olympics

I began drawing this book just before the summer Olympics while Manaiakalani, Mauiʻs Fish hook (Scorpius in the West) was in the sky. When I saw Refugees walking in the opening ceremony I felt Hawaiʻi was one step closer to participating as a nation. I have heard there is a push to send a real Hawaiian team to the Japan Olympics in 2020. Da Blalas were originally supporting characters from my first book, Pualani and the 3 Manō. Māui is based on the mythic stories from Hawaiʻi and throughout Polynesia. I first started drawing him for a mural design. Māui evolved into one of Dadʻs students in Da Blalas: School Daze which is still in production. A preproduction image is the background of this page. Other books in the series are: Da Blalas, Da Blalas in The Blalas in the Manō’s Hale, and most recently Ronin which has a more adult oriented theme.