John Chihak
Creator/Writer/Artist: Youth in Asia
Writer: The Epidemic
Creator/Writer/Artist: Fuzzyface
Writer/Artist: The Adventures of Agnew
Writer/Artist: The Book of Grrry
John graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Animation from the Art Center Design College, Tucson Campus in 2004. Initially John created the main two characters, Nash and Agnew during his senior year of high school in 1996 as a release and form of therapy. The characters bacame part of his persona and the book that became Youth in Asia is a metaphorical autobiography. In 1997, John physically created Agnew from stuffed animals he found at a thrift store on 4th Ave. John spent the majority of the next ten years drawing while hanging out in local coffee houses in Tucson. It was not until 2001 that John got his direction and motivation. On February 8, 2001 John was diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoma a type of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. This hurdle did not phase John, as he took this as an opportunity to go back to school and get a degree to help him accomplish his dream of creating comic books. Three and half short years later, John held a college degree in his hands, and began the year and half long journey to self publishing the first issue of Youth in Asia. Since the initial launch of YiA #1 in June of 2006, John has self published several more issue of YiA as well as a few other titles.John is a big pro-ponent of free speech. He believes all speech should be protected, especially the words that are under scrutiny and constantly in danger of being censored. John is also a supporter of the CBLDF or Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non profit agency that advocates free speech.
John's Top Five Comic Book list is:
1. Teenagers From Mars
2. The Dark Knight Returns
3. Bone
4. Weapon-X by Barry Windsor Smith
5. BombQueen: WMD
John's favorite movies are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Wrestler (2008), Clerks, 40 Year Old Virgin and Shaun of the Dead. His favorite band is Rage Against the Machine, with The Misfits, Immortal Technique, Saul Williams and P!NK in his top five. John looks to continue to defy common knowledge and would rather make waves than win awards in the continuation of his comic book work.