Justin Eisinger is co-author of two Eisner Award-winning graphic novels with George Takei, including the New York Times bestselling They Called Us Enemy, and 2025’s spiritual successor, It Rhymes with Takei — the celebrity actor and activist’s most personal story ever. Eisinger is also creator of the illustrated children’s nonfiction book series How’d They Make That?! The first book, Incredible Stadiums, lands on shelves this October from Chronicle Kids!
Bsky @JustinEisinger
Email: justin@JustinEisinger.com
Agent: Dara Hyde / Hill Nadell Literary Agency
Friday night a dream came true for the second time: we won another Eisner for our work with George Takei. But this time it was a different experience.
When we won Best Reality-Based Work in 2020 the world was shut down. Even though I lived just a few blocks from the Bayfront Hilton, like everyone else, I watched Phil Lamar read our names on a streaming video from my couch. It was exhilarating but also anti-climactic.
Cut to last night.
We won the award for Best Graphic Memoir. I watched George accept the award. I was handed a trophy and had my picture taken and now have photographic proof of maybe the happiest I’ve ever looked.
Thank you to Ted Adams, Chris Ryall, Greg Goldstein, Leigh Walton, Chris Staros, the team at PRH, along with Aub Driver and the folks at IDW Publishing / Top Shelf for making these moments possible.
Unfortunately the rest of the team wasn’t in attendance, but I am so proud to have made these books with Harmony and Steven, and Jose and Gilberto and Nathan, and of course the big man himself, George.
Now I know what I want to do for the rest of my life. Thank you, comics.
I started going to SDCC in 2006, but we lost two years to the pandemic, so this was my 18th consecutive Comic-Con, not counting the bonus November show in 2021. That’d be number 19. For 13 of those years I was a downtown SD local, but now I’ve got to fly in and do the tourist thing like everyone else.
On the upside, this was my second year as part of the Usagi Yojimbo panel! This year I joined the legend himself, Stan Sakai, along with Kaitō ’84 team Jared Cullum and Zack Rosenberg, as well as the newly announced (right then on the panel!) creative team for The Last Yojimbo, author Tom Waltz and artist Ben Bishop, two of the main creators on the smash hit TMNT The Last Ronin.
Serving in my capacity as Editor-in-Chief for Stan’s imprint Dogu Publishing, it’s so exciting to oversee this unprecedented expansion of the world of Usagi Yojimbo! I’m very lucky to work with such a great team and talented creators for a beloved IP. And judging from the crowd enthusiasm in this photo, I think the audience liked what we’re doing, too.
At the end of June I traveled to Chicago for the first time in over 20 years to attend the American Library Association Annual 2026. This was my third time attending an ALA event, and my second time as an author and panelist. As the premiere meeting for librarians from across the country, it is an incredible opportunity to network with publishing professionals and the experts out there on the front lines helping readers find new titles every day.
One reason I went to the show was because I’d been invited to participate in an ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table panel. This particular panel was concerned with Civic Engagement, Advocacy, and Comics, which both my books with George Takei feature as central themes. We had a lot to talk about, and the panel was stacked with talented folks including Sydney Halpern, Jim Terry, Jarrett Dapier, and Lucky Srikumar.
Following the panel I had the first of two signings at the Top Shelf / IDW booth, where 45 minutes flew by with a blizzard of autographs and brief encounters with enthusiastic librarians. What a way to recharge your batteries!
Just as exciting as the panel and signings was visiting the Chronicle Books booth, where I saw my upcoming — and very first! — children’s picture book How’d They Make That: Incredible Stadiums! in person! Okay, so I’d received my advance copy a few days before the show, but it was very cool to see my book displayed on the classy shelves in the Chronicle booth and meet their marketing team. Thanks for the warm welcome!
Beyond my scheduled events I had the chance to reconnect and/or randomly cross paths with a certifiable who’s-who of my publishing career past, bumping into friends and colleagues from throughout my journey all around the show floor. It was so great to see everyone.
And then it was over. Just an easy 6-hour drive back to NE Ohio and a promise that it won’t be another 20 years before I’m back in Chicago.
It is a huge honor for They Called Us Enemy to be included on the Brooklyn Public Library‘s list of “the 250 most influential books in United States history.”
This list contains so many personal favorites, and indispensable pieces of American literature. A veritable Mount Rushmore of publishing.
I don’t even know what to say except thank you for reading!
See the whole list HERE.
Wow, It Rhymes With Takei was nominated for “Best Graphic Memoir” at the 2026 Eisner Awards.
This was the second time our team of George Takei, Steven Scott, Harmony Becker, and myself teamed up with Top Shelf Productions to tell the story of George’s life experience in a graphic novel, and both times we’ve received Eisner Award nominations. That’s hard to comprehend.
It’s been incredible enough to watch the first book, They Called Us Enemy, go on to international acclaim and become one of the bestselling nonfiction graphic novels of the last ten years. Accomplishments that were unimaginable while we had our heads down doing the work.
Like that book, It Rhymes With Takei lands at a moment in American history when the hard-fought progress of Civil Rights and LGBTQ+ representation are under attack not by outlying forces, but within the very halls of administrative power.
They Called Us Enemy captured the disgusting history of Japanese American internment and put faces to the names of those who perpetrated these injustices at a time when the U.S. government was ripping immigrant families apart at the border. We drew unmistakable lines from past actions to present policies.
It Rhymes With Takei comes at another fraught time for Democracy. Transgender individuals have become scapegoats for complicated societal problems over which they have no control or influence, while the Supreme Court strips away Civil Rights piece by piece, attacking reproductive rights, women’s right, voting rights, with suggestions that landmark rulings on gay marriage are next. George’s story illustrates the inhumanity of those actions.
As proud and honored as I am at this latest Eisner Award nomination, I am mostly hopeful — not that we go home with another trophy on a Friday night in July — but instead hopeful that knowledge gained by people like George is being read and learned by current and future generations; that it can inform and inspire them as they build towards a better tomorrow.
It’s never too late to learn. It’s never too late to change. That’s why I believe in books like It Rhymes With Takei.
Congrats to the whole team:
George Takei
Steven Scott
Harmony Becker
Jose Villarrubia
Nathan Widick
Leigh Walton
See the full list of nominees HERE.
One Book, One Coast kicks off its first ever event with They Called Us Enemy. It will be featured in 140+ library systems in Oregon, Washington, and California. What an honor!
This is the notice that went out when we sold our two-book series to Chronicle. So exciting! Savvy viewers will realize the titles and scope have changed. Ha! That’s publishing.
“Star Trek” icon George Takei’s new book has a local connection.
Akron graphic novelist Justin Eisinger has teamed up once again with the actor, author and social activist on “It Rhymes with Takei,” released June 10.
Their first book, “They Called Us Enemy,” the bestselling memoir of Takei’s childhood imprisonment in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, won the 2020 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.
This new graphic novel shares a more personal story about his life — and it rhymes with Takei.
I was very pleased to get this front page placement in our hometown paper to celebrate the release of It Rhymes With Takei! All of my parent’s friends saw it, and I know that made them happy.
“Moving and layered… Takei challenges Americans to look to how past humanitarian injustices speak to current political debates. Giving a personal view into difficult history, [They Called Us Enemy] is a testament to hope and tenacity in the face of adversity.”
Had a lot of fun hosting the Usagi Yojimbo: Past, Present, and Future panel at SDCC.
