About

R. Kikuo Johnson is a cartoonist and illustrator born on Maui in 1981. His award winning drawings and stories regularly appear in books, advertisements, periodicals, animation, and on the cover of the New Yorker. Johnson teaches at the School of Visual Arts and lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn. His most recent book is the graphic novella, No One Else, and in 2023, he became the first cartoonist to win the Whiting Award.

Partial Client list:  Airbnb / Apple / The Atlantic / Bloomberg / Coca-Cola / CNN / ESPN / The Guardian / The Guggenheim Foundation / GQ / Marvel Comics / Newsweek / The New Yorker / The New York Times / Nickelodeon / Nike / Penguin Books / Pentagram / PUMA / Random House / Time /  Vanity Fair / Volkswagen / The Wall Street Journal / Wacom / Wieden + Kennedy / Wired

Awards
2025 Society of Illustrators gold medal award winner
2023 Whiting Award
2022 LA Times Book Prize for No One Else
2022 American Society of Magazine Editors Best Cover Winner
2022 Ignatz Award for No One Else
2022 Lucca Comics Award for Nessun Altro [No One Else]
2022 Lynd Ward Prize Honor for No One Else
2021 Society of Illustrators gold medal award winner
2019 D&AD Award
2018 Society of Illustrators gold medal award winner.
2018 Society for News Design Award of Excellence
2017 American Society of Magazine Editors Best Cover Winner
2016 Ace Award Honor
2013 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature for The Shark King
2006 Harvey Award for Night Fisher
2006 Russ Manning Award for Night Fisher

Interviews / features
2023 PBS Hawaii 15-minute television segment
2021 Hawaii Public Radio Interview
2021 The Comics Journal Interview
2021 The New Yorker Interview
2017 American Illustration interview.
2017 Hana Hou Magazine feature and interview.