Webcomic Weekly: Fumio Obata Is ‘Quarantined In Japan’

Webcomic Weekly – every week a new online comic for your enjoyment. It doesn’t matter how it’s presented, it can be some sprawling saga or just a couple of pages – all we demand is that it’s a damn good read.

This week, comic maker and illustrator Fumio Obata’s Quarantined in Japan…

In Quarantined in Japan, Obata’s using Facebook to post up his experiences of traveling to Japan this summer, giving us his unique insight into his Covid-19 experiences of his journey and the strict quarantine measures happening in Japan.

It’s hardly his first experience of making reportage comics like this, there have been several over the years, all quite beautifully done, but these “mini sketch comics,” as Obata describes them, really capture the slightly surreal experience of traveling in a pandemic, something few of us will have been able to do.

This is Obata talking of the first set of comics, over at his Facebook page…

“I am currently under a quarantine measure requested by Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare in Japan. These are my mini sketch comics of the process starting from Heathrow to arriving at Haneda airport in Tokyo. The next bunch will be about my hotel quarantine. I’m currently returning to Japan, but I’m in isolation for days. I made a simple manga from Heathrow to imho at haneda’s quarantine office. Next time I will manga the experience of forced isolation at the actual hotel.”

There will be more, according to Obata, including a comic on the experience of being in Japan during both the Pandemic and the Olympic games.

Find more of Fumio Obata’s work at fumioobata.co.uk.