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Images and Imaginings of Internment: Comics and Illustrations of Camp

Chris Ishii Political Cartoon

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Chris Ishii During this imprisonment, Chris Ishii drew a humor comic strip, 'Lil' Neebo' (1942-1943), for the amusement of his fellow inmates. It was published in the camp newspapers and even continued by other cartoonists after Ishii signed up for military service in the U.S. Army. Throughout his career, he worked as an animator for Walt Disney and UPA, but also co-founded his own studio Focus Productions. Ishii was a creative director on the 1974 unaired Mad MagaziTV special and responsible for the animated segment in Woody Allen's Oscar-winning picture 'Annie Hall' (1977).
Chris Ishii Kishio Christopher Ishii was born in 1919 in either Caruthers, California, or Kobe, Japan. Ishii attended the Chouinard School of Art in 1940 and was one of several Japanese-American animators working for Walt Disney Studios.

Ishii was first incarcerated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center, where he taught art and began his comic “Lil’ Neebo” in the Santa Anita Pacemaker newspaper. The comic continued until the Santa Anita Assembly Center closed in September 1942. The prisoners were transferred to the Granada Relocation Center in Amache, Colorado, where Ishii continued teaching art and drawing for the newspaper. Ishii was accepted for military service in December 1942, where he stayed until 1946, drawing propaganda leaflets for the US War Information Office.

Ishii was married in 1946 and worked shortly as a courtroom sketch artist and Disney animator. In 1949, Ishii moved to New York City to illustrate covers and pages of the Reporter Magazine for Tempo Productions. Between 1951 and 1952, Ishii studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris. After returning to NYC, Ishii worked as a designer and layout artist for about ten years at UPA Studios. In 1965, Ishii and two others founded their own company called Focus Productions. Ishii became a freelance artist in 1975, helping animate sections from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.”

Lil' Neebo