UR graduate chronicles her life in graphic novels
Alumni
Alum Christine Mari Inzer’s memoir, Halfway There, was recently released by Little, Brown Ink, a publisher that specializes in graphic novels for young readers.
Halfway There is not her first book. Inzer self-published an illustrated travelogue titled Halfway Home when she was 15, which was later republished as Diary of a Tokyo Teen.
“One day, I got a letter in the mail, and it was from Tuttle Publishing. They offered to publish my book,” she said.
She learned that her dad, who had always nurtured her love of storytelling, had quietly sent a copy of Halfway Home to Tuttle, a publisher specializing in books about East Asian culture. Tuttle re-published the book in color under its new title during her sophomore year at UR. The original drawings were black and white.
Inzer has built a promising career as an author in this genre, even though the 2019 graduate has never formally studied art. Instead, she majored in international studies and minored in history.
“One of my biggest regrets is not taking an art class at UR,” she said from her home in Los Angeles.
Finding her heart in Tokyo
After graduation and before the release of Halfway There, Inzer returned to Tokyo, where she lived for about a year and a half. Then, COVID happened, and she found herself out of work. She wasn’t sure whether she should stay in Japan or return to the U.S.
“It was very much a crossroads. Sort of a place where I felt like I can do anything right now. Because the world felt like it was on pause, I felt like I could try something, take a risk.”
She decided to create Kokoro, a self-published anthology of the cartoons that appear on her Instagram page of over 100,000 followers. The title means heart.
“I feel a lot of my work is personal, that it comes from the heart,” she said.
Her Kickstarter campaign drew $60,000. It was $50,000 more than she had hoped for.
“I felt very supported by the people who enjoyed my work. I didn't realize that so many people cared about it,” Inzer said.
After the success of Kokoro, a few people suggested that she republish it. She found an agent who connected her with an editor at Little, Brown Ink. “The editor really valued it and believed that it was a story worth telling and sharing,” Inzer recalled. “But she didn’t want to publish it as a compilation of cartoons.”
Inzer used Kokoro as the basis to write Halfway There. At first, she found it nerve-wracking to release her memoir, not knowing how people would react.
“But I have read some of the reviews, and I have heard from people who reached out to me directly,” she said. “And it feels really nice to know that other people can see themselves in that story.”
Trying to fit in
The story in Halfway There centers around Christine Mari (her pen name), a character of both Japanese and white heritage. Born in Tokyo, she moved to the U.S. at the age of five. Christine Mari felt caught between two worlds and was uneasy about her identity. She seeks an escape with a study abroad trip to Tokyo — as Inzer did in her junior year at UR — to reconnect with the culture and study the Japanese language.
An excerpt from Halfway There, Christine Mari Inzer's graphic memoir.
“How can someone ever feel whole if they’re always told they’re only half of something?” Inzer ponders in the book, which reflects the author’s journey of self-discovery as a Japanese American born to a Japanese mother and a white American father.
“Most of it is real, and the stories are all true. Sometimes you have to make slight changes with the timeline so that it makes sense from a storytelling perspective.”
The character’s world feels confusing and scary at times, filled with speech balloons of jumbled dark lines instead of words when characters speak Japanese.
Inzer has received feedback from the novel’s readers that they connect with the feelings of loneliness and not fitting in that are so prevalent in the story. “Some are Asian American or biracial, but I’ve also heard from a lot of people who describe themselves as third culture kids, or those who moved to a different country when they were really young and don’t feel a strong connection to their birthplace,” Inzer said.
Halfway There has been named as one of the Best Books of 2025 by the School Library Journal and Best Children’s Books of the Year by the Bank Street Children’s Book Committee.
Like the character in the book, Inzer never imagined she could have a career that involved art.
“Unfortunately, it’s a common view that pursuing a career in the arts is unsustainable or really difficult. At first, it kind of scared me away from it,” she said. “When I was applying to colleges, I never applied to any art schools, but I did look for a liberal arts institution because I wanted to go somewhere that encouraged exploring different things.”
At UR, Inzer participated in Sophomore Scholars in Residence, which included a "Reading to Live" class taught by French professor Olivier Delers. “It was a really good experience,” she said.
She has stayed in touch with some of those classmates as well as Delers, who invited her to speak to his SSIR students last spring.