12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
A dozen days of gift ideas
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Co-author Pat Sasaki has her hands full as she signs a stack of books at the "Pidgin 2 Da Max 25th Anniversary Edition" book-signing party at Native Books in Ward Warehouse.
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'Pidgin to Da Max' going get radical again
The ubiquitous guide to all things local has a new edition
NINTH OF 12 PARTS
ACCORDING to book publisher Buddy Bess, "Pidgin to Da Max" has sold something like 300,000 copies since it debuted 25 years ago. This is a shocking, unbelievable number. It means about one in four Hawaii residents has a copy. For real. And it means that the three without are always cockaroaching that copy from the one with, those sneaky buggahs.
What do you do when you're 25 and never been out of print? T'row one party. Make yourself pretty with a new edition. Get out there with a new jacket.
And so they did. The pictures here prove it. "Pretty amazing for ANY book to remain in print that long," mused Bess, whose Bess Press assumed the reins after creators Douglas "Peppo" Simonson, Pat Sasaki and Ken Sakata grew weary of the self-publishing grind. "We were doing a book with Rap Reiplinger called 'How You Figgah?' and went to Peppo and Pat for advice, and wound up being the publisher. It's become a kind of annuity for them."
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ryan Alcantara, left, and Chanon Israelsen chat with author Doug "Peppo" Simonson at the "Pidgin 2 Da Max 25th Anniversary Edition" book signing.
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To celebrate, Bess Press has brought all the sibling Maxes back into print, combined the two primary books into a special edition and even made pidgin refrigerator magnets. Yes, it's Christmas out there for Max Heads.
The Max factor, as explained by Bess, boils down to brilliant copy, sensational cartoons, a finger on the hidden pulse of Hawaii and fabulous timing. That's all it took.
"It's more than a book. It's a concept," said Bess. "When I moved here in the 1970s, this blue-eyed haole knew enough to shut up and listen. I could tell something incredible was brewing the first time I caught Booga Booga at Territorial Tavern. But it took someone like Peppo to nail it down in a way we could understand -- and share in the laughter."
HOW BIG a deal? For local author and cartoonist Jon J. Murakami, the Max books were nothing short of revolutionary. "A major, major influence on me and everyone I know," Murakami said. "Revolutionary, yeah, that's it. At the time there was nothing like it.
"All we had to look at was mainland cartoons. Suddenly, here was guys in cartoons with flat noses and black hair and making like real blalahs. Suddenly it was OK to be local. The dam was busted. I couldn't draw enough."
Dennis Fujitake, another local cartoonist, remembers Peppo showing the sketches around back then and being mightily impressed. "It was great stuff and established a certain style," said Fujitake. "Even today, I still use the books for reference."
The Max creators lead sequestered lives these days. "They're so quiet and self-effacing," marveled Bess, who found it necessary to brag on them. Simonson, for example, has become quite a well-respected fine artist in a field we dare not illustrate in a conservative newspaper. Unless you know a gay man with empty wall space.
In the meantime, there's still that two-thirds of Hawaii who need their own copy of the book.
"'Pidgin to Da Max' simply made local humor viable as a publishing product," said Bess. "Everyone who's come since owes it to those guys."