SEATTLE—Visionary Japanese Manga artist Acky Bright — who has lent his artistic talents to the likes of DC Comics, Hasbro, and Netflix — will be at Kinokuiya bookstore in Seattle’s International District Friday, October 16, signing his first evermanga series, Galaxic Baseball League.
Galaxic Baseball League takes place in the distant future, where baseball has rocketed into the cosmos. What was once America’s pastime is now a high-stakes interplanetary competition in which teams from every corner of the universe battle for glory. Amid a sinister plot to wreak havoc on the galaxy, legendary baseball players team up with two unlikely heroes in their quest to save Earth—and the heart and soul of baseball.
Bright has been a fan of baseball since he was a young boy, he informed the Lynnwood Times, which is a sport popular among Americans and Japanese alike (though Sumo is Japan’s official national sport, baseball is its most popular).
“I first came up with the idea while watching the World Baseball Classic in 2023 and there was that final showdown between Shohei Otani and Mike Trout. It was so epic, it was crazy. I heard people around me say ‘it’s like the real world surpassed the manga.’ When I heard such a comment, I thought how could a manga surpass that reality in a crazier way? I thought I would make them go to space and fight aliens,” said Bright. “A year later I got an offer from MLB’s PA, so I thought I’d definitely use this idea.”
Bright both wrote and illustrated Galaxic Baseball League. Though he’s only completed the first volume he imagines there will be a total of 10 at its completion…at least to finish the current story arc. Eventually he would like to see the story turn into an anime, with a cards and toy line.
Galactic Baseball League uses real life professional baseball players, such as Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez (who both play for Seattle), Fernando Tatis Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Paul Skenes, and more. When asked if legendary Seattle Mariner, Ichiro Suzuki would make an appearance he informed the Lynnwood Times that Suzuki is one of his favorite players, and teased that he could, or could not, make a cameo in a later volume.
The MLB reached out to Bright while he was doing a global art campaign for McDonalds and offered the rights to use some of its players.
So far Bright has shipped copies of his new manga to the MLB players he featured, but he has not heard back yet what they think of their depiction.
When asked if he had a favorite baseball player of all time, Bright informed the Lynnwood Times he did but he would not reveal who it was.
This will be Bright’s second time in Seattle. As a big Ichiro Suzuki fan he said he loved the city and enjoyed visiting the first Starbucks and the Pike Place fish market.
After Seattle Bright heads to San Francisco on the 17th and then to Los Angeles to complete his U.S. book tour.
About Acky Bright
Acky Bright is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator and character designer who has built an international career spanning comic books, advertising, animation and live art. A self-taught artist, Bright began his career in graphic design and started sharing his illustrations on social media in 2017. He adopted the professional name Acky Bright in 2020, the same year Hasbro released an official Transformers T-shirt featuring his design. His work gained further recognition in 2021, when he created his first cover illustration for DC Comics, featuring the character Punchline in Joker No. 8.
Bright went on to illustrate covers and interior pages for several DC Comics titles, including Harley Quinn, Deathstroke and DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War. His other projects have included character designs for McDonald’s Japan, illustrations for Meta advertising campaigns and artwork for Netflix’s official Squid Game coloring book, published by Penguin Random House. He also collaborated with BMW on a manga-inspired project in 2021 and created artwork for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, published by IDW.
In 2023 and 2024, Bright reached a broader international audience through major promotional campaigns and public appearances. He was the lead character designer for McDonald’s anime-inspired WcDonald’s campaign, launched internationally in February 2024, creating original characters, manga chapters, packaging artwork and animated promotional content. His work has also been showcased at anime and comic conventions in the United States and Japan. In October 2024, Japan Society in New York opened Acky Bright: Studio Infinity, his first solo exhibition in the city. His first commercial art book, B/W, was published by Japanese publisher PIE International in 2022.
Bright’s work has been called “kawakakkoii” by One-Punch Man creator Yusuke Murata because he tends to combine kawaii (“cute”) and kakkoii (“cool”) aesthetics.
His inspirations include Katsuya Terada (Blood: The Last Vampire, the Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania) and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger), in addition to American comics and graphic novels.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
