Mikiko Ponczeck

Mikiko Claire Ponczeck (born February 2, 1984 in Tokyo) is a German-Japanese comic book artist who is also known under the pseudonym 'Zombiesmile'.

Mikiko Ponczeck at the Frankfurt Bookfair 2011.

Early life

Due to her father's line of work, Mikiko has moved a lot in her childhood, which resulted in her growing up learning many languages and living in places such as Hong Kong and Brussels. She is fluent in German, English, Japanese and French.
In 1999 she moved to Germany, where she finished school. Since December 2009 she is engaged to American concept and comic artist Shaun Healey, with whom she visited the 2010 SMASH! Convention in Sydney as guests of honour.
Today she lives and works in Düsseldorf Germany.

Career

In August 2007, Mikiko published her graphic novel Lost and Found at The Wild Side Publishing. This, as well as her following artbook was released under her pseudonym Zombiesmile.
Mikiko was hired as a graphic designer at the Wild Side Publishing for a few years, where she was responsible for the packaging, lettering and translations into German of various Comics. At the release of her artbook BLUE, she gave a detailed interview to the Koneko magazine (issue 33, July/August 2009).
In 2010 she was approached by Joachim Kaps, the head of the German branch of Tokyopop, to participate in an anthology project as an hommage to the Grimm's Manga series, which has been published in July 2011. With her contribution of King Thrushbeard her work is published alongside famous German comic artists such as Anike Hage (Gothic Sports)
, Anna Hollmann, Inga Steinmetz, Nina Werner and Reyhan Yildirim. Since the beginning of 2010, she has been active as a tutor for the Comicademy for their online 'Scribble Club' course. In the same year she was hired as a colorist for Rombies, a comic written by Tom Taylor (Star Wars, The Authority) and illustrated by Skye Ogden, for Gestalt Publishing.
Throughout her freelancing years she has contributed various work for Subway (franchise), Animexx (German anime community), and Fireangels Publishing.

In 2011, she participated in a charity-auction organised by the German branch of Tokyopop to raise money for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami victims.

Work

• Subway GmbH & Co KG Düsseldorf (mock up cinema advertisement poster), 2007
• Lemon Law 1, 2007 September / Fireangels (Illustrations)
• Lost and Found, 2007 August / The Wild Side / ISBN 978-3-939484-04-2
• Manga-Mixx 5, 2008 / Animexx (Coverillustration)
• BLUE (Artbook), 2009 September / The Wild Side / ISBN 978-3-939484-14-1
• since 2010 Comicademy (Tutor of the online Scribble Club)
• Hommage an Grimms Manga, 2011 July / Tokyopop / ISBN 978-3-8420-0236-4
• Rombies, 2011 / Gestalt Publishing
• Lost and Found, 2011 September/ Tokyopop / ISBN 978-3-8420-0341-5
• BLUE (Artbook), 2011 Oktober/ Tokyopop / ISBN 978-3-8420-0343-9

References

Mikiko Ponczeck on deviantART
Tokyopop Germany
Mikiko Ponczeck at Comicademy

External links

• Homepage of Mikiko Ponczeck

Persondata
Name	Ponczeck, Mikiko Claire
Alternative names	Zombiesmile
Short description	German-japanese comic book artist
Date of birth	February 2, 1984
Place of birth	Tokyo, Japan
Date of death
Place of death