On Business: Thank You

I met Mita Mihato at last year's CAKE. She makes comics using cut paper. Some very clever stuff. I was disappointed when I found out she wasn't going to be at this year's show, doubly so because she didn't have a website set up to sell anything. That changed earlier this month (her online store is here) and I ordered everything of hers that I didn't already have, including her newest book Hitched.

Shortly after ordering, she sent me an email that said she had dropped everything in the mail and I should be getting it soon. Sure enough, it arrived on Saturday. Included in the package was what looked like a small booklet, wrapped in a kind of brownish tissue paper with a red string tied around it. It struck me as a bit odd, because I had already identified the books that I had ordered. When I unwrapped it, though, it turned out to be a note card with a personalized message saying thanks and hoping I enjoy the books.

It's a small thing. It probably took her all of ten seconds to jot something down and maybe another ten or fifteen to wrap the tissue paper and string around it. But that deliberate attention to a personalized note stands out quite a bit. I've gotten packages from creators before than include a hand-written thank you, sometimes even a quick sketch, but the tissue paper and string suggest an additional preciousness to Mihato's note. Even though I expect it took her little time, it reinforces her work as personal and having a more "artifact" quality to it than someone who's printed up a copy of their webcomic. (I say that in a totally non-disparaging way! I've bought way more than a few printed versions of webcomics!)

It doesn't directly add anything to Mihato's bottom line, nor does it seem like just an exercise in creative expression. But what it does is reinforce Mihato's position as an artisan comics maker, and encourages anyone who tries her work to return for more at a later time.

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