Peshawn Bread & Britt Newton’s NDN Romance Webtoon

Contrary to what many outside of the community believe, Indigenous artists are incredibly varied and unique not only in the stories that they tell through their work, but through the mediums that they do so. Recently, more and more of these artists are using their platforms to break ground and introduce Native culture to all new genres and mediums. Representing Indigi-nerds everywhere is Peshawn Bread and Britt Newton, who’ve recently announced their project: a Native Shoujo Webtoon.

For those who don’t know, Shoujo is a genre within manga that was traditionally aimed towards young girls, but has since expanded for all sorts of audiences, and often centers around romantic themes and stories. Webtoons is a platform that originated in South Korea for artists to post their comics typically formatted to be read on smartphones, and in recent years, has grown to feature all sorts of different genres and artists from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Peshawn (film-maker, model, designer) and Britt (chemist and artist), originally met online through following eachother’s work, and the two bonded over their shared interest in anime and manga, both remembering many of the series that they grew up with.

Britt mentioned: “I’ve always been into anime and manga, since about 10 years old. I would read translated scans of Naruto before the anime was in the US! Which dates me a little, but it was the wild west of the internet at the time. There weren’t many translated mangas, but the ones that were leaned toward shoujo- at least the ones I gravitated to (Sailor Moon, The Wallflower, Ouran High School Host Club, etc).”

Courtesy of Britt Newton

All the way back in 2021, the pair began to toss around the idea of creating their own manga that would feature Native characters in the Shoujo genre. The story would revolve around the character Umaru who would suddenly find themselves winning the attraction of two others, and having to decide to between the two. With both Peshawn and Britt being involved in other projects and work overtime, the comic was put on hold for a few years while the two would occasionally add additional ideas and concepts to the story. However, for some extra motivation, they recently announced their project on social media, much to the excitement and delight of their audiences.

In modern media, we’re beginning to see Indigenous characters within very grounded stories on a much more frequent basis. A major outlier, however, is the recent installment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Echo. For the first time ever, a Native character is front and center in a comic book show, giving Indigenous comic fans a chance to experience themselves and their culture in the genres that they rarely see themselves in. Similarly, Peshawn and Britt are bringing the Native experience into a medium that has hardly seen anything quite like it before.

“There’s always so many heavy stories that are told, and so in my work, I like to tell lighter hearted stories, especially when it comes to Native culture and heritage and people…Indians, we hardly have anything romantic and fun and cutesy,” Peshawn said, when talking about the elements behind their story and what they hope it’ll bring to it’s readers. Britt added on that they hope to highlight strong friendships and “Ultimately independence in the main character.”

Courtesy of Britt Newton

The pair aim to create this comic for Indigenous anime lovers and those looking for a story that centers around and focuses on love, companionship, and the joy found in Native culture. Peshawn remarked on how anime and manga has been an interest amongst many in the Indigenous community, but how it’s also rarely talked about in the open. “We’re like the biggest nerds to exist and it’s so funny…it’s become a meme too, the ‘edgey’ Indigenous kid on the rez and it’s always the edgey ones into anime and manga. I’ve known that it’s always been something we’re interested in.”

Peshawn believes one of the reasons Japanese manga is as loved as it is is partially due to the medium being so steeped in the culture that it comes from, and that the Native community could benefit from having something like that of their own.

With the release date still TBD, many await this coming project from these two talented creators who have already, in their own ways, enthralled their audiences with their unique artistic styles.

You can learn more about Peshawn Bread on Instagram @the.pbread and Britt Newton on Instagram @holoske as well Twitter on holosekart.