Mom-Inspired: My First Book at Age Six

Stuart K. Hayashi

When I was six years old, I was drawing. My mom, who died on January 12 of this year, took a bunch of papers and stapled them together. She smiled and said, “Now you can make a book.” I decided this book would be about the classic video game Space Harrier. In it, you control a red-shirted blond man who carries what looks like a bazooka. He flies over a ground that is in a checkerboard pattern, and he shoots at villainous aliens. Some of these aliens are centipedes with dragon heads (the centipede creature being made of identical two-legged segments made it easier to pixelate). You can see a PDF of the instruction manual over here. I enjoyed this process of drawing and writing a book. I therefore later decided to make another book I titled “Mr. What”. After that, I decided that I wanted to draw and write regularly to express myself. My mom had much to do with this.

I added the 1 to the “Space Harrier” title months later, as I did more books in this series. My book’s cover is based on the box art for the 8-bit Sega Master System port of this game. Note that I’m wearing a T-shirt with one of my more recent drawings, so that you can see where I was at age six in my drawing and where I am now. (I must admit my penmanship doesn’t look much different today.) The photos were taken the night of February 15, 2021.
 

These are photos that Mom took of me, again at age six, playing the 8-bit Sega Master System port of Space Harrier.

    

This is the cover. I did some follow-ups, making this a series. For that reason, months later I added the 1 to the title. 

The cover is based on the cover art for the box of the 8-bit Sega Master System port.

The first sentence is “Harrier is mad.” Harrier is the flying blond man. Here, he is fighting Squilla, a centipede with a dragon head. He starts off green. As you shoot him further, her becomes teal and then dark blue and then purple and then red.

 

Harrier shoots at villainous aliens. I wrote, “Harrier can kill they.”

 

Harrier shoots at villainous aliens whom I don’t think are actually in the game. I wrote, “Harrier is good.”

 

I don’t understand what I wrote here. I said, “Helicopter Mad.” I don’t know if I meant “Harrier is mature.” I might have meant that now he is madder.

 

Here, I meant “On Stage Two. It is hard.” I am referring to Stage Two of the game. The faces represent the villainous aliens from that stage, who resemble Easter Island statues.

 

This is the second book I did. I titled it “Mr. What.” The titular villain is pictured. He is holding a green whip. His odd name was inspired by Mrs. Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time and also Dr. No.