Spring Break is coming to a close, and it’s been a great one for out-of-town visitors. Two weeks ago there was the Anime News Network party with lots of people here for Anime Japan. Last weekend two of my old friends from Montreal were in town for some sightseeing. We wandered around Harajuku, checking out Streamer Coffee and sampling their Military Latte.

One of the topics that came up that afternoon was a webcomic that we read called Ponto. It’s a cute little comic about a playful Traffic Barrel and his friends and coworkers, including a grumpy traffic cone named Gerald and a friendly traffic light called Shingo. The comic is bilingual in French and English, and this comic will amuse everyone that deals with road construction (so basically everyone.)

Those of you that speak Japanese will recognize that Shingo is actually the Japanese word for traffic signal. The artist Tania Mignacca is a fan of Japan, and the idea for Ponto was actually partially inspired by Japan’s yurukyara boom (you may be familiar with the best yurukyara of all yurukyara, Gunma-chan.)

Sooooo, to show my love of Ponto and Shingo, I painted this little watercolor. I imagine they might take a grand voyage at some point to visit Shingo’s relatives–is that a little family resemblance with Mr. Eiga Dorobo?

What do you think? Do you have a lot of traffic barrels where you live? Go check out Ponto and his pals and tell us what you think, or if there’s any other awesome webcomics we should be reading!