George Takei Announces New Graphic Memoir IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI

By Carlos Morales

on November 1, 2024

Top Shelf Productions is proud to announce IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI — a new full-color graphic memoir from the team behind George Takei’s award-winning bestseller THEY CALLED US ENEMY, telling the untold story of his journey from closeted actor to international gay icon. Scheduled for publication in June 2025, IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI will offer an unprecedented view into the heart of this beloved star and a celebration of the warp-speed changes he has witnessed in one lifetime.

George Takei has shown the world many faces: actor, author, outspoken activist,
helmsman of the starship Enterprise, living witness to the internment of Japanese Americans, and king of social media. But until October 27, 2005, there was always one piece missing — one face he did not show the world. There was one very intimate fact about George that he never shared… and it rhymes with Takei.

Now, for the first time ever, George Takei shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything. Following the phenomenal success of his first graphic memoir, THEY CALLED US ENEMY, Takei reunites with the team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger, now joined by the award-winning colorist José Villarrubia, for a jaw-dropping new testament. From his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the rigidly conformist 1950s, to global fame as an actor and the paralyzing fear of exposure, to the watershed moment of speaking his truth and becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet, It Rhymes With Takei presents a sweeping portrait of one iconic American navigating the tides of LGBTQ+ history.Combining historical context with intimate subjectivity, IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI shows how the personal and the political have always been intertwined. Its richly emotional words and images depict the terror of entrapment even in gay community spaces, the anguish of speaking up for so many issues while remaining silent on his most personal issue, the grief of losing friends to AIDS, the joy of finding true love with Brad Altman, and the determination to declare that love openly — and legally — before the whole world.

Looking back on his astonishing life on both sides of the closet, George Takei now presents a charismatic and candid witness to how far America has come…and how precious that progress is.