Covers of comic book 'Friends' (Photo courtesy of Kim Dong Publishing House)

The picture book, or Ehon in Japanese, was authored by Aihara Hiroyuki, a Japanese writer who has published more than 100 Ehon books, and illustrated by Vietnamese painter Dom Dom. The book, a project by Hanoi-based Kim Dong Publishing House, was released in both Vietnamese and Japanese.

Dom Dom, whose real name is Vu Thuy Ngoc Ha, an illustrator of children’s books and comics. Some of her illustrations have since been published, including “The Straw Prince” (2017), “Father’s Hand” (2017), “Jenny’s Adventures in the Gluttony Kingdom” (2019), and “This and That Story” (2020).

She was awarded the first prize at Scholastic Picture Book Award 2019 for her book “The Girl on the roof and the Boy on the beach”. The book has been newly published by Scholastic Corporation, an American multinational publisher.