In 1994, Lela scribbled this drawing while she was taking an Asian American studies class. Learning about the lack of Asian images in popular culture made her think, "Maybe there could be an Asian doll one day…"

This is a still from the Angry Little Asian Girl episode, "Saturday at the Park."

Early drawing of the Angry Little Asian Girl. She gave the Angry Little Asian Girl some angry eyes. Markers on butcher paper.

This art was made specifically to be silk-screened onto a batch of 300 baseball shirts which Lela paid for with a credit card and sold out of the trunk of her toyota corolla station wagon.

Drawn in 1998, Lela's first strips were one panel strips.

The mother of ALAG looked a lot like the mother of the video, with a severely parted hair and low bun in the back. It wouldn't be until a few years later that Lela remodeled the mother on her own mother who had short curly hair.

Lela was still experimenting with formats, and tried the one-panel comic. 

An early comic with the Angry Little Asian Girl as a baby.

This comic was drawn on typing paper. In the beginning, Lela experimented with formats. In this comic, Lela folded the paper into 4's in order to get the multi-panel effect. She did not like the way the paper looked.

Early comic with the Angry Little Asian Girl in her room. Drawn on typing paper, using pencil and markers.

A comic based on the typical opening lines that white men gave to "oriental" females.

This comic was done in the page format inspired by her cartoonist idol's "Life Is Hell" comics.

Here the page format is now becoming the more familiar 3 panels on a page that Lela preferred and still draws today. In the beginning, Lela was not sure what to name the strip. Here it is titled "ALAG & Friends."

Another comic strip titled "ALAG & Friends."

When Charles Schulz passed in February of 2000, Matt Groening drew a tribute comic to honor Charles Schulz. Since Lela's two idols were Charles Schulz and Matt Groening, she decided to draw a tribute comic to the idol that was still living, Matt Groening.

In this early page format strip, Kim the Angry Little Asian Girl begins looking more like how she appears today; with a skirt, jagged bangs and two pigtails. The mother character also begins to look more like how she appears today; with a polka-dotted muumuu and short curly hair.

Pencil and black marker on bristol paper.

This is a page format comic featuring Kim, the Angry Little Asian Girl when the comic was called "ALAG & Friends!" Pencil, black marker on bristol paper.

Experimenting further, Lela tried the strip format. From 2001-2003, Lela would draw strips in a daily strip format hoping to get the strip into newspapers.

Comic strip drawn with pencil and marker on bristol paper. 2001

An early Angry Little Girls comic featuring the Angry Little Asian Girl.

Going back to the page format, here is a comic with Kim, Mother Lee and Father Lee hiding behind a newspaper.

Here in this comic from 2001, Angry Little Asian Girl is part of the Angry Little Girls umbrella name. The strip is now in its' page format. The comics are drawn with HB pencil on bristol paper, traced with different sized Rotring art pens. Then the original black and white artwork is scanned into the computer where color is added digitally. 

An early Angry Little Girls comic with Mother Lee yelling at Kim.

Lela drew this some time in the 2000's. She did not write the date. She recommends that you date everything so you are not racking your brain years down the line...