In a gorgeously illustrated exploration of the art of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Mischief Making disproves any notion that play is frivolous. Deploying mischievous tactics, Yahgulanaas shines a spotlight on serious topics. As he investigates Indigenous and other worldviews, the politics of land, cultural heritage, and global ecology, his distinctive style stretches, twists, and flips the formlines of classic Haida art to create imagery that resonates with the graphic vitality of Asian manga. This engaging and beautiful book delineates the philosophical underpinnings and evolution of the artist's visual practice, revealing his deep understanding of the seriousness of play.

Through the art of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, "The Seriousness of Play" explores the multiple forms, materialities and meaning of Haida Manga as it playfully mutates through repurposed automobile parts, large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and two-dimensional painted and graphic forms. Haida Manga combines traditional Native Northwest Coast designs and form-lines with manga (or manhwa) to create a distinctive and dynamic artform for re-telling oral histories and addressing contemporary issues surrounding land, cultural memory, ecological destruction and the politics of belonging, ownership and identity.