The New Press graphic novel Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology finally drops today. It features my print comics writing debut, "Sampler." Other stories in the collection include "Justified" by artists Tiffanie Hwang and Ken Wong, the creator of self-published comics like Pandora's Box, who, like me, is making his graphic novel scriptwriting debut in this anthology; "The Blue Scorpion" by celebrated American Born Chinese author/illustrator Gene Yang; "The Citizen" by industry heavyweights Greg Pak and Bernard Chang; "You Are What You Eat" by Saving Face star Lynn Chen and Maxwell Wong creator Paul Wei; and "James," an amusing jab at American pop culture's constant emasculation of Asian guys that was written by Michael Kang, the director of the underappreciated indie movie The Motel. Erwin Haya illustrated both "James" and "Sampler."
Secret Identities: TAASA also includes stories penned by editor-in-chief Jeff Yang, managing editor Parry Shen (from Better Luck Tomorrow and the 2006 FX miniseries Thief) and Gilmore Girls alumna Keiko Agena.
The blogroll on the Secret Identities editors' blog has a complete list of the writers and artists who participated in the novel, which, to borrow the words of reviewer and Secret Identities champion Anne Ishii, "sets out to find or create more Asian-American superheroes; to balance a status quo of 'white' super men who are disproportionately depicted, inked, given voice and color (ahem) by Asian-American artists."
June Park, the power-absorbing protagonist of "Sampler," got bored one day while business was rather slow at her family's dry cleaning store, so she surfed the Web and played around with the Hero Factory superhero generator, which dubbed her "Sergeant Avenger."
Now go buy Secret Identities, so that there can be more Sergeant Avengers who look like June, alright?
No comments:
Post a Comment