ImaginAsianland

This month's ImaginAsian exhibit in Lafayette, Indiana marks the first time a piece of work of mine has been featured in a museum exhibit. My ImaginAsian submission, the script for this summer's The Palace: Like Stuff It, White People, turns up in these photos of the exhibit by organizer Kate Agathon.


My script is the black binder that's inside the display case with a copy of Far East Movement's Animal CD that was signed by the band. Also appearing in Kate's snapshots are ImaginAsian submissions by author Lac Su, jozjozjoz of "Racist Camera! No, I did not blink... I'm just Asian!" fame, Secret Asian Man creator Tak Toyoshima and Secret Identities editor-in-chief Jeff Yang.

As part of a fundraiser for the Asian American Network of Indiana, ImaginAsian is auctioning off on eBay a second script I donated. It's the Palace: Death to Skinny Jeans script packaged together with the finished Skinny strips themselves, which I posted here back in December. The exhibit continues into Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and runs until May 9 at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation at 638 North Street in Lafayette.

Hello San Francisco: Snapshots of Secret Identities at Giant Robot SF

Giant Robot SF and Secret Identities editor-in-chief Jeff Yang assembled some of the novel's Bay Area-based contributors--"Just Ordinary" artist Alexander Shen, "Justified" artist Tiffanie Hwang, "Gaze" inker Walden Wong and I--for a spirited two-hour July 16 signing session at the Shrader Street store that flew by faster than a morning jog with the Flash.

"S.O.S." writer Tanuj Chopra and "The Blue Scorpion & Chung" writer Gene Yang didn't make it to the signing. Gene, whose collabo with Derek Kirk Kim, The Eternal Smile, recently hit stores, couldn't be with us because he was busy with his day job (teaching computer science at a Catholic school).


From left to right: myself, Walden (who has his own recap of the signing here), Tiffanie, Jeff and Giant Robot SF manager Luke Martinez stand in front of Jeff's Secret Identities slide presentation. (Not in the picture: Alexander.)


Instead of signing each copy of Secret Identities with the same message, I wanted to challenge myself by writing a different message in each copy ("Thanks for supporting Asian American/Pacific Islander superhero comics," "I don't know you, but I love you for being a Secret Identities fan," "Stay cool. It's so damn hot out there," "Everybody in the store gettin' tipsy").


Here I am with one of my older brother's former roommates, Dan Genova, and his son Martin. Dan's known me since the days when I visited my brother at his university and I tried to write the Great Asian American Novel, which I never completed (elements of this unfinished story live on in my webcomic The Palace). The Genovas' visit was a wonderful surprise.

Added on July 23, 2009: The next several photos were taken by Giant Robot. The magazine/boutique store franchise posted their complete gallery of the event here.








Many of the readers at this signing--my second signing--hadn't read Secret Identities yet but were genuinely interested in our novel. While they left Giant Robot with signed copies of our book, I left the store with a copy of Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings, which has nothing to do with superheroics. If I knew how to draw better, I'd sketch a Batman/Shortcomings mash-up in which I'd turn Ben Tanaka and Alice Kim into the Frank Quitely version of Batman and Robin. Benman would come to the rescue of a white chick, of course, while Miko Hayashi would look on disapprovingly, and Robin would be busy spitting game at another lesbian.

Thanks, Giant Robot and the Bay Area fans who came to our signing!

The First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC), Part 2

Previously on A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog: Part 1 of my two-part recap of the AACC.


My bio in the AACC program.

All the pics in this second AACC photo gallery were snapped on July 11, 2009 at the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan's Chinatown with my disposable Kodak, except where noted.


Secret Asian Man creator Tak Toyoshima tries to finish a commissioned strip about the AACC. The look on my face says, "You're gonna finish that today? It takes me a week to finish writing a 20-minute script for the Fistful of Soundtracks channel."


Here I am signing copies of Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology for my first two fans at the con, Purdue University graduate students/lecturers Kate Agathon and Lisa Hanasono.


At one point, I accidentally mixed up the names of Kate and Lisa (far right) while talking to them from my table. I joked, "I have no Malaydar. I have trouble telling us Asians apart."


From left to right: Kate, some new guy at the Secret Identities Tour and Lisa.


The AACC's Secret Identities signing session marked the first time I ever autographed something that was neither a school yearbook nor a birthday card. From left to right: "Justified" writer Ken Wong, Secret Identities editor-in-chief and AACC co-chair Jeff Yang, myself and "Preface: In the Beginning" and "Peril" artist Jef Castro.


From left to right: Captain America, "Jia" artist Cliff Chiang, "The Hibakusha" and "16 Miles" author Parry Shen and myself.


From left to right: "16 Miles" artist Sarah Sapang and myself, both newcomers who are making our comics debut in Secret Identities, and Tak.


Added on July 22, 2009: I don't know what we're laughing about. Perhaps Rahadyan Sastrowardoyo, who snapped this photo, remembers.


Added on July 22: I like the sight of Chinatown storefronts in the background (photo by Rahadyan).


Added on July 22: I bet I'm the only comic book writer who references Public Enemy in his autographs (photo by Rahadyan).


Legendary sci-fi writer William F. Wu ("Wong's Lost and Found Emporium") and I watch beloved comics author Larry Hama accept the AACC's inaugural Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama Award. Sitting in front of me are guitarist Patrick Moloney and singer Teresa Lee from the New York band PaperDoll, which later performed at the AACC afterparty at the museum (photo by Shawn Smith).


From left to right: Tak, Kate and I (photo courtesy of Kate). Here's to next year's AACC.

I'll be at another Secret Identities book signing: Giant Robot Sucka Free on July 16

Coming soon to this blog is a recap of my first book signing at last Saturday's Asian American ComiCon. (Secret Identities artists Jerry Ma and Jeremy Arambulo have recapped the event in photos on their respective blogs.) The AACC will be immediately followed by my second book signing.

Secret Identities editor-in-chief Jeff Yang and Bay Area-based Secret Identities contributors such as myself, Alexander Shen, Tanuj Chopra, Tiffanie Hwang and Walden Wong will sign copies of the novel at a special book-release party at Giant Robot SF, 618 Shrader St., San Francisco, this Thursday, July 16 at 6pm.

Alexander drew "Just Ordinary" and an interview with "Trinity" writer/illustrator and Flash artist Greg LaRocque.

Tanuj wrote the SNL commercial parody-style "S.O.S."

Tiffanie drew "Justified."


Walden inked the one-page pinup "Gaze," which features a character created by Sung Kang (who's best known as Han the badass mentor in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but whose real career highlight is his performance as a not-so-slick mentor in the terrific coming-of-age indie flick The Motel).

Secret Identities Bay Area chapter, represent!

[Via Alexander]

Enter the "Sampler": June Park vs. Ting and Joe

Slant Eye for the Round Eye has posted a lengthy but terrific interview with three of my Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology editors, Jeff Yang, Parry Shen and Keith Chow.

Props to Jeff for a well-thought out response to Racialicious contributor Sunny Kim's criticisms(*) about the novel (it's more East Asian than Asian, and where the hell are the heroes who are Southeast Asian or gay?), and for admitting that yes, the novel should have featured more characters from either of those segments of the diverse and complex Asian American diaspora. The minimal representations of Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders were one beef I had for a while with my own anthology because I'm Filipino myself (when Jeff wanted to replace Mañanaman, a Tomorrow People-inspired Filipino background character in "Sampler," with one of the Chinese characters from his story, "A Day at CostumeCo," I told him, "No, the character should be brown because there should be more of us in the novel"). My beef died down when I was relieved to see a Pinay heroine in Greg LaRocque's "Trinity."

In fact, Pinoys were the lead characters in two story ideas of mine that the editors rejected in favor of "Sampler," which centered on a Korean heroine I based partly on the then-beleaguered Chung dry cleaner family. (I went into detail about my rejected Secret Identities ideas during big WOWO's podcast, which you can listen to here or as a direct download.) While I was gratified that the editors chose one of my story ideas, I'll admit to also being disappointed that Pinoys got the shaft once again. But I learned to deal with it and decided to maybe save those rejected brown heroes for a separate project where I'd have more control over their development, like say, for instance, a Filipino American hero anthology (you in, Baroza?). I knew Secret Identities was going to be an East Asian-centric book because the editors were all East Asian (if I were in charge, of course I'd opt for more Southeast Asian characters than East Asian ones), and I was also aware that this was their very first major graphic novel project, so they were bound to make mistakes. Plus, they had to work under insane budgetary and page-related restrictions(**), so not all the various Asian American subgroups that they would have liked to have seen represented were going to make it into an already crowded anthology, although to echo what Secret Identities reader Christina Chou said in a tweet, I wish the stories were allowed to be longer. You can't win 'em all.

(*) big WOWO has posted an insightful response to the Racialicious criticisms, which he says are part of a troubling and frustrating trend: "Someone will try to create something, and another person will step in and try to overdiversify it to death. They'll complain about one thing or another until they've managed to sink the project... Had Jeff edited a work that perpetuated racism, or pushed the same ol' WM/AF storylines, or did something else egregiously bad, I'd say go ahead, let him have it. But to quibble over something as vast and undefinable as diversity makes zero sense. It's petty."

(**) The fact that they managed to get this thing completed while dealing with all those obstacles is a superfeat in itself. If it weren't for what the DISGRASIAN bloggers call that Hardass Asian Parent upbringing, this book would never have dropped on April 14 or 15 or whatever the hell the street date was.

That's why we need everyone to support this novel--so that it's popular enough to spawn a second volume where we can rectify the mistakes we made on the first one.

And if you weren't satisfied with this Asian American hero book, stop complaining and start your own book! This shouldn't be the only collection of Asian American heroes out there.


All in all, the Secret Identities editors' chat on Slant Eye's blog is a must-read. But the best part of the interview is a question about my creation, June Park from "Sampler," and a couple of other Secret Identities heroes, Ting Lee, a teen who's able to manipulate heat from foods she eats in "You Are What You Eat," and the super-strong, lightning-quick title character of "Meet Joe":

Last question. Who wins in a superhero cage match: Lynnn Chen's Ting, Koji Steven Sakai's Joe, or Jimmy Aquino's June?

KC: That's an interesting collection of characters doing battle. There must be some evil overlord forcing them to fight each other (think Han from "Enter the Dragon.") I say they team up and go after Han.

JY: I love/hate this game! It's the fanboy's ultimate smackdown, "Who Would Kick Whose Ass?" And the answer is always Wolverine, because of ADAMANTIUM and CLAWS and HEALING FACTOR, even if it's Wolverine vs. Galactus or whatever.

Anyway, I hope the next generation of fanboys and fangirls end up playing WWKWA with SI's characters. Here's my take. Ting is screwed because she's dependent on food. If there isn't a ham sandwich in the ring, what's she going to do? If you have this battle royale at the Cracker Barrel buffet, watch out, kids, but you mention "cage match" so I'm assuming not.

Joe's problem is that, by definition, his powers are just what every Asian can do, right? I mean, can't you crush a brick with a single blow of your mighty yellow fist? I know I can. So, put him in a ring with non-Asians, and he's deadly, but against his own kind, he is effectively countered at all turns. Plus, he's the only guy in the ring, and I suspect he'd pull his punches, which would only really piss off the ultimate winner in this battle, June Park.

Yes!

June's Sampling ability (and her ever-present swatches of costume fabric) would put her combat skillz way above the less flexible powers of her opponents. At least, until Wolverine enters the ring and smokes her with his adamantium/claws/healing factor, FTW!

Noooo! Go back to Vancouver, ya hairspray-drenched prick!

PS: It would be a real nail-biter. Joe would be in a dilemma -- afterall, he's a gentleman and would never strike a woman. So to end this quickly, he chooses the lesser of two evils -- June wears glasses and he's always been taught to never hit anyone with glassses, so he mathmatically figures out the best vector to leap at Ting and take her out with a quick nerve pinch.

Ting sees this and whips out a Chili Pepper stashed in her utility belt - gulps it down and bursts into flames by going Super Nova - temporarily blinding Joe and knocking him unconcious.

Ting then turns to June, and sends a flare from her fingers - June dodges aside and the flame scorches her favorite "I SUCK AT MATH" Blacklava shirt.

All this yellow-on-yellow violence is killing me inside. [*Sniffle*] Can't we all just get along?

Anger flares up behind June's spectacles and Ting sees she is in trouble. She tries a different tactic, reaches into a punch on her utility belt and munches on a cucumber to freeze the moisture in June's body and knock her out - but June simply touches the utility belt absorbs all of Ting's Yin/Yin food conversion projectile abilities and Ting is met with a blasts of fire and ice -- and instantly knocks her to the ground with a really bad cold and uncontrollably sneezing for days. The winner: JUNE

Yes!! What what! Pay up, foolz! Cue the victorious Enter the Dragon end title theme!

Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology is hummin', comin' at ya

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?

Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology at NYCC

NYCC's Secret Identities panel on Saturday was an exciting moment for myself and everyone else at the con who was involved in the New Press graphic novel of the same name. Secret Identities editors Keith Chow and Jeff Yang, whom I'm standing behind in the above pic (Jeff's the one who's holding a not-quite-final copy of the novel), unveiled the official trailer for the novel and discussed the project at the panel, which kicked off a Secret Identities promotional tour. The novel will hit stores in mid-April and contain my comic book scriptwriting debut, "Sampler."

The standing-room-only crowd delighted us, but I was even more jazzed about how the audience consisted of readers of all races who are interested in our novel. That's a great sign. It means we've been doing something right. We created these stories for everyone to enjoy.

Like the creators of the Harold & Kumar flicks (yeah, those guys are white, but they understand what us Asian Americans have been going through), I wrote about a protagonist who happens to be Asian American, and I tried not to delve into identity politics too much, which is what a lot of pre-Harold & Kumar movies about young AAs would do as a response to past one-dimensional portrayals of AAs on the screen (and sometimes these films would counter that problem not very effectively or not very subtly). But at the same time, I wanted to insert little moments into "Sampler" in which the title heroine recognizes there's racism out there and she responds to it either with humor (she wears an "I suck at math" T-shirt) or--because this is the superhero genre--mucho bitchslapping.

Here I am sitting in the audience, talking to another Secret Identities contributor, Secret Asian Man creator Tak Toyoshima, before the beginning of the panel:


It was awesome to finally meet Tak, whose strip I've read for years. Tak's contribution to Secret Identities is an interstitial Q&A with legendary G.I. Joe and Wolverine comics writer Larry Hama.


Right after the Secret Identities panel, Tak and I saw an Asian guy in a Superman costume and an Asian woman in a Wonder Woman outfit posing for photos together--an amusing epilogue to the panel. I was disappointed that my camcorder somehow deleted my footage of Asian Supes and Asian WW. Apparently my camera's racist and it hates Asian superheroes.

I found a pic of the Supe posing with Jeff and Keith (Asian Supes' other identity is Bryan Nguyen)...


... but I'm still looking for a shot of Asian Supes' scantily clad sidekick.


At my left is multitalented Incredible Hercules writer and Robot Stories director Greg Pak, who scripted "The Citizen" for Secret Identities.


At my right is Giant Robot's Anne Ishii, who moderated the Secret Identities panel and is the first person to tell me she dug "Sampler." Later, Anne and I were stunned to discover we both were Banana Slugs who attended Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp at about the same time (we never crossed paths during our years at UCSC).


A full shot of the Secret Identities crew after the panel discussion. Back row, left to right: Anne, moi, Greg, Ken Wong (writer of "Justified"), Jonathan Tsuei (writer of "9066"), Tak, Bernard Chang (illustrator of "The Citizen"), Larry Hama. Front row, left to right: Keith, Jeff, Sarah Sapang (illustrator of "16 Miles"), Jef Castro (illustrator of "Peril"), Alexander Tarampi (illustrator of "Gaman").


A Joker/Monarch team-up would rock a nerd's world.