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Prime Baby I can't tell you how thrilled I was when my agent told me that the New York Times (NEW! YORK! TIMES!) wanted me to do a story for them. Newpaper cartoonists are a special breed of smart. I mean, you have to be funny EVERY THREE PANELS! It was an honor to be in the same Sunday paper as them, if only for a little while. Prime Baby is a tale of mathematics, aliens, and sibling rivalry that was inspired by the ruckus at my own house after my second kid was born. Math nerds, new parents, and really evil third graders ought to get a kick out of this one. |
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The Eternal Smile There's a self-hate that goes along with being a geek sometimes. Yes, we're into comic books and video games and all sorts of not-for-real-stuff, and usually we're proud of it. But every now and then -- after a nine-hour Lord of the Rings marathon, for instance -- that little voice inside your head goes, "What the freak are you DOING??!!" Geek fantasy media can suck the life right outta ya. That's what this book is about. Years ago, Derek and I did a book called Duncan's Kingdom for Image Comics that talked about the relationship between fantasy and reality. We added two more short stories on the same topic and *ta da!* The Eternal Smile was born! Also, not to brag... okay, to brag... but "Urgent Request," the last story in this handsome volume, just got an Eisner nomination! |
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American
Born Chinese I started American Born Chinese about five years into my comics career. (Though at the time, it was really more of a vocation since I wasn't making any money at it.) Up 'til then, I'd done a couple of stories with Asian-American protagonists, but I never dealt with the Asian-American experience head-on. Since my own ethnic heritage is such an important part of how I understand myself, I knew I wanted to. I came up with three ideas and couldn't decide which one was the best. American Born Chinese is me doing all three at once. |
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Animal Crackers: A Gene Luen Yang Collection This one handy volume collects Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order (see below). I added a 12-page bonus feature where I talk about making comics, publishing comics, and the awesomeness of comics. |
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Gordon
Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks This is the first comic I ever did as an adult. The art's pretty rough, and I kind of made up the story as I went along, but I guess I'm still happy with parts of it. One thing's for sure: I learned a lot about comics by making my own. |
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Loyola
Chin and the San Peligran Order With Loyola Chin, I tried to apply everything I'd learned by doing Gordon Yamamoto. Like plotting the entire storyline out before starting on the art, for instance. I ended up with a story about Gordon's crush, a Chinese-American girl who controls her dreams by eating certain foods before she goes to sleep. |
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The
Rosary Comic Book I've always struggled with how to incorporate my faith into my comics in an authentic way. One Lent, I decided to do a comic adaptation of the Rosary Prayer, rather than giving up chocolate or soda. It was eventually published by the good sisters at Pauline Books during the Year of the Rosary. |
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Blue Scorpion and Chung Asian-American superheroes! I dare you to name three. ("There's Jubilee... and uh, Shang-Chi the Master of Kung Fu... and does Psylocke after she gets race-swapped by ninjas count?") Well, after you read Secret Identities you'll be able to name literally dozens. That's because Secret Identities is an anthology of stories about Asian-American superheroes! Sonny Liew and I did a riff on the Green Hornet and Kato. Did it ever bother you that Bruce Lee was the chauffeur? I mean, he's Bruce Freaking Lee! |
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The
Motherless One A tale from the early life of the Monkey King, folk hero of ancient China. I did this short 14-pager as a way of testing out some new drawing materials (namely, brush on vellum). It worked out so well, I drew comics that way for years. (In case you're wondering, I've since switched to Japanese brush pen on typing paper.) I published The Motherless One as a mini-comic first, but eventually HarperTeen included it in Up All Night, an collection of stories about teenagers who just can't fall asleep. (Yes, monkeys can be teenagers, too.) My story is the only comic; the others are all amazing prose by amazing YA authors. |
