Southern Fried Asian is back and so is one of our previous guests. Keith welcomes back Greg Pak — whose moving new autobiographical project I Belong to You / Motherland is being turned into a choral performance in Austin — to discuss belonging and loss and share memories of his mother and childhood in Texas.
Yesterday afternoon, Netflix announced a trio of animated projects featuring Asian American protagonists and creative teams. Among those series was one based on a comic book from an old friend, Mech Cadets based on the Boom! series by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa.
Continue reading “‘Mech Cadets’ Brings the SIUniverse to Netflix”
Almost two years ago, Greg Pak took the reins of rebooting the James Bond 007 comic book series but this time, having a revisionist take on a familiar and iconic villain, first introduced in the 1959 novel Goldfinger: Oddjob. Not only was the reimagined take refreshing and very much needed, the series itself was incredibly well done with the plot moving at a brisk pace, the action fun and invigorating to read, and the rivalry/bickering between James Bond and Oddjob (now known as South Korean secret agent John Lee) extremely entertaining and amusing to read.
Continue reading “Meet the New Oddjob in 007 Short Film ‘A Kill From The Other Side’”
(A version of this interview appeared originally at melancholyball.com) DOM MAH: Hi, Greg! So, for those of us (like me) who sometimes get the Marvel Events out of order in our head canon, can you tell us the overall premise … Continue reading An Interview with Greg Pak about Marvel’s New All-Asian Superhero Team ‘Agents of Atlas’
In this bonus edition of Hard NOC Life, Keith speaks to two Friends of the NOC about their respective Kickstarter projects.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Bonus: Back Greg Pak and Lynn Chen’s Kickstarters”
If you haven’t checked it out already, Boom! Studios’ Mech Cadet Yu by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa has been one of the best comics to come out this year. Now, Pak has released an awesome new trailer for the series, whose trade is due in comic shops on January 3. Make sure you head to your local comic shop and pre-order by Monday, December 11 to guarantee your copy!
Continue reading “Check Out the Trailer for ‘Mech Cadet Yu’”
This week, Boom! Studios has finally released the first issue of Mech Cadet Yu, the most recent collaboration between comic book stalwarts Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa. To celebrate the book’s release, Greg returns to Hard NOC Life to explain the book’s creation, including its origins in the Secret Identities follow-up anthology, Shattered.
Continue reading “Diversity Within Diversity: Greg Pak Discusses Mech Cadet Yu“
A few weeks back, we posted about Greg Pak teasing the cover of Totally Awesome Hulk #15, in which Amadeus Cho — aka The Hulk — was joined by Ms. Marvel, Shang Chi, and Silk. Never before had so many Asian American superheroes been gathered on the cover of a mainstream comic book. I recently had a chance to preview the issue — which hits stands this Wednesday, January 25 — and I was actually moved to tears at how resonant it was to see these characters embody being unapologetically Asian American.
Continue reading “Asian American Superheroes Come Alive in Totally Awesome Hulk #15″
For the last eight years, my president was Black. More than that, he was a Black Nerd, a Nerd of Color, the Head Nerd in Charge. After today, we aren’t going to see the likes of someone sit in the Oval Office as intelligent or intellectually curious as Barack Obama. His record in office speaks for itself. Because of President Obama’s leadership, 20 million more Americans have health insurance, marriage equality is the law of the land, and nerds of color were finally represented in the White House.
Continue reading “8 Times President Obama Proved He Was Our NOC-in-Chief”
by Phil Yu | Originally posted at Angry Asian Man
Ms. Marvel! Shang Chi! Silk! Amadeus Cho! Has there ever been such an awesome assemblage of Asian American superheroes under the banner of Marvel Comics? Possibly probably not… until now.
Writer Greg Pak recently teased the upcoming cover of Totally Awesome Hulk #15, suggesting that this is the most significant grouping of Asian American superheroes that has ever starred in a mainstream comic book.
In Totally Awesome Hulk #15, kid genius Amadeus Cho — aka The Hulk — is slowly learning how to become a team player, but has to learn fast when Ms. Marvel, Shang Chi, Silk and a host of other heroes come to town.
Continue reading “Marvel’s Most Epic Asian American Superhero Team-Up Ever”
Today, August 1, is the final order cut-off date for comic shops to order Kingsway West, the new creator-owned series by Greg Pak and Mirko Colak. The Dark Horse book officially hits stores on August 24, but the more retailers order the book, the better chances you’ll be able to secure your own copy — and ensure more books like this get made.
Continue reading “Today is the Last Day to Pre-Order Greg Pak’s Kingsway West #1″
Recently Fearless Leader (known to some of you as Keith Chow), informed the N.O.C. collective that legendary comic book writer Greg Pak had a new Kickstarter campaign and wanted to see if anyone would be interested in interviewing him.
My response to Fearless Leader:
When I was a kid, I had to dig real deep for a comic book with an Asian face in it. There were no superheroes in my image from the big publishers, Marvel and DC. Instead I bought every copy I could find of this kung fu book Oriental Heroes. And when that wasn’t enough, I bought every copy of Usagi Yojimbo I could get my hands on. A samurai bunny was close enough.
Marvel’s The Totally Awesome Hulk isn’t just close enough, it’s perfect.
Continue reading “The Happy Hour Review: Totally Awesome Hulk“
We’re continuing the celebration of our two-year anniversary week with another look back. This time, we’re going to count down the top ten most watched episodes of Hard N.O.C. Life, our (semi-)weekly YouTube series where I talk to folks about various topics.
When the site first launched in 2013, the idea for a YouTube show utilizing the Google Hangout format was going to be one of the main pillars. I had just come off a stint appearing on a similarly formatted show about basketball (more specifically, about Jeremy Lin) created by Terry Park for Asian CineVision and thought the format would be great for talking comics, movies, and TV. And thus, Hard N.O.C. Life
was born!
So just like we did yesterday, we’ve combed through the archives to find these, the ten most viewed HNL episodes over the last two years.
Continue reading “The Most Watched Hard N.O.C. Life Episodes”
A week ago, I recounted my 48-hour adventure in San Diego. The main reason I was able to return to Comic-Con was an invitation to participate in what was, arguably, the hottest panel not in Hall H. Our friends at … Continue reading Racebending’s Super Asian America Comic-Con Panel
If you ever get the chance to attend Comic-Con International in San Diego, you should probably do the complete opposite of what I did. Namely, give yourself some time to travel and eat food. Other than that, my Comic-Con experience this year was probably the best time I’ve had at a convention in a long time! Big thanks to Marissa, Mike, and Dariane of Racebending for inviting me to the Super Asian America panel (more on that later!) and allowing me to come back to SDCC in the first place!
Can you feel it in the air? It’s officially Comic-Con week, and we are happy to announce that for the first time ever, the N.O.C. will be in full effect in San Diego! In addition to seeing many of our guest contributors on panels and at booths during the show, we are also co-hosting a meet up with our friends at Black Girl Nerds on Saturday night! So check out everyone’s schedules and we’ll see you at the con!
Continue reading “Join the N.O.C. at Comic-Con in San Diego”
Entering its second year, the New York Comic-Con offshoot comics-only show — known as Special Edition: NYC — is this weekend. With a guest list that includes everyone from Greg Pak to Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, SE:NYC officially kicks off con-going season with a star-studded line up. Coincidentally, those two stars I mentioned will be featured on one of the panels the NOC is most looking forward to. Hosted by our friends at VixenVarsity, the #BlackComicsMonth panel promises to be the highlight of the weekend. Check out the official PR after the jump.
Continue reading “Special Edition: NYC Panel will be Celebrating #BlackComicsMonth”
On the eve of June and the post-Convergence DC Universe next week, we are in breathless anticipation to see the new, more diverse DC Universe as promised by the publisher’s “DC You” campaign. Part of that diversity is represented by the all-star writing talent attached to the flagship books of DC’s most iconic character: Superman.
Hard NOC Life was honored to welcome Action Comics writer Greg Pak (@gregpak) and new Superman writer Gene Luen Yang (@geneluenyang) — whose preview story you can read here right now — on the show to talk all things Man of Steel.
Continue reading “Superman: Truth, Justice, & the Asian American Way”
Two years ago, comics writer and filmmaker (and familiar name to NOC readers) Greg Pak, known for his work on several Hulk and X-Men titles, including the current Storm book, and his current runs on Action Comics, Batman/Superman, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, among others (like Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology), was raising funds on Kickstarter for a graphic novel based on beloved geek culture singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton‘s Code Monkey character. As a reward for meeting a stretch goal, Pak and his collaborators promised an original children’s book based on Coulton’s popular twist on children’s fairytales, “The Princess Who Saved Herself.”
Continue reading “Kickstart This: The Princess Who Saved Herself“
Can it be? Am I actually excited about DC Comics? Again? I’ve made no bones about my aversion to the company-wide reboot of 2011, but it seems that starting this summer, DC is dropping the The New 52 branding and starting fresh with all-new books, and a diverse and wide-ranging roster of talent, including — full disclosure — several friends and alums from the SIUniverse! So maybe I’m a little biased.
Continue reading “No 52: The New Era of DC Comics Looks Promising”
by Greg Pak | Originally posted on GregPak.com
In our book Make Comics Like the Pros, my co-writer Fred Van Lente provides some spectacular advice about how to work a comic book convention. This year at the New York Comic Con, I took Fred’s advice seriously and did my Artists Alley table up right for the first time. And I had my best con ever!
So here’s what I did:
Continue reading “Things I Finally Did Right in Artists Alley”
