Tag: Secret Identities

Comics & Graphic Novels, News

Announcing New Frontiers Anthology Inspired by the Life of George Takei

The team behind the groundbreaking Asian American superhero anthologies Secret Identities and Shattered, in partnership with the Japanese American National Museum, have issued a Call for Submissions for New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei, an original graphic novel anthology that will serve as a companion volume to JANM’s historic exhibition of the same name (running through August 2017), which showcases Takei’s life and the cultural landscapes through which he has traveled. The anthology’s target publication date is July 2017.

Diverse creators with stories to share that speak to the themes and issues Takei has confronted in his life are encouraged to pitch them at the Submissions Form located at here before the pitch deadline of April 24, 2017. Relevant issues include, but are not limited to: unlawful incarceration, status as an “illegal” alien and the push for LGBTQ equality and civil rights for all, yellowface, whitewashing, media stereotypes, and the rise of digital culture and social media.

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Art, School of Hard NOCs

SIUniverse Celebrates Lunar New Year at The Met in NYC

A little over two weeks ago, I had the honor of leading a comics workshop with my SIUniverse partner Jerry Ma at the world renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Part of their annual Lunar New Year festival, Jerry and I helped small children and their families use inspiration from the museum’s rooms of Asian art to create their own superhero characters.

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Conventions, Hard N.O.C. Life, Interview

Hard NOC Live from SDCC 2016: Dustin Nguyen

Nearly ten years after collaborating on Secret Identities together, Keith finally meets artist Dustin Nguyen on the floor of San Diego Comic-Con 2016 for a special mini edition of Hard NOC Life!

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Comics & Graphic Novels, DC Comics, Guest Post

Superman: The Man of Tomorrow

by Gene Yang | Originally posted on GeneYang.com

There’s a reason why folks call Superman the Man of Tomorrow.

When he was created in the late 1930s, he really did embody that era’s ideas about the future. Back then, progress was seen in largely physical terms: our technology would make us stronger, faster, more invulnerable. And that’s what Superman was: the world’s strongest, fastest, most invulnerable person.

But in the decades since, our imagined future has changed. Nowadays, when we think of tomorrow’s technology, we don’t necessary think about physical power — we think about information. We think about knowledge. Our dreams of the future are as much about bits as they are about atoms. Maybe more.

So how does Superman, a character whose “tomorrow-ness” dates back to the 1930s, deal with the “tomorrow-ness” of today?

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Art, Gone Too Soon

R.I.P. Francis Tsai

Last night, the SIUniverse family was rocked when we learned we had lost one of our own. Francis Tsai, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2010, passed away after a long battle with the disease — just one week after celebrating his 46th birthday. In 2009, Francis became part of the SIUniverse by illustrating the story “Taking Back Troy” in the first Secret Identities volume. Though ALS slowly took away his ability to draw with his hands, he never let the disease stop him from creating art. First, he trained himself to draw using his feet, and when that was taken from him, he pioneered special technology using his eyes to create art.

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N.O.C. One-Shot, Videos

N.O.C. One-Shot: Keith’s Ice Bucket Challenge

Yesterday, Parry Shen challenged our own Keith Chow to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research. This is the result:

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Comics & Graphic Novels

Telling Asian American Stories in Comics

Hey East Coasters! I know all the cool kids are going to be in San Diego this weekend, but if you couldn’t make the cross-country trip, folks in the DMV can get their comics fix by coming to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Washington, DC’s Chinatown this Sunday, July 27.

I’ll be joined by illustrator Jamie Noguchi (Yellow Peril) and NPR Code Switch’s Kat Chow to talk about the secret origins of Secret Identities and Shattered as well as Jamie’s Yellow Peril webcomic. We’ll also discuss why we have chosen the comics medium to tell Asian American stories in the first place. Check out details after the jump!

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Nerdcore

My Guest Spot on Ask the NPC Last Weekend

Last Sunday evening, we flipped the script on the Google Hangout format. Instead of hosting Hard NOC Life, I had the pleasure to be Mega Ran’s guest on the NPC Collective’s monthly “Ask the NPC” series on YouTube.

Catch me on with Ran, and his NPC partners-in-rhyme Shubzilla, Sammus, and Sky Blew. We discuss a lot of topics including potential NOC/NPC collabos, gender representation in nerd spaces, how people perceive nerdcore music, and our favorite comics. Plus, we get into some show-and-tell of the best nerdy stuff in our rooms. Check out the video after the jump!

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Crowdfunding, Interview, Television

Keiko Agena’s Super(fluous) Webseries is Anything But

Keiko Agena is best known for her roles as Lane Kim on the WB’s Gilmore Girls and as White House Press Secretary Britta Kagen on Scandal. When she’s not on television, you can find Keiko performing in LA with the improv group Renegade Justice Patrol.

Currently, she’s working on a project that needs your help to hit its Kickstarter goal: Super(fluous) is a comedic webseries that tells the story of what happens when superhero roommates stop being polite and start getting real. Or something like that.

With only a few days left in the campaign, I sat down with Keiko to talk about how she got involved with the project and how she’s actually not really a nerd.

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Comics & Graphic Novels, Literature

Gene Yang & Sonny Liew Bring the Green Turtle Out of the Shadows

Captain America rakes in billions of dollars in box office. Computer graphics are required to bring Superman’s powers to life. An Oscar-winning celebrity is cast to play Batman and the internet breaks in half. We take for granted that these superhero characters are embedded in our modern cultural conscience. They are more than just household names, they’re indelible parts of our collective identity. They are also all really old.

After all, 2014 marks Batman’s 75th anniversary (Supes turned 75 last year). And Steve Rogers being a WWII relic isn’t just a plot gimmick for a series of movies, it’s because the character was actually conceived during WWII. The point is that these characters who are part of contemporary popular culture were actually born during the 1930s and ’40s (the “Golden Age” of comics, if you will) and have endured ever since. They weren’t the only ones who were created at the time, but they have had the most staying power.

There is actually another superhero that is also celebrating a milestone anniversary this year. Seventy years ago this July, a superhero called the Green Turtle debuted in the pages of Blazing Comics. You’ve probably never heard of him, but if Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew have anything to say about it, you will soon.

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