Yang has since worked on “Avatar: The Last Airbender” comics, released a set of two graphic novels on the Boxer Rebellion called “Boxers & Saints,” and is partly responsible for a new spin on Superman for DC Comics. “Chinese” won several awards and became the first graphic novel to be nominated for the National Book Award.

(Queue refers to a hairstyle historically worn by men in China.) “Sometimes a stereotype needs to be dressed up in bright yellow skin and a queue in order for folks to recognize its severity,” Yang once said. The book features Cousin Chin-Kee (as in “chinky”) who is a mishmash of some of the worst historical - and modern - American stereotypes used against Asians. Six years after “Persepolis” was published, Yang released “American Born Chinese,” a graphic novel that detailed what it’s like to grow up Asian in America.Īlthough the work, released 10 years ago this month, doesn’t completely shy away from the superhero tradition of comics, the graphic novel is grounded in small school-age moments that weigh heavily on its Asian-American characters: the well-meaning teacher mispronouncing a student’s name, the blatant racism found in schoolyard taunts and difficulties of trying to fit in.Īrt by Gene Luen Yang. “Nowadays, the most popular comics, the most well-received comics are things like ‘Maus’ and ‘Persepolis,’ where you really get this intimate interaction between the reader and the creator.” (“Maus,” by cartoonist Art Spiegelman, documents his father’s tales as a Holocaust survivor, and Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir “Persepolis” follows the author in her teen years in Tehran, Iran, during the Islamic Revolution.) “When you read a well-done comic book, it’s like reading a page out of somebody’s diary,” Yang told his audience at the 2007 National Book Festival. They also flew and fought crime.īut as his comic book interests morphed into a career, Yang began to to introduce more of what he calls “intimacy” into his stories, more autobiographical moments. Among their earliest creations were the “Trans-Smurfers,” Smurfs who transformed into robotic fruit. He and a friend drew comics and sold them for 50 cents each. He loved comics, especially the kind that featured space aliens. The first comic that cartoonist Gene Luen Yang ever bought was a two-in-one issue that featured a man made out of rocks and an intergalactic cyborg.

Maus art spiegelman characters