Boxers & Saints Trailer

Check out the official trailer for Boxers & Saints! Both volumes are written and drawn by me, and colored by Lark Pien. Available on September 10, 2013 by First Second Books!

Trailer was created by the unbelievably talented Denver Jackson.

Sketchbook: Joan of Arc

This seems to be a week of making art for auctions. A couple days ago, I posted a drawing of Guan Yu that I did for an upcoming auction at ALA Chicago.  Here’s one for BEA 2013 in New York.

St. Joan of Arc also shows up in Boxers & Saints, my two graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion (available from First Second Books this September).

There’s this strange dynamic I’ve noticed in my (admittedly shallow) study of history.  Over the last couple of centuries, Western culture has had a tendency to be pretty… aggressive.  The people groups who the Westerners encountered – and often oppressed – would sometimes, ironically, find strength in Western stories, specifically Western religious stories.  I think Steven Spielberg played with this dynamic in Amistad.  I explore it in Boxers & Saints.

St. Joan of Arc actually  has quite a bit in common with the Boxers, the young Chinese men who fought against the European powers at the turn of the century.  Both Joan and the Boxers had strange (to modern minds, at least) spiritual beliefs.  Both were teenagers. Both were poor.  Both were patriotic.  Both fought foreign incursions, and both were waaay more successful than the political elite had thought possible.  After their deaths, both were used as symbols for political purposes by their respective countries.

In my book Saints, a ghostly Joan acts as a spiritual mentor of sorts to Four-Girl, the young Chinese Catholic protagonist.  Eventually, Joan’s commonalities with the Boxers cause a lot of confusion in Four-Girl’s mind.

 

 

Sketchbook: Guan Yu

Just finished this pen and ink drawing of Guan Yu, the Chinese God of War, for an auction at ALA Chicago this summer.

Guan Yu is one of the gods featured in my upcoming graphic novels Boxers & Saints, out from First Second Books this September!

Pics from WonderCon 2013

Even though I’m still kinda mad that Anaheim stole WonderCon from San Francisco, WonderCon 2013 was a BLAST. I met many amazing Avatar: The Last Airbender fans there.  Here are some pics!

Korra and Mako were waiting to get into Dark Horse’s A:TLA panel. Good looking couple! Not as good looking as Korra would be with Bolin, imho, but what do I know? My writing duties are seventy years in the past.

The Gaang came to hang out with me at the Dark Horse booth.

This is probably the cutest Aang in the whole show.  (Sorry, Aang in previous picture.)

This picture isn’t from WonderCon 2013.  At the A:TLA panel, I met Christine who described to me this awesome Appa costume that she had made.  I asked her to send me a pic and she did!  She was right.  It’s pretty awesome.

Chinese Opera Hulk

In September 2013, First Second Books will release Boxers & Saints, my graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion. In previous posts, I’ve argued that the Boxers were a lot like today’s pop culture geeks and that the Chinese opera they watched was a lot like today’s comic books.

I’ve done some artwork inspired by that idea. Here’s the latest: Chinese Opera Hulk!

Lego Asians: Ninja

What brought you to this blog post?  Was it the alignment of the planets and the stars?  Was it those strange cloud configurations in the sky?  Or did you feel it in the depths of your soul?  How did you know that it’s Lego Asians Time?

This week’s minifig:

Ninja!

I got him over a decade ago, as part of the same set as Blue Samurai Guy.  He’s pretty cool.  His mask has a handle on the back where you can attach his sword.  He even has a cool red sweatband underneath his ninja mask.  Such attention to detail!  Good job, Lego!

The set was part of Lego’s late 90′s Ninja theme that featured samurai, ninjas, awesome-looking traditional Japanese architecture, and bonsai trees.  I’m not sure how well the theme did for them, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even in the same ballpark as their current Ninjago theme, which uses many of the same molds and pretty much owns the world.

What is Ninjago, you ask (if you’re over the age of twelve)? Why, they’re the Masters of Spinjitzu.  Check ‘em out over at Lego.com.

Last year, the Ninjago shelves at Targets across the country were consistently bare – the set were just too popular.  The Ninjago cartoon show was among Cartoon Network’s most watched.  The Ninjago graphic novels were on the New York Times bestsellers’ list almost every week.

So how did Lego turn recycled, decade-old molds into a wildly successful theme?  Here are a few theories I came up with last night.   (Yes, this is what parenthood has wrought.  After my kids go down, I don’t even have enough energy to click on the TV.  All I can do is sit in a darkened room by myself, drink a beer, and contemplate little plastic ninjas.)

1.  Story.  Humans are a storytelling species.  Things are just more compelling to us when stories are attached.  There was no storyline to go with the old Ninja theme.  There is with Ninjago.

2.  Awesome names.  Here are the minifig names from the old theme:  Shogun, Ninja, and Samurai.  Boring, right?  In Ninjago, the heroes have names like Zane, Kai, and Jay.  Not just awesome for boarding school kids, but also awesome for minifigs.

3.  Color.  In the old theme, all the characters had black hair.  Made sense, since it was modeled after ancient Japan.  In Ninjago, the characters have blonde, brown, and black hair. Now, I think there are very practical reasons for this.  Lego wants the heroes of Ninjago to be distinctive and there just aren’t a lot of physical features to vary besides hair color on a minifig. On the plus side, the diverse hair color makes it easier for a wider segment of the audience to identify with the characters.  On the minus side, it smacks a little of Western pop culture’s tendency to exclude Asian people from its depictions of Asian culture.

4.  Pokemonification.  I have to tell you, I’m surprised that Microsoft Word underlines “Pokemonification” in red.  It really needs to be an official part of our language because everything in our culture is getting Pokemonified.  Like Pokemon, Ninjago characters can be (1) collected and (2) made to battle.  They even come with little Pokemon-like cards!

That’s it for this week.  I’m off to figure out how to Pokemonify my comics.  If only there were some way for them to battle each other…

Chinese Opera Thor

In September 2013, First Second Books will release Boxers & Saints, my graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion. In previous posts, I’ve argued that the Boxers were a lot like today’s pop culture geeks and thatthe Chinese opera they watched was a lot like today’s comic books.

I’ve done some artwork inspired by that idea. Here’s this week’s: Chinese Opera Thor!

Lego Asians: Emperor Chang Wu

It’s that time again… Lego Asians Time!  This week’s minifig is definitely the most, um, controversial one in my collection.

I present to you the inscrutable Emperor Chang Wu!

Now, when we consider Emperor Chang Wu, it’s important that we not fall into presentism – the tendency to interpret the past through today’s moral lens.  Emperor Chang Wu was released by Lego in 1923.  Things were different back then.  Commercial air travel and communication technologies hadn’t yet connected the world into a global village.  To most Westerners, the East seemed remote, exotic, and even a little threatening.  Western popular culture capitalized on these fears with yellow peril villains like Fu Manchu and Li Shoon.  Lego was simply reflecting–

Oh, wait.  What’s that?  Lego didn’t release Emperor Chang Wu in 1913?  It was actually 2003, when yellow peril villains had been out of the spotlight for decades?  As part of a theme called Orient Expedition?

Dammit, Lego.

Well, the most awesome thing about Lego – especially the Lego-produced themes like City and Space Police and yes, Orient Expedition – is that there are no predetermined storylines, no predetermined heroes or villains.  In my Orient Expedition, Emperor Chang Wu is the good guy.  When he dons his magic black cape, he gains the wisdom and strength of a thousand Pegasi (that’s plural of “Pegasus”).  Also, he can fly and read minds.  Oh!  And change into any form of water.  And shoot green lasers out of his eyes that magically heal rather than burn.

With his trusty sidekick Shorty Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones’ torso on Short Round’s legs), the courageous Emperor Chang Wu saves the world from the evil machinations of Mummified Harry Potter (Harry Potter’s head on a mummy’s body)!

Go, Emperor Chang Wu, go!

Chinese Opera Iron Man

In September 2013, First Second Books will release Boxers & Saints, my graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion. In previous posts, I’ve argued that the Boxers were a lot like today’s pop culture geeks and thatthe Chinese opera they watched was a lot like today’s comic books.

I’ve done some artwork inspired by that idea. Here’s this week’s: Chinese Opera Iron Man!

Chinese Opera Captain America

In September 2013, First Second Books will release Boxers & Saints, my graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion. In previous posts, I’ve argued that the Boxers were a lot like today’s pop culture geeks and that the Chinese opera they watched was a lot like today’s comic books.

I’ve done some artwork inspired by that idea. Here’s the first one: Chinese Opera Captain America!

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