Comic books are a critical part of the media landscape, said Jeff Yang.
Yang, the editor in chief of the graphic novel collection “Secret Identitites: The Asian American Superhero Anthology,” gave a presentation Wednesday, Oct. 28 with the education and outreach editor, Keith Chow and art director, Jerry Ma.
The three presenters discussed the graphic novel and ran a workshop about creating comic book characters.
They began the presentation by showing a trailer for “Secret Identities,” to which 66 Asian American writers contributed.
“We pulled together the vast array of talent that is already out there,” said Yang.
He said the comic book was the medium of choice because “you are bound only by the size of the paper and your imagination.”
Yang discussed what “makes” a superhero. “The relationships they have in their lives, their history, their origins—being a superhero is about what it does to the character,” he said.
“Tying characters into history and their heritage makes the story seem bigger and more relevant.”
In this anthology, Yang said they looked at “untold stories of Asian American history.”
One story, Yang said, was of a Japanese superhero. During the 1940s in the United States, the superhero was interned with other Japanese individuals who were being held because of their race.
He said there will be a second volume of the collection, which will explore “the dark side of the superhero landscape.”
“We’ll be taking the stories of the people who are the bad guys,” he said.
In compiling the anthology, Chow said, “we all had the same goal – to put more Asian American voices in the media.”
The stories are told from an Asian American perspective, he said.
“We wanted to have a book that told our stories,” Chow said. “The Asian American perspective isn’t out there.”
He said Asian Americans are more often behind the scenes of productions, including comics, citing the creator of G.I. Joe, a Japanese American.
Chow also noted the importance to him of the presence of an Asian American character, Snake Eyes, in the G.I. Joe series.
During the presentation, the three presenters asked for an example of a superhero that an audience member had created, and Ma drew the character based on descriptions given.

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