Interests:This journal is an experiment delving into the day-to-day of one actor's path; realistically detailing all the highs and lows.
How will it all work out? Well, that's the point.
Good or bad, there's always something to be extrapolated for either future actors or the casual passerby. Expertise:Credentials/Links: www.imdb.com/name/nm0791487/,
www.parryshen.com,
www.myspace.com/parryshen
"SI" West Coast Launch Party, this Sat. May 30 and So. Cal events!!
* EDIT: Kirin Beer is the beer sponsor. Hakutsuru Sake will be providing the Sake. There was a conflict with the Kogi Truck but in lieu, Marked 5's truck will have their truck parked outside after the event and selling their delicious Torakku Burgers with handmade rice buns! Check out their menu here: http://www.marked5.com/menu.html STOP! Before you make your weekend plans, be sure to set some time aside for "SI"!
Sapporo will be sponsoring the evening. The famous Kogi Taco Truck (http://www.yelp.com/biz/kogi-los-angeles) will make an appearance, music, desserts, a gallery presentation of original artwork from the book and silent auction.
Hear the contributors' inspirations about their respective pieces and you'll witness an original Asian American superhero created on the spot from the audience's suggestions and drawn to life in a shootout by our contributing artists on hand. The event is free and open to the public - parking is available for $6.50 in a lot located directly across the street.
Scheduled to appear : Lynn Chen, Keiko Agena, Bernard Chang, Michael Kang, Jonathan Tseui, Daniel Jai Lee, A.L. Baroza, Jason Sperber, Benton Jew, Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma.
However, if you can't make the big shin-dig on Saturday, there are PLENTY of other opportunities to catch us ALL OVER Southern California that weekend:
Scheduled to appear : Keiko Agena, Benton Jew, Jonathan Tseui, Michael Kang, A.L. Baroza, Koji Steven Sakai, Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma.
As you can see, it's very easy to get too big for one's britches with all these stores rolling out the royal treatment with their in-store promotions, which is why seeing something like this - a patron using our book as his personal coaster - is great to knock you back down into reality every once in awhile!
Since May is officially Asian American Heritage Month, we at Secret Identities are going bi-coastal to kick off the festivities.
First up, SI Editor Keith Chow and legendary writer/artist Greg LaRocque ("Trinity") will be celebrating Free Comic Book Day at Super Villains, Inc. in Nottingham, Maryland beginning at 11am on May 2nd.
Then, on the other side of the country on May 2nd, SI Editors Jeff Yang and I, with writer Jason Sperber ("Many Masks") will be facilitating a workshop at the Japanese American National Museum as part of the one-day "Imagined Futures" conference.
The workshop will be from 2-4pm and is open and free to all -- to register for the workshops, participants can visit the Imagined Futures group on Facebook, email ImaginedFutures2009@gmail.com, or call the Japanese American National Museum at 213-625-0414.
Here are the programming details for the "SecretIdentities" Workshop:
ALTERNATE REALITIES: Re-Imagining America Through the Lens of Graphic Fiction: What if the U.S. were originally colonized by its first explorers--the Chinese? What if Japan had never attacked Pearl Harbor ? What if masked marvels and caped crusaders were a matter of fact, not fantasy?
Jumping off from the "shadow history" presented in the new graphic novel collection SECRET IDENTITIES: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, editors Jeff Yang (Asian Pop columnist, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE), and Parry Shen (actor, BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) will use the conventions of comic book continuity to frame exercises that consider how the world--and our own lives as Asian Americans--might be different if major historical events had taken a different path.
In the second half of the workshop, writers and artists will be put into teams to collaborate in creating and presenting outlines of graphic short stories set in these new imagined realities. Participants should bringsamples of their artwork or writing (sequential or otherwise). A book signing and sales will follow.
Then later that day at 5pm, we will be joined by artists Benton Jew ("Driving Steel"), Martin Hsu ("Long"), and A.L. Baroza ("A Day at CostumeCo") for a booksigning at Kinokuniya on 123 Astronaut E. Onizuka Street in Los Angeles.
Keith Chow and Jerry Ma will be on hand at Booth #21 signing copies of Secret Identities and selling specially made SI t-shirts with this print of the ENTIRE SI Universe drawn by Jerry Ma - (Man, I want one!)
Today "SI" EIC, Jeff Yang was on the NY-Based radio talk show. It was a great segment for the book but in particular, there was a lot of great discourse and input from the listeners, here's a sampling:
"As '70's kids desperately hungry for Asian faces in U.S. media, we always suspected/hoped that Marcie, Peppermint Patty's more cautious friend from "Peanuts", was actually Asian. Check the classically Chinese bobbed/banged haircut, the glasses, and the stereotypical academic overachievement and ineptitude at sports. Also, she's curiously familiar with classical music (probably not by choice, if you met her mother.) Plus, like us, she showed un-American elder respect, with the constant "Sir" bit." - EVA
"I've always been surprised at the paucity of Asian superheroes in comics. There's lots of Asian comic book fans, and many of the most popular artists (such as Jae Lee, Jim Lee) are Asian. And there's a lot of influence of Asian arts and culture.There seem to be far fewer African-American and Latino creators, but more of a demand for that representation." - CBrown
"It's not just comic books here. Asians to the best of my knowledge are not represented in any major way in the American media spectrum. " - Betty Anne from UES
"I'm not sure there is a need to force more Asian superheroes because they already permeate American culture. The best selling graphic novels at any given Barnes & Noble store are Japanese Mangas which all feature Asian heroes. Maybe your complaint is is that DC/Marvel need more asian heroes, but it doesn't matter because children and teenagers overwhelming prefer reading Japanese mangas that feature Asian heroes." - Favian from NJ
"Favian, you're mixing up two very different things between Asian comics and characters versus Asian American ones. There is a huge difference of life experiences between the two."- Jason from Midtown
Sweet! The above aired a few days ago on ABC News with Charlie Gibson. So cool to hear him intro the book -- sounds so official!
Well, some good news -- we finally got word that the book was finally ordered through Borders in the Graphic Novel Section! So they should be arriving soon! Now to work on the comic store situation and Barnes & Noble. Don't want to get too much into it but basically a change in distributors and Diamond's (distributes comics) change in warehouses - our book fell through the cracks but is being rectified now.
The bad/kinda good news - is that the re-direct to amazon.com has worked so well that they are currently sucked dry of their copies! So it' selling but ordered are going to be delayed a bit -- but more are being replenished as we speak so keep doing what you're doing! Here are 2 of my favorite reviews so far:
VONS COMICS REVIEW - I particularly like this one because it's honest and fair. Points out what we could do better the next time but also points out where we succeeded in accomplishing. We'd much rather get a mixed/critical well thought out review than a blanket accolade any day.
Words are really inadequate to describe the import of this work. Revolutionary, historic, groundbreaking? The feeling I had when it was delivered was like holding an advance copy of Takaki's work, "Strangers From a Different Shore". I was holding something that hadn't been seen before. After reading it, I was speechless, because for the first time in this genre, I saw myself reflected unapologetically in the stories and artwork contained in the pages of this book. I never thought I'd live to see the day where I had the opportunity to read about APA superheroes and eventually, share them with my children. An excellent job by everyone involved in this project, and a "must own" for the personal libraries of anyone interested in Asian-American studies, modern mythology and folklore/oral histories. After picking some copies up for your friends and family, ask your local library to carry it. Smart, witty, and visually stunning, I hope this title is only the vanguard and herald of more to come.
What is "SECRET IDENTITIES?" Documentary/SI Editor's Letter
Dear Friends,
During the first leg of our college book tour last week for "Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology", the editors and I made a very disturbing discovery when we made impromptu stops at major bookstores in between appearances:
Bookstores were NOT carrying "Secret Identities" nor had any plans to do so.
We were told customers could place orders at the stores but as far as physical self space? Nada.The situation was the same in the stores around us in Baltimore, D.C., Southern California, and New York.
The reason?Well, we’ve been given several of them: “Stores are confused whether the book fits under Asian American Studies or Graphic Novels”, “It’s an accounting error”, “You’ve got too small of a print run”, and of course the popular “E” word these days… “The Economy”.
So I’m finding myself having to appeal to the Asian American Community once again in an open letter as I did 6 years ago for “Better Luck Tomorrow” – asking that readers request the book at their local bookstores and/or order copies online through: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com.
Looking back at that letter, I chuckle at the dramatic statements I wrote like: “changing society” and “this is your vote” -- but in hindsight, the film did set off a chain of events in motion… changing our society just a tiny bit for the better and it was all due to the AA Community.
Back then “BLT”, directed by Justin Lin, was initially screening on 13 screens and we needed to make $10,000/screen in order to be put into wider release. The community came out in droves and the film made $27,750/screen that first weekend and “BLT” was the #1 film per/screen, besting “Anger Management”.
This resulted in an immediate green light for “Harold & Kumar Goes to White Castle” starring John Cho and Kal Penn.
Fast forward 6 years, and John can next be seen on May 9th as “Sulu” in Paramount’s “Star Trek” and Kal in the White House as the Office of Public Liaison’s new Associate Director!
Justin’s outing last week as the director of “Fast & Furious” (along with “BLT” alums Roger fan & Sung Kang) broke the record for the biggest April opening ever – set 6 years ago ironically by “Anger Management”.
And on the acting front, over the years I’ve personally seen an outstanding bumper crop of young, talented AA actors who have gotten into the business as a direct result of “BLT” – all of whom have been giving me a run for my money at auditions – not so hot for my bank account but regardless, awesome for Asian Americans in the media.
So the request is out once again.
Author, Maxine Hong Kingston once wrote: ‘If you see a person [in the movies] 40 feet tall on screen that is a 3 Dimensional character, you can’t help but fall in love with him/her – and once that’s accompanied with an Asian face, it changes perceptions.’
And superheroes can be 100feet tall, soar the skies
and run faster than a speeding bullet. They are America’s
pop culture myths and icons.
If you flip 3 pages into our book, you’ll come across the Acknowledgments page and the list of SI Babies who were born during this 2-year labor (no pun intended) of love – making it abundantly clear as to why we made this book.
So that the next generation wouldn’t have to grow up without seeing heroes that look like them and yes, perhaps maybe even changing the world just a little bit.
But at the end of the day, it’s a great book filled with tales from over 60 of the finest Asian American artists and writers:
"SECRET IDENTITIES is ambitious because of the inherent contradiction it confronts in its stated goals: to challenge racial bias and stereotype without pigeon-holing the single largest and diverse race on Earth; to show the Asian diaspora in all its girth and all its local unity. Its ambition is to be incredulous ("How dare you say that about us?") without sounding indignant ("How dare you ignore us?"). And most importantly, enough's enough for these guys." -- PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
"Uniformly energetic, the art ranges from mainstream-comics bravura to manga-influenced sassiness to alt-comics mannerism... The satire... amuses and sometimes strikes deeper to the heart." -- BOOKLIST
The 10-minute documentary above fully answers the question: “What is SECRET IDENTITIES?” – so if it sounds like something you or someone you know might enjoy, please pass the link along and visit an online distributor to get your copies (Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com) so that we might have the numbers to continue towards a Volume 2… which is most definitely being talked about amongst us. Teachers and Professors may contact Rachel Guidera (rguidera@thenewpress.com) for classroom bulk sales.
On behalf of my co-editors/brothers in arms: Jeff Yang, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma, we leave our work on the table and fate to the powers that be. There's a certain point when you've done all that you can and we're extremely proud of what we've put together. Thank you for your support and enjoy the book!
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Since May is officially Asian American Heritage Month, we at Secret Identities are going bi-coastal to kick off the festivities. 
