Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

The train wreck saga that is The Gosselins made this year's costume a no-brainer! Kim and I nabbed 'Most Creative' with this duo.  It was either this or Balloon Boy (and NOT the kid from "UP!")

A LOT easier to put together than last year's -- as the weapons maker mogul Tony Stark (pre-Mark 2 and 3 fabrications, of course.)

Okay, this has been the longest gap in which I haven't posted.  With all the Facebooking and Tweeting these day, it is just so much easier to fire off one sentence and be done with it. 

But to catch everyone up to speed, here's what's been going on since July:

- Avery and Kori are getting bigger, ages 4 and 1 respectively.  And as you can see they  have already started driving (at Lowe's).

- The San Diego Comic Con was a HUGE success.  We were told selling a graphic novel at our price point, averaging about 15 sales for each of the 5 days would be REALLY optimistic. 

However, we averaged about 30 sales/day for a total of 153!  Lots of our contribs were there to help with signings and draw different crowds with their respective fan bases.  Ex: Keiko Agena brought in her female 'Gilmore Girl' fan base who would never have given us the time of day and Kelly Hu brought in the guys who were too cool for school to give us the time of day.

SECRET IDENTITIES is currently nearing its 3rd printing and we are most definetly getting the ball rolling on Volume II!

Also, amongst the thousand of people at SDCC, look at who I bump into  - Jason Tobin (aka 'Virgil' from "BLT")!

- I'm providing a voice for an upcoming video game.  It's all hush-hush but it will be this company's largest to date. 

At first I was only syncing my voice to a video clip of the stunt person doing all the movement and interaction.  But it was honestly one of the most challenging acting experiences I've ever encountered having to 'match' the intentions of my voice/performance with the physical traits that someone else provided.

And the producers and casting director could tell.  So they came up with an awesome solution. 

As you can see, we the actors are now suited up.  The tiny nodes on our suits motion capture (mo-cap) our movements into the computer.  The bar attached to my helmet has a tiny camera that records all my facial movements (as seen in these monitors) and also inserted is a tiny microphone to record my voice. 

It's basically like shooting any other movie but just taking care not to bump into the other actor's face rigs or having a node fall off (which would make it look like a body part fell off in the computer) - oh, that and trying to take each other seriously in this ridiculous get up.

The nodes don't actually light up, it's the light reflected from the camera's flash.  We perform in this grid and the nodes get picked up from the red lights stationed all around us.  It was kinda cool to not have to worry about where the camera was because no matter where we moved, we were caught from every conceiveable angle!

- And finally, I've been secretly drawing lately. 

I actually used to draw fairly frequently -- like the Sesame Street characters for the playhouse I made for Avery that I wrote about in this entry.

But man, after hanging out these past few years with professional artists for SECRET IDENTITIES, it's just humbling for a lack of a better word. 

For example, imagine you're doing Karaoke with some friends and all of a sudden the cast of MAMA MIA! walks in and just gets up on stage and does their thing. 

Sure, you could keep on singing and they're not intentionally trying to embarass you but it's a whole different level. 

I mean look at this drawing of prize fighter, Manny Pacquiao for a shirt our Art Director, Jerry Ma just whipped up because he felt like it a few days ago.

 And then Cliff Chiang did this awesome tribute to the late Director John Hughes - the Teen Titans as "The Breakfast Club"!

Ming Doyle just started drawing this hilarious comic strip once a week called the "The Loneliest Astronauts".

And last week, Bernard Chang whipped up this live painting of Wonder Woman for charity at the Baltimore Comic Con.

However at the same time, it's impossible to not get inspired and WANT to draw when you see these folks in action (I witnessed Bernard draw BUMBLEBEE from 'The Transformers' for a kid while playing poker!!!)

So I thought, what have I been inspired by lately? 

Well, that's easy... anything Apple.  Yes, I'm taking about the Steve Jobs Cult.  I am a PC to Mac convert.  It started with the iphone back in May and then I dove in and bought the 24" iMac -- so that was the jumping off point for this drawing below:

The reason I chose Plastic Man as my muse is because until I get more practice in, the guy's what I call: 'Accident Friendly'. 

If you're not familiar with 'Plas' -- he's a superhero that can take on the shape of whatever he envisions - the only catch is that he can't change colors or anything, so his costume usually gives him away but that's also what makes him such a fun character.

I refer to him as 'Accident Friendly' because if I happen to make his arms a different length, I can simply justify it as Plastic Man intentionally making his arms uneven -- he can be anything he wants! 

I mean, now looking at the final product  - you can see the bottom right of the 'screen' is not as straight as the left bottom - well to that I say, "It's 'supposed' to be like that, he was in mid-shift on his way into morphing into something else!"

Well, things have been going swimmingly with Secret Identities.  We sold out of our initial print run and are in our second printing of the book.  Lots of professors are slowly adopting the book into their applicable courses using these lesson plans.

And last week we (SI Universe Media), helped put together the very first Asian American Comic Con at the MOCA Museum.  It was a HUGE success and definetly filled a niche that was missing as almost 500 people came out to the event -- even though we had a cap of 250.

One of the highlights was filmed by MTV, where fellow SI contrib, Bernard Chang 'art battled' his studio pal, Sean Chen.  As you can see in the video clip below, Bernard somehow roped me into the battle and I happened to just walk by and the camera caught my baffled reaction to the whole thing:

Now, we are gearing up for the big one next week -- the San Diego Comic Convention (July 22-July 26).

For the past two years I've gone as a bystander -- seeking out contributors for the book.  This will be the first year I'll be going as an exhibitor with my own graphic novel -- a pretty cool thing.

But the thing I'm most stoked about is NOT having to pound the pavement and just staying in one place to sell books -- because my feet were killing me last year!

Also, this will be Avery's first time at the con -- should be a trip to see her reaction to a million square feet of comic book heaven.

We'll be situatuated in Booth #1735 under Jerry's Epic Proportions banner.  And as you can see, we've got a great lineup of folks coming in to sign the book.  And on Saturday, we'll be issuing a limited litho of Kelly Hu and Cliff Chiang's character "JIA" during their signing from 2-4pm.

Additionally each artist dropping by will sketch either an existing Asian Superhero or one in "Secret Identities" as a part of a collage/jam piece - which will be raffled off to one lucky winner at the end of the convention on Sunday!

However in order to get an entry, folks need to first show us 10 collected signatures in their copy of "SI" from the 19 contributors spread toughout the convention.  Hell, I may just go run around and collect signatures for myself to win this thing! 

It should be a good time and great to finally have this at the biggest comic convention in the world.  Passes have been sold out for almost 2 months - so if you've been lucky to get a pass, stop by and join the SI Scavenger Hunt.   Here are the locations of all the contribs that will be present (from right-left on this nifty map that may help):

EXHIBITOR TABLES:
  - Martin Hsu # G-02
MAIN FLOOR:
  - Cliff Chiang # 1322
   - Jeff Yang/Parry Shen/Keith Chow/Jerry Ma/Walden Wong # 1735
   - Keiko Agena (Fri)/Ming Doyle (Fri)/Kelly Hu (Sat) # 1735
  -  Bernard Chang # 1821
  -  Kazu Kibuishi/Anthony wu/Sonny Liew # 2329
  -  Francis Tsai # 2629, #1415
ARTISTS' ALLEY:
   - Gene yang # AA-4
   - Benton Jew # EE-02
   - Dustin nguyen # FF-04
   - Vince Sunico # GG-18 (Sat/Sun)

Also Secret Identities Editor-in-Chief Jeff Yang will be moderating a unique panel titled Four Color Reality: Making Comics Relevant to Readers Across Cultures in Room 3 on Friday, July 24 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Panelists include Dwayne McDuffie (Milestone Comics, Justice League), Gail Simone (Wonder Woman), Gene Yang (American Born Chinese), Stuart Moore (Wolverine: Noir, The 99) and Jai Nitz (Blue Beetle, El Diablo).

Panel Description:
Four Color Reality: Making Comics Relevant to Readers Across Cultures. Comic book stories have become the core of American pop culture—is there a big-budget spectacular that doesn’t in some fashion owe its existence to comic book roots these days? But sales of traditional-format comic books themselves have been in decline for years. This panel explores one reason for this shrinking market: the divergence between the identities of mainstream comic icons—who are typically straight, white, male and American—and the demographic makeup of a new generation of readers. How can the comic book industry connect with changing audiences—not just of diverse races and backgrounds, but of different cultural and national origins as well?

* 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"!

You are cordially invited to the "Secret Identities" Southern California Launch party this Saturday, May 30 at the Japanese American National Museum at 6:30pm.

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. 

It should be a fun night to get your copies signed and sketched in by a slew of contribs (here's an example on the right that was done at a previous event):


Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Sat, May 30 - 6:30pm-11pm

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:

*indicates simultaneous events

2) *Friday, May 29 – 7:30 to 8:30pm (video+talk+signing)

1) Sat, May 30 – 11 to 1pm
(video+talk+signing)

1) *Sun, May 31 – 12 to 4pm (Meet & Greet)

2) *Sunday, May 31 - 3 to 4:30pm
(video+talk+signing)
Borders - Thousand Oaks
125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
(805) 497-8159

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!

And for those on the East Coast, save the date for July 11th for our NYC bash at the Museum of Chinese in America!

Please spread the word and don't forget to add your comments on our Amazon product page! 

Secret Identities Across The Country

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.  

LISTEN

OR WATCH

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:

TROLL IN THE CORNER REVIEW

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. 

COMIC BULLETIN REVIEW

REAPPROPRIATE REVIEW

However, this review on Amazon.com is just awesome because you can tell the book really hit home with Manuel:

By	Manuel B. Zuniga, Jr. (Pittsburgh, PA USA)

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.

And here's us on the radio:

Radio Interview on NPR with Keith Chow and myself

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 9^th 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 100 feet 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!

Sincerely,

Parry Shen

Managing Editor

SECRET IDENTITIES

"Peril" can be found on page 183 of "Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology." This is the eighth and final motion comic preview.

Mason Wong learns that his father has been incarcerated and accused of spying on the United States. His father, Dr. Benjamin Wong, was a research scientist that helped develop a series of nanotechnology prototypes that gave people superhuman abilities. Mason is sent on a quest by his fathers partner, Dr. Malcolm Eady, to retrieve a weapon before it gets into the wrong hands.

Peril was partially inspired by the real life case against Dr. Wen Ho Lee. In 1999, Lee, a Chinese American scientist who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory was indicted on 59 counts of espionage, jailed in solitary confinement for several months, and released on time served after the government failed to prove its case against him.

He was ultimately charged with one count of mishandling sensitive documents, while the other 58 counts were dropped. In the months leading up to Lees indictment and release, several media organizations, and top federal officials, had made Lees name public, which exacerbated perceptions that the foreign-born Lee was a threat to national security.

Written by Keith Chow, with art by Jef Castro, "Peril" is one of the 52 originally conceived superheroes of the S.I.Universe.

"S.O.S." can be found on page 93 of "Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology" and is parody piece commentating on the topic of outsourcing.  Visionary Raju "Bobby" Raval, founder of "Superhero Outsource Services" aka "S.O.S." provides a "super" support system for the thrifty Superhero in today's tough economy -- eliminating the costly hassles of sidekicks or extra team members.

Keep an eye out at the end for a certain ill-tempered, cowled knight - whose mood can be best described as "Dark" when Bobby Raval accidentally steps into the frame.  Written by Tanuj Chopra and drawn by Alex Joon Kim, this wonderfully satirical piece is one of the many examples of how SECRET IDENTITIES highlights relevant, world issues by sometimes taking it to the absurd.

This ends the preview trailers from me personally and was the one I had the most fun with.  I kept crackin' up finding little places to slot in gems like adding the explosion during the whole 'cut the red/blue wire exchange', the cheesy yet appropriate Falcon Crest theme and then elevator music over the "Please Stand By" still. 

And then I just went to town and got myself hoarse doing the whole shouting match at the end.  It's not in the book but I kept staring at that last Batman panel I chose to end the video with and kept debating with myself: "Should I?"  "Naw."  "It'll be funny."  "But it's not in the book."  "Oh screw it, what the heck..." 

You can see in the end credits the "movie magic" behind it.  Basically I just printed out the panels, taped the Batman one to a dresser and Bobby onto a ruler (making him into a puppet to 'walk in').  I'm sure Greg Pak (from the last video) or Youtube's HappySlip  would know how to really animate folks walking in -- but alas, I've got the editing software that came with my 6 year old computer.  I'm pullin' out all the tricks Robert Rodriguez style!

I also had to make up for our big botch in the book -- we somehow left out artist, Alex Joon Kim's bio in the contributor's section!  Anyway, check out the last preview next week when co-editor Keith Chow pieces his story -- "Peril" together!  Then the fllowing week, I've got one last big 10 minute documentary to air that will delve into 95% of the book's stories and origins from interviews with the editors themselves.

This Monday, we kick off our booktour in the mid-west and share this thing face to face with actual copies of the book for the first time!  Stop by if you're near!

And then from Apr 3-4, we'll be making an appearance at the MAASU Conference hosted by the University of Michigan with 600 stand-ins.

We made these cool postcards that also double as masks to stand in for us in our absence.  Wish we were there to see 600 people walking around wearing these things!  But maybe at this year's comic con in San Diego!

Here, Avery models the front and back of these wearable postcards. 

Btw, I didn't even tell her to pose that way for the first shot -- scary.

Then this shot of me is when all the fun pictures and excitment of smelling the shiny postcards died down and I slowly realized that I'd have to personally assemble and attach the elastic bands to six-hundred freakin' postcards!

Here's the completed batch before they were shipped out to Michigan.  Wear them well next weekend, MAASU! 

My hands have now contracted a very rare type of carpal tunnel syndrome classified as "Guerilla-Marketing-itis".