Work by Ashton Marhevka
In the course Comics in the Archive, taught by Daniel Worden at Rochester Institute of Technology, students researched the comics library within the Cary Collection, one of the world’s premier libraries on graphic communication history and practices. The collection includes early copies of American Born Chinese donated by the author, Gene Luen Yang.
Course Description: This is a course on archiving and analyzing comic books. Using the Cary Graphic Arts Collection’s Archives, we will explore, document, and analyze the unique print characteristics of comic books and their cultural contexts. We will also work with digitized copies of comics from the archive, to produce innovative accounts of comics as a print and visual medium.
For the class’s final project, Ashton Marhevka created the following zine detailing how the Yang Collection’s copies of American Born Chinese evidence differences between comic publishing methods. By comparing the early mini-comics to the graphic novel version from First Second, Marhevka demonstrates the diverse affordances and aims of these different publishing methods. Additionally, Marhevka demonstrates how these two versions of the same comic highlight Gene Yang’s artistic journey throughout his career and the many ways the industry as a whole has looked over time.
Text Version of the Zine
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE AND ITS COMICS PUBLISHING JOURNEY
The American comics industry has evolved massively over the years, with this change evident in the career of comic artist and writer Gene Luen Yang. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, and “is only the third graphic novelist to receive the honor in its 35-year history” (Cheng-Tozun 43). While he has worked on stories such as Shang-Chi and Avatar the Last Airbender for major publishers Marvel and Dark Horse, he started off his career by self-publishing his mini-comics at local comic conventions.
During our class’s Zoom interview with Yang, he explained what enticed him specifically to mini-comics was the collections of self-published mini-comics made by local artists that he found at nearby comic shops while attending college at UC Berkeley.
“Some of the most interesting stuff in that entire store was on that mini-comics shelf, and that felt Like something I could do…There was no one who could tell me no, I was not relying on anyone giving me permission to do it.”
One of the mini-comics he created, American Born Chinese, went on to be picked up by First Second and published as a graphic novel. The story focuses around three central characters and the ways their struggles with identity interconnect:
Images of Danny, Jin Wang, and The Honkey King
On top of creating comics, Yang has also been collecting comics since the fifth grade.
The Yang Collection, donated to RIT by Gene Yang himself, is a collection of independently published comic books that Yang collected during his time selling mini-comics at various comic conventions in the Bay Area during the 9Os-2OOOs, including the work of his many colleagues and even early versions of his work.
The Yang Collection’s original copies of American Born Chinese mini-comics serve as a visual testament to Yang’s transition from small to mainstream comics publishing. By looking deeper into these original mini-comic prints of Gene Luen Yang’s work, we can gain a better understanding of the differences between working with a publisher versus self-publishing.
Within American Born Chinese, Yang’s passion for comics and storytelling is evident throughout its creation.
“because my own cultural heritage was such an important part of how I found my place in the world, I wanted to do some kind of story where that was the focus” (2023 NSK Lecture).
This personal style of writing has a welcome home within indie comics, especially due to the underground comix movement, with artists like Art Spiegelman and titles such as Centerfold Manifesto…
“This double-page text insists that comics should be experimental personal statements crafted by artists.” (Williams 32)
Furthermore, many of the self-published comics that are available in the Yang Collection are semiautobiographical in nature, emphasizing Yang’s deep connection to the indie comics scene.
Many of American Born Chinese’s themes around identity and self-acceptance are drawn from his upbringing, since “At school, Yang was one of a few Asian students and was regularly mocked by his classmates. His faith also made him an outsider, as some aspects of Christianity have been viewed by some as incompatible with Eastern traditions… While a student at the University of California Berkeley, Yang found himself in a majority Asian American population for the first time in his life. “I think that was when I started being able to explain and understand the discomfort I had had since I was a kid” (Cheng-Tozun 44).
Comics panels from American Born Chinese issue 1, pages 24-25
These bits of the artist are especially evident within the mini-comic versions of American Born Chinese, with issues 2.2 and 3.1 featuring small sections of writing in the back which Gene himself describes as “my twenty-something self ranting”.
Examples from Gene:
Well, that’s it for the Monkey King storyline of American Born Chinese. What’d you think? I’ve really only covered a mere fracc1on of Wu Ch’eng-en·s Journey to the West. If you like what I’ve done, you really owe it to yourself to read the source material. (Plus, once you read the original, you’ll realize how many liberties I’ve taken with my own version. If you’re interested, I have two suggestions for you, both available from your favorite online book retailer.
Monkey translated by Arthur Waley Waley’s translation is the classic English-language version of Journey to the West. This book contains all sorts of interesting tidbits about the origins of the Monkey King’s demon enemies. It’s a bit heavy at times (it was first published in the late 1940s) but readable. Monkey: A Journey to the West, translated by David Kherdian, was pure entertainment, this is my favorite translation. Kherdian has wonderful writing voice, and the whole book reads like a Harry Potter novel. It’s not quite as detailed as the Waley version, but it’s a page-turner. Neither of these translations is complete. There is a complete English-language translation of Journey to the West, but I’ve never read it myself. I’m ashamed to say, I don’t even have the author’s name. Sorry. Maybe somebody who knows can e-mail me? misteryang@yahoo.com
The wonderful folks at Slave Labor Graphics recently published a graphic novel collecting my Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order mini-comics series. This is the sequel to Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks. Loyola had a run on ModernTales, too, so if you’re into online comics you may be familiar with it. I added twelve extra pages of story to the SLG version. Lots of people think it’s awesome, but they’re all related to me, so who knows? If you have trouble finding it at your local comic book store visit Slave Labor’s website at www.slavelabor.com
Karol Wojtyla, more popularly known as Pope John Paul II, passed away recently. His death had much more of an emotional impact on me than I thought it would. I grew up in a Chinese Roman Catholic family, and in college my Chinese-ness and my Roman Catholic-ness came to a head. I learned to call myself “Asian” instead of “Oriental,” and I began questioning whether a church led by a white man in a pointy white hat was really the place for me.
The more I learned about this particular white man in a pointy white hat, though, the more he grew on me. First of all, he was from Poland, a country that consistently found itself on the short end of the stick as far as ethnic struggles were concerned. Second, he stood up against—and is credited with taking down—Eastern European Communism, and my folks are no fans of Communism. It is, after all, a major reason I’m American Born Chinese, rather than just Chinese. My mom could tell you the stories. Third, he lived a life of unwavering integrity in his relationships, in his beliefs, and in his personal conduct. That, in a media-saturated age in a scandal-ridden church, is no small feat.
And, you have to admit, he looked pretty good in the pointy white hat. He had an aura about him. So, thanks JP2, for everything. You’ll be a tough act to follow.
Visit my website! www.humblecomics.com
Email me! misteryang@yahoo.com
(From American Born Chinese issue 2.2)
I suck at endings. I’ve been doing comics for close to a decade now, and I don’t think I’ve ever written an ending that I’m completely satisfied with. Scary, especially considering that I’m 2/3 of the way through with American born Chinese at the period it’s all ending run out.
Case you were wondering, the Jin storyline isn’t autobiographical. I had white friends in elementary school. My best friend in the 3rd and 4th grades was white. But I do remember the beginning of my FOB-phobia. There was a Chinese immigrant a grade or two below me who would follow me around during recess and talk at me in loud grating Mandarin. The teachers on yard duty kept insisting that I play with him, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to in my bones, in the deepest parts of me. I also remember being called a “chink.”
The ugliest and most embarrassing thing about racism is that I found it inside me, and I found it in abundance. In the months after 9-11, before we’d gotten back to our lattes and our cell phones, things came out of my mouth that startled me and those around me.
Once I was sitting at lunch with a group of coworkers discussing current events. “They’re going to have a hard time finding that bin Laden guy,” I said. “They all dress the same over there.” I think I was trying to be witty or something. Everyone just looked at their sandwiches until somebody switched topics.
I’m a father now. My son is close to 10 months and cuter than anyone has a right to be. Fatherhood is more grueling than I’d imagined, especially during the first few months. I had no idea that my body could function on so little sleep.
Just two weeks ago Kolbe (named after a Catholic saint, not the basketball star, notice the L) started crawling. He now can get himself from one room of the house to another, marking his path with a thin trail of drool. He growls like a tiger as he goes, like he’s on the hunt.
Sometimes when I’m hunched over my drawing table inking my latest page, I’ll hear him shuffling down the hallway, panting and growling and drooling. I turn around and look at him, he giggles with his fist in his mouth, and I wonder why I’m wasting my time drawing comics when I could be playing with him.
Slave Labor Graphics put out a Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks graphic novel this past May under their AmazeInk imprint. Gordon was the first comic I did as an adult. Some of the artwork makes me cringe when I look at it now, but overall I’m still happy with it. The SLG folks did a great job with the packaging, and it’s got an all new 10 page backup story. If you can’t find it at your local comic book store, you can find it at www.slavelabor.com.
There are so many people to thank for helping me create American Born Chinese: my wife, my kid (just for being cute), my brother, my parents, Derek, Jesse, Jason, Lark, Thien, the Madera Men, Joey and the ModernTales crew, the comic seminar folks, Global Hobo, Comic Relief, and everyone who’s ever said an encouraging word or sent an encouraging e-mail. And thank YOU especially for reading the latest issue.
(From American Born Chinese issue 3.1)
He admitted when asked about them…
“I forgot that they were there, I don’t remember having those there.”
As for why these often quite interesting texts are in the mini-comic versions and not the graphic novel, Gene explained that there was probably leftover space at the end of these mini-comics that he needed to quickly fill with something and that he simply forgot about these sections when it came time to publish American Born Chinese with First Second.
While a minor detail that the artist himself easily overlooked, these blurbs of texts highlight the love Yang has for making comics and the hard work he put into making such a personally significant story.
American Born Chinese took off and reached massive success, eventually reaching the interests of publishers at First Second Books…
The decision from First Second to publish American Born Chinese as a graphic novel makes sense given the current precedent for graphic novels in the comics industry. Sales of periodical issues decreased to a point that “at the end of the 1970s, foreseeing the death of comics had been repeated to the point of cliche. The ambient background for novel talk was this murmur of decline, with book formats and glossy magazines peppering the conversation as a way out of the malaise” (Williams 26). Alternative comics creators at the time followed this shift in the market and experimented with newer ways to sell comics to more people.
Many independent and alternative comic works, such as A Contract with God, helped popularize the term graphic novel and sparked an interest in comics in novel formats, with this type of comic book being one of the most popularly sold today.
Pie chart showing Comic Book Sales by Format (2013) (according to WordsRated):
Other (Digital Comics, etc.): 10.4%
Comic Books: 42%
Graphic Novels: 47.7%
Pie chart showing Comic Book Sales by Format (2021) (according to WordsRated).
Other (Digital Comics, etc.): 8.2%
Comic Books: 21%
Graphic Novels: 70.8%
It was this publishing deal with First Second that helped transition Yang’s career into mainstream comics.
“Just a few months after it was published, American Born Chinese was nominated for a National Book Award. A couple of newspapers wanted to do articles about me and the book” (2023 NSK Lecture).
Furthermore, “American Born Chinese has been embraced across American society and has become a literary staple in classrooms nationwide” (Cheng-Tozun 47).
The experiences of artists working between these two different publishing methods, independent vs mainstream publishing, vary wildly. This is made even more obvious when looking at Yang’s own start in comics publishing. He stated over Zoom that after creating his first mini-comic,
“I did not sell very many copies. I sold maybe a few dozen and I Lost a Lot of money doing it too, but it was so fun that I just kept doing it too.”
It’s a good thing he kept doing it. Not only did he give us amazing comics, but he has also said
“Before, I would Lose money every time I put out a comic book. Now, I was actually making money” (2023 NSK Lecture).
This also shows how this environmental transition in comic publishing is felt financially.
While Yang has since gone on to write numerous critically-acclaimed comics for many major publishers, the influences of Yang’s early days in comics can still be felt in American Born Chinese’s story.
Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order are more of Yang’s early mini-comics that are available in the Yang Collection.
Both stories follow high schoolers who navigate friendships and insecurities while finding themselves in wacky situations with supernatural or mythological circumstances that force them on journeys of self-discovery, not unlike the story of Jin in American Born Chinese.
These other works from Yang available in the Collection show us that even when working in very different environments, these core themes surrounding identity have always been important to Yang’s writing and artistry.
With this in mind, it’s worth noting that Yang also helped create the DC superhero the Monkey Prince, with the character first appearing in DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 in 2021.
Marcus Shugel-Shen is the adoptive son of criminal henchmen whose biological “father” is The Monkey King from Chinese mythology, showing us the recurring role these specific influences continue to play in Yang’s work.
One of the most notable differences when working with a publishing company is the presence of an editor, who can oversee your work and make sure the details of your comics are precise. This editorial presence can be felt in the minor visual differences between the American Born Chinese mini-comics and the official graphic novel.
Most of these small notes refer to tangents that aren’t there in the graphic novel version, and in the Yang collection’s mini-comics there are pencil marks where many of these small compositional corrections were made.
Scans from American Born Chinese issue 1, pages 1 and 19
The editor at First Second for American Born Chinese was Mark Siegel!
There aren’t many changes between the original mini-comics and the graphic novel of American Born Chinese, and those that are there aren’t very drastic.
Scans of the Mini-Comic alongside the same pages from the Graphic Novel
Seeing this much creative freedom being given to the artist when publishing is quite refreshing, given how mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC are notorious for how many convoluted restrictions, rules, and legal loopholes they make their artists and writers go through.
The close-knit, small-budget community of indie artists who work out of love for the craft is a stark contrast to the very organized, professional, assembly-line world of comics publishers like Marvel, DC, or even First Second.
Gene Yang and his colleague Briana Loewinsohn spoke about these experiences working with different publishers during their Zoom interview with our class.
Briana explained that during her work with Fantagraphics, a very popular independent publisher, “They let me do whatever I want…they’re really into making the artist’s vision come true, has been my experience at least.”
On the other hand, Gene stated that while working for Harvel and DC was a blast as a longtime superhero comics fan,
“You just don’t get that same level of control. They publish books that come out monthly, so there are really tight deadlines.”
For his experiences with First Second, the publishing imprint for American Born Chinese,
“All of the creator-owned stuff that I do, all the stuff where I’m not working with other people’s characters… I generally publish with First Second Books.”
He goes into further detail, stating that
“I think they’re kind of in between Fantagraphics and Harvel or DC…The benefit of working with someone Like First Second is I have full control over the story. When I would get notes back from my editors at Harvel or DC, those notes were not suggestions, I had to follow those notes because I was dealing with other people’s characters. Whereas when I get notes from my First Second editor, I can totally push back if I wanted to.”
A visualization of the overall publishing experience
While still not the same creative freedom as publishing avenues like Fantagraphics, First Second’s respect for the artist’s vision can be felt in the results of American Born Chinese, a story that is very important to Gene Yang.
(From American Born Chinese, page 239)
The printing process varies between these two publishing methods, with the lack of a publishing company to fund printing multiple copies of a book at the same time meaning that self-publishers like Yang need to get creative with their comic prints.
During his time making the American Born Chinese mini-comics in the early 2000s, Yang often worked with Xerox printers in places Like Kinkos, which could print multiple copies of comics pages at once at the expense of only printing in black and white. Not only did this method make printing costs significantly cheaper, but it also helped Yang -find a community of fellow indie comics artists.
According to his speech for the NSK Prize,
“There were a handful of conventions that focused on mini-comics: hand made, xeroxed comics. There was one called the Alternative Press Expo on the West Coast and another one called Small Press Expo on the East Coast” (2023 NSK Lecture)
showcasing the community that formed around this specific style of comics printing.
However, because these xerox-printed mini-comics were made with uniquely square-shaped pages, some creativity needed to be used when adapting these comic pages into First Second’s traditional 6″ x 8.5″ page format.
(An image of the first cover page for American Born Chinese)
According to Gene,
“When First Second started out, they had a company-wide trim size. They wanted all of their books to kind of have roughly the same trim size as manga, but they would be in full color. They have since deviated, now if you work with First Second you have some control. They have a few standard trim sizes you can choose from, but it’s not Like Fantagraphics where everything’s on the table.”
Instead of messing with the original layout and artwork by forcing the panels to fit a more traditional comic page layout, interior page designer Danica Novgorodoff made the wise decision to maintain this square layout. With the help of Guo Ming Chen, Chinese chops were designed and added to the top of the pages.
Scanned images of the two versions.
According to UNESCO, these types of traditional, artistically crafted seals were “originally used as a signature or sign of authority, but it came to be used by all social classes and in much of Asia”, and “as an instrument of calligraphy and painting, the seal is a work of art in itself”.
In the comic, a unique chop is given to each character and adorned at the top of each of their individual chapters for whenever we are reading from their perspective,
Images showing the symbols for Danny, Jin Wang, and Monkey King
as well as a chop at the very end of the book.
Not only do these adornments make creative use of the space on the page and help maintain a rather unique layout for the comic, they also further highlight parts of the characters and their culture that is so central to this story.
A scan of a comics page of the Money King floating in front of pillars. A textbox reads: There, at the end of all that is, the great sage came upon 5 pillars of gold.
Once American Born Chinese was printed under First Second publishing as a graphic novel and color printing was more financially and technically feasible, colorist Lark Pien was able to use colors in the graphic novel version to enhance the visual storytelling of the comic.
Scans of the version of page 1
One way that color printing is used to enhance the imagery of the original comics is how specific colors are used to bring attention to certain details within panels. A great example of these specific color choices to lead the reader’s eye along the panels is on page 29, which is in issue 1 of the American Born Chinese mini-comics available in the Yang collection.
Examples on next page
The composition of certain panels, such as the zoom-in on Jin’ s grandma’s face on the top left panel and the sound effects pointing towards the -figures of Jin and his grandma to the right in the bottom panel, already smooths the overall flow of reading along the page.
With the color printing of the graphic novel, Pien can add certain features in the artwork that further draw the reader’s attention to certain details.
The red of the grandma’s vest and hair accessory helps frame her face in the top left panel, and these same details as well as the red of Jin’ s chair in the bottom panel help emphasize their figures within this scene. Additionally, the complimentary earthy green of the background makes the bright red details stand out even more.
The artwork used to depict the character Chin-Kee is a great example of how the addition of color adds to the messaging of the original comics. Aptly summarized in Laughter Against Laughter, ” Laughter scripted toward Chin-Kee is a violent form of laughter that spills out from the panel frame into the gutter” (Oh 22). Chin-Kee is meant to be a visual representation of the negative stereotypes against Chinese Americans that make Jin feel uncomfortable and othered.
(Scans from American Born Chinese, pages 203 and 50)
In his attempt to blend into whiteness by literally transforming into Danny, a white teenager, he is constantly followed by “cousin Chin-Kee”, a manifestation of all of the ignorant ideas that make him feel insecure in his identity as a Chinese American. Chin-Kee is shown with many overtly caricatured features, such as buck teeth, slanted eyes, and a crude, perverted sense of humor.
(Scan from page 198)
Melissa Schieble touches on the history being confronted with Chin-Kee, explaining how these racist caricatures of the late 1800s and early 1900s “contributed to violence toward the Asian community and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese immigration for a period of ten years and caused roadblocks for Chinese laborers to leave and return to the United States” (Schieble 48).
She also explains some of the more modern-day inspirations behind Chin-Kee’s depiction, with his “desire for voluptuous American girls [being] a nod to Sixteen Candles’ Long Due Dong character, whom Yang describes as offering “oriental comic relief” in the film” (Schieble 48).
John Kuo Wei Tchen explains the history of the term “yellow peril” and how these dangerous stereotypes were felt in early comic books. “The historical precision of the term resonates both with a long history preceding its invention as well as with its continued unspoken relevance…
…When the Yanks “Scorched” the “Yellow Octopus” in 1945, as in this US Marine Corps comic book (pictured), the threat to western civilization seemed to have ended, for a brief moment at least. As other perils rose to prominence, the term yellow peril fell out of fashion… yet, the archive of books, manuscripts, images, and meaning still continues. While the term itself has faded into semi obscurity, fears crystallized and embedded in the west of yellow peril still remain and flourish” (Tchen 15).
Moreover, according to Aldo Regalado in Modernity, Race, and the American Superhero, writers, artists, industry executives, and audiences have historically, although often unconsciously, employed often divisive, exclusionary, and oppressive vocabulary of themes and images in the creation of characters, landscapes, and narratives that sell the dream, but not the reality, of individual liberation and social transgression. Of these discourses, none is more insidiously prevalent than that of race, as is evidenced by the overwhelming majority of white, muscled, male heroes that populate the genre, as well as by the negative stereotypes of Asians, Native Americans, African Americans, and other ethnic groups that often manifest in the face of comic book villainy” (Regalado 86), highlighting how early comic books played a key role in the propagation of these caricatures.
Yang urges us,
“what do we make of modern-day stereotypes? Often these are treated as Little more than impolite jokes…. Images, however, have power. And images have history … we must remember who their grandfathers are” (Schieble 48).
Tchen seconds the importance of recognizing this past for the sake of those in the present, stating that “the iconography is deeply held in the American soul. Therein, Westernizing innocence is forever violated by foreign evil. The future is uncertain once again, always. This is why we seek to revive Yellow Peril as an analytical category. Yellow Peril harkens back to Europe’s earliest dreams of itself and its others, and still beckons us toward a haunted future” (Tchen 15).
Using comics to directly address and challenge racist caricatures is acommon theme throughout Yang’s work. with American Born Chinese’s Chin-Kee character being one of the earlier examples in his career.
A panel from page 97 of The Shadow Hero (pictured), one of Yang’s Later works, featuring a depiction of an Asian caricature drawn strikingly similar to Chin-Kee from American Born Chinese.
Much of Yang’s work, especially within the superhero genre, also features storylines and characters that critique Asian stereotypes.
The Shadow Hero, published in 2014 by First Second and illustrated by Sonny Liew, is an origin story reboot to the Golden-Age superhero The Green Turtle, one of the first Asian-American superheroes in comics history. Taking place in 1940s America, the story follows Hank Chu, the son of Chinese immigrants, as he makes a deal with a turtle spirit who Lives in his shadow in exchange for superpowers in order to protect his family.
Chu deals with threats from all sorts of places, at one point apprehending a white man in yellowface who had been hired to disguise himself as criminal overlord Ten Grand, a direct reference to Boris Karloff’s portrayal of Fu Manchu in 1932.
Amongst his work with top superhero comic publishers Marvel and DC, Yang has also written for Shang-Chi between 2022-2023 alongside pencilers Marcus To and Micheal Yg, with this storyline mainly centering the relationship between Shang-Chi and his father Zheng Zhu, formerly known as Fu Manchu.
He also wrote the Eisner award-winning graphic novel Superman Smashes the Klan for DC, based on the historic Superman radio show and centering a Chinese-American family who move to Metropolis and team up with the Man of Steel to take down the local KKK chapter.
While all of these stories handle ideas surrounding Asian-American identity and challenge stereotYJ)es in vastly different ways from Chin-Kee, they nonetheless share their main themes with this character. In fact, the many unique ways that Yang is able to explore this topic within comics speaks towards his creativity as an artist.
Laughter Against Laughter explores the intent behind this depiction of Chin-Kee, that “by displaying the grotesque body of Chin-Kee with all its exaggerated features so graphically in the novel, Yang acknowledges this violent history and its traces in the subtle forms of racism and stereotypes that still linger on today” (Oh 26).
The addition of color further emphasizes the themes at play within Chin-Kee by literally giving him yellow skin, not unlike much of the anti-Asian comic artwork during this era.
(Scans from United States Marines #3, page 38)
(Panels from American Born Chinese, page 221)
Since these specific color choices when drawing these stereotypical caricatures throughout earlier comics history had such a hugely negative impact and very direct, harmful intent, using these colors when explicitly calling out and confronting this history adds to the discussion being had with this character.
American Born Chinese has had a rather interesting history within the comics industry. These changes can be felt within the final product, with the graphic novel version correcting small errors and building upon the core themes of the comic through things like color and composition. The presence of a team to assist in the final design and publication of this comic can be seen in the refinement and beautiful craftsmanship of the graphic novel version of American Born Chinese.
(Scans from American Born Chinese issue, page 42)
However, the more rough artistry and personal details like the sections of text at the end of issues 2.2 and 3.1 have an appealing quality of their own with their ability to highlight the creator’s passion for making comics and the love he had while writing this particular story.
By looking at the publication journey of American Born Chinese, not only can we gain a better understanding of the unique facets that go into different comic publishers, but also of Yang’s artistic journey as a whole.
Many big figures within comics have been established in their fields for years and years. We mostly see their more recent work, or at least highlights from their very lengthy careers, and it’s easy to be intimidated as students by professionals in the industry. Gene Yang’s homemade early comics in comparison to his more recent work and his openness about his day job he worked while starting out in comics serve as a testament to artists everywhere to keep creating, even if your goals seem out of reach and you’re unsure of your success.
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Panel of Money King speaking to the reader: You know, Jin, I would have saved myself from five hundred years’ imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey.