SIUniverse Ballers: Week One Update

Considering that the NBA season is 82 games long, don't expect these updates to become a regular feature here at the SI blog. Still, I thought you might want to know how the teams are doing.

So far, Koji Steven Sakai's Team Rabbit, Ren Hsieh's The Royal We and Steve Nguyen's Steve Squad are the cream of the fantasy crop, posting seven or more category wins. Alas, the season's still young, and a lot can happen between now and April.

Rank		Team	W-L-T	Pct	GB	Last Week	Waiver	Moves
1.		Team Rabbit	8-1-0	.889	-	8-1-0	3	2
2.		The Royal We	7-1-1	.833	0.5	7-1-1	1	1
3.		Steve Squad	7-2-0	.778	1	7-2-0	12	3
4.		DINGLEJERRIES	6-3-0	.667	2	6-3-0	9	1
5.		Yellow Peril	6-3-0	.667	2	6-3-0	8	1
6.		The Turds	5-4-0	.556	3	5-4-0	6	-
7.		Win With Lin	4-5-0	.444	4	4-5-0	10	-
8.		MyStickFigures	3-6-0	.333	5	3-6-0	4	2
9.		LA Fakers	3-6-0	.333	5	3-6-0	7	2
10.		Agent 0	2-7-0	.222	6	2-7-0	5	1
11.		7 Seconds or Mess	1-7-1	.167	6.5	1-7-1	2	-
12.		FU-KUNG	1-8-0	.111	7	1-8-0	11	-

SIUniverse Ballers: The Secret Identities Fantasy Basketball League

Just in time for a new NBA season, and to celebrate the fact that NBATV in HD has finally come to Verizon FiOS, we are announcing a Secret Identities-affiliated fantasy basketball league made up of book contributors, celebrity friends, and SI super fans.

So far, team managers include Secret Identities Art Director Jerry Ma, Wonder Woman artist Bernard Chang, Saving Face actor Brian Yang, The People I've Slept With screenwriter/producer Koji Steven Sakai, Yao Central blogger Ren Hsieh and more!

There are still room for more players, so if you're interested send an email to keith@secretidentities.org with "SIUniverse Ballers" in the subject line. There's a $25 entry fee, a portion of which will be donated to the Asian American basketball organization Dream League.

But hurry up. The live online draft starts this Monday night, October 26 at 7:30pm PDT. Follow the action this season at http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/secretidentities

See You in Baltimore This Weekend!

After stops in New York and San Diego, we'll complete the Comic-Con trifecta with a jaunt through B-more for Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend. Secret Identities editors Keith Chow and Jerry Ma will be repping the book in Artists Alley at Table #54. Make sure to stop by. Jerry will be doing some sketches and will have some of his awesome Epic tees in tow as well.

Also in attendance at Comic-Con are fellow SI contribs Bernard Chang, Cliff Chiang, Larry Hama and Greg LaRocque. Check us out!

"The Weapon" Movie a.k.a. Why Do We Even Bother?

So the latest comic book property to catch the eyes of Hollywood execs is a little ditty called "The Weapon" from Platinum Studios. Never heard of it? Well, neither have we. Apparently, the comic's about a martial artist/inventor/businessman named Tommy who is able to create solid objects out of light--like Green Lantern, I suppose--and creates the superhero persona of "The Weapon" to market and promote his product. (For what it's worth, you can read the entire four-issue run here.)

The comic came out in 2007 and is now moving forward as a major motion picture. Granted, Platinum Studios' entire raison d'être is to create licensing opportunities for its comic properties, so it isn't a shock that there's a movie deal in place. What's shocking is who has been tapped to play the lead character--who, by the way is an Asian American guy named Tommy Zhou. The Hollywood trades are reporting David Henrie, star of Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place, has been cast in the lead as Tommy.

Since I've never seen an episode of Waverly Place, I can't speak to Henrie's acting ability. But having just read through the first issue of The Weapon online, it's pretty obvious that Tommy Zhou is an Asian American guy. And it's pretty obvious that David Henrie is not an Asian American guy. But more than that, Tommy is a character whose ancestry is a pretty major component of the book (for instance, the backstory he creates for his newly invented products is based on old Chinese myths his grandfather used to tell him as a child).

In the wake of casting controversies in movies like 21, The Last Airbender and Dragonball Evolution, it's a punch in the gut to see yet another Asian/Asian American character become whitewashed in the live action adaptation. (And unlike Avatar and Dragonball, the whole "the story doesn't take place on earth" argument doesn't even apply this time). More on this from Angry Asian Man and channelAPA.

On the one hand, we created Secret Identities to fill a void in the superhero comics world. (One of the things we do when talking on college campuses is to ask the audience to count how many Asian American superheroes there are). The reasoning is that seeing more diversity in comics will translate to other forms of media since comics seed so much of what is popular in entertainment. So it's even more troubling to see a wholly original Asian American superhero character be portrayed by the kid with no lines on How I Met Your Mother.

I guess we're wrong. Maybe Tom Cruise will play The Nisei Kid in the 9066 movie adaptation after all?

Good News and Bad News from SI Contrib Tak Toyoshima...

Well, you may have heard already that United Features Syndicate didn't renew Tak Toyoshima's awesome strip SECRET ASIAN MAN for daily syndication--their loss, dammit. Here's Tak's announcement of the news:

THE RETURN OF SECRET ASIAN MAN WEEKLY
After just over three years of daily syndication with United Features, Secret Asian Man will shift gears and return to a weekly format. On Saturday September 19, 2009 papers will run the very last daily strip. It was disappointing that United Features decided to pull the plug but at the same invigorating to think of the freedom. I'm not going to bad mouth United Features at all but it will be liberating to be able to act on SAM related projects without having to clear them...and there are a couple I'm already working on.

So what does this mean for the strip? The characters and continuity will remain but I will produce one larger strip a week (like a Sunday comic format) and will keep running in publications and web sites that choose to continue running it. I even picked up a couple of new papers! The very last daily strip will reveal a major development in SAM's life so stay tuned, see what happens and onward and upward for SAM!

On the other hand, the return to weekly format gives Tak more time to...BE A DAD TO HIS NEW BABY SON, born at 5 pm today, and joining his proud parents and big bro Owen in the Toyoshima household. (Just missed being one of our Secret Identities babies...) Congrats to Tak!

And thanks, Tak, also for joining me at the Asian American Journalists Association convention (link: Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View) this year for a signing session that was, uh, light in numbers, but huge in camaraderie. See you when we're back up in Boston in the fall!

SI Draw Off! Even More Optimus

The SI Draw-Off mentioned last time was not exclusive to the four editors. In fact, this meme is open to the whole SI Crew, so if any of you have an Optimus Prime picture itching to "roll out," then feel free to send 'em our way!

As promised, here are a few more Optimus portraits from real artists. To your left is our friend Bernard Chang's contribution to the challenge. To make things more difficult, Bernard drew The Heartbreak Prime in less than five minutes while playing poker with Parry and friends.Had no idea the Autobots were down with wrestling factions from the mid-90s. Does this mean the Dinobots are the nWo?

Up next is a take on Optimus by our very own Senior Artist Jef Castro. The second Jef heard about the meme, he knew he had to take part, so he whipped up this sketch in a matter of minutes! And look at him. All dramatic and stuff. And if you notice, all the real artists (Jerry, Bernard, Jef) actually drew windshield wipers on the chest. Damn artists and their attention to detail!

So, is there anyone else out there in Secret Identities Land that wants to step up to the plate with their own Optimus?

Third Angry Asian Man Contest Winner: Wildstyle

Also posted at angry asian man.

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And now, the third winning entry from the Secret Identities Superhero Contest, where readers were asked to submit their own original idea for an Asian American superhero. This one, WILDSTYLE by Tiffany Namwong, received a special honor as our first-day contest winner. Here it is, as rendered by artist A.L. Baroza.

EDITORS' NOTES

We already commented on Tiffany Namwong's Wildstyle--and we were particularly delighted to meet her in person at San Diego Comic-Con, where she made good use of the free registration she won in our special first-day mini-contest. As we looked at the other entries, we thought that Tiffany's hero was certainly one of the top three entries overall--but for fairness's sake, we decided to add a fourth winner as well, since Tiffany already got her own copy of SI signed by a horde of contribs at SDCC.

Anyway, for those who missed the original synopsis of Tiffany's hero, which won her a free registration for SDCC, here it is again--as well as A.L. Baroza's awesome visualization of the young Thai tattoo artist. I had the privilege of working with Aldin on the SI story "A Day at CostumeCo," and he brings the same visual flair and painstaking attention to detail to Tiffany's character--even including Wildstyle's demonic nemesis Maya and a horde of uglies to complete the tableau. Thanks, Tiffany and A.L.!

EDITED DESCRIPTION

Wildstyle by Tiffany Namwong

Ratana Nantakarn is a teenaged Thai American girl, born into a struggling immigrant family, raised by television and saved from drug addiction by the only adult who's been able to win over her trust: A Buddhist monk who encourages her nascent artistic skills, and helps her gain admission to a prestigious art academy. But after her mentor's work with at-risk youth leads to run-ins with the "connected" local drug syndicate, an anonymous tip leads INS to revoke the monk's visa and deport him back to Thailand. An enraged Ratana drops out of school, returning to the streets to try to find the thugs responsible for her mentor's plight. In doing so, she finds another outlet for her artistic sensibilities, becoming the queen of the Los Angeles tagging scene. Ratana with a spray can on a dimly lit street is like a tiger in the jungle; she uses her artistic skills to feed her ego, but to feed herself she turns to petty crime, and soon falls back into the rabbit-hole of addiction.

Meanwhile, realizing that Ratana is on their trail, the same gangsters who arranged for her mentor's disappearance decide to remove her from the equation as well. She escapes to Thailand after scamming an elderly man looking for a young escort for his summer vacation. She succeeds in locating her old teacher, too late to reconnect with him: He'd been working with a local charity continuing his work with troubled youth, but recently passed away of cancer.

Arjun Gautama, a young Indian American man who has spent the summer volunteering for the charity, tells her that the monk asked for her in his final moments, and gives her his ashes. Ratana takes them to the monk's ancestral village hoping to find a suitable resting place for his remains. Instead, she finds a wrecked and empty hamlet, destroyed by drug lords, whose only surviving structure is the old, abandoned temple in which the monk once served.

In a fit of self-hatred and a desire to vent her frustrations over the fact that her mentor died without anyone to care for him or provide for his final respects, she impulsively pulls out her spray can and desecrates the shrine.

But the temple is not entirely empty: The holy place's long-forgotten guardian spirit rises up out of its altar, calling forth a curse on the blaspheming human invader. Her life and soul are forfeit for her crime, and all seems lost - until the spirit of the old monk rises out of his ashes, and bids the guardian to hold.

The sin Ratana has committed cannot simply be forgiven. But the monk asks that she be given the opportunity - and the power - to earn that forgiveness, using her talent to redeem the crime she committed with that talent.

A great evil, the demon Maya, is attempting to build a dominion on Earth, having taken human form as a pop idol on the verge of superstardom, and enslaving youths with the addictive combination of her music and a devastating new drug.

To defeat Maya and her army of followers, Ratana is given the ability to bring her art to life...using human canvases: She must seek out and befriend a series of youths who are ripe to become "vessels" for Ratana's power. Once these men and women have willingly made the decision to accept the burden, Ratana tattoos their backs the image of a creature and a holy mantra that transforms them into that creature - irrevocably, until Maya is destroyed.

Ratana's mission takes her and Arjun - whose friendship she increasingly grows to depend on, until it evolves into something more - to Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, and finally back to Los Angeles, seeking out new allies, while pursuing Maya and battling her host of demons, hoping to simultaneously save the world and put her own personal demons to rest.