SIUniverse Blog Parade Day Two: 8Asians

Why Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology (Secret Identities) is Important

Originally posted at 8Asians.com
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by Koji Steven Sakai


When I was a kid, I LOVED comic books. I bought every X-Men comic I could get my hands on. I was obsessed. This was a long time ago and back then the idea of Asian American superheroes was pretty much unheard of. This is not to say that Asian/Asian Americans weren’t in comic books. The one prominent one I remember reading was Sunfire.

Here is the Wikipedia description of him:

Sunfire is a temperamental and arrogant Japanese mutant who can generate superheated plasma and fly. Not suited for teamwork, Sunfire was only briefly a member of the X-Men and has kept limited ties to the team since. He has had some presence in the greater Marvel Universe.

Not someone I could get behind.


The only time I really felt the lack of Asian American representation was when I watched/read G.I. Joe. I rooted for the two Asian/Asian American guys, Quick Kick (Right) and Storm Shadow (Left).

You might recognize Quick Kick as Angry Asian Man’s logo but I vaguely remembered him as a child. The character I always rooted for and played with was Storm Shadow. And even though he was a bad guy, when I played with him he always became a good guy. And I secretly imagined the guy under the mask actually looked exactly like me.

Now that I think about it, that’s kind of depressing.

This is why when I first heard about Secret Identities: The Asian American Superheroes Anthology, the first anthology of Asian American superheroes created/drawn by Asian Americans, way back in 2009 I was super excited. I submitted a story (“Meet Joe”) and was honored to be included in the first book.

Three years later, the second book, Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology (Secret Identities), is coming out next week. This book features villains. Not just any villain, but Asian American ones!

SIUniverse Blog Parade Day One: Adam WarRock

Shattered – Secret Identities & some news updates
Originally posted at AdamWarRock.com

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I was lucky enough to be included in the recent publication Shattered: Secret Identities Vol. 2. Shattered is the second in a line of anthologies that seek to bring multicultural voices and perspectives through the medium of comics. It’s a book full of amazing, original art and stories by creators like Fred Chao (Johnny Hiro), Greg Pak (The Incredible Hulk), Larry Hama (GI Joe), and tons more.

I got to work with Ming Doyle (Future Foundation, Loneliest Astronauts, Girl Comics), who’s not only an amazing illustrator, but without a doubt, one of my favorite comic artists in the world. We contributed a gallery piece that basically made me into a superhero. Here’s what I look like, in a nice sepia tone:

Jubilee's Texts #3

Apparently, there's a movie opening today featuring a bunch of Asian characters!

We found Jubilee texting her friends about the possibilities of Hollywood turning the stories from SHATTERED into potential movies.

If a story from #SHATTERED was turned into a movie, would Asian actors play the roles? Jubilee's txts have the answer. twitter.com/SIUniverse/sta…
— Secret Identities (@SIUniverse) October 26, 2012

The SIUniverse at New York Comic Con!

Come by Epic Props booth 1113 and get a copy of SHATTERED before it’s in stores.

Also, stop by the booths of other members of the SIU family:

Bernard Chang will be in Artist Alley at C8!

Cliff Chiang will be in Artist Alley at N1!

Greg Pak will be in Artist Alley at K18!

Larry Hama will be at Epic Proportions Booth 1113!

Ming Doyle will be in Artist Alley at B2!

Sean Chen will be in Artist Alley at C9!

Sonny Liew wil be in booth U12!

Billy Tan will be in booth P2!

Dustin Nguyen will be in booth H1!

Greg LaRocque will be in booth O5! (Saturday only)

Louie Chin will be in booth 448!

Shattered Sneak Peek: Hibakusha: Secrets

Hibakusha: Secrets from Shattered

In this scene from SHATTERED, we re-meet: Ryan Suda (Power: Body produces steroid-grade epinephrine allowing him to access to the upper limits of human strength and endurance), Kat Nagano (Power: Psi ability to excite atoms within any object), and Daisuke “Dice” Kim (Power: Ability to manipulate any object’s density) in THE HIBAKUSHA: Secrets. 

Beautifully rendered by Sean Chen, Kat is meltin’ helmets while Dice stops a hail of bullets with a wave of his hand and Ryan kicks some serious tail (a baddie with 9 of ‘em no less!)

The Hibakusha from Secret Identities

But as you can see from their first outing in THE HIBAKUSHA from Volume 1, they weren’t very… experienced.  Drawn here by Glenn Urieta, Ryan is crumpled on the ground near-unconscious, as his blood vessels have constricted from too much adrenaline.  Dice has instinctively activated his density abilities only to sadly embed himself into the ground while Kat stands protectively over Ryan heating… the surrounding air.

So check out this story to see how they became so adept at using their abilities when SHATTERED: The Asian American Comics Anthology hits stores in Fall 2012!! 

SIUniverse is now on tumblr

We've added another notch on our social media utility belt. After staking our claim on Facebook, twitter, and YouTube, we've decided to add tumblr to the mix. (We have a Pinterest board too, but, uh, I don't know how it works.)

The official SIUniverse tumblr has been around for a few weeks now, but this past Saturday was the official launch of what we're calling SHATTEREDay™ 'round these parts. Basically, every Saturday from now until the foreseeable future, we'll feature a sneak peek at the stuff we're getting in from artists and writers. And it's good stuff. Stuff we can't wait to share with the rest of you!

Last week on the tumblr, we unveiled character designs of Jimson Fo and John Henry from Jeff's "Driving Steel" sequel "The Breaking" by artist Krishna Sadasivam. 

Good stuff, right?

So bookmark the SIUniverse tumblr, and check it out every Satur... SHATTEREDay™ for new updates!

Secret Identities Volume 2, BURN…

Originally posted on the Epic Proportions blog For What It's Worth

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So It’s finally begun.  Or rather….I’ve finally begun to do some drawing on the BURN story I’m working on with my brother for Secret Identities Volume 2.  Just thought I’d post the pencils I’ve done for page 1.
These are semi tight pencils for me.  I’m leaving a lot of the detail work to be done when I ink it.  I didn’t want to waste any time penciling in the different textures and stuff.
The original for this is an odd size.  It stands at 10×12.5″ due to the 8×10″ page size of the graphic novel.
So I had a little trouble adjusting to that as it through off my whole “scale” in terms of close ups and far shots on the page.
But am hoping it came out alright.
I also did not use a ruler to do any of the drawing besides the panel borders.  For some reason, I just wanted to keep this loose and just kinda “wing” it.
Just the pencils for this page took me about….5 and a half hours to draw.  As pathetic as this sounds, inking generally takes me a little longer.
Yeah….I’m pretty slow.
Anyway, I won’t be posting every page I draw here, but thought it’d be fun to post the first one.
I’ll definitely post the ink and grey tones of this page when I finish each stage just so you can see how much more detail I intend on adding.
-jerry

SIUniverse For Japan: The Swag

So rather than constantly updating the original announcement of the auction, I figured I'd give the items for bid their own place on the blog. So here it is.

Check this space often to see what cool and unique items are currently for bid as we try to raise some money for the ongoing relief efforts in Japan. You can also keep track with the SIUniverse For Japan auction at our main eBay page for siuniverseforjapan or check the hashtag #SIU4Japan on twitter.

After the jump, check out the items that are available now.

Announcing SIUniverse For Japan: Online Auction to Support Relief Efforts in Japan

Help the people of Japan by bidding on items donated by members of the SIUniverse family.
 
Two weeks ago, the world was stunned by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan. Though the aftermath of the natural disaster and resulting nuclear crisis is no longer front page news, the people of northern Japan still need our help. This is why SIUniverse Media is announcing SIUniverse For Japan, an online auction to raise money for ongoing relief efforts in Japan. 

Through ebay Giving Works, 100% of the final sale of any item sold through SIUniverse For Japan will go toward GlobalGiving’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. Search for eBay seller ID “siuniverseforjapan” or follow SIUniverse on twitter and Facebook for regular updates on the auction.

Doughboy Needs Your Help!

Jason Lee, the founder of TurtlistMedia.com and one of Secret Identities' earliest supporters, is in the process of producing a short film called "Doughboy."

Doughboy, is a short film dark comedy about Felix, a superfan of Data (the Asian American kid from The Goonies), who decides to pursue his late father’s American Dream of making funnel cakes as easy to find as the hot dog. He designs and builds a mobile funnel cake-making suit inspired by Data and begins to sell them on the streets of Little Tokyo. It’s a million dollar idea, but there is one fatal flaw that he is forced to realize when he is confronted by a militant activist group protesting the name of his business: Data’s Funnel Cakes.

Check out the trailer below:



Unfortunately, Jason needs to raise some more money to get this project off the ground! This is where you come in. Just visit Doughboy's Kickstarter page and pledge to donate as little as $1 to help support a young Asian American filmmaker bring Doughboy to life. The world could use another Asian American hero. And more funnel cakes.

Make Your Own "Evil Chinese Professor!"

Since we recently announced Volume 2 would be dedicated to shattering Asian stereotypes, it only makes sense to point you all to a brand new Asian stereotype just in time for the midterm elections, thanks to the right-wing "think" tank Citizens Against Government Waste: the Evil Chinese Professor!



Well, now it's our turn to reclaim Professor Evil. A few Asian Am blogs--Angry Asian Man, 8Asians, Disgrasian, Reappropriate, channelAPA, and Hyphen--have gotten together to sponsor this contest.

Basically:

Download the .ZIP archive, including the subtitle-stripped .MOV file and .RTF text file transcript of the original "Chinese Professor" video.

Get the video file, write a hilarious alternate monologue for the Evil Chinese Professor, re-subtitle the footage, add a call-to-action voiceover at the end, and upload your parody to a video sharing service like YouTube or Vimeo (Heck, upload wherever you can. CAGW is apparently cracking down on all parodies).

Then send the link to evilchineseprofessor@angryasianman.com. The best three videos as judged by the sponsoring bloggers will win some fabulous as-yet-undetermined prizes. The deadline to submit is November 27, which happens to be Bruce Lee's birthday.