SECRET IDENTITIES at ECAASU 2009: The Workshop!

As promised—more video love, this time a look at the "Build a Hero" workshop that the SI Guys ran at this year's very well run ECAASU conference! Enjoy...

Our Heores Have Always Been Poets

Why are there so many posts on this blog?! I think our post count in March is going to exceed the entire output for 2008. It's like our book's coming out in a month, or something (in stores April 15!)

Anyway, Jerry, Parry and Jeff have already spread the ECAASU love, so let me pile on. Much love to the whole crew at Rutgers, but especially Fiona, Nilam, Caspar, Laurence, Chane, and Dave the Bodyguard(!) for treating us like rock stars the whole time. We sold a ton of bookplates and met a ton more awesome people. Thanks for the love and support you showed Secret Identities all weekend, and double thanks for pretending to know who the rest of us were when everyone else was making a beeline for Parry!

Also, big ups to Bao Phi, Giles Li and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai for murdering the stage Saturday night. You guys were straight butter, baby! Seriously. (Thanks to Bao for the backstage photos).

mmm.... butter....

Check out more photos of the SI crew representing at ECAASU after the jump.
More...

Chatting with Nilam and Laurence at our workshop. In the BG, Dave shows he's not just a bodyguard, he's a cameraman too!

Chillin' with Bao and Giles backstage before our keynote.

Kelly and Parry backstage

With the Angry Asian Man himself!

Jerry, dog-tired after sketching on bookplates till 2 in the morning. Oh yeah, and vodka shots.

Secret Identities @ ECAASU'09

Hey guys, Jerry here. This is my first post on this blog. And I'm really happy that it's going to be about my first ECAASU.

This past weekend, myself and the editor crew got a very rare opportunity to just hang out together. Seriously, in the past 2-3 years we've been talking this is like....our 3rd time all meeting together at once. So that alone made it pretty cool.

But let me start from the beginning. About a week before ECAASU when we knew we were going and were going to try to sell a book...that we didn't have. We knew we had to offer everyone something. So we made a bookplate with an original drawing that I had done for it, that we could all sign on. The idea being that when people that preorder a book receive their copy, they could stick the bookplate(which is essentially a large sticker) on the inside cover and voila, they'd have a signed copy. The above image is what the bookplate actually looked like. So on each bookplate each editor signed it and I would do a quick doodle on the corner.

Anyway, while we were there we ran a workshop which consisted of about 50 or so students. We then broke the group up into 5 smaller groups. And each group then had about 20 minutes to collaborate with each other on creating an Asian American superhero. I was really pyshced at how serious the kids took this exercise. There was basically no goofing off.

While the students were coming up with ideas, we the editors walked around the class to give some tips here and there on what we would do. After the exercise was done, we held a vote to see which character was the best. And while Jeff, Parry and Keith were holding a Q&A, I was sketching out the winning character which we then raffled off to a lucky winner. And I believe Donna was her name. You know...I didn't even have the sense to take a picture of the sketch. So you'll have to trust me that it came out OK and that Donna actually liked it. haha

After the workshop, we then headed over to a theatre to give our keynote speech. This was truly more than I ever expected. We were speaking to a group that had to be around 1000 deep.

I've attached a few imgs that will definitely explain better than I can write on how cool the event actually was.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

PREVIEW: "You Are What You Eat" -- Part 3 of 8

"You Are What You Eat" can be found on Page 116 of Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology.



The story follows a bulimic teenage girl, Ting on her birthday. What she initially perceives as a "gift" from grandma to help with her eating disorder, in actuality begins to expose Ting towards discovering a healthy Yin/Yang balance of food -- with surprising effects.

"Y.A.W.Y.E." was written by Lynn Chen (Saving Face, Lakeview Terrace) and drawn by Paul Wei (Maxwell Wong).

To share the link, find it on YouTube here.

The book will be available in April 2009 -- or you can pre-order your copy today on Amazon.com.

ALSO -- we just got back from an awesome weekend at ECAASU -- Jerry posted a great synopsis of our trip here where you can see we had our own personal 'bodyguard' shadowing us -- thanks Dave, you were the best!

ECAASU 2009 -- Rutgers University

Attention college students!

If you plan on attending the East Coast Asian American Student Union Conference at Rutgers University next weekend, make sure you sign up for a special workshop headed up by the editors of Secret Identities on Saturday, February 28 at 3:00PM! That's right, Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma under one roof!

We'll also be delivering one of the keynote addresses at 8PM that evening. While you're at the conference, be sure to pre-order the book! Pre-order forms should be available, and everyone who orders a copy will be entitled to a signed bookplate and a chance to meet all the editors!

To learn more about ECAASU 2009, whose theme is "Distinct Worlds, One Vision," check out the official website.

We'll see you there!