guest post: why stereotypes need to be SHATTERED

Guest Post by Keith Chow

When Secret Identities came out, the guys -- Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Jerry Ma -- and I traveled to college campuses all over the country to do our "Build a Hero" workshop. Essentially, we would lead the audience in an exercise to create a wholly original character while an artist, usually Jerry, would draw that character in real time.

Before we got to the drawing and creating part, we'd ask the audience to come up with some of their favorite Asian American superheroes. Needless to say, there weren't very many responses. Aside from the usual crickets, Sunfire might have gotten a shout out and maybe Quick Kick, too.

my very own superhero in shattered: the asian american comics anthology

My fellow comic book geeks! Next week marks the official launch of Shattered, follow-up to the groundbreaking Asian American comics anthology Secret Identities, from editors Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma.

While the first collection focused on the conventions of traditional superhero comics, this new volume explores some darker and edgier genres to subvert and shatter Asian stereotypes.

The book features an impressive lineup of contributors, including leading comics creators Bernard Chang, Sean Chen, Cliff Chiang, Larry Hama, Sonny Liew, Takeshi Miyazawa, Christine Norrie, Greg Pak, G.B. Tran, Gene Yang and more, as well as folks from the film and literary world like Tanuj Chopra, Michael Kang, Jamie Ford, Gary Jackson and Bao Phi.

I managed to slip something in the book too.