Bounded Enthusiasm #4: Gene Yang and Sonny Liew on The Shadow Hero

Today’s episode of Bounded Enthusiasm is a double interview with Gene Yang and Sonny Liew, author and illustrator (respectively) of The Shadow Hero, a new comic book just out today from First Second Books. It’s a new origin story for an obscure WWII-era superhero named the Green Turtle, created by a Chinese-American artist. If the rumors are true, the Green Turtle is the first Asian-American superhero.

I wrote a little bit about The Shadow Hero earlier this year for Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, and the collected book is available today.

You can download the MP3, or use the podcast player here:

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Below are a few links to things mentioned during the podcast:

The Digital Comic Museum, where you can read the entire original run of The Green Turtle, which is now in the public domain.

Gene Yang has written and illustrated several comics, including American Born Chinese and  Boxers & Saints. He has also collaborated with several other artists on books such as Level Up and The Eternal Smile. You can find out more about him and The Shadow Hero at his website.

Sonny Liew has blogged about his creative process, and here are a few posts about designing Hank’s parents, the villain Mock Beak, and researching 1930s San Francisco for the backgrounds. He has previously worked on Malinky Robot (read an excellent review of it here) and a comic adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. His upcoming book, mentioned in the podcast, is The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye.

Finally, you can see two other Yang-Liew collaborations in the Asian-American superhero anthologies Secret Identities and Shattered.

Disclosure: First Second Books provided a copy of The Shadow Hero.

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