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Secret Identities
The Asian American Superhero Anthology
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Secret Identities
The Asian American Superhero Anthology

Edited by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma
2009, 194 pages, Paperback.



Book Description from Back Cover
Comments from Back Cover
About the Editors

ORDER -- Item #3561, Price $21.95

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Book Description from Back Cover

THERE'S THIS GUY WE KNOW-quiet, unassuming, with black hair and thick glasses. He's doing his best to fit in, in a world far away from the land of his birth. He knows he's different and that his differences make him alien, an outsider-but they also make him special. Yet he finds himself unable to reveal his true self to the world....

For Asian Americans, this chronicle sounds familiar because many of us have lived it. But it also happens to be the tale of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent, better known as Superman. And the parallels between those stories help explain why Asian Americans have become such a driving force in the contemporary comics renaissance as artists, writers, and fans.

Yet there's one place where Asians are still underrepresented in comics: between the four-color covers themselves. That's why, in Secret Identities, top Asian American writers, artists, and comics professionals have come together to create twenty-six original stories centered around Asian American superheroes-stories set in a shadow history of our country, exploring ordinary Asian American life from a decidedly extraordinary perspective. Entertaining, enlightening, and more than a little provocative, Secret Identities blends action, satire, and thoughtful commentary into a groundbreaking anthology about a community too often overlooked by the cultural mainstream.

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Comments from Back Cover

"Beyond awesome!... This book made me feel like I could leap over tall buildings in a single bound."
-MARGARET CHO

"Criminally overdue, but well worth the wait, Secret Identities is a treasure trove of an anthology. These stories are as rousing, uplifting, tragic, and funny as our deepest secret fantasies."
-DWAYNE MCDUFFIE, founder of Milestone Comics and writer of Justice League of America

"Wowee!!! The superheroes exploding out of the pages of Secret Identities are mind-blowing! As a kid who grew up on comics in the '40s and '50s, for the first time in my life, I recognized, identified, and became a comic book hero."
-GEORGE TAKEI

"As a comics fan, I had a great time reading all the fabulous tales; as an Asian American comics professional, I am more than a little in awe of the amazing talent assembled here between these covers."
-JIM LEE, founder of WildStorm Comics and artist of Batman: Hush

"These Asian American superheroes knocked me out! I wish I had known these superheroes when I was a kid-I'd have traded my entire comic book collection for this butt-kicking, death-defying, and brilliant anthology."
-HELEN ZIA, author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People

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Background on the Editors

Jeff Yang, founder of the pioneering Asian American periodical aMagazine and author of the biweekly column "Asian Pop" for the San Francisco Chronicle, lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Parry Shen, best known for his lead role in the movie Better Luck Tomorrow, lives in Southern California.

Keith Chow, freelance writer and comics-in-education specialist, lives in Maryland.

Jerry Ma, the founder of the indie comics studio Epic Proportions, lives in New York City.

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