SLIGHTLY MORE ON-TOPIC, BUT ONLY SLIGHTLY: Why Caricature Matters (MORE TO COME)

Oh, man. As if we needed another reminder as to why cartoon art is a medium that can be used for evil as easily as good, here comes another in a long series of racist National Review covers trafficking in Asian stereotypical imagery. More on this later. For now...I'll let the image spaek for itself.

The "SECRET IDENTITIES" Traveling Gallery...Part One!

So, we're collecting original artwork from the book (as well as brand new, never before seen pieces created by Secret Identities' mega-talented artistical crew) to bring with us to the various museums and galleries we're going to be visiting over the next few months—and the pieces have started to roll in! Herewith, as displayed on my living room sofa, are the first six submissions:

• Alex Joon Kim's original pages from Tanuj Chopra's hilarious "S.O.S."!
• Two takes by Martin Hsu on Dragon Boy, star of his sweetly elliptical fantasy "Long"!
• An all-new, beautifully rendered and inked sketch by Vince Sunico of Captain Matthew Kim, from Daniel Jai Lee's "Heroes Without a Country"—here seen fighting the good fight against the Nazi super-creeps known as the Ubermenschen!
• Another all-new sketch, inked and watercolored by A.L. Baroza—this one a crossover piece featuring a selection of the book's female heroes: Karin from "Meet Joe"; Candace "Tin Candy" Koh (in mecha outfit) and Val "Pretty Super Schoolgirl Valentine" Chang from "A Day at CostumeCo"; Hellen Jo's Brazen Raisin (in background); June Park from "Sampler"; and Ting "Scarf Girl" Lee from "You Are What You Eat"! And robots!
• Yet another all-new sketch, rendered and inked by Benton Jew, of Jimson Fo and the young John Henry, from "Driving Steel"...hammerlicious!
• And finally, the original color artwork of Yul Kwon's Cataclysm, as gorgeously painted by Deodato Pangandoyon...which Deo sent to us already framed. Wow...you really didn't have to, Deo! (But it looks fantastic...)

Many more pieces are on their way. Pieces from the "Secret Identities" Traveling Gallery will be on display at Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, WA on May 14; the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA on May 30 (and possibly longer); the Museum of Chinese in the Americas in New York, NY from July 11; and in the New York headquarters of Time Warner from May 11 through the end of May.

New York Comic-Con '09: The Secret Identities Panel!

Secret Identities E.I.C. Jeff Yang here. I guess I'm the last SI Guy to post on this thing, so I might as well kick in here with this video, an edited-down "highlights version" of one of our two New York Comic-Con panels—the one focusing on the book itself, and featuring myself, E.A.L. Keith Chow, contributor Greg Pak, with an assist from his partner on "The Citizen" Bernard Chang, and Senior Artist Jef Castro. Providing insightful moderation of our little circus was Giant Robot's Anne Ishii, who'd just come off of moderating a previous panel on the manga version of Bat-Man that was published, well ahead of its time, in Japan in the late 1960s. Ningin.com did a nice writeup of the panel here.

And now, on to the video! (Parry's not the only guy with editin' chops around this here ranch, kids...okay, I suck compared to him, but still...represent!)

Big thanks to Keith's bro Raymond for manning the Canon HG10 for us on this one. Sadly, he wasn't around the following day, so I don't have any footage of the equally terrific panel I moderated called "The Multicultural Mask," featuring Stuart Moore (Iron Man; Firestorm), Perry Moore (Hero), Robert J. Walker (Delete), and Jann Jones (Coordinating Editor, DC Comics)—not to mention Greg Pak again, who pulled double duty for us at NYCC, all power to the Pak. However, a nice writeup on that panel is right here. And I'll see if I can find any still photos around somewhere.

Coming up next: A highlights version of our most excellent ECAASU workshop, which was videotaped in whole by our bodyguard/host representative Dave From Toronto. Very cool guy. Really helped keep the paparazzi at bay. Not that I, Jerry or Keith had to worry—the kidz all made a beeline for the man who put the bacon in BLT, our M.E. Parry...

Welcome to the SI Blog!

It's been nearly a year since announced Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology was first to the world. In that time, release dates have changed (on shelves April 2009!), babies have been born (shout out to Skylar) and much awesome has been created.

This blog is a chance for those of us behind the scenes to let you all in on some of our secrets. We'll keep you up to date on the progress of the book, let you hear from some of the folks writing and drawing some really incredible stories, and offer a sneak peek or two at some of the stories and art you'll find gracing the pages of the anthology (like that gem of a panel from the story "Peril" by the illustrious Jef Castro below). We're looking forward to hearing your feedback, so feel free to leave comments and let us know how we're doing!

Excelsior... or something... (Can we even use that as a sign-off?)