test heading Unlike the character of Willem Tomassen, who arrived pretty much intact from the start, Harmen’s other companion, Jeronimus de la Croix, underwent some significant changes as I worked on Journey into Mohawk Country. Here we have assembled a smattering of early concepts; some of it works, some doesn’t. In the journal, Jeronimus comes [...]
test heading These are some sketches of the “cover that almost was” for Journey into Mohawk Country. The three Dutchmen, dwarfing a miniature Mohawk River Valley, which was actually merely the strip of hair in some sort of giant slumbering Mohawk. Thank goodness I came up with the final cover idea at the last minute, [...]
test heading This is the earliest group shot I could find that I drew of the three main characters in Journey into Mohawk Country. Notice that at this stage of the project I had not yet even decided on a drawing style for the graphic novel, these characters being depicted in a much more “realistic” [...]
Check out THE MONKEY KING'S DUEL, a video game based on Gene Yang's American Born Chinese, created by one of his students!
test heading These are the style sheets I made for the three main characters of Journey into Mohawk Country as I began working on the book. The first is a “before” shot, depicting Harmen, Jeronimus and Willem at the outset of their journey. The second is an “after”, with the three Dutchmen showing all the [...]
Some sketches of time-specific Iroquois rattles. A few of these turn up in Journey into Mohawk Country. I believe this particular selection is from New York’s own American Museum of Natural History. Anytime you see an Iroquois tool or implement in Mohawk Country, there’s a pretty good chance you can see the original in a [...]
test heading Sometimes while doing research for Journey into Mohawk Country I was frustrated to find that there was simply no information that existed on a topic. A case in point was the subject of Mohawk armor. In the journals of Harmen van den Bogaert that serve as the text for Mohawk Country, there is [...]
test headingOrigins of American Born Chinese - part 3 Some folks who’ve flipped through American Born Chinese have asked about the star of the third storyline, Cousin Chin-Kee. What would possess a self-respecting Asian-American cartoonist to draw a character like that? Several years ago, just before my wedding, I spent an afternoon organizing things in [...]
test headingOrigins of American Born Chinese - part 2 The second storyline in American Born Chinese follows the trials and tribulations of Jin Wang, a Chinese-American boy growing up in a white suburb: Jin’s story is based on my own, but there are significant differences. First, I didn’t really look like him when I was [...]
test headingOrigins of American Born Chinese - part 1 American Born Chinese, my latest graphic novel, consists of three distinct storylines. The first retells the story of the Monkey King, an ancient Chinese folk hero who is ubiquitous in Asia. Here’s my version: And here’s a more classic rendition: The Monkey King first came into [...]
