It's a big deal to reveal your friend's deepest truth, your friend's deepest secret. And for all of us, when we do these big things, there's a complexity of motivation that comes behind that decision. Gene Luen Yang bigcomplexitydeal Change image and share on social
Figuring out a way to balance the Boxer story with the Chinese Christians was difficult. Gene Luen Yang balanceboxerchinese Change image and share on social
Every superhero has this superhero identity and a civilian identity. A lot of their lives are about code switching. Gene Luen Yang civiliancodeidentity Change image and share on social
There's bleeding between age groups in terms of reading material, and there's bleeding between media. So there are books that are clearly comics and books that are prose, and then there are these books that are kind of in-between. Gene Luen Yang agebleedbook share on social
I noticed that when my daughter was born, my son really, really liked her. But then as she started getting older, and as she started crawling around our house and touching different things that were his, sibling rivalry issues started appearing. Gene Luen Yang appearbearcrawl share on social
I minored in creative writing in college, and I've played with the idea of doing something more hybrid, but comics are my first love. Gene Luen Yang collegecomiccreative Change image and share on social
I started 'American Born Chinese' as a mini-comic. I would write and draw a chapter, photocopy a hundred or so copies at the corner photocopy store, and then try to sell them on consignment through local comics shops. If I could sell maybe half a dozen, I'd be doing okay. Gene Luen Yang americanbearchapter share on social
I kind of just write what I like to write. I'm thankful that readers of different ages seem to connect to my stories. I don't consciously think about age demographics when I'm working on my comics. Gene Luen Yang agecomicconnect Change image and share on social
Many Japanese families moved to Taiwan during the occupation. Then, when the war ended, they were forced to move back. And at the macro level, the Taiwanese had every reason to cheer when the Japanese left. The Japanese military could often be incredibly brutal. The Taiwanese lived as second-class citizens on their own land. Gene Luen Yang backbrutalcheer share on social
I wanted to make an explicitly educational comic that taught readers the concepts I covered in my introductory programming class. That's what 'Secret Coders' is. It's both a fun story about a group of tweens who discover a secret coding school, and an explanation of some foundational ideas in computer science. Gene Luen Yang classcodecoder share on social