Contrary to Tina Turner’s proclamation that beyond the Thunderdome they don’t need another hero, we who live in the Nerdome certainly do. In this session, DC native webcartoonist Jamie Noguchi examines the decided lack of Asian American representation in the super hero genre. We take a look at how Asian heroes have been depicted in the past, how they appear in contemporary comics, and what can be done to improve their portrayals in the future.

YP the EP

The Book Kicker is inching closer and closer to the final stretch goal, the YP EP!  I’m definitely planning on re-recording the Tara song as a proper studio version as well as the theme song to Great Kahuna Bot V.  I may even ask a friend to translate the lyrics for me so I can sing it in Japanese.  That would be freaking hysterical!

Thanks again for all the support and attention the campaign has been getting.  I’m super excited to start sending things out to everyone!  Enjoy the long weekend!!

My hommie and pro photog Johnny Shryock was testing out a lens he had rented for a job and snapped this shot of me drawing comics in my disaster of a studio.  I have been in my house for over a year now so the excuse of unpacking doesn’t really work.  No, I’m just a fucking mess.  If he had zoomed in closer, you’d see that my desk is piled high with comics, pens, and random other shit.

I guess I should be a little embarrassed by the mess, but honestly, I love the shot.  Johnny captured all the glitz and glamour of making weekly webcomics.

Johnny is the man.  If you’re in the LA area and need some professional photography, do yourself a favor and call his ass up.  I’ve seen him work sessions and he’s a true pro.  Hell, he made this mess look fucking amazing!

Shredding With a Demon

The guitar picks that I designed for the Book Kicker came in on Friday so I shot this video of me screwing up “Little Wing” to demonstrate:

Office Sentai, YP Rangers!

The Book Kicker is closing in on the poster stretch goal where I draw the cast as a Sentai team.  I guess that’s redundant (Sentai means team), but whatever!

The joke with the Might Morphin’ Power Rangers is that the colors corresponded to the races of the actors.  That’s not the case in actual Sentai.  The colors usually represent the personalities of the Rangers.

Kane will be Red, the hot blooded leader of the team.  Bodie will be Blue, the more experienced and somewhat more competent Ranger who could lead, but chooses not to.  Ally will be Pink because she’s a girl.  Yeah, it’s pretty sexist of the genre.  But Pinks are also fairly optimistic which kind of fits with Ally.  Julie will be Yellow, the powerhouse of the team.  Tara may be Green who is usually the goofy one or the outcast.  Lance will either be Gold or Silver, the overpowered special Ranger who saves the day at the last minute.

That’s the plan so far.  I might change the colors around as I do a little more research on the personalities, but I think this pretty much fits with the tropes of the genre.

Alright, back to making slides.  I’m speaking in front of some smarties tonight!

In the Media

The Book Kicker has been going extremely well, better than I ever imagined!  Thank you all for your support!

I wanted to send an additional thanks to the Comic Geek Speak guys for the wonderful podcast interview I did with them, and Brigid Alverson of Comic Book Resources for the nice interview she did with me.  Check them both out!

Mensa? Really?!

I don’t know if any of you are in Mensa, but somehow I’m giving a talk this Friday about Asian representation in super hero comics at their local gathering.  The theme is Super Heroes.  I’ve got a friend who’s a member and she figured I’d know something about super hero comics so she asked if I wanted to give a talk.  And I said yes because I apparently can’t say no to my friends. Sooooooo, I’m not nervous at all (COMPLETELY NERVOUS).  Looking at the speaker list and the other sessions, um… I don’t think I’m qualified to speak to these people.  But I’ll give it the old college try.  If you are a Mensa member and are heading to this thing, come on by and feel free to heckle the shit out of me. It’ll loosen me up.

Oh god, now I’ve got to make slides!

If you’re into comics and comic book movies, CGS is fucking fantastic!  Along with general comic news, they also interview creators like me!  You should definitely check them out and subscribe. I’ve embedded the interview below.

I generally dislike reality programming.  I’m not fond of most of the competition shows.  I can’t stand the singing competitions.  Project Runway and Top Chef used to be exceptions to my disdain, but even those two have become so ludicrous that they’re laughable shadows of their former selves.  RuPaul’s Drag Race is the only reality competition show that I actively enjoy because it’s so wonderfully over-the-top and fierce that I can’t help but love it to pieces.  So it’s not like I came into the whole Strip Search thing with a positive attitude to begin with.

The Ultimate Comic Competition In My Head

I don’t know why I expected Strip Search to be any different than any of the other competitions that I despise so.  Nothing that Mike, Jerry, or Robert ever said would have lead me to conclude it was going to be different.  I guess I just wanted it to be better than the shit I hate because it was a show about an industry that I actually give a shit about.  I was expecting that we’d get a comics competition, that each challenge would force the Strippers to step outside of their boxes and push their comicking creativity to its full potential.  I was imagining things like a political cartoon challenge, a twelve hour comic, stick figure comics, clip art comics to test their joke writing, composition challenges, chiaroscuro, strip format, long form story format, hand lettering, comicking on black paper, mini comic challenge, traditional brush inking.  The show that was forming in my head sounded fucking EPIC.  But it was never meant to be.

Instead, we got exactly what I should have expected.

It’s completely unfair for me to have expected anything different.  They never promised anything more than a reality styled competition.  And that’s exactly what Strip Search is.  To expect more is unfair.  I probably would have dropped the episode reviews sooner were it not for people telling me they enjoyed my reviews of the thing.  But I fear at this point, I’d be repeating the same shit that I’ve been saying for however long this mess has been going on.  Where are the comics?  What does this have to do with comics?  Why aren’t they showing them doing comics? WHY DO I KEEP WATCHING THIS SHIT?

Kelly Clarkson or Taylor Hicks

With all that in mind, I’m still curious about the winner.  Will the winner of the competition go on to be a webcomics super star or will they fall off the radar, never to be heard from again?  Will they rise above the rest of us to become one of the names that we all associate with our field?  Does the show get them closer to comicking for a living?  Already, we’ve seen a lot of activity from the Strippers.  A lot of them are updating like crazy or launching their own crowdfunding projects or launching new ventures.  I think in that sense, it’s been a net positive for webcomics in general.

So unless there’s a huge uproar about me stopping the reviews, I’m going to become a more casual observer of the Strip Search phenomenon and quietly judge everything I hate about the format in a corner somewhere so as not to bore you with my repetitive rantings.