Comic Book Day: Join “The Search” with Gene Luen Yang
by Dan Casey on March 20, 2013
When I first saw commercials for Avatar: The Last Airbender, I didn’t really give it the time of day; I wrote it off as the kind of schlock that was trying to cash in on the anime boom at the time, and doubly discounted it because it was a Nickelodeon cartoon and I’d moved on from Doug and Rugrats to more adult fare. Today, my face couldn’t be covered in more egg; the series is terrific, and I’ve been watching episodes in a manner that can only be called “voracious.” When I was approached by Dark Horse about the release of their new tie-in graphic novel, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search, Part I, I was similarly skeptical, because adaptations of successful franchises – regardless of medium – tend to have a reputation for being lousy. Again with the face omelettes. It’s a good thing I enjoy breakfast nearly as much as I enjoyed this comic, which you can preview in this exclusive book trailer below.
The Search, Part 1 serves to flesh out the universe of the show, filling in part of the gap between the events of the original series and spiritual successor Legend of Korra. With art by series stalwarts Gurihiru, a story written by Gene Luen Yang, and co-developed by Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the book is a wonderful reintroduction to the world of Aang and his merry band of benders and serves to answer one of the most burning questions for the show’s fandom: What happened to Zuko’s mother? To get the skinny on what we can expect from the book and future installments, I caught up with Gene Luen Yang to talk to him about unfortunate cabbage merchants, jumping back into the world of Avatar, and what’s next from the American Born Chinese scribe.
Nerdist: First and foremost, I know that you’re a fan of the series. How have you been enjoying Legend of Korra?Gene Luen Yang: Yeah, absolutely. I have really been enjoying it. The action, in particular, I think they really stepped up the animation for the action. It’s been amazing. I’m really impressed with the new world they’ve built. It’s obviously connected to the world of the old series, but they’ve created something really new and fascinating.N: I agree. I actually saw Legend of Korra before I saw Avatar, which wasn’t really on my radar at the time. I was worried about how accessible it would be, but it prompted me to go back and check out the original series.GLY: Oh, okay. You’re one of the first people I’ve talked to that’s approached the world in that way. That’s really cool. You were able to follow all of the stories?
For the most part, yes. I probably missed some of the references to the original that diehard fans might have picked up on, but I feel like I was able to piece it together pretty well.
GLY: Yeah, I think they took a lot of the concepts that played a lesser role in the first series and made them really prominent in the second series. Like the metal bending, for example. They built an entire police force off of that.
N: Let’s talk about The Search and what readers can expect. As an Avatar novice, I found it very accessible even without knowing everything that came prior.
GLY: The mini-series, to answer that question, the one question Mike [Dante DiMartino] and Bryan [Konietzko] introduced at the end of the last series was, “What happened to Zuko’s mother?” That was in the last ten minutes or so of the final episode. I remember it because when I was watching that episode, I wasn’t connected to the property at all. That was one of the most cliffhangery things to do, especially for the series finale. In the last few moments of the last episode, there’s a scene with Zuko and his dad, and Zuko asks what happened with his mom, and the scene cuts before you get an answer.
N: Oh god, that’s the worst.
GLY: Right? [laughs] I think I screamed some sort of expletive at my TV when I watched. Now, three years later, I’m part of the team that’s going to give the answer to that question. Life is a weird thing sometimes. That’s the overarching purpose, though. We also wanted to dive into the dynamics of Zuko’s family. He was probably my favorite character in the original series. He was so complex and really embodied the struggle between good and evil to the point where he sort of resembled Two-Face from Batman. Half is good, half is evil. Mike and Bryan didn’t create the character in a vacuum; he was part of a family that went back four or five generations, so we’re going to explore some of that. Almost half of it is flashbacks and the other half takes place in present time.
N: To clarify, the “present time” is the period in between the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra?
GLY: Yeah, closer to the original series. It’s about two years out.
N: And I know this is part 1, but how long will it ultimately be?
GLY: It’ll be like The Promise, so three books.
N: One of the things I really enjoyed about the The Search – Part 1 is how it delved into the supernatural side of Avatar and the spirit world. What attracted you to highlight these elements?
GLY: That’s something I really loved about the original series – how supernatural it got. The whole concept of the Avatar and Aang’s powers are all rooted in the spirit world. The focus on the spirit world gradually increases as the series moves on. In The Promise, the first three volumes of the comics, we didn’t really touch on it at all. We had a little bit between Aang and his predecessor, Roku, but we wanted to touch on it in a bigger way. In the original series, there’s all these little nuggets that are embedded in the spirit world and we wanted to play with those.
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N: How closely do you work with Mike and Bryan on the comics? Is there an editorial edict that you’re given or are you given a set of narrative points to hit and the freedom to tell the story your way?
GLY: For both The Promise and The Search, the story started with a long conversation between me and Mike and Bryan. During the conversation, we’ll talk about the history of the world they’ve built. They’ve thought quite extensively about the world of the Avatar and how Korra is connected to the airbenders. There are big pieces that are set in stone – like Aang reestablishing airbender culture. In the initial conversation, we’ll talk about the big pieces, some things that might happen around those pieces, and from that conversation I’ll write an outline. Then that goes through several rounds of edits with them, and from there I’ll write the scripts. Then the scripts go through several rounds of edits. Mike and Bryan give a lot of creative input, but we also get input from Dark Horse editors and editors at Nickelodeon, so it’s pretty collaborative. The work on The Search, though, is even more collaborative than in the past. We really went back and forth on the back story.
N: I can imagine, especially because it has such a complex mythology.
GLY: That’s right. There are scenes that overlap between the series and the comic. Some scenes in the comic serve as extensions of scenes from the show. There are several flashback episodes, so we used elements of those.
N: That makes the comics even more special, because there’s only so much you can fit into a 22 minute episode.
GLY: Yeah, that totally applies to comics, too, man. There’s so many times when I’ve been working on comics and wished I had double the amount of space. [laughs]
N: Oh! Before I forget, I think I know the question on everyone’s mind: will we see our favorite cabbage merchant pop up?
GLY: [laughs] Ummm, you’ll have to read the comic. No comment.
N: Right, right, no spoilers and all that.
GLY: I do love that guy, I’ve got to say.
N: What are the challenges in writing an original, creator-owned project versus writing for a well-established franchise like Avatar?
GLY: It has been quite a challenge to work on it, but it’s also been a real privilege. I think when I’m working on my own stuff, I’m trying to express some sort of vision I have inside myself. When I work on somebody else’s stuff, I really want to try to stay true to what’s been established before. I really want to capture the character’s voices. And with something like Avatar, it’s a difficult thing to do. A lot of people have some deep-seated emotions attached to these characters. When I first started working on Zuko’s mother’s back story, I had a hard time because I found the ending of the original series really emotionally satisfying. I didn’t know how to extend the story beyond that deeply satisfying ending. So, the challenge is how to capture the essence while moving these characters forward.
N: That’s very interesting. I’m so used to hearing that people hated an ending, so it’s refreshing to hear about your struggles with what you saw as a story that had been wrapped up tidily.
GLY: I really did like how it ended. [laughs]
N: Well, I certainly think you rose to the occasion.
GLY: Oh, thank you. I really appreciate that.