Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise by Gene Yang

[GeneChing]

I've read Yang's other works. He's very good at what he does.

Graphic novelist attempts to return 'Last Airbender' to Asian roots
Updated: 2011-12-02 11:18
By Kelly Chung Dawson (China Daily)

NEW YORK - When the movie adaptation of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender anime television series was released in 2010, many fans were disappointed that the Asian themes that had defined the original series had been toned down or in some cases, replaced entirely. But an upcoming graphic novel adaptation by Chinese American artist Gene Yang will attempt to stay true to the original series, which ran from 2005 to 2008 and included Asian lead characters in Asian cultures.

"When they adapted the series to the big screen, all the major hero characters were given to white actors," Yang said in an interview with China Daily. "I think that it's the latest in a long line of 'yellow-face casting.'"

He referred to a movie adaptation of the book 21, about real-life MIT students who had used math to "game the gambling system" in Las Vegas. The students in the book were Asian American, but the movie version of the book cast White actors in the lead roles.

"It's a fairly common thing," Yang said. "I think that Hollywood is afraid to put money behind Asian actresses and actors in lead roles. It seems to be a ridiculous thing to still be happening in 2011. With the Last Airbender, the cartoon series had enough of a fan following that it seems to me the movie would have had a fan base regardless of the race of the leading actors."

When the movie was released, the director M. Night Shyamalan (director of The Sixth Sense and Signs.) justified his decision to cast Caucasian actors because he felt the series was based on "world culture", Yang said. "But if you're familiar with the series and have a passing knowledge of Asian cultures, it was very apparent that the series was not a mishmash of world cultures; it was very Asian."

"That connection to real-world Asian cultures and Asian history has been there from the very beginning of the series," Yang said. In the original television show, the Japanese fire nation was defeated; the graphic novel will pick up where the series ended, exploring how the four nations move forward following the fire nation's defeat. Yang drew on Japanese post-WWII history for inspiration, he said.

Yang previously wrote the graphic novel American Born Chinese in 2006, which was nominated for a National Book Award and won the American Library Association's Printz Award. His 2009 collaboration with Derek Kirk Kim The Eternal Smile won an Eisner Award, and in June of this year he released a graphic novel titled Level Up.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise will be released in early 2012 through Dark Horse Comics, and is illustrated by Gurihiru Studios, a Japanese illustration team. He is co-writing the adaptation of Airbender with Mike Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko. In addition to his comic work, Yang teaches computer science at a high school in California.

Yang became involved in the project as the result of a Web comic he wrote in response to the movie adaptation, he said. The comic discussed his deep emotional attachment to the original cartoon series, and when Dark Horse comics bought the license to create a graphic novel adaptation, one of the editors contacted him after reading his Web comic.

"In a weird way, my eventual connection to the property is the result of my being angry about the movie," he said.

Most of Yang's books have featured Asian American characters, with American Born Chinese dealing most overtly with Asian American themes and storylines, he said.

"A theme in a lot of my other work has been the coming together and clash of cultures, or more specifically for me, the coming together and clash of Chinese and American cultures. Being an immigrant's kid, I've talked to a lot of people with parents from other countries, regardless of the country of origin and we've all struggled with this issue - how we take the country that surrounds us and the country of our parents and put it together and make sense of it. This is often particularly important to Asian Americans because many of our families are relatively new to the US. We're still in the middle of figuring out what it is to be Asian American, and how to meld those cultures together."

Yang was born and raised in California; his father was an engineer, his mother a programmer. He was a "typical Asian American kid growing up in Silicon Valley," he said, although in the early days there were only a handful of Chinese families in the neighborhood. Today, he estimates that 60 percent of the community is Asian.

As a teacher in Oakland today, he reports that there is less shame associated with immigrant cultures. "Even though most of my Chinese students speak perfect English, they're willing to speak Chinese to each other; they switch back and forth and it's not a big deal. When I was growing up, we wanted to define ourselves as separate from the FOBS (a slang word referring to recent immigrants being "Fresh Off the Boat"), whereas my students today don't seem to consider those distinctions to be important."

Changing perceptions about Asian culture are likely linked to the idea that "cool seems to follow the money," he said. "As China becomes more of a superpower, Chinese culture will have more of an influence on American culture. But it seems to me that it's not Asian culture that's the problem in America; it seems to be Asian faces. Hollywood is willing to have movies set in Asia featuring Asian culture, but the main protagonists are rarely Asian."

He acknowledged that movies like A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (co-starring the Chinese American actor John Cho) signal a slow shift in perceptions. "It is changing," he said.

The adaptation will hopefully be part of that shift, he said.

"For me personally, as a fan of the series, I see this graphic novel as a way of continuing the tradition that was established by the original creators with the original series. I think my primarily responsibility is to tell a story that's able to keep readers interested from beginning to end, but I'm also personally interested in Asian American identity and I'm staying true to the Asian roots."

[Zenshiite]

Cool. Looking forward to it.

[doug maverick]

i always felt airbender combined china,india and africa...not just exclusively china...as ang was a nomadic airbender(although they lived in temples so how could they be nomads?) and i always looked at the airbenders as more indian, and the earth as more african, water as more like the inuits(even their skin tone and style of dress suggest it) and the fire as more chinese or even roman in terms of being a vast empire.

[Zenshiite]

^Really? Why African for the Earth Nation? I mostly saw Korean and Ching Dynasty influences there. I could agree with the Inuit influences on the Southern Water Tribe, but the Northern Water Tribe seemed more Chinese with furs on than Inuit. They are a fairer skinned people than the Southern Tribe.

Air Nomads just seemed more Shaolin and Tibetan to me. Not Indian. More like generically Buddhist. The only character in the entire show that seemed Indian to me was the Guru.

Fire Nation was largely Imperial Chinese near as I can tell, with the exception of the Sun Warriors who have the who Aztec and Mayan thing going on.

[Lokhopkuen]

It's really hilarious that race even became an issue regarding this property.

There were no races in the animation. Not white, not black, not asian, just people from a far away Avatar world...

The Aang character has an exotic look because of the person who inspired his look.
(I and the creators of the series know who he was modeled on, i've been asked not to say too much about it.)

Later they drew characters modeled on friends and co-workers all in fun.

The RACEBENDING issue arose from a young talented Asian kid who'd auditioned for the part of Aang and maybe should have gotten it, but was he overlooked for whatever reason.

It's really funny because I remember a time when Avatar was just an idea. A few sketches in a notebook, a few words in a pitch bible. LMAO!

[doug maverick]

It's really hilarious that race even became an issue regarding this property.

There were no races in the animation. Not white, not black, not asian, just people from a far away Avatar world...

The Aang character has an exotic look because of the person who inspired his look.
(I and the creators of the series know who he was modeled on, i've been asked not to say too much about it.)

Later they drew characters modeled on friends and co-workers all in fun.

The RACEBENDING issue arose from a young talented Asian kid who'd auditioned for the part of Aang and maybe should have gotten it, but was he overlooked for whatever reason.

It's really funny because I remember a time when Avatar was just an idea. A few sketches in a notebook, a few words in a pitch bible. LMAO!

i remember reading somewhere that aang was modded after your son...no?

[GeneChing]

See our AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER – THE PROMISE PART 1 Autographed by Gene Luen Yang winners thread

[GeneChing]

Speaking of Korra...

EXCLUSIVE: Yang Continues "Avatar: The Last Airbender" in "The Search"
Mon, June 25th, 2012 at 9:58am PDT | Updated: June 25th, 2012 at 10:47am
Comic Books
Steve Sunu, Staff Writer/Reviews Editor

It's been a fantastic year for fans of "Avatar: The Last Airbender." Not only did the "Legend of Korra" animated series debuted to near-universal critical and fan acclaim, but Dark Horse continued to up the "Avatar" ante with its graphic novel series "The Promise," which helps fill in the gap between the end of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Legend of Korra." Written by "American Born Chinese" creator Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru Studios, the three-part graphic novel series wraps in September -- but that doesn't mean it's the end of Avatar Aang's adventures.

This weekend at the American Library Association, Dark Horse announced Yang and Gurihiru will return for a second "Avatar: The Last Airbender" graphic novel series called "The Search," which explores the biggest unsolved mystery in "Avatar" lore: what happened to Prince Zuko's mother?

CBR News spoke with Yang, a longtime "Avatar: The Last Airbender" fan, about his work on "The Search," wrapping up "The Promise, his feelings about "Legend of Korra," the challenge of linking the two shows and their characters together and the return of Princess Azula.

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CBR News: Gene, the last time you spoke with CBR, "The Promise: Part One" hadn't been released yet and "Avatar" fans were still chomping at the bit for "Legend of Korra." Now, "The Promise: Part Two" has just dropped and "Legend of Korra" just aired its season finale. First off, as a fan of the series, how have you been enjoying "Legend of Korra?"

Gene Luen Yang: I've loved every episode of "Legend of Korra" so far. The animation in the original show was great, but the Korra stuff is really in a league of its own. The bending fights are nothing short of spectacular. And also there's this dynamic -- all our old friends from the first show are now legends. So far, we've seen statues of Aang, Zuko and Toph. It reminds us of something that's true in the real world, too -- the actions of a few, even a few teenagers, can have big consequences down the road.

Of all the Korra characters, my favorite is probably Tenzin. I appreciate how different he is from his dad. I like that he's so uptight. And with kids of my own, I really relate to what he has to deal with.

This weekend, you announced "The Search" as the next miniseries in the "Avatar" series of Dark Horse's graphic novels. As a fan of the original "Avatar: The Last Airbender" series, I'd really love that title to refer to Zuko's long-lost mother -- what can you tell us about the significance of the title?

I'm not totally sure how much I'm allowed to say -- but you're right! It's really, really surreal. Like every other "Airbender" fan out there, I gasped at the end of that scene in the last episode, where Zuko confronts Ozai. How could Mike and Bryan just leave us hanging like that?! In the last episode, with no immediate plans for resolution! And now, for me to have a hand in answering some of those questions -- like I said, surreal.

Beyond the title of the book, is there anything you can tell fans about the storyline of "The Search" and where it'll take Team Avatar?

I've always loved the supernatural elements of the Avatarverse. The

Season 1 finale was one of my favorite sequences in the series. We didn't really do much supernatural in "The Promise" since that story was focused on the political ramifications of the War's end. But I'm happy to say, writing "The Search" is giving me the chance to explore that side of Aang and his world.

"The Promise" has been a continuation of the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" story, featuring a closer look at the politics that are involved in the world's reconstruction. Will "The Search" continue to explore the political side of the Avatar's world or will you be taking it in a slightly different direction?

The politics will be there -- they're difficult to avoid when one of your main characters is the leader of a large nation. However, we'll be shifting our focus from the nation to the family. Within Confucian thought, there's a connection between nation and family -- the family is a microcosm of the nation. I actually reference that in "The Search."

One of the great things about "The Promise" is how faithful to the source material the book has been. As you've been building this story, how challenging has it been to continue developing the characters in your own way while still staying true to their core?

This project is different from my other projects. With "American Born

Chinese," "Prime Baby" and my other books, I was really trying to express something about me. I wanted what was on paper to match what was in my head. With the "Airbender" project, I'm trying to mimic someone else's storytelling voice. I don't want the characters to grow in a direction that suits me or expresses something about me -- I want them to grow in a direction that fits their world and their established history.

Now, that's not to say that there isn't room for self-expression, but the self-expression occurs where my passions overlap with the Avatarverse. For instance, a recurring theme in many of my stories is culture. That's also a deeply important part of the Avatarverse, and the basis for a lot of what happens in "The Promise."

"Avatar - The Search" continues Yang and Gurihiru's time in the Avatarverse, bridging the gap between "The Last Airbender" and "Legend of Korra"

This line of graphic novels is meant to fill in the gaps between the final episode of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and the premiere of "Legend of Korra. So far, we've gotten a chance to see Toph's metal bending academy and Aang's struggle to unite the nations. How will this struggle increase in "The Promise: Part 3" and into "The Search?"

"The Search" focuses on Zuko and Azula. Aang, Katara and Sokka will be there, of course, but the Fire Nation royal siblings are really the drivers of the action. In "The Promise," we see Zuko struggling with his responsibilities as Fire Lord. "The Search" is the next stage of that struggle.

One of the advantages of "Legend of Korra" is the plethora of flashbacks audiences get, seeing Aang, Sokka and Toph come into their own as leaders of Republic City -- but even in the flashbacks, they're significantly older than in the original series. What's your plan for making these characters age, if any?

Those are my favorite parts of "Korra!" In "The Search," the Gang are still teenagers. "The Search" takes place immediately after the end of "The Promise."

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[GeneChing]

from previous...

You're still working with Gurihiru studio for "The Search." How did you collaborate with them to change up character designs a bit?

Gurihiru's art in "The Promise" is phenomenal, isn't it? I feel so lucky to be working with them. I believe they are the perfect combination of Eastern and Western cartooning influences, which in turn is a perfect reflection of "Avatar: The Last Airbender." They work more directly with Mike and Bryan on character designs, especially when it comes to new clothing for existing characters. I throw in a comment when I can (usually "WOW!").

Two characters of the original Team Avatar have been conspicuously absent from the "Legend of Korra" flashbacks. Most pressing is Zuko, who currently plays a huge role in "The Promise." While I'm sure you're not able to spoil much here, will we get to discover why his influence hasn't been seen in Republic City at all during the course of "The Search?"

Um... you'll just have to read the comics.

Speaking of Zuko, he can't catch a break. After all the heartache he went through in the original series, he's now getting drawn back in to his father's web, Mai has left him and the Earth Kingdom is about to declare war. What are the chances he'll be able to find some happiness when this is all over?

Well, like Ozai said, "Zuko was lucky to be born." That struggle is who he is. Don't you know people who are like that? I have an acquaintance who is like that. Great guy, but life just seems to have it in for him -- his health, his relationships, nothing seems to go his way. Even so, you can see him making progress over the years. Often it's two steps forward, one step back, but when you take the long view there's definitely progress. That's how I imagine Zuko to be. And frankly, I find folks like that more admirable than folks who get everything handed to them.

Speaking of Zuko's family, what's Azula been up to? Her stay in the Fire Nation mental institution has got to be incredibly interesting.

In "The Search," we'll see what a prolonged stay in a Fire Nation mental institution does to a person.

Katara and Aang's burgeoning relationship is certainly something fans were clamoring for since the announcement of "The Promise." Thanks to "Legend of Korra," fans now know they get married and have a child, but what trials will their relationship have to go through before getting to that point?

At the beginning of "The Promise," Katara and Aang are still in that lovey-dovey stage of their relationship. They call each other pet names and are way too affectionate. By the end of "The Promise," they will have gone through their first conflict. Their relationship will continue to mature in The Search, but it will take a backseat to the Fire Nation Royal Family. After all, that is one messed up family. They need all the panel-time they can get.

So, Toph eventually has a daughter. Will readers actually get to see what Toph is like in a relationship in "The Search?" What is it like knowing you may have to explore that aspect of her character in coming installments?

I love Toph. She was my favorite character to write in The Promise. Sadly, though, she doesn't have a big role to play in The Search.

And for a slightly silly question, what about Cabbage Corp? You've already dropped a few references to the incredibly unlucky cabbage merchant -- are there plans to chronicle his rise to power in the background?

It's an inspiring story, isn't it? An unlucky cabbage merchant, through elbow grease and sheer will power, grows his one cart into a huge, multi-generational corporation! That guy is my hero!

[GeneChing]

Avatar: The Last Airbender --The Search Comics Trailer

[GeneChing]

I just picked up Book One of The Search....for my kid.

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.
avatar1
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.

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