How the Award-Winning Creator of “American Born Chinese” Developed His Craft
Before it was a Disney show, American Born Chinese was a graphic novel. Here’s how creator Gene Luen Yang developed it
On May 24, Disney debuted the TV series American Born Chinese. Here’s my 2017 interview with the creator of the original graphic novel, and executive producer of the TV series, Gene Luen Yang:
It’s one thing to tell someone to do what they love. It’s entirely another thing to actually do it — especially if there’s no money in it.
Gene Luen Yang loved graphic novels, but he wasn’t expecting to make any money creating them.
“When I started in comics in the 90s, the industry was not in a good place… Marvel Comics had actually declared bankruptcy,” Yang explained. “People were predicting that it was just gonna blink out of existence. With it, they were expecting the entire American comic book industry to collapse. If Marvel Comics gets taken out, 60–70% of comic book stores would get taken out with it. They relied so heavily on Marvel product.”
“So it was really bleak, it was like apocalyptic. I remember going to a convention and listening to an artist that I really admired talk about how we were about to see the death of…
